First few months down under... (March-June)

Apologies, again, to those we have not been able to reach out to personally. Here is a very brief account of the first few months here in Sydney...

We landed the morning after Sydney's Mardi gras and found the streets of the city littered with empty cans of beer, bottles of wine and ghastly evidence of some serious mass-drinking and with cops still conducting breath-analyzer tests at 7:30am. After being forced to trot around the city and napping by the pool for 5 hours waiting for our room to be readied, we finally managed to settle into our temporary serviced apartment and enjoy the views of the water and city from up above... high enough to not notice the litter.


Darling Harbour from near our place

Apartment hunting in Sydney is a nightmare with 30 potential tenants showing up to view every half-decent apartment and often competing to rent (at prices way above San Francisco rents)! Two weeks at the serviced apartment might have not have been nearly enough if we hadn't got lucky and found this nice furnished place just behind darling harbour and in one of the closest suburbs of the city - akin to the Marina district or South Beach in San Francisco - within a ten minute walk to the Central Business District and in this case, 20 minute walk from the Deloitte offices which in turn is a skip and a jump from the Opera House and Sydney Bridge. Note: we are also a very short 5 minute walk from the local Casino.

Work did take its toll and on the third day in the country I was swept into a vortex at my current client, one of the largest banks in Australia, leading a team to analyze and advise the CIO (and consecutively the board) on a $1.5B re-negotiation of what is currently one of the largest IT outsourcing contracts globally. The 'quick, 2-week project' is completing its 8th month as I write this the end is 2-3 weeks away (has been consistently 2-3 weeks from the end for 4 months now). With the Aussie market booming, Priyanka got multiple companies interested and eventually got to choose from a couple roles, deciding to take up a very interesting position (Web Analyst) working with the CIO of a non-profit organization called Australian Institute of Company Directors - which is an institute for company (board) directors offering professional development and networking to those involved in corporate governance. Work environment's quite different too - suit and tie and alcohol served at business lunches and practically every Friday afternoon in the office - common to find beer and wine in the fridge on my work floor :) in case you're working late!! :).

Basics (not so basic) - After spending days figuring out which broadband provider was least likely to rip us off, how much capacity we needed per month and whether or not we have to sign contracts for getting electricity, gas and mobile phones (yep - 'mobile' phones in Oz), we finally managed to get things off to roll including transferring my US 'cell' phone number to the Vonage phone we brought across (an alien concept here, btw). No research could prepare us for the car prices down under and so we've not bought a car yet, choosing to rent one every/every-other weekend.

Alcohol - obviously deserves a special mention - is ridiculously expensive, apart from wine and beer - which are quite cheap and cost just a bit more at the local pub than to drink at home. Please let us know before-hand as any of you plan a trip 'down under' and we will send you a list of beverages to pick up at the duty free on your way in - both our parents have been kind enough to bring in their entire quotas worth over the past few months!

Sydney – also called the ‘City of Villages’ is fantastic with water views all across; transportation that is clearly worlds apart from the bay area, a buzzing night life (alongside is a picture of Darling Harbour at night) and excellent food; has its teeny-tiny Chinatown (hush - I don’t believe locals understand how small it is). As the name suggests, Sydney consists of multiple micro cities or ‘villages’ each with a unique culture, history and flavour. Yes – my editor is now set to Aussie English and it is flavours and colours spelled honourably with ‘u’s and not analysed with the ‘z’s but with an ‘s’... I hang with my ‘mates’ and not with a bunch of ‘dudes’ (without having to explain). 

Local (Aussie) friends visit - Bhavi-Supi and Kunal-Pooja (high school friends and their spouses) visited us a few times almost immediately as we got here and one of the trips consisted of consuming enormous amounts of alcohol and driving down to the south coast. Allow me to explain an interesting Aussie road law on alcohol consumption: Consumption of alcohol is actually allowed in a moving vehicle as long as the driver is not drinking and is not above the required alcohol level in his/her bloodstream – Everyone else can drink!! Should be no surprise then when I tell you that Pooja did most of the driving despite not feeling too well and Kunal and I were (ahem!) busy in the back seat choosing between various mixers and concoctions. No wonder the trip was a smashing hit although we later realised that we didn’t see any of the major attractions in that area. Here’s a link some pictures from the initial couple months. (Gaurav and Poorvi in the Blue Mountain pictures and Kunal-Pooja in the others).

The South Coast, as we eventually found out a couple months ago, is a beautiful coastal drive along the pacific with a number of small beach towns and a bigger city ‘Woolongong’. This area has multiple golf courses along the water and we found a park where we finally saw some Aussie animals – Priyanka fed a Kangaroo and we petted some Koalas and Red Pandas, stood face to face with a Crocodile, Salamanders, Iguanas, Emus and saw Wallabies prancing around in the open – none of the animals was behind bars except for the reptiles which were in protective glass. Pictures of these in subsequent posts (September).

 

Then there’s the Blue Mountains – a series of beautiful mountains and valleys with waterfalls splattered across the landscape – a hiker’s heaven (Hiking is ‘bushwalking’ in local Aussie speak) - seemingly a hybrid of Yosemite and the Grand Canyon (although not quite as large as the canyon) – below is a picture taken at the Leura Cascades in the Blue Mountains.

My (Ankur’s) parents visited us in June-July (mid-winter here in Australia and turns out, not a great time to visit) and we managed to take some time off and check on surroundings New South Wales – the state, has its  own version of Napa Valley (Hunter Valley - which actually does not even compare to its Californian counterpart) and its own idea of the pacific highway only with waters that are ideal for surfers AND swimmers most of the year; beaches like Southern California and everything you'd expect in the name of water sports. The North Coast boasts of dolphins, migrating whales while the south coast is surrounded by gorgeous golf courses, water parks and the lot. 

Surfers Paradise Metermaids

Gold Coast – During my parent’s visit, the weather was awful in Sydney and so we headed off to the Gold Coast for the first time to spend a few days, get some sun and meet long lost family there and in Brisbane. Turned out to be a great idea, with the weather around 20 degrees (70 Fahrenheit). The Gold Coast is the Oz incarnation of Southern California – all kinds of theme parks, one fantastic beach after another and some serious partying – also a popular destination for bachelor and bachelorette parties. Below is a picture of meter maids that roam the street of surfer’s paradise, one of the prime spots on the gold coast (no, this is not an excuse to introduce sleaze into our blog – just saying it as-is...

Apparently, there is also a bikini race held there but we caught none of that while we were thereJ. More details on the meter maids can be found on their website (not that you would want to know any more)! Moving on... surfer’s paradise is also the destination for water sports and Priyanka and I enrolled in a jet-ski safari – a group of people on jet-skis for 4 hours, led by a tour guide through the marshes and tiny islands off the coast, a stop at one of the islands for lunch and then back through a different path – loved the fresh take on jet-skiing and not having to wander aimlessly and wreck the jet skis as a result (some of you guys may know friends that managed to crash into each other and ended up paying for damages J). Brisbane is a short drive from the Gold Coast and we stopped to visit Kashmiri family there – and enjoy some mind blowing Kashmiri (an Indian state my Mum is originally from) food there. After eating more than we really should have, we toured another popular Australian pastime – Treetop walks. Treetop walks are steel walkways on top of some massive pillars typically set up in thick tropical forests. The walkways put you at tree-top level and offer a fantastic view of the flora and fauna and a perspective on how high some of the trees are – there is often a gangplank that is not supported by a pillar but is just a plank that allows you to walk across over the top of a huge valley and look down into it – quite spectacular. As the planks are not supported by pillars, they shake with your every move and can be a bit scary initially.

More to follow in part II.... Pictures from the Gold Coast, Hunter Valley, Our drive down the South Coast, fantastic trip to Melbourne - Great Ocean road, the twelve Apostles and Philip Island with high school friends and very liquor-friendly traffic laws!... look forward to your comments and emails!