Second "last day" in Melbourne

Melbourne, St. Kilda Beach, 21 April 2011.
Had a terrific "second" last day in Melbourne, the day that should not have been!   It should have been my first day in Aukland!  Due to the lost passport and travel documents, that fortunately I retrieved from the Carlton Hotel at 11:00 am April 20, I missed my 10:50 am flight to NZ.   That meant spending time at Qantas rescheduling my flight and spending two more nights in Melbourne.   The St. Kilda Beach area of Melbourne had been on my list, according to many a hotspot for street art and graffiti, just what every globe trotting grandfather is looking for!!!!!    Free day, time to explore.   Took the train to the city and tram #16 to the beach.   Wow, boardwalk, pier, beach, yacht club, enticing pastry shops and even Luna Park, a classic entertainment park.   I don't know if this is THE Luna Park, but the wooden framed roller coaster, giant merry go round, carnival rides, all accessed through the entrance which is the open mouth of a huge monster head, certainly recall the early part of the 20th century.  I returned there after dark to take photos of the lights and action.
Typical of my days wandering neighborhood alleys looking for photo ops, camera(s) around my neck and inquiring of locals as to the best graffiti, I met more interesting people.  First of all there were   American skateboarders taking advantage of a sloped part of the boardwalk to perform jumps and other manoeuvres while a professional photographer captured their stunts on film.   I think I got some amazing photos of their silhouettes against the sky.  By asking about their activities, I met the local councilman who was promoting a skate park for the area, and the perfect guide to examples of street art in his district.  He spent 2 hours driving me around to all of the best examples, leaving me at an historic pastry shop to have a dessert and cappaccino.   In one cafe where we stopped, I met a waiter from the U. of Nebraska who turned out to be the first Beta I have met in my travels!   While taking photos of the skaters from my position on the beach, I met Phil, a young man walking his dog, took some excellent informal beach shots, including some of his very artistic tattoo, another form of street art!   Met  and photographed Geoffroi, a student from France who was braving the cold water of the bay.  Finally, asking directions to another collection of graffiti, I met a lady who is a couchsurfer with friends in New Zealand.  We had a good conversation about our experiences as couchsurfers.   I returned to the pier to take evening photos of the city across the bay.   Although there was the option of waiting to see little penguins return to their nests in the rocks, I decided to head to Luna Park for some colorful evening shots of the rides.   Back to the center of the city on the tram, a train ride to Peter and Daniel's house in Craigieburn, my home for the last two weeks, and prepare for departure on Friday.   Another great day of meeting people and exploring Melbourne.

Sydney, Australia

Sydney has taken its place on my list of the world's most beautiful cities.  Situated on a wide bay with numerous inlets, many of the neighborhoods  have spectacular views of the water.  The city center  includes a picturesque and  busy waterfront from which fleets of ferries shuttle passengers to communities situated along the bay.  Neo-gothic cathedral spires and yellow sandstone colonial building dating back to the era of Queen Victoria nestle among gleaming modern high rise structures while Hyde Park and the Botanical Garden provide nearby green space.   As all of the postcards suggest, the soaring arch of the Sydney Harbor Bridge and the sail shaped roofline of the opera house command the attention of camera toting tourists.  Cities with similar settings come to mind:  Seattle, Vancouver, San Francisco, Istanbul, Hong Kong and Capetown.  Accompanied by Dirk and Wolf, my two German dorm mates at the Wake Up Hostel, I explored the beach communities of Bondi and Coogee, known as the best surfing areas in Sydney.  The walkway follows the rugged coastline for about 3 kilometers between the beaches and provides spectacular views of the headlands, small hidden coves and pounding waves.  Surfers ride the swells waiting for the perfect curl.  Graffiti abounds on the cement wall behind the beach, perfect material for my photo project.  Another day, another ferry ride, same companions, this time to explore Watson Bay, a part of the sprawling city that was once a sleepy beach community.  Small cottages still line some streets, remnants of a past when city dwellers considered this a weekend escape and an historic lighthouse marks the entrance to the harbor.  We rarely study Australian history; however, visits to art galleries and historical museums reveal  glimpses of 19th century that resemble that of America, a pioneer spirit, westward expansion, rural life and undisturbed nature.
It is all English, but how did we end up with such diverse accents?  Accent?  What accent?   It is all of the others who have the strange pronunciation!   Often, Europeans have learned "American English" and have less of an "accent" than people from Ireland, Scotland, England, South Africa and India.  Return to the saying on the tee shirt I bought in Bangkok and that is so frequently used in S. E. Asia-  SAME  SAME  BUT DIFFERENT!   Occasionally I will ask someone to repeat a word or phrase that I have not understood, and they will do the same with me.   I find myself speaking more slowly and more distinctly, being careful to enunciate my words to the point that some people ask where I am from and say that I don't sound American.  OK, so I will have a strange unidentifiable accent when I return home!

Kangaroos!  Determined to see some of these critters in the wild, I took a tour to the Blue Mountains  just to the west of Sydney.   The low foothills gradually become a small mountain range reaching elevations of 3000-4000 feet, a succession of  ridges covered with temperate rain forests composed mainly of eucalyptus trees and "Australian bush." Millions of years of erosion have created sheer cliffs, backdrops for numerous spectacular waterfalls that dot the area.  Recent rainfall has encouraged colonies of mushrooms to spring from the mossy ground cover shaded by palm shaped tree ferns.   Thousands of steps have been carved into sandstone cliffs, an essential part of the trail leading to viewpoints and waterfalls as one descends to the canyon floor.   The easiest way to return to the canyon rim is to take the cable railway that claims to be the steepest in the world, a claim that seems justified as one's gaze becomes nearly vertical when the train passes through a long tunnel carved through the cliff.
But where are the kangaroos?  They were not in the forest.   We make one last stop before returning to Sydney, an grassy open area in the national park.   Nearly leaving without success, the driver takes one last dirt road, and VOILA,  a group of four kangaroos busy nibbling grass.  They pay little attention to us as we approach slowly with our cameras; however, as if paid to present some kind of show, the two males rise on their back legs and balance on their tails while they put on a wrestling performance.  Finally, tired of the attention, they hop off to greener pastures and we return to the city.

More good luck!  The driver had connections to people who do street art and graffiti, offered to show me some examples and even to meet the artists.  After delivering the other passengers back to their hostels and hotels, he spent several hours introducing me to artists and taking me to see examples of their work.
Another interesting adventure and more photos in my growing collection.

Angkor Wat

On board Quantas flight 2 from Bangkok to Sydney- seafood soup, green salad, fish and couscous, chocolate cake, red wine, time to close the chapter on Cambodia by assembling thoughts on Angkor Wat.

How to describe one of the top ten attractions in the world and one of the top five on my list.  The remains of a civilization that dominated SE Asia from 800-1300, now partially restored ruins that were once covered with jungle vegetation.  Why do we visit the remains of great civilizations?  Egypt, Greece, Rome, Petra, Tikal and Angkor Wat.   Who were these people?  How did they live? What inspired them to build great cities, monuments, temples, shrines, tombs, water systems?  How were they able to accomplish these feats, and why did they disappear?  Thoughts run through your mind as you clamber over piles of stone, climb steep eroded stairways and photograph sculptures missing heads, limbs and other features.  The ruins of Angkor Wat cover an area the size of Paris and was once a city of one million people.  I won't attempt to remember the names of rulers or even specific names of temples.  I will leave that to the history and guide books.  Kings have always built monuments and religions have created great places of worship.   Here in Angkor Wat, the statues represent Hindu and Buddhist beliefs and the bas relief murals portray both military campaigns and scenes of daily life.   As you enter sacred areas you are greeted by nagas, the long 7 headed snake that traditionally protects the gods.  Everywhere you are met by ferocious figures, graceful dancers, demons, gods, kings, elephants, lions, defending entrances and gracing terraces.  From the top of crumbling temples, you look over a complex that is now in ruins and try to envision the site that was once part of a vibrant city.  Climb through doorways that have lost their walls, head through rooms that have collapsed into piles of stone, walk along terraces that once separated pools or canals of water and gaze at giant trees whose roots have engulfed stone walls.  Hiring a tuk tuk for transportation, I spent 4 days visiting the complex beginning with the inner most temples and ending with those more remote, the fourth day reserved for re-visiting my favorites after studying a guidebook that I had purchased from a Cambodian who had lost an arm to a landmine explosion. 
A highlight of my visit was a late afternoon stop at Angkor Wat, the largest temple of the complex.  The sky was dark and threatening, creating a dramatic backdrop for the scene that I wanted to photograph.  A violent thunderstorm developed forcing me to seek shelter in the entrance to Angkor Wat, the perfect place to capture the scene, the silhouette of the temple outlined against a sky from which God could have appeared at any moment.  Angkor Wat, an experience to savor for many years.