Scatt3r

I just got back from a 3.5 week visit. My expectations were really surpassed.

The wildlife here is really amazing, and there was lots I did not expect. The bird life was incredible – an abundance of parrots, cockatoos, lorikeets, and all sorts of other beautiful birds in the wild. There are so many of them that people there took no more notice of them than we take of pigeons. The huge numbers of flying foxes in Cairns and Sydney (flocks of them flying overhead, and thousands roosting in the trees) was also a surprise.

I really enjoyed the food and drink, as well. As far as beers go, I really liked Coopers, Toohey’s, and Carlton Draught. (Cascade and VB were pretty good, as well. I didn’t care for XXXX – tasted like cheap American beer to me. Sorry Queensland.) Pie in Australia means meat pie, which were everywhere, and about the only cheap eats around, which suited me just fine, as they were usually pretty good.

The US dollar does not go far there, at all. A beer usually runs around $6-$7 a bottle, and a “cheap meal” is considered to be $20.

My favorite cities, overall, were Adelaide and Melbourne. My favorite places we visited were the Adelaide Botanic Gardens (best I’ve ever been to), Warrawong Wildlife Sanctuary, Melbourne Story exhibit @ Museum Victoria, Aldgate Pump Hotel (pub outside Adelaide with amazing food.. try the venison pie), Observatory Hill in Sydney (for amazing night-time view of the city, and lots of giant bats), Telstra Dome (for Aussie Rules Football), Cooper’s Ale House in Adelaide, Federation Square, the Wildlife Dome in Cairns, and the Rocks area of Sydney.

This used to be the center of activity in the city during the day (then it would move to 6th street at night) from the 60s through the mid-90s. There were lots of students, punks, hippies, weirdos, teenagers, street musicians, and regular people hanging around together all day. In the 90s, businesses on this street decided to crack down on all of the loitering and had the cops harass everyone, until it died. Now this is just a shopping zone and ironically, now that the street life is gone, those businesses that clamped down are out of business, as the Drag is no longer a destination.

Wow. I’ve never been to any country so different from my own, before. The people were generally extremely nice. Incredibly diverse culture. It was fun seeing monkeys running around. I really enjoyed the food. Alot of interesting temples, with very intricate details.

Leave behind all of your assumptions and dive into things, if you want to get the most out of your visit.

It felt really nice being here after the craziness of Bangalore. The palace is the most beautiful I have ever seen.

Compared to what I am used to, the traffic here was crazy. Driving around it didn’t look too nice, but if you go to the right places, there is great beauty. Try Cubbon Park (and surrounding buildings), Lal Bagh, and the ISKCON Temple.

The buffet at this place is amazing. Probably the best I ever had, but a bit pricey ($40)!

This place was even better than I expected. They have an amazing collection of games. Almost all of my old favorites were here, and some really cool pinball machines I’d never seen before. This is one of my favorite places in Las Vegas.

Beautiful place. The ride up the mountain on a bus is kinda scary. Wear a hat if you don’t want to get a real bad sunburn.

Wow.. Just wow.. An amazing place.. Don’t go if you’re afraid of heights or falling down a giant flight of stairs with no rail. Ask around to see where you can drink pulque.

I went once, around 1992 or so. Ministry, Lush, and Shark Bait were the highlights for me. I got light-headed watching the Jim Rose Side Show.