Funny how I invariably got reactions like: that’s in Africa, right? Or, “Oh, you’ve already been to South Africa, why go to Tasmania?”
Well, that just shows how unfamiliar is the place to most people in the Philippines. Tasmania is the only island state of Australia. Ever since my wanderlust started, I have romanticized of being in this exotic verdant land. I have read on it, saw some of its flora and fauna on the National Geographic’s channel that again whetted my desire. Setting foot in Australia for the first time in 1995, as the only Philippine media representative to an exclusive editors’ familiarization tour to high-end Hamilton Island as a honeymooners’ haven and a yacht cruise over the Great Barrier Reef, I yearned all the more for Tasmania – so near yet so far!
When Cathay Pacific had a promo on certain destinations last February, I grabbed the US$700+ offer to Australia. The regular fare would be almost US$2,000.00, bout the same as going to the East Coast of the U.S. That’s why almost nobody from the Philippines would opt to go to Australia for a vacation. (My son told me that they got a similar offer by Singapore Airlines in 2008, so the whole family visited my daughter-in-law’s sister who lives in Sydney.) My Australian visa is until July 2010, so my trip was a breeze!
I checked in online the day before departure. I found out there is a different counter for online check-in, so I avoided the long lines. (Boarding passes were given at the airport, although I printed out my Cebu-Hong Kong boarding pass.) What is important to me is the choice of seats I would be in from Cebu to Hong Kong, then on to Adelaide/Melbourne. (I got aisle seats, near the toilets.) However, my CX 920 seat # 44H -- Cebu- Hong Kong – had a busted overhead light. It was a good thing that I was too sleepy to care, as the flight left Cebu by 8pm.
We arrived in Adelaide by 9am, the next day (with a 2-hour time difference) and had an hour’s stopover before we boarded our plane for Melbourne. At Melbourne (4 hours time difference.), I found out I was three hours too early to check-in my luggage for Tasmania. We arrived by 12 noon, and I was in the domestic terminal – the adjacent building to the international terminal – by 1 pm. Qantas personnel asked why I was not checked through to Hobart. Well, it could be my fault, as I did not inform CX that I had a QF onward flight to Hobart, Tasmania. It could have saved me a lot of inconvenience! Then again, I think customs inspection must be at the point of landing by the international flight. Tasmania was my domestic route.
I had a 7-hour wait at Melbourne airport for my 8 pm flight to Hobart. The QF staff was kind enough to allow me to check-in before the opening of the Hobart flight. When I checked-in online, my e-ticket could not be located. I had to get my boarding pass at the Service Counter. However, I could only check my luggage in 4 hours before departure, when they opened the Hobart flight. I was in the fast lane, though, when I finally checked-in my luggage, as I already got my boarding pass.
While waiting, I booked my hotel stay through Inflight Centre-Melbourne Airport, the travel agency I used last year when I went to New Zealand from Sydney. They are very dependable and they are all over Australia. I had to stay overnight in Melbourne on my way back, as the flight to Hong Kong was 7:45 am.
I also bought the items for my son, as well as browse through the shops for what I could get as souvenirs for people back home. It’s always good to have an idea as to what things are typical and useful.
Most of all, I was almost done with my book, Paulo Coelho’s THE PILGRIMAGE, so time was of no importance as my physical journey took on a spiritual dimension: (page 35)
“When you travel, you experience, in a very special way, the act of rebirth. You confront completely new situations, the day passes more slowly, and on most journeys, you don’t even understand the language the people speak. So you are like a child just out of the womb. You begin to attach much more importance to the things around you because your survival depends upon them. (Exactly how I felt during my solo trip to Paris in 2008.) You begin to be more accessible to others because they may be able to help you in difficult situations. And accept any small favor from the gods with great delight, as if it were an episode you would remember for the rest of your life.”
Finally, it is best to be at the airport early, so one would be able to make requests – like I did – for preferred seats and not be harried in finding the departure gate. Time enough for some last minute shopping for extras, for some friends inadvertently left out of the gift list.
My Tasmania article will be the cover story this Sunday in Slick Sunday.
Meanwhile, make the best of what’s left of summer, before the swirl of the opening of classes and its attendant stress.
Ciao!