hahaha...I crack myself up. If you've been to Vegas you know where the title comes from. Anyways....
My trip down to Australia was pretty swell overall. It was fun bonding closer to my extended family. Nine of us, my parents and I and two other sets of family relatives enjoyed the sightseeing and temperatures in the mid 80s and 90s. What a welcomed change from the snow and hail that was blanketing the streets of Seattle. There was so much to see. During the course of the two and a half week vacation I jotted down some notes on what I did each day. Here's a short log of the day to day events and a link to pics.
http://new.photos.yahoo.com/achan277/album/576460762387674783
8th: Flight arrived in Sydney Australia. We took an argosy type cruise through Sydney Harbor. They have an alcatraz - like island in the middle. For lunch we went to Chinatown. Do other families do this? Go half way around the world and on the first day go to Chinatown? Always like that in my family.
9th - Opera house tour. There are two grand halls inside the building. It has an amazing view of the harbor. Lunch, to Chinatown again.
10th – This was the best day in Sydney. In the morning we went to the zoo. I figured that all the animals would be behind fences but there was actually a section of the zoo where you could pet and walk next to emus and kangaroos. At one point the emus were chasing the kangaroo between crowds of people. The kangaroos are amazing to watch when they bound from one place to the next. Next we went to the famous Bondi Beach. A small percentage of the women go topless there. Needless to say it was kinda funny and awkward walking side by side with Mom while she pointed that out for me in case I couldn’t tell.
11th – Last day in Sydney. Shopping at the Chinatown day market. Dim sum. We boarded the Princess Sapphire cruise ship. My first impression…Where the heck are the young people??? I felt like I was back at one of my first jobs at a retirement home. Old people everywhere, like 65 – 70 yrs and up. All hopes of meeting someone my age were demolished in the first 30 minutes on the cruise. I went to the nightclub that night and it was empty. I was hoping to at least club with some grannies. I was outta there.
12th – Relax on the cruise. Finished reading Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama. Played ping pong. Played poker at the casino.
13th – Arrived in Melbourne. Went shopping at the Queen Victoria market. I had no idea that one of the Grand Slams of Tennis, the Australian Open is held in Melbourne. I took a couple trains over to Rod Laver Arena and lucky for me there was some tennis going on. It was the last day of qualifying and I got to watch about a half hour of matches. I’ve never seen so many tennis courts.
14th - Day at sea. Lost money playing poker. Yeah.
15th – Arrived in Hobart, Tasmania. This is a small port town with some nice neighborhoods, but not much sightseeing.
16th – At sea. Got sick. Watched Australian Open tennis as Maria Sharapova almost lost in the first round. Saw Click with Adam Sandler. Relax.
17th: At sea. Played in Men’s Ping pong tournament. Eliminated by a 16 year old kid. Played bingo. I would hate to call numbers for bingo. They say the same thing for the same numbers and its corny everytime. “Uh oh, it’s those sexy legs, number 11, <whistle>, oh yeah, number 11, sexy.” “Number 75, it’s the grandfather of bingo, the highest we get, number 75, the grand-daddy.” Walked with Dad around the cruise walking circuit after dinner.
18th: At sea viewing. Our cruise ship entered into the Fiordland National Park in New Zealand. It was like being immersed in mountains the color of jade. There were beautiful waterfalls that flowed down these mountains which protruded almost vertically out of the sea.
19th: Dunedin, New Zealand. Witnessed racism against Chinese right before my eyes. A whole group of friends (not me and my family) that are ethnically Chinese cruise members (citizens of the US, Australia, and China) were attempting to get onto the bus that takes cruise members from the ship to the city. The problem was that the cruise did a terrible job in organizing how people were to line up. There was no rope to mark where the beginning of the bus line was. People were making a best effort to create a line but it was useless as buses pulled in at random locations and people were then merging on. It started to get frustrating. The group of Chinese told the security guard that they had waited near the front of two lines, and with two buses already having pulled away, they wanted to know if they were going to get onto the next bus. The white security guard says yes. As the next bus pulls up, the group goes for the front door of the bus while a line of other passengers merges in. But this time it’s different. This white lady uses her arm to block the Chinese group and says that her whole group is getting on first. One of the ladies from the Chinese groups says that the security guard said they were getting on the bus. The security guard is watching all of this stands there and says nothing. I hear one white guy pushing his way onto the bus yell ching chong ching chong to mock the Chinese group.
Now I’m standing 15 people behind the group of white people in line and it’s getting heated as people are starting to shove each other to get on the bus. One of the Chinese ladies gets past the white lady and onto the bus and starts trying to pull members of her group onto the bus. The same white guy who was provoking with the Chinese slurs starts saying that the group of Chinese is always cutting. As these two groups are aggressively pushing each other one of the Chinese guys who already made his way onto the bus sees that a white guy was pushing around his wife. This Chinese guy was probably 60 but was thick, probably 6’4” and by the way he walked you could tell he could handle himself. He walks back to the entrance of the bus, gives a stiff arm to the head of the white guy that pushed his wife and declares “Don’t shove my wife!” He walks right for the white guy who is dazed and they are both now ready to fight. Security finally starts breaking up the crowd. One of the Chinese ladies tells all her friends who made it onto the bus to get off, that it wasn’t worth it. A teenage girl who was with the party of Chinese, probably around 13, cries at what she has just witnessed. The racist white guy who was provoking the whole situation gets on the bus and starts smiling and dancing on the bus. As the bus pulls away the group of white people on the bus look out the window, smiling and waving goodbye to the Chinese group.
Witnessing or being a part of something like this happens. I expect it now, its just a matter of when. Even with a group of people from the same higher income social class, whom you’d think would be more educated to not stoop to the lows of this kind of racist behavior. I was pissed at the security guard and the cruise ship. I know all of this could have been easily avoided with a simple rope to form a line. But that is just the problem on the surface. The problem is much deeper than that. It’s the racist views that hide behind the order of our society.
After we finally got on the bus, we went downtown and then to Larnach Castle.
20th: Arrived in Christchurch. We took a train ride up into the mountains. These mountains are where films like Chronicles of Narnia and Lord of the Rings are filmed. We saw a sheepdog round up a heard of sheep and then watch one sheep get sheared.
21st: at sea. Bingo final. Sunbathe.
22nd: Arrived in Tauranga. Did sightseeing of Mountain by the sea and walked around the coastline.
23rd: Arrived in Auckland. Went up the Sky Tower and took a city bus around town for sightseeing.
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