Posted by Jeff on Nov 30, 2008 in
Travel I made my flight to Hong Kong without incident. The adjacent ticket counter at Melbourne airport was for Thai Air. It was eerily empty and abandonned. Hopefully things in Bangkok will settle down soon.
Flying intercontinental on coach is not nearly as pleasant as business class. I’ll have to start working on an upgrade for the trip home. Regardless, I made it to HK and managed a little sleep on the plane.
Hong Kong airport was not so simple. I was met at the gate by an airline agent who advised me to go to E1 to get my boarding pass…and hurry. This is a large airport so I ran through at least a quarter mile with backpack, overcoat, and camera to E1. At E1 the security guard told me to to to E2. At E2 they directed me back to E1. Back at E1 I met 4 Americans who were also doing the E1/E2 shuffle. Back to E2 again and we finally found AirChina only to be told we needed ChinaAir. Guess where…back to E1 where they finally got us ticketed, then a mad dash with an escort through security and the terminal to a bus to the plane.
Now that I’m on the plane, things are settled except our check luggage may not be there wgn we arrive. We’ll wait and see.
Tags: China, Travel
Posted by Jeff on Nov 30, 2008 in
Travel I’ve posted a small sampling of the photos I took yesterday (Saturday). More to come as soon as I can.
Tags: Travel
Posted by Jeff on Nov 30, 2008 in
Travel If I had good bandwidth, I’d upload a ton of photos. Alas, I’m in the airport, and this bandwidth is not so good. But,…speaking of bandwidth, things here in Australia are done differently than in the US. You don’t really pay for bandwidth (speed) but rather bandwidth (consumption). The 3G network here that iPhones and computers with mobile 3G USB receivers use runs at like 7 Mbps. Yes, 7 Mbps.
In one hotel, I had to pay for my connection as usual, but it was based on my consumption. 2GB of downloaded data and 20GB upload for $33 Australian (that’s about $21.45). Not really that bad, although I didn’t really bother going into Second Life because I didn’t want to consume that much data.
Makes you wonder…7Mbps on an iPhone…
More random things…aside from the coffee thing which I kinda figured out…when you order your dinner, be aware that an entree dish is not really a entree dish. Its an appetizer. If you want a dinner -size portion, order a “main”.
Fuel prices here are extremely high by my standards, but it seems to be the norm. It was noted to me that is would be half the cost in Europe and double what we pay in the US. I can’t speak for Europe pricing, but gasoline is about $1.43 per liter here now. That’s $5.72 per gallon. Phew…
Anyway, by morning I’ll be in China. Hopefully I’ll find unlimited bandwidth, and I can upload these photos…I’ve got a lot from this weekend’s jaunt through southeastern Australia.
Tags: coffee, food, Travel
Posted by Jeff on Nov 30, 2008 in
Travel Saturday was a busy day, but not like the previous days. I started out the day with walk down to the Yarra river that flows right through the heart of Melbourne. Took in a bit of the city, and made my way back to Geoff and Cecelia’s. Together we headed out again on foot to the Queen Victoria Market, and open air market where you can find a wide variety of stuff…food stuffs like resh produce, meats and fish, cheese and pastry to tourist souvenirs, hardware tools, clothing, and even the mankini (don’t ask!).
Had breakfast at one of the many cafes where I managed a “double shot latte” (I’m still not good at the coffee thing here, but I did learn that what we call “coffee” is refered to simply as “filtered coffee” but it not typically available. Further, when we say cream, they say milk…and really, they don’t use cream, they use milk.
Queen Victoria Market
We wandered about the market after breakfast. I was looking for things to purchase to bring home, Geoff was in need of some shorts, and Cecelia picked up some cherries and other fresh foods. Geoff did find a deal on some shorts, and I eventually did find some unique, hand-made things. I won’t tell you exactly what, because you never know what you might unwrap come Christmas 
Suffice to say, what I purchased was hand-made in Vietnam, but is also uniquely Australian at the same time, so I felt it was a better choice than the typical tourist trinkets.
After the market, we packed up the car, and took a road trip. I’ll let the photos speak for themselves. When I get a chance, I’ll post more on my mac gallery page, but here’s a sampling…I will note that one of our goals was to find kangaroos. We not only found kangaroos, but we also saw Cockatoo, a wallabee, koala bears, and an echidna.
kangaroo at the Angelsea Golf Course
Koala Bear we spotted along the side of the road
The 12 Apostles
Port Campbell at night
Tags: coffee, food, Travel
Posted by Jeff on Nov 30, 2008 in
Education,
Travel I’m falling behind, but I’ll work on catching you up. Thursday I flew to Sydney to meet with a variety of people. I had 4 meetings that day including Ray Handley who worked at the Windham REAL school with Susan Gendron, a group from the New South Wales state education technology team, and Apple Australia’s leadership.
I barely had time to take any photos, but here a shot of the Sydney Opera House.
Sydney Opera House
Tags: Sydney, Travel