| Myrons Daily Journal - Page 5 March 21, 2004 Today is a quiet day in Bondi Beach. The sun is not shining and it rained last night. Not good for a beach resort town. Shiangold is not happy with the backpacker hostel. There are no dishes in the kitchen. You must pay a deposit for there use. I tried to explain to him it is because of the location of the hostel. As I described yesterday, the city crowd is not like the country crowd. He takes the policy personally. He feels they don't trust him. I tried to explain they don't know whom to trust. Anyway, tomorrow we will be moving into downtown Sydney. I doubt there will be any change in the hostel environment. Any large city has similar characteristics. Shiangold plans to spend another 2 weeks here, taking tours during this time before he returns to Taiwan. I may spend only one week getting to know the area and then start out on my bike. I have not decided to start out north or south. As much as Shiangold is unhappy with the hostel, he is elated with the outcome yesterday of the national election in Taiwan. the blue party lost to the green party, if only by a slim margin. "Green" does not mean "environmental." the green party represents, according to him, those who actively want to separate from Mainland China, while the blue party represents those who have strong emotional ties to Mainland China. After lengthy conversations with Tony, I lean toward not pushing for independence at this time, but letting the strong economic conditions in Mainland China start to possibly push them toward democracy while Taiwan strengthens its economic condition by supplying the highly technical and financial expertise they have over Mainland China. Taiwan has been suffering because of the manufacturing strength developing in Mainland China. Many businesses in Taiwan are even now moving into Mainland China. I tend to think that Tony’s approach to the problem is popular among the business class while the opposition is more favored by the working class. Shiangold is concerned about the unrest in his country due to the attempt on the President's life a few days ago. I bet those who read this would never guess they would be reading a political commentary. I have walked all over the town and stopped for coffee a few times. Having coffee reminded me to send Jim stout an email requesting he send Tony and Mei a copy of the book he has about how to open a coffee shop. Tony and Mei have expressed possible interest in converting a large mostly unused area at their hotel into a coffee shop. It will be fun to see what develops from this. As I said in my email to Jim, it would give me 2 more places in the world to enjoy stopping for coffee. We are now 5 hours ahead of PST (or behind, depending on how you look at it, 11am here is 4pm there.) I believe DST stops next Sunday. We will then be 4 hours different. ] March 22, 2004 I was expecting a difficult ride from Bondi Beach into the heart of Sidney. It turned out to be a cakewalk. You just don't ask non -bike riders which is the easiest way to get somewhere. They usually start out with something like "oh my god, you don't want to go there on your bike; you'll be killed!" I should have been a bike messenger; I feel at home in traffic. I tell people it's like mountain biking, except the rocks are moving, you are mentally alive; there is nothing boring about it. Shiangold and I will be staying at different hostels tonight. I arrived at the hostel we had agreed upon, but they don't have an area to keep bikes overnight. Shiangold was getting here by bus and hadn't arrived yet. I left a note telling him where I will be staying. I hope we are able to get in touch with each other. The hostel he will be staying at is in the heart of China Town for Sidney. He should feel at home. I feel almost in the minority, there are lots of Asian here! I overheard someone the other day saying that more than 1,000 people a day are immigrating to Australia. I don't know if this is true or not. when we entered customs at the airport I saw a massive line. I hate lines (too much standing in lines in the Navy.) we sat out the line. It kept moving past us quickly while at the same time it was getting longer. I asked an official, why so many people? he said 900 had just landed within a few minutes. I told him, at this rate you are going to fill up Australia-NOT. I used up the rest of the day biking all over the city I got 40 clicks (I learned this in Alaska when I asked how far somewhere was and got the answer in clicks instead of kilometers.) I stopped by the Sidney Harbor Bridge. I have seen pictures of people climbing this structure in travel folders. I thought that would be fun. I asked a couple from England what they thought of the climb. They liked it but discouraged me after describing what they had to do to prepare. I take from 1 to 2 hours of instructions before going up. Unlike the travel folder pictures of happy people in street clothes waving from the top, you first have a breath test to be sure you are not drunk, then you get into what they call a monkey suit with a harness and line that will be attached to a safety wire for the entire trip. I took a picture of the people climbing up the bridge. It looked more like a monstrous paint crew at work all in gray coveralls instead of those smiling and laughing models they show in the travel folders. I decided to pass on this one. O yes, by the way, it cost you more than 100$AU to look like the paint crew. I found a great YHA hostel in the trendy area of Glebe. I had dinner at a Tai restaurant that was just as popular as the one in Encinitas, it was packed! Tell our sales crew they got me started with Tai food. They took me to a Tai Restaurant for lunch just before I left. That was my first experience with Tai. March 23, 2004 On the flight over from NZ to AUS I left my bike fairing in the overhead bin. I have AIR NZ looking for it. Meanwhile I am biking without it. I may leave Sydney before they track it down. If so, I will have it shipped back to the US. Spent another day biking all over Sydney. Most people just see the heart of Sydney; I get to see its soul. I just start biking to get lost, then bike to try and find the way back. Today I did 40 clicks this way. This puts me through all the little business areas surrounding the city. I stop now and then for a $2.50-$3.00 cup of coffee and meet the locals. The more you do this the more you find that people are the same everywhere. My hostel is so pleasant that I will stay until 3/25 before starting north towards Brisbane. I have acquired an on-line ticket from Brisbane to Auckland for 5/5 on freedom air. Now I must cancel my return flight from Christchurch to Auckland (no refund) and reschedule my flight from Auckland to LA to match up with the freedom flight (75$US.) This is the confusing problem I had while staying in Auckland. It would sure be great if we could get Spock to transport us like he does on TV. I stopped by twice to where Shiangold was to be staying. He had never checked in. I don't blame him; it's a dump. It looks like he and I are now going our separate ways. I got a chance to chase a bike messenger (called courier here) in downtown Sydney. He didn't take well to me being on his tail and picked up the pace. It made my day blowing past him on a street with a slight downgrade. That’s where my 150 gear-inches pay off. Too bad he didn't know that a 72 year old tourist on a funny looking bike had just left him in the dust March 24, 2004 Have yet to reschedule my flight, it’s to late today. I will have to stay another day at the hostel. Met an English bike tourer today. He has done the east coast with the aid of a lonely planet book covering just the east coast of Australia. Just what I have been looking for. Went to four booksellers here, none have it in stock. Name any other place on earth and you can find a Lonely Planet book covering that area, but none on the east coast of Australia right he on the east coast of Australia. I am writing this while having coffee at a coffee shop next to a Mammoth bookseller in a very large modern center inside an old building called the Broadway Shopping Center. Since the biker from England is returning home in a week, I am going to try to buy it from him. With this area having such British influence, you would think tea would reign supreme. It does not; coffee is the drink here, with filtered or brewed coffee taking a distant back seat. I did stop at a Hungry Jacks! (Must be associated with Jack in the Box because it has the same logo) for coffee and found they had Douwe Egberts coffee. I remember finding this great coffee (Douwe Egberts) at the Indian casino next to my son-in-law's parent’s farm. When we stopped at the Jack in the Box at the Minneapolis Airport for coffee on our way home. I took one sip and said this must be Douwe Egbert coffee. They said that is what they use. I am thinking about coffee so much because of what I have written about it in previous logs. |
 |
 |
 |
 |