Australia Diary

First impressions of Melbourne ('coz that's where I am right now): Empty (where are all the people?? Roads were deserted at 7 in the evening!!), clean and very Victorian in look and feel. Though the place where I am staying - Collins Street - is surrounded by shimmering highrises of glass and steel, mainly belonging to the endless number of banks that are present here. This has to be one extremely rich city to accomodate so many!!

This is the start of a two week vacation. Its been long overdue. You know that a break is needed when even your bosses start telling you likewise. And I know they actually like me (touch wood!!), so its not that all they really wanted was to get me out of the office.

Flew into Sydney today morning, then took a connecting flight to Melbourne. Though the Mumbai-Sydney flight was a gruelling 12 hours it went off quite painlessly. The aircraft was quite empty, so could put up the handrests and have a good lie-down at night. And Qantas has some great service!

A tip for people taking the connecting flight to Melbourne - even if your travel agent in India tells you that there has to be a 7-hour wait in Sydney, try getting the flight advanced from the Qantas counter at the Sydney domestic terminal. It worked for me - and I saved 5 hours in the process.

Tomorrow its off shopping (Tourism Victoria has booked me on the Shopping Secrets Tour) and then a visit to the famed Melbourne casino at Crown Entertainment Plaza. Hope that I will win enough money to retire for life :)