My experiences in Australia

MY EXPERIENCES IN AUSTRALIA
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I am a retired Assistant Director of School Education, Directorate of School Education, Government of AP, Hyderabad. My daughter and son-in-law are residing in Brisbane City, Queensland, Australia. I had a grand daughter of 7 years old. As my grand daughter is pressurizing me to visit Brisbane for a while, I had planned to visit Brisbane in the month of December, 2008 to stay with them for some time. I, along with my wife have booked Air tickets in the first instance on Thailand Airlines to go Brisbane via Bangkok to perform journey on 28-12-2008. When we are ready to start journey, news received on 25-12-2008 regarding disturbances in Bangkok and closure of the International Airport, Bangkok. Suddenly we had to change the tickets from Thailand Airlines to Singapore Airlines and changed our itinerary, to go to Brisbane via Singapore. Accordingly, we have performed journey to Brisbane on 28-12-2008 via Singapore and reached Brisbane on 29-1-2008 at 8 PM (Brisbane time). It is 4 ½ hours advance time to our IST. We had stayed in our daughter’s house at Brisbane for about one and half month. We have visited Sidney, the world famous city in Australia and stayed there for a week where my brother’s son is residing along with his family. It is some how hot in Brisbane during December; however it is something cold in Sidney. During our stay in Australia, we had visited many important places in Brisbane and Sidney and enjoyed a lot. It is a very thrilling and exciting feeling for us to see the famous places in Australia which are very impressive and un-imaginative and never forget the moments, situations, remembrances in our life. The wonderful constructions, buildings, monuments, Cities, rivers, unscathed designing sculptures, and many more which are untold to explain, are really a boon to any Indian to watch in their life at least one time.

Australia is a wonderful country in the world and it is the people there who make it as a nice dream of world of one of its kind. A large majority of the people belonging to Greek, Italian, Chinese, South East Asians and even Indian Communities living together adding to the texture of the society. Australia has a life of its own, rules of its own, and a beautiful culture of its own. Every one wants to have a fun and lead a chilled out life, which is nothing but the essence of the life style of the people. The people are so soft and gentle, always look forward to lead a happy life and enjoy the fruits of life with others, and cheerful to all at any time and at any place. Even strangers always wish others and convey their cheers to meet the happy ends of life. It is very happy if we go for shopping in the evenings, it is a wonderful and modern settlement with shopping centers, food markets, and what not. The AMP tower in Sidney, a great construction, where you can take the elevators to get up to the high peak, and Sky walk, where people enjoy a panoramic view of the city of all corners with a tremendous look and anxiety and am exciting adventure. The shopping complexes are built isolated in one location for the convenience of all the people to purchase the domestic needs as well as House hold items under one roof. The roads and High ways designed in such a way that every lay man can proceed further without any confusion and ambiguity. Each and every natural resource has been fully utilized for the purpose of the welfare of the people in the country. Each and every corner of the cities tied with full greenery to protect the environment and there is no question of pollution and disturbances. Rules of the Road have been strictly followed by all the Vehicle owners with utmost discipline and decorum. Pedestrians and cyclists were prohibited to walk/ride on Motor Ways (High Ways). No individual citizen dared to leave a piece of waste paper or material on roads and public places. However, we found that majority of the adults (including women) used to smoke cigarettes while walking on the roads and public places.

We will not see any traffic jams and accidents. All the citizens strictly follow the rules of the road. Many fly overs, cross roads, for the sake of the people. The roads are very clean and neat. Pedestrians always walk on footpaths. At every junction to cross the roads, there is a facility of switching buttons on the road side Poles. Whenever the citizens wanted to cross the roads, they simply press the button the road-side Pole, so that the Green signal will be displayed automatically, and all the vehicles will suddenly stop to enable the walkers to cross the roads safely. The city buses operated in Brisbane are very convenient to public. It is wonderful thing to note that each and every Bus driver in the city buses cordially receives the passengers with a smiling face and issue tickets on automatic teller machines. There would not be any Conductors in the City buses. There are press buttons in all the seats of the buses, where the passengers press the buttons when their stop comes to stop the bus. The thanking culture of the Australians is really appreciated, when they enter or get down from the bus, will say a word of “Thanks” to the drivers and vice versa.

The local Railway system is superb in Sidney. Neat and fabulous Trains will fly on the locations. Local Railway Stations are constructed without any manual operations. In every Railway Station, ATM with display boards arranged where all fares from one place to other indicated. Travelers will place the Dollar notes/coins, in the machine opting the place of journey, automatically the ticket with the remaining change will come out for performing necessary journey. This is a wonderful arrangement in all Local Railway stations. There are confessional offers during holidays for go round all the city corners by trains.
It is a wonderful phenomena being maintained by Australians. It is not known how much time it will take to implement the said facilities in India.

We have visited Hindu Temple ( Lord Ganesh) constructed by the Tamilains of our country for worship. All Hindus will regularly visit the temple during the Holidays and Festivals. Also there is one Hindu Temple ( Lord Venkateswara and Lord Subrahmanya Swamy) at Helens burg in Sidney which is very nicely constructed for the worship of Hindus residing there.

SEA WORLD GOLD COAST NEAR BRISBANE.

The Sea World at Gold Coast which is nearly 130 kms away from Brisbane City is an enthusiastic and exciting show of attractions, a world of thrills and mystery. It is Australia’s leading marine Park where visitors of all ages can make contact with amazing marine life wonders. It is a unique interaction to provide the foundations of peoples understanding and in turn encourage them to care for and protect precious marine creatures. The Australian Marine Conservation Society ( AMCS) is the Sea World’s charity of choice with local communities to protect ocean life and their habitat, and aim to provide leadership on a wide range of issues throughout Australia including marine parks, fisheries, threatened species and pollution. A wonderful arrangement taken up by the Government of Queensland, Australia to develop and conserve the Marine creatures.

The tremendous attractions are, Water-ski Wipe out, Sea Aquarium, Fish Detectives Sea Lion Show, Planet SOS in 4-D, Polar Bear Shores, Imagine Dolphin Show, Blue Lagon, Shark Bay, Penguin Point, Ray Reef, Sea World Cruises, Sky High Skyway Station, Sea World Monorail Station, Grand Central Train Tour, Bermuda Triangle, Pirate Ship, Corkscrew Rollercoaster, Dolphin Nursery, the Jet Rescue, and Water Park which are very interesting not only for children, but also for adults to share the feelings.

There is wonderful Dolphin Show arranged in the Sea World which is really worth seeing to observe the adventurous activities presented by the Dolphin trainers to play with Dolphins in the water just like human beings. The Dolphins were trained in such a way to dance according to the tunes of the trainers to show special attraction and entertainment to the visitors. The Dolphin show is very much interesting and exciting.

BLUE MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK NEAR SIDNEY

Blue Mountains National park is a wonderful adventure to feel by any one. The destination to Blue Mountains is only a 90 minutes journey from the heart of Sidney. It is a wonderful experience by watching the Great Western High way – a main thoroughfare and starts at the end of the Motorway. There was story about the colour of Mountains as to why they were Blue Mountains

While holidaying in Sidney in 1900, Lady Audrey Tennyson, wife of the South Australian Governor, traveled over the Blue Mountains, to visit Jenolan Caves. In a long letter written to her mother on her return to Adelaide, she recounted her experiences. Describing the return journey to Katoomba, where she and her husband spent the right at the Carrington Hotel, she remarked on a phenomenon that has impressed and puzzled many visitors to the Mountains:

“The afternoon and evening were most beautiful and most wonderful lights and shadows. What struck us more than anything was the wonderfully brilliant blue of the distant hills. I have never seen anything to compare to it all, the most gorgeous real sapphire blue, really transparent blue – it is impossible to give any idea of it. We wondered whether it was the effect of the gums.”

As per the records, Prof. Harry Messel, Professor in the Department of Physics, University of Sidney, has clarified that the atmosphere is always laden with small dust particles, water droplets and the like and even the air molecules themselves contributed to some extent to the scattering. If an observed looks at a distant object with the intervening atmosphere illuminated by sunlight, eyes will receive the blue scattered rays of sunlight to reflect the object itself. Therefore any distant object will always appear to display some shade of blue.

It is thus called Blue Mountains, a wonderful experience to all visitors. There is beautiful experience of the legend of the “THREE SISTERS” at the spot. It is usually called as the three beautiful sisters names Meehni, Wimlah and Gunnedoo once lived with the Gundungurra people in Jamison Valley. The maidens were in love with three brothers from the neighboring nation of the Daruk people, but marriage was forbidden by tribal law. The brothers were warriors and decided to take the maidens by force. Tribal war forced the Kuradjuri (Clever man) of the Gundungurra people to turn the sisters into stone. He intended to restore them after the danger had passed and the war had ended. Unfortunately, the Kuradjuri (Clever man) was killed in the battle and to this day nobody has been able to break the spell and turn the three sisters back to their natural form. (This is one of the number of versions of the legend).

It is a great experience for us to visit and view the spectacular three sisters rocks formation in the Grand Canyon and learn the aboriginal legend of the three sculptures of Meehni, Wimlah and Gunnedoo through Echo Point.

The KATOOMBA’S MYSTERY TUNNELS a historical location traces the history of Katoomba’s fabled underground stories. It is told that the Katoomba was inhabited by creatures and characters, who have dwelt, partied and profiteered in mysterious tunnels which exist under the upper Blue Mountains’ town. It is mysterious place, a deep and dark subterranean world, a maze of tunnels and caverns, wherein vampires, troglodytes, ladies of the night, toe-tapping dancers, escaping nuns, getaway queens, fashionable women, and even malicious tour guides dwell – all under a town called Katoomba.

The FEATHERDALE WILDLIFE PARK is really worth seeing and encourages interaction with its animals. It is a wonderful opportunity without missing to cuddle and feed the many diverse animals that call Australia home and enjoy close up with them. Cuddle Koalas, feed Kangaroos happy to hop up for a chat and pat, emus, friendly wombats who press their snout to the fence, crocodiles, dingoes, and reptiles all tourist friendly and waiting to make their friends with us.

The SCENIC WORLD is a realist view of aboriginal art and cultural items. It is very interesting to learn the local aboriginal cultural stores including the didgeridoo “wood spirit” and excitement of the boomerang throwing demonstration as weapons from 30,000 years ago fly overhead.

It is an exciting experience to ride on the “SKYWAY CABLE CAR” across the valley in front of the Katoomba falls. It really experiences the thrill of walking on air. The “SCENIC RAILWAY” ride, which is the world’s steepest incline railway, takes people to inner valley. It was actually built up to haul coal and shale out of the valley from the mines at the base of the escarpment. Now the mines were closed and it was diverted as a facility to become a tourist attraction.