Day 5 Redux - Melbourne's Poorest Busker

Day 5 - Melbourne's Poorest Busker
Originally uploaded by photog larry.

OK - i didnt get this into the last post, but i would be doing you a disservice if i did not tell you about who i believe is the worlds, and if not, then definitely melbourne's poorest busker.

As I had talked about previously, a busker is just a street performer. you know, the guys in outfits who perform tricks on the street, tell jokes, dress up like golden statues etc. you don't usually think too much about these guys. you might pass by, even stop and watch for a few minutes, and if they are good, tip them and move on. but all in all, street performers are the same everywhere.

so we are walking along southgate, where there are commonly street performers. we pass by an act that i had never seen before. there is a dude in a ninja costume and a pair of nunchuks at his side. he is kneeling down, facing away from the crowd, presumably in ninja prayer or something like that. i stand there, anticipating that he'll get up in a minute or so and do his little nunchuk act. i wait....and wait....and wait...eventually, i give up, thinking that he is on a break.....then all of a sudden he gets up, and does his nunchuk act for about 30 seconds...spinning the nunchuks around with precision. and just as quickly, he gets back down in kneeling position, nunchuks at his side, back to the crowd....ok....i don't think too much of this, until i read the sign that he has, just off to the side....it reads something like this.

"hello, i moved to australia recently from korea and love your country. i practice the art of the nunchuka. bruce lee used nunchuka. maybe you have heard of him. please help out. every little bit helps."

ok. so i don't mean to belittle the guy, but you looked at the bucket that he had beside the sign, and there was literally no money in the bucket. and i suddenly realized why. most buskers find a way to entertain you, then ask you for money. either they go around to the crowd and stick the bucket in your face, or at least, at the end of the show, do a little speech and guilt you into giving it up.

THIS guy does everything backwards. he has a little cardboard sign written in bad english and a bucket that he puts about 10 feet away from where his performance is. then, when he is done, he silently goes into his "praying" position with his back to the crowd. so even if you are watching, you don't really know if he is resting, or whether his performance is actually over. he never talks, so you can't even ask him that question (presumably because of his silent ninja discipline or something). now i know the guy is just trying to make a living on the skills that he has, but a little common sense might lead him to be a little more aggressive, perhaps place the bucket in front of the perforrmance area, or face the crowd etc...., given that he appears to be hauling in about 5 cents a day working pretty hard with his ninja routine. its impressive too. so i don't doubt that he could make a lot of money busking.

perhaps what he needs is a good accountant....perhaps i could go over there again and propose that i can double or even triple his current income! and then take 1/2 of the profits as my cut....all for getting him to move the tip bucket....

til next time, this is ninja-pimp larry

day 5 - the dandenongs

Day 5 - Insect Papparazzi
Originally uploaded by photog larry.

suffice it to say, we slept in a little, catching up on lost winks from the plane ride over. when we finally arose from our slumber, it was off to the pier for lunch. the pier was fairly typical, blending highrise condos with restaurants and small shops, and some random art. we headed to a place called mecca bah, which serves Mediterranean food. Had a pleasant lunch, and headed out for our first taste of the Australian wilderness, the Dandenong Ranges. the Dandenongs are basically a hilly / foresty area outside of Melbourne. We had some fun there, playing with the birds, and hiking towards Sherbroke Falls. However, when we got there, Sherbroke Falls seemed to be no more than Sherbroke dripping faucet. a bit of a letdown, but no worries, there would be plenty more waterfalls in the coming days. so we hopped back into the car and headed up to mount dandenong, where we paid $8 to park, take 2 or 3 pictures and leave. clearly not great value, but what can you do. they had a monopoly on the mountain! we got a good view though, of the ranges, as well as Melbourne city in the far off distance.

so after a good day of pseudo-hiking, we headed back into the city for some dinner at a place called taxi. taxi is a fairly trendy restaurant in the heart of the city. they serve, what I would call Japanese fusion dishes. lots of japanese flavours, but not really Japanese food (though they did have a sushi / sashimi combo on the menu). the gimmick at this place is that the building has floor to ceiling glass (and this restaurant is on the second floor). the natural light drifts in, and reflects off the metal décor. so its pretty bright inside. so they recommend that you bring your “sunnies” if you’re coming before dark. we finished up, and headed to the crown casino, to check out the “fire show” that debra had told us about. there are some pillars outside that let out flames every hour on the hour. so we got there, in time for the show, and waited….and waited….and waited…..no fire. BOOOO. starting to get cold, so we decided to give up, thinking that perhaps the city / county wide fire-ban included decorative fires coming from the casino. At any rate, after some searching on the net, my curiosity was quenched and i found a photo of what the fire show looks like.

disappointed, but undeterred, we went back to the carlton suburb, and headed to Brunetti’s, one of the aforementioned coffee joints. the coffee was as advertised, very flavourful. Linda drooled over the pastries in the window but managed to control herself.

next stop: a day in the city, and a night at the Open.

dumb flickr

ok. getting some complaints about the pictures i am posting. that they are too small and in random order. you need to click on the "Australia Set" from the main page, otherwise, you'll get the pics small and in a funky order. So to alleviate confusion, here is the new link. To navigate through the pictures, there is a navigator on the right hand side. click the picture to go to the next picture.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lwswong/sets/72057594053538103/

Day 4- The Papparazzi at the Open!

The Papparazzi at the Open!
Originally uploaded by photog larry.

day 4 – cavity searches and green whizzing balls

we awake to a nice breakfast on the plane. enough to keep us going for a bit. we’re told that we’ll be beginning our descent and that the temperature in melbourne is in the 30’s and expected to rise to a balmy 38 degrees or something.....nice start to the trip!
anyways, we land, and are welcomed by the big welcome to melbourne sign in the airport and a single file line up through the sniffing police dogs....niiiice. ok. ok. so no big deal. we were warned by lots of people that australia is pretty strict at their borders, mainly because they don’t want any diseases from foods and plants coming into the australian environment, which has a lot of sensitive areas. so the dogs didn’t really surprise me.
we go through customs and are greeted by the official at the desk, as well as another guy standing behind him. they ask us a few basic questions, and are about to move on. then the officer standing up asks to see our travelling documents, our itinerary that shows our flights. i guess we look like illegal immigrants or something. well, whatever, we give it to him, he waves us on our way, wishes us a nice visit and we go on.

baggage collection is uneventful, and we head for the final check, through the x-ray machines for the food / plants etc. lady waves us to aisle #1, and strangely enough, more people waved through to #2 and 3. we get to the queue in our line, and start to wait....and wait....and wait. we quickly realize that #2 and #3 are moving significantly faster than ours, despite more volume. strange. more time passes, around 45 minutes or so, and we finally get to the front of line #1. we are escorted to the opposite side of the room, and are told that we are the happy winners of a full luggage inspection. so we go about dumping all of our luggage out onto the counter. the lady has a look through our stuff and not much there, so we proceed to put all of our stuff back into the bag. i realize that these are the funny moments to capture on tape, so i pull out the ol camera and fire a shot. boom. 5 guys on me immediately. telling me there is a fine for pictures in the airport. ok ok . so i delete the picture, and we go on our merry way, only an hour or so late from our expected arrival time.

debra meets us outside the restricted area, and already, we’ve got stories to tell. after a small detour in the parking lot, we get on our way out of the airport, and into the sunlight of melbourne, australia! ½ hr drive back to the city, and we get our first glimpse of home for the next week. debra and steve have done it up nice. i immediately notice steve’s dvd addiction, since his 6 level bookshelf is not exactly filled with books. nonetheless, we’re exceited and after a little unpacking, and getting acquainted, and a panic attack on my part due to the fact that i seemed to have misplaced my sunglasses (see previous post about shuffling in the airport), we head out for a walk to melbourne park, about ½ hr walk away.

as we walk, steve points out some of the good local coffee joints, since i have told him that i like my coffee. he points outs two that are within range of the house, and have some very good coffee. i make a mental note to go and check them out. we keep walking and pass a starbucks. i make a comment about how i love starbucks....steve looks at me like i’m some sort of alien, and casually mentions...nobody goes to starbucks here....ok, nuff said...there will be no more mention of starbucks while in australia.

at last, we get to melbourne park, enjoy a day of tennis. the pictures tell the story of the day, but the synopsis is: it was pretty hot out, and they stopped a lot of the matches because of the heat. but we got to watch a few matches, chill out on the patio for a bit. since kev and caroline were in rod laver arena, we decided to wait out for them, and then figure out what to do for dinner. they came out, and immediately told us that we should line up for the garnier samples that were being given out. now i should note, that the line up was about an hour long (literally), but in the end, you would end up with a free facial or massage, as well as a big package of crap from garnier. so based on the fact that we’re cheap bastards and we really had nothing better to do, we stayed around and got our free stuff. according to everyone else, the guy who was massaging me, must have liked me, since i seemed to get an “extra long” massage...must have been the sweat glistening off of my body or something.

we ended off the night watching some australian kid named healey get demolished by the russian davydenko. but it was fun because the stands were rammed full of aussies cheering as loud as they could as their man got his butt kicked.

so finally we left the park, and headed to grab some dinner. we went down to the area of downtown called Southgate, which is the riverfront area, full of street performers (buskers) and restaurants. we go around, and meet up with a few more of debra and steve’s friends, and search for a place to eat. most places appear to be closing for the night, since its pretty late at this point. seems strange to have kitchens in the main downtown area close so soon, but that is the culture i guess. we walk around what seems like a million places, and finally find a place with enough seats for us.

i guess maybe it was the full meal that gets us, but linda and i finally start to tire, and we realize that its time to head home. we bid our farewells, and grab a tram back to homebase in preparation for the next day...a leisurely walk through the dandenongs!

and oh ya, we took a few pictures that day. a modest 148 for the day between the two of us. but cmon, its our first day in town, we're just getting warmed up!

day 2 - travel day
so now we are on the plane, and all in all, i am fairly impressed. since i haven't been on an oversees flight since i was 10 years old, all this technology is new to me. i proceed to play with the in dash TV, which features 6 movies, and a variety of shows. i quickly become obsessed with a show called mythbusters, which is a science show devoted to dispelling urban legends through scientific evidence. in this show, they attempted to prove or disprove that a "rolling stone gathers no moss." in the end, it became clear, that a rolling stone, does indeed, gather no moss. geeky i know, but i think i watched this show at least 3 times on the trip there.
other than that, the flight over, aside from being 15 hours, was fairly uneventful.

day 3 - travel day
time warp! we skipped a day in mid flight, so i guess nothing really happened!

disclaimer:
since this is my blog, what you are about to read is vacation larry’s account of the events related to larry and linda’s adventure in oz. please note, that the opinions expressed may not represent those of lz. furthermore, i take no responsibility for any advance story telling. if you are linda’s friend, and would like to get the lz version of the story before any other (as she would like it), please contact her and arrange a suitable date for said ramblings.
otherwise, read on….

thursday, january 19, 2006
day 1 – travel day
the reality is, thursday was just a continuation of wednesday, and a mad dash to get everything organized for the trip. I did a quick weigh in of my luggage, just to see what I was at…a limber 25 kgs….no idea what linda’s was like, but it was likely slightly less since her bag was significantly smaller, and well, she’s a smaller person. at any rate, it was clear that both of us had overpacked, but since we didn’t really know what to expect, everything came with us. I had checked the limits on quantas, and our requirements didn’t seem to bring any issues.
my bro drove us to the airport, when we finally headed out – probably about45 minutes past the originally agreed to time, but we got there with no issues.. check in was not really an issue either, sdince we went straight to the airport. we then settled into our favourite / only place to eat in terminal 3 international – the dreaded “friday’s”, a dumbed down version of the us chain “TGI Fridays”. everytime i have been on vacation in the last 5 years, I believe I have left from terminal 3, international, and have been subjected to fridays for food, since there is no meal service on the plane. as usual, and as mentioned, we failed to get to the airport early enough to get food at another establishment. so down went the crappy burger. linda decides that there should be some last minute calls to work, and she takes care of business on the pay phone.... i wonder if this is going to be the trend over the whole holiday...hope not...

finally on the plane, and I am once again reminded of why I hate flying american (which quantas has code-shared with for the Toronto to LA flight, instead of running their own plane). crappy service, crappy seats that are squishy, etc etc. at any rate, we made it to LA safe and sound, so I guess we need to give them credit for that.

so now we are at LAX, and originally, we had planned to meet up with dave and monica at the airport and grab some “dinner”, since it was now suppertime in LA, and we had a 3 hour layover before our 15 hour non-stop express to melbourne. it became clear to us after checking in, that we would only be able to meet for 45 minutes or so before we’d have to go back into the secure zone, so we nixed that idea. its kind of a good thing, because the next few hours were some of the most hectic I’ve ever experienced…..

first, we decided to stop off and eat something at the food court, since it was unclear to us when our next meal would be, and we were told, that we should stay up for the first 7 hours of our flight to melbourne. so we get to the food court, and both of us realize, that we have no US dollars. we had gotta Australian, but neither of us had the foresight to think that we might actually need some US cash. we then realize that, surprisingly, the dirty japanese place in the food court takes credti cards. nice! saved!

so then, it is mission #2. I had a canon USA rebate form that I wanted to mail from the US, since you are supposed to be residing in America to get the rebate. so I wanted to take no chances and ensure the stamp was a US stamp. oh crap. wait. we have no USD. so I ATE IT and went to the ATM and took out some cash. as finance geeks, I know you want the numbers, so I looked them up and here they are. the trading rate that day was 1.1719. our rate from the bank was 1.1977, a fairly reasonable 2.6% markup (or $1.50 for the 60 bucks). I’d expect the standard credit card exchange rate to be about 2% marked up, so this wasn’t too bad, and considering the small withdrawal, it doesn’t amount to much. but wait! we got hit with an international ATM fee of $3.00. on my $60 withdrawal, that translated into a net mark up of 7.6%. let the unexpected expenses begin! in the fever of looking for US cash etc, I decided to open up my overly stuffed backpack. sifted through some stuff, and closed it back up. more on that later.

figuring that the airport is one of the usual place for buying last minute postcards, writing and mailing them, I figured LAX would be no problem to buy stamps and mail them. try again. we looked everywhere and there were NO places that sold stamps, and no mailboxes on the LAX premises. they had plenty of postcards, but no stamps, and no mailbox. however, the stranger part was that when we went to the first vendor, and asked if she sold stamps (which I have bought at plenty of convenience stores in the us before), she looked at me like I was some sort of deviant. she told me, “ain’t no mailbox here. no, no stamps heya…”…ok lady. so we went to the next store down, and he was slightly more helpful….they used to sell stamps, but not anymore. maybe information has some, but definitely not the stores. off to information – he helps confirm with us that there is indeed, no mailbox in LAX, and no stamps sold anywhere. but that there is a post office about a mile down the road. we can’t walk, but maybe take a cab and get him to wait for us. he was slightly concerned and asked us how much time we had. we figured we had about 1 hour now to get there and back, a fairly comfortable time, and enough to give it a shot. if you are wondering, it was a $600 USD rebate, and needed to be postmarked before we got back, so it needed to get done. so we go outside to grab a cab. go to the taxi stand, and ask the first guy in line to drive us to the post office. he LITERALLY IGNORES US. I ask again, and he motions us towards a cab that has just dropped someone off….ask him…..ok – so I guess he doesn’t want the small fare….fine….so we go to the next cab….slightly more helpful…..it’ll cost you at LEAST $20 to go there and back…starting cost is like $4.50, and the waiting time etc….BUT, its right beside the hertz rentacar lot, so why don’t you just grab the shuttle to the hertz. Linda was slightly concerned with the use of rental car shuttles for reasons that I couldn’t understand, but in the end, we decided it was our best option – given it was free, and direct to the area we wanted. when we got there, I realized what Linda was concerned about….car lots at airports are usually in lockdown. you can’t exactly easily walk from the side walk into the lot. conve3rsly, its not too easy to walk OUT of the lot. its usually got some barbed wire and fences, and this was no different. so we’re walking around the lot, wondering what the hell we should do. fenced into a parking lot and time ticking to get on our plane. I want to hop through the open gate when the shuttle goes through, but Linda refuses, since she doesn’t want to get in trouble. finally, I ask the hertz person, and they tell us to go through the BACK gate….so we walk to the back, and have to walk all the way around the lot, cross the road, and get to the post office. probably around 30 minutes passed at this point, so things are getting a little tight.

we go into the post office, which is quite large, and the queue is at least 6 people. there are about 3 people at the desks assisting customers, but apparently, these are the 3 slowest people ever to work at the post office. time ticks off, and I look for the automated stamp machine, and find it, but the dollar bill part of the machine doesn’t work….so its back to the line…tick tick tick…more time rattles off, and some people, who had gotten to the front of the line, and then were sent back, because they don’t know how to fill out the forms, jump the queue in front of us….i am in near panic now, as there is probably around 50 minutes now til the flight LEAVES. finally, our turn, we buy our ONE stamp, mail the damn thing, and dart out of the building, run across the road, back around the parking lot through the back gate, and just MISS the shuttle going back to the airport….shiet….look at my watch….feeling OK, since there are 45 minutes to go….but still not great….since we have already gotten boarding passes in toronto for this flight, its just a matter of going through security….

we get back to the airport, consider taking a picture with the info booth guy who helped us, but decide there is no time….so we head to security…they look at our boarding passes and tell us that we need to RE-CHECK IN with quantas….WTF? what is the point of checking in in the first place if we have to re-check in….retarded….so luckily,. no line, and we get through in another 5 minutes, and get through security, about 15 minutes before boarding….we worry slightly about our baggage, which could have been withheld, since we didn’t check in til late, but since its out of our control, we just sit and wait.

finally on the plane….and exhausted….we haven’t even started going to Australia yet and having retarded moments….oh what will this trip bring?

photos: 5
cash inefficiencies: $4.55

the return

just back from a 3 week hiatus in OZ. and im back from an even longer hiatus to this blog. ill start to post our adventures in OZ on this page, along with a link to our pictures. we'll have to sort through them, but the initial count is some 3,618 photos...i love my canon...i love digital :)

ed.

as mentioned previously, photos were a big part of our trip….we spent a lot of our time lagging behind tour groups being annoying asian tourists, snapping pictures of everything in sight. many of these pictures are purposely duplicated, in order to ensure we get a good photo, and that makes up the bulk of the photos. we don’t know the final tally yet, but we’re hoping that of the 3600+ photos, we’ll have around 300 actual good “hits” when it’s all said and done.

results will be posted here, assuming they give me enough bandwidth…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lwswong/sets/72057594053538103/