Australia Trip (Dec 22 - Jan 4)

This trip went by so fast..it was jam-packed with activities from visiting touristy places, meeting new people, and lots of shopping. We got very little sleep but it was lots of fun!

We flew with China Eastern Airline. Never again will I fly with them!! I had heard some not-so-good things about the company before flying with them, but since I'd never flown with them (and they offered the cheapest ticket), I thought I would see for myself what they're like. I have flown with many different companies and no company comes anywhere near being as awful as China Eastern Airline.

All the food they served was past the expiry date (and the bread had MOLD on it...eww.), the service was awful in so many ways, controls and heaphones for two out of our three seats didn't work, the safety video which is usually shown at before taking off..well, it didn't play. There were also smaller things like not being able to tell when annoucement switched from Manderin to English, asking for an extra blanket of which they don't have any, Miho wanted to have a drink and they don't serve any alcohol (most long-haul flights offer drinks, this was a 10 hour flight).

It's a good thing the company on the flight was good!...For the first half of the travel, I met a very friendly Australian dude who was heading back home for the holidays. The second half of the trip was with Sheila and Miho, both of whom are always a lot of fun to be with!

MELBOURNE

In Melbourne, we stayed at Jon's place. He just recently finished his studies and started his new job at the largest bank in Australia. His goal: to be a millionaire before he reaches 30. His mom happened to be visiting from Malaysia, she was such a sweet lady! She made us all feel very welcome.

On our first day, we ran into Daniel!! What a surprise that was...

In the summer of ’99, Shalini, Neda and I had volunteered at the House of Worship in New Delhi, India for 2 months. During our time there, we met volunteers from all around the world...Daniel was an Australian volunteer serving during the same time. We ended up traveling around for 3 days around New Dehli, Jaipur and Agra together.

Back to the Australia trip: We were wandering around in a mall with some of the Aussie people we were staying with. We ran into Vijay, a friend of Jon’s. Vijay was doing some shopping with a friend of his…Daniel! What a small world…..!!

It felt like we spent a lot of this trip eating. There was so much good food to have...I miss having a variety of restaurants to choose from. Unfortunately, in Japan it's hard to find non-Japanese-food restaurants. Or if you do, if often turns out to be Japanese-Italian food...!

Here we are at a Malaysian restaurant (Left to right: me, Miho, Sheila and Jon)

While in Melbourne, I was happy to have a chance to get a haircut. The girl who cut my hair had a persian boyfriend, so I got a bit of discount because of our persian-connection.. :)

Later on in the day, I met up with Sheila and Shamim at the Victoria Market downtown.

That evening, we went to the Grand Casino, which boasts to be one of the largest casinos...


BRISBANE

In Brisbane, we stayed with Josceline and Sanjeev. They just recently got married in July and are the sweetest people you will ever meet!!

Lim Soon Kam, a Malaysian Baha’i who was the recipient of the Most Outstanding Young People Awards a few month ago, went back to Kuala Lumpur for the holidays and left us the use of his car during our time in Brisbane!

On the first day, we dropped off our bags at Josceline’s place and followed Sanjeev to the Gold Coast.

We spent time at the beach, then visited a café where we met Sheila's sister, husband and four little nephews. We hung around Surfer’s Paradise for the evening, got some shopping done then headed back.

On Boxing day, we headed downtown to one of the bigger malls to see what kind of deals we could find. Here's Nosrat and I taking a break from the shopping.

That night, there was a pot luck held at Michael and Delshat's place, a Baha'i couple with four very cute little boys.

Everyone digging into the food...!

Fumi and Miho did a 'how to make sushi' presentation later on in the evening. I will have to try it when I get back to Canada!

(Left to right: Miho, Sheila, Fumi, me and Josceline)

The following day, we went to a wildlife preservation park called ‘Lone Park’. We fed the birds,

wandered amongst kangaroos

and fed them, held koalas, got to see dingos as well as other animals native to Australia.

Koalas must be the laziest animals around. They are one of the few animals who survive solely on eucalypts, which incidentally is poisonous for many other animals. In order to conserve energy, koalas will sleep for 18 to 20 hours a day…What a life!…

I was surprised at how heavy the koala was (an adult koalas can weigh between 8-14kg).

That evening, we went back to the cafe that had the most delicious italian hot chocolate....yum yum.

The following day Miho and I spent at DFO (Discount Factory Outlet). We got lots of shopping down, then rode the 'city cat' back to the city.

From the boat taking us back to the city we sat back and enjoyed the most beautiful sunset..!

That night, there was a little gathering at Amelia's place. Amelia was born in Tanzania, and her parents are friends of the Newport family, who are friends of my parents from when we both lived in Africa. What a small world....

SYDNEY

Nosrat, Miho and I traveled to Sydney together with 4 people’s worth of luggage. As we you can see, we were weighed down quite a bit by the excessive amount of baggage!!

In Sydney, we stayed at Fiona’s place. Fiona and Anneleis (who has violent reactions to having her picture taken), took us all over town, driving us everywhere. What gracious hosts they were!

On our first day/ night, we went down to Darling Harbour.

(Left to right: me, Sheila, Fiona, Miho and Nosrat)

Everyone kept mentioning this 'amazing' chocolate cafe that we had to visit.

They served melted chocolate as a drink...I was in heaven!!

The next day, we took a ride on the ferry to get to Manly Beach, where we had the famous ‘fish ‘n’ chips’ that Australia is supposedly famous for.

We had a beautiful view of the Opera house and Harbour bridge from the boat ride.

We attended a short presentation about Aboriginal music, and got to try out the didgeridoo.

That night, we met up with some of the Baha’is for dinner at a Thai restaurant

before heading off to the 19-day Feast where we met many more of the Baha’is from the community.

Mey and Shideh have been volunteering at the Baha'i House of Worship for the last month.

(Left to right: me, Shideh, Mey and Nosrat)

It was Nosrat’s birthday on that day, so after the Feast was over, we celebrated by heading out to a 24-hour pancake place!

(Left to right: me, Nosrat, Anneleis and Fiona)

The next morning we spent at the House of Worship, in Sydney. It was nice to see Laifi again (from the Yamaguchi camp)!

(Left to Right: Rajeev, Fiona, Sheila, Miho, Nosrat, me and Laifi)

He was showing us around the information building.

He pulled me over to show me the following:

There’s a blown-up picture of Alan, who lives in Fukuoka!

This is one of the few pictures with Anneleis (she's holding her baby niece.) She was with us for most of the time that we spent in Sydney. Also in the picture: her older sister and younger brother, Jalal.

We went down to Bondi beach, where we tried not to be blown away by the strong winds.

'Fried mars bars' are a speciality here, according to Fiona. I'm always game for trying new stuff, especially if it involves chocolate...!

Although it doesn't look too appetizing, it tasted delicious!

New Year's Eve we spent at Piper's Port. From there, we had a beautiful view of the harbour bridge, the Opera house and the city skyline when the fireworks were set off to ring in the new year!

The next day, we headed back to Melbourne. Going back to Jon's place felt like coming home. His mom (and him) made us feel so at home.

We spent the last day wandering around downtown, buying last minute stuff to take back, just taking in/enjoying the city.

Writing postcards

Miho trying to 'take in' as much as possible. :)

And that was that....we left Jon's place at 6am for our flight out.

We had a bit of an adventure on our way back home…When we arrived in Shanghai where we were to catch a connecting flight to Japan, we found that the plane had already taken off. Without us!! We ended up spending an extra night in Shanghai which turned out to be an interesting evening.

We were put up in a hotel about 30 minutes from the airport. I don’t think the staff were in the habit of seeing many (if any at all) foreigners. We got massages from a place where it looked like men might enjoy the services offered by the girls more than we would… But hey, I enjoyed my foot massage!

We ended getting home a day later than expected, but it was an excellent trip!