Jan 8 2012
Fly to Australia
For me this really was an anticipated trip in my life. It was in June last year mum and dad decided to plan a trip to Australia to visit both my aunts who reside in Melbourne and my sister who is in Adelaide. They jokingly said that they want to travel when they can still walk.
On December 13, the day finally arrived. Two weeks before flying I settled off some outstanding works and slowly free my good self to a holiday mode. My aunts and cousins were quick to arrange everything for us, from food to accommodation and a travel package to Sydney and Canberra.
From Left to Right: Passport; Boarding announcement; Melbourne Airport; T2 International Terminal; Australian Dollars; Arrival lounge
Some of the necessary things to do include renewing passport, apply for visa despite Malaysia and Australia are Commonwealth nations, went to the moneychanger to buy some dollar notes at an exchange rate MYR 3.25 to AUD 1.00. Since it was summer, I just packed with me cotton clothes, a few pairs of jeans and shorts, slip on and sandals, and a jumper. Not forgetting sunscreen and lip balm due to the strong sun and dry air that might toast you darker.
I did a little bit of background study on Australia (Wikipedia is very helpful). It’s a country in the southern hemisphere with a land size of 7,700,000 km2 with a population of 22.8 million. My expectation of Australia being a developed country and friendly people tallied with reality during my two weeks stay down under.
We took off at 1320 hour sharp. The eight hours inside the plane was both thrilling and exciting. Flying with AirAsia X wasn’t such a bad experience as told by others. Considering it being a long haul flight, my only wish is to have a spacier legroom for me to stretch and stretch. To our surprise our pre-ordered meal turned out to be mum’s favourite cordon bleu.
I have a few shots to share with you since I had the window seat. We flew above the clouds and I must share with you the western desert (the middle picture) as we flew past the continent. The clear blue sky in layers of dark to light is I what I loved most.
Looking out from the window
By dusk it was impossible for me to take any shots due to the strong reflection against the window. We landed at Melbourne International Airport at oo1o Australian time.
The immigration officers were a lot friendlier than those in my country. The first greeting I received was ‘Hi, how are you doing?” from a middle aged male officer. The security checkpoint in the airport was really tight, apart from filling up the declaration form all the luggage are scanned through X-ray machine. Lucky ours were not sniffed by the airport sniffer dogs.
Aunt Jessie picked us up in her seven-seater suv together with my sister who just arrived from Adelaide one hour before us. All we needed was a hot shower and a good sleep.
There goes my first day.
To be continued…. Fruit picking experience
