Myrons Daily Journal - Page 12
April 22, 2004
As Willie would say; on the road again. Have left Byron Bay. Even with its lack of Mc Donald, signals, and high rise buildings, there is still a commercialization about the city. Have taken the road less traveled inland from highway 1. Asked a bloke mowing the side of the road, which way to go. He said, pointing; that way is very scenic, but there is a long climb. When I said that's the way I want to go, I love climbing; he looked at me like I was some kind of nut. When I got to the top of the climb, the view was terrific with the rolling hills of pastures and patches of forest with the ocean in the distance. I don't take many shots with the camera, but this was worth one. Surprise, my camera is again in safe keeping back at the hostel. Will have to arrange to have it catch up with me again. This brings up something the British girls and I were discussing the other night. The hostel has 150 beds and they get 27$AU for each bed. That is 121,500$AU per month if 100% Occupancy. The rooms have no amenities, just 2 1/2 bunks, or 5 beds. No bathroom, air condition, towels, complimentary coffee, etc. For this they get 5x27$=135$AU. They also have 8 bed dorms with the room not much bigger. That’s 8x27$=216$AU for a room with no upkeep. The 5 bed room is about the size of a small track home bedroom (12'x12'). The lonely planet calls the bed lamps a bonus. The room has nothing else except 2 windows and a door. What hotel would love this simplicity? The common areas are the only cost incurred by the hostel other than the laundering of the sheets. Some hostels even charge you 5$ for linen. The lonely planet also says this is one of 2 YHA's in Byron Bay and they are usually booked full. Even with 50% occupancy, what a money cow. This brings me to my gripe. Only a few hostels have lockable lockers in the rooms. At 135/ 216$ per night and not even lockers you can lock with your own lock is a crock (this is as close to cockney as I can get; they talk in rhymes according to the English girls.) This forces me to put at least the camera into safe keeping at the office. Getting started in the morning is much more difficult than at a motel. This morning the room was full and everyone is still asleep at 8:30 AM. If you are thoughtful, you try to make as little noise as possible getting things together, causing me to forget my camera at the office for the third time. This is the month the hostel association critiques itself with questionnaires. I have suggested requiring certain standards for retaining membership in the hostelling association. One would be to make certain rooms available for late arrivals. Late arrivals are very common along the coast due to the bus schedule from Sydney to Brisbane. Whole groups of young people arrive late at night when the bus goes through. Instead of planning for this, they may have 10 people disrupt 10 rooms with one new arrival per room. Even if it means moving to a different room during your stay, it is better than someone arriving in the middle of the night. I think these problems are not addressed because of the age of those using the hostels. They have not totally learned the right way of doing things and more or less go along with however it is done. In other words, no complaints. It has been very interesting joining in with all these young people. It definitely has its good and bad sides. I am staying in a motel in Pottsville tonight. It is about 20 clicks from coolangatta. It is a pleasant change from the hostels. I avoid telling the motel owners about owning a hostel in a good location. They would most likely throw up there hands and quit. Most would not make it in that alternate lifestyle. It is true, to be successful, you need to lower the bar on what is acceptable. I now know why hostels are not as popular in the states. Here you allow alcohol and cigarettes to be consumed in the hostel by any age. There is no age restriction of any kind. Last night there was a game being conducted by kids; if you did not get the answer, you had to drink. The object was to get everybody drunk. I was wakened during the night by some guy passing by outside. It was like a train in the night. His ranting and raving started softly as he approached, became intense as he passed and faded into the distance. No one else was with him; I am sure he had overdosed. At a point you get tired of seeing it all and can't wait to get on your bike and leave.
April 23, 2004
I’m here in Coolangatta. Finally in Queensland and at what is called the gold coast. This area was developed in the 50's and 60's with what the lonely planet call a non-ending line of high-rise hotels and apartments. It reminds me of the Florida coastline around Virginia Beach. They look almost identical. I am staying at the Coolangatta YHA. Stopped at a bike shop to see about a bike box for shipping my bike back on the plane. They will have one ready for me before I leave. My plane leaves here on 5/3 at 9:35 AM on Freedom Air. I arrive in Auckland at 2:30PM and leave there at 4:45pm for an 11 1/2 hr flight back to LA on air NZ flight NZ06. While I was checking in at the hostel I asked about busses back to Byron Bay to retrieve the camera. While looking at the schedules some girl came up and said her friend Steve drives a small van between the towns and she will have him stop by and pick it up for me. Must live right. Seem to just fall into these things. The hostel is next to the airport and the bike shop is only a few blocks away. I am going to bike to Robina and catch the electric train into Brisbane with my bike. That is the end of the line for the city train out of Brisbane which is 83 clicks away. This way I get to experience how good their trains are and avoid what is said to be a boring bike ride into Brisbane, I will stay 3 nights in Brisbane and then return on the train to Coolangatta and get ready to fly home. |
