Australia is a lo-o-ong way from anywhere! Below the equator, and on the other side of the international date line, you feel like you're on another planet! You’ll lose a day getting there and always wonder what day and time it is "back home." But, you'll have a great time being among the Aussies.

November 18, 1997 – Tuesday

San Francisco to Sydney: The limo arrived right on time and off to the airport for a long flight to Australia. Since QANTAS doesn’t fly directly to Australia from San Francisco anymore, a flight to Los Angeles is the first leg. The flight to Sydney from Los Angeles takes 14 hours. That seems like it would be a hellish journey, but you steel yourself for the trip, and it seems to finally end. By the time you’ve had a couple of meals and watched a couple of movies, you're almost there – only five hours to go! If you can sleep on a plane, you’re very lucky.

Arrival at 10:30pm means that the immigration is pretty quick, and there are no long lines for baggage. The Australians are serious about not bringing in any dangerous bugs, so they cajole and explain the reasons, and people are more willing to comply. I gave up my trail mix, since it contained some seeds.

Arriving late also means that if you haven’t locked down your hotel room, they have undoubtedly given it away, and you’re stuck with a room next to the freeway. Next time I’ll ask them to allocate me a room before I get there.

Nov 20 – Thursday

Since crossing the date line means a lost day, and the mental clock doesn’t correspond to the one on the desk, getting up at 5:30am doesn’t seem a bad thing to do. The desk clerk said that Bill’s is the best place for breakfast, so off we went down Liverpool several blocks to a great little place for a bite to eat. They make a terrific corn fritters with bacon and tomato as a stack, and creamy scrambled eggs. You have to order coffee-white if you want cream in your coffee, and it’s all made individually, so of course, it’s $2.50 for each cup. There are some things I like about America – coffee refills!

The 76 story Centrepointe Tower was the next stop, or lift, you might say. From the top, there are great views of Sydney, giving you a good idea of where things are. You can even see all the way over to Manly Beach to the northeast. The elevator ride was $10, but worth every penny -- oops, I mean nickel, since there are no pennies in Australia! For lunch, it was a focaccia sandwich at Kink's on Oxford Street. It was pretty good, but service was very slow, and the place grungy. Guess it looks better at 1am after several beers! Shopped at Gowings for a Speedo swimsuit, finding an Australian-made one for $21. The lady at the shop was very helpful giving directions for coffee supplies, saying, "You've just got to have a good cup of coffee!" Dinner at the hotel was so-so, with a charred octopus salad that was interesting.

Nov 21 - Friday

The hotel room had a complete kitchen, so a person is able to make breakfast without venturing out. The only thing lacking was a coffee maker, since I didn't want to use the provided instant stuff. At the "supermarket" across the street, I bought a plastic sieve and some Melitta filters and fashioned a cone from some cup saucers and had my own Jerry-rigged coffee maker! So, after an adequate filling of juice, fruit, toast and coffee, we headed out to face a Friday Sydney. Heading for Circular Quay by bus ($1.20) was slow, but it was interesting to ride on their strange buses. They are low in the middle and the seating rises as you get toward the back of the bus. And the bus drivers have a computer that spits out a ticket, and they make change for every customer; it can be slow getting away from a busy stop. From Circular Quay, we walked past the ferry terminals to The Rocks where we had lunch at Pancake on the Rocks. We had Italian pancakes, one a tandoori chicken, the other ham and feta cheese. I thought they looked a lot like calzone; the check even listed them as calzone, ah ha! I guess they wouldn't serve many people for breakfast if they advertised their food as pizza! The over-attentive waitress was from Singapore, but nice enough.

Using my map, we found our way to the pylon lookout of the Harbour Bridge. You can walk up to the top of the support tower and have some great harbour views. They are very proud of their bridge, which was built about the same time as the Golden Gate. It's not a very long bridge, but makes a graceful if sturdy-looking arch across the water to North Sydney. And it adds a nice touch to photographs of the harbour.

Back at Circular Quay, we found the Australian Wine Centre, which of course was at the top of my visit-list. The owner "Mike" got to chatting with us, and when he saw the list of premium wines I was searching for, he offered us a taste and toured us around his shop. I collected a few bottles, some from Tasmania, and when the clerk spotted my Rainbow Visa card, he said, "I like that!" So then we were chatting at length with the clerk, and he invited us to a wine tasting on Oxford Street. They gave us some restaurant recommendations, and we headed to the hotel with our six bottles of wine. Our return trip was on the train ($1.80) which stops at Circular Quay and then at Museum which is a block from the hotel. Their trains are very nice two-deckers, and go underground through Sydney.

For dinner, Juliano's Italian restaurant at 229 Oxford was our choice. It's just past Taylor Square about six blocks from the hotel. It's a fairly cramped space, but the waiters are very friendly and the food was very good. Shrimp and rice, and a seafood casserole (actually a bouillabaisse) were our dinner courses. The weather was fine when we walked to the restaurant, but it suddenly rained and cooled a little. Fortunately it stopped, and we looked in to a few bars, the Albury, the Stonewall, and Midnight Shift, all of which were noisy and crowded. I guess bars are the same worldwide!

Sat - Nov 22

Today was supposed to be when we toured The Rocks and the Opera House. However, the camera didn't seem to be doing its self-adjusting thing, so a camera shop was the first thing on the agenda. You can't come back without pictures! The lens wasn't working correctly, so we bought a new Canon automatic for about $100. You need your passport and airline ticket to avoid paying tax on big items, so we had to return to the hotel first. By then it was noon, so we changed our plans and headed back up Oxford Street to Cafe 191 at Taylor Square for a lunch of grilled sandwiches.

Right upstairs was Canteen, where the wine tasting we had heard about was being held. So, we hopped right up there, and for $5 we enjoyed a lot of Australian wine. Gavin, from the wine shop, was there, as well as our hotel clerk, Christopher. He had Phillip with him, who's his best friend. We spent a lot of time chatting and sipping with Christopher and Phillip, and they invited us to have dinner with them. At the wine tasting, we met a lot of people; Aussies are very good about introducing you to everyone they know, and some strangers even introduced themselves. The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence were represented by three of their coven and one was wearing a hat shaped like the Opera House! We found out later that the wines they were pouring were premium ones, such as Devil's Lair and Alkoomi Classic Red. Yalumba makes wines I really enjoyed. At 5pm, we decided we'd had enough, and wobbled back to the hotel for a nap before dinner.

Dinner was in the same place as the wine tasting! Canteen is ultra-modern, with stainless steel tables and stark decor. But, it's very nicely done in my opinion. Christopher and Phillip were waiting at a table for us, and several others who were supposed to join us didn't show up, so it was just the four of us. Chris said it's common for Aussies not to show! Both of them were very chummy, and by dinner's end they were leaning against us in what us Americans would assume a come-on. But, it's just their friendly manner, and pretty nice -- especially when they're appealing guys! Oh, the food! My entree was Soy Bow in Lettuce Leaf, very nice, with a wonderful hand-layered lasagna. The mango sorbet was good also. You can order two courses for $21, or three for $29, a bargain! Chris had brought some wine; it's very common to bring your own wine. In fact, many restaurants don't have a license (very expensive I understand), so there are bottle shops all over, and you'll see people pop out to buy a bottle after they order their meal.

After our four-hour dinner, Chris and Phillip took us to the Barracks, the local leather bar. It's like a dungeon since you have to go downstairs, and it's so dark inside. They love to play pool, so even though the bar is crowded, they make way for the pool players. Some Aussies smoke, but they seem to ventilate the bars pretty well, and I was never bothered by their smoking. We had Ruski's, a Stolichnaya and lemonade type of premixed drink, and of course beer. It was loud, so I was glad when we left, because I couldn't understand much of anyone's conversation between trying to hear their words and then translate from Australian to American English! On the way back to the hotel, we discovered the streets had become much busier with people queued for the DCM and the Midnight Shift.

Sun - Nov 23^rd

After our big Saturday, it was noon before we headed out for the day. A walk to Circular Quay didn't take long, and it was a nice day for a ferry ride to Manly Beach. It's about 30 minutes, and a local chatted with us the whole way. He said we should be sure to take the QuickSilver boat to the reef (we found out later that was the one not to take!). At Manly, it's a few blocks down the Corso through all the souvenir shops to the ocean beach, which is very long and popular. We walked East along the concrete walkway along the beach quite a ways to find Le Kiosk for lunch. It was worth the walk, sitting at a nice window table, enjoying a fabulous meal. The scallops were the most tender I'd ever had, and the perch over baked tomato with couscous was wonderful. A nice white wine, and a terrific carmelized passion fruit custard in pastry shell was a great finale. After picking up a few of the required mementos, we took the Jet Cat, a Tiburon-style fast boat for the 15 minute ride back to Circular Quay.

Mon – Nov 24^th

Today is Opera House day, finally! It was on the must-see list several times, but we just didn't have time until today. Lunch was first at the Oyster Bar along the walkway to the Opera House. Food was pretty good, and it's a nice setting under the palms. At the Opera House, our tour guide was a peppy Aussie who made the tour fun. She explained how it came to be built, taking quite a long time. The concert hall seating 2600, reminds me of Davies Hall a little, but a little more modern with wood trim. The Opera Hall seats 1500 and has all black walls with red seats! It looks quite dramatic, which is the point, I guess. There are also two theatres in the building, so four performances could be going on at the same time. The Opera House is a great building situated on a prominent site, and gets the attention it deserves.

Next stop was the Powerhouse Museum, and after a train ride to Central, we took the light rail, but it wasn't very convenient, and the museum was closed! The Monorail was more convenient, but a little pricey -- $2.50 for a ride of a few blocks. It looks like the Monorail was put in primarily to get people from the downtown shopping area over to the convention center and Darling Harbour. For dinner, we ate at Red Bull, which served a good tandoori chicken, but the beef was a little tough.

Tues – Nov 25^th

Call this "Koala Day"! After trying to figure out the multitude of tour options, we settled on a half day tour to Watarah Park. A Murray's tour bus dropped us off at the nature park, about 30 minutes North of Sydney. Watarah is a small nature park with several netted areas with birds, and open areas for the kangaroos and emus. The Koalas were in their compound, all sleepily sitting in short trees, either munching on eucalypt leaves or sound asleep. They seemed totally uninterested in us humans, and would let you pet them, but you could not hold them. Of course, everyone wanted his picture up close to a Koala. In the kangaroo meadow, feeding the animals was fun. The roos were gentle and would nustle the puffed rice from your hand. You had to watch out for the emus, however. They are very large ostrich-type birds and would sneak up on you and snatch your bag of treats if you didn't watch out. The park was very hot and dry and not particularly well cared for. We had to wait an hour for a bus to take us back to Chatswood to catch a train for Sydney. We had lunch at a little place and had focaccia sandwiches, a popular item in Sydney.

Dinner was at the Black Bayou on Oxford Street. So many places are like this one, a long rectangular room in front, with the kitchen at the back. Service was very slow, but the cajun chicken was good. Trying several of the beers, we found that Carlton is a good light beer, Victoria a little bitter, and Tooyhed’s Old a strong dark beer. After dinner we stopped at Stonewall, a popular gay spot, with a bar in the center and a stage at the back. The drag queens wouldn’t stay on the stage, and kept prancing down the top of the bar! Drag shows appear to be the same everywhere.

Wed – Nov 26^th

After the usual in-room breakfast, we headed for the Aquarium, taking the monorail that appears to be just for the tourists since its route is simply a little circle from the shopping area to the convention area. It's expensive, and has annoying commercials during the short ride. The aquarium is OK, but seems expensive at $15.90. There are a lot of wall tanks in dark aisles. The best part is the set of three "gangplanks" that lead you over water to underwater tanks of seals, sharks, and fish. You walk through transparent tunnels while the sealife swims all around and over you.

Next stop was the Star Trek exhibit at the PowerHouse museum. It’s a great exhibit of costumes, paraphenalia such as phasers, a Borg chair, and a mock-up of the bridge of the Enterprise. Neato stuff! The PowerHouse museum contains lots of technology displays, and one area that was handy was the CyberZone. We found some Internet terminals where you could use your web-based email access (if you had one) to send email messages to anyone, anywhere. So, we sent a few greetings from Australia.

Time to shop! QVB has to be on everyone’s list for shopping. It’s a great old restored building, with lots of interesting shops. Then on to David Jones, the "Harrods" of Sydney. It’s fun shopping, for those who like to shop, but things seems a little expensive, particularly Levi’s which are $90!

Dinner was at a byo restaurant, the Thai Panic, a busy place on a corner up Oxford Street. After ordering, I zipped across the street to a bottle shop to buy a bottle of Green Point chardonnay (owned by Domain Chandon) for $22 for dinner. They expect you to do this, and are ready to pour it for you. Nice idea! After dinner, I stopped by briefly at Stonewall for a look at the 6 finalists for the Mr. Gay Sydney contest. They could have been from anywhere, except for their speaking accents. The last time I was at the Barracks, I didn’t explore all the extra rooms they have, so strolled over there for a Ruskie. However, it was a quiet night, and they close off those "extra" rooms midweek, apparently. Tonight was the opening of Star City, the big new gambling casino where xxxxx was performing, but there’s just not enough time to do everything!

Thu – Nov 27^th

This would be Thanksgiving Day if we were home, but it’s actually Wednesday back home, so we won’t eat turkey today! Today was the grand opening of the new Grace Bros. Store, so that was an imperative. It actually has a strange layout where everyone has to walk through the women’s cosmetic area to get into the store. There are no counters, but just shelves and displays, and you feel like you’re in the wrong area, perhaps behind the counter where the cash register is. Odd feeling. And the escalators let you off right into a blank wall, where you have to turn quickly to avoid the people behind you. But, they have some interesting merchandise that I haven’t seen elsewhere. I was looking for some Australian-made goods, but most of it was from China or New Zealand!

It had started to rain, and we had planned to take the train to the Rocks. But, the train announcement was that there was an "indefinite delay". However, we found out that that only means "not on schedule", not never! But, we had panicked a little, not wanting to be late for dinner, and took a taxi for $10 to the restaurant.

Last dinner in Sydney! So, it just had to be the latest winner of the greatest restaurants of Sydney! The name is (lowercase) bel mondo and is in the Rocks area. A very modern décor in a warehouse space, it was very comfortable, and had really BIG napkins. The waiter was from Vancouver, and was fun. My first course was yabbies on roasted tomato with a salsa that was like a pesto; the yabbies are probably crawfish, something like mini-lobsters. Main course was an invotini, rolled red emperor fish stuffed with herbs over eggplant, and it was great! Greg had scallops, some of the most tender ever, and then fillet of hare over mushrooms. The wine was a wonderful Tasmanian pinot noir. They mistakenly brought an extra dessert, which was a little more than we needed. The bill was $235.

Fri – Nov 28^th

Today we head for Cairns, a respite after busy Sydney.

THE GREAT BARRIER REEF

After Sydney, a relaxing five days in Cairns was something to look forward to. It’s nearly 1000 miles north of Sydney, so it’s another plane trip of 2 ½ hours. I thought it was going to be 3 ½ hours, but Queensland doesn’t observe "summertime", what they call their daylight savings time. So while in Cairns, the time difference is 6 hours from California. Qantas didn’t tell us that our flight to Cairns from Sydney was an international one, so when we checked in at domestic, she told us and put us on a domestic flight that arrived about the same time. That was OK, but it would have been nice to fly on a 747 for a couple of hours. Also, our pickup was probably expecting to pick us up at the international terminal; but we found out that Cairns is pretty small, so the terminals are very close. And, our guy who picked us up was picking up at domestic and international anyway.

Turtle Cove Resort is a 30-minute ride north of Cairns, and actually closer to Port Douglas. I envisioned it being off the highway at the end of a long road. In reality, the main road north along the coast goes right by the front of the resort! But, with all the trees and vegetation, you rarely see cars going by. Once in a while you can hear a truck or bus, but the resort faces the ocean, so it's no bother.

The resort is a complete facility. It has some individual units and some multiple units, the nicest of which is a set of seven facing the lawn that leads right down to the beach. That's where we stayed, of course! (In number 103.) It was very convenient, just a few steps to the bar and restaurant area. It's like one large patio, with pool and jacuzzi on one side, indoor and outdoor eating area in the middle and a bar on the other side. With all the restaurant doors open, it's essentially a covered outdoor patio, and very comfortable. Lots of tropical vegetation makes the place look exotic. The reception area has a nice little shop of souvenirs.

The room had a little refrigerator, a queen-sized bed and a single bed, both comfortable. The bath was great, all tile, with a corner glassed in shower that had three little sliding doors, and one of those terrific rain-like shower heads. A hair dryer was mounted on the wall and there were 110v outlets for us low-voltage people! Little touches like a full-length mirror on the wall and condoms in the bedside table were thoughtful. The resort had a lot of thoughtful touches, such as a generous towel supply and umbrellas for the beach, and plastic bags for bringing back beach litter.

A buffet breakfast of fruit, cereal, toast and drinks was included and was available also to an overnight guest if you found one; the resort charges $20 for each overnighter. (That's in addition to what you had to pay him, if he wasn't free!) Lunch offered focaccia sandwiches and salads, and the dinner menu was quite varied. It changed every day, and the chef was very talented. The fish was quite often a barramundi, and sometimes ocean perch. An Asian touch with cilantro and chilies was common in most dishes. The lamb was great, usually a rack of five chops. All main courses were A$18.50, less than US $14, and a bargain. Service was very proper with all the appropriate flatware. The wine selection was quite good, although we brought three bottles with us. Even though their license says you can't bring your own liquor, they let you bring your bottle of wine to dinner and serve it for you.

So, you could spend your whole time at the resort and have a good time. The bar was a gathering point after the beach, just before dinner and after dinner, too. Beer was the predominant beverage, of course, although the tropical drinks were popular (A$12.) The atmosphere was very casual, and it was easy to meet strangers from other lands. An oil baron was in our midst, and was an entertaining guy to chat with. Others were from Germany, Canada, Los Angeles, Atlanta and even Australia. The season was tapering off, so there were only 15 or so guests, of 80 maximum. About half their customers are from the States. Christmas through the end of January is busy, as is the time around Mardi Gras, although it can be pretty hot in the summer there.

Although the resort sits right on the beachfront, it's somewhat rocky just in front of the resort, and the best part of the beach is the northern end of the stretch that's about 3 blocks long, bounded by boulders at each end. It really is a cove, and gets its name from the occasional turtle that visits, although none were around during my stay. The clothing policy is minimal, and people felt comfortable being nude around the pool and at the beach. They even promote the north end of the beach, which is all boulders, as the play area. Once in a while you would see someone disappear into the boulders, to play, I guess!

Since it's so close to the Great Barrier Reef, a trip out to the reef is absolutely required. The resort can arrange these boat trips, and if 8 people signup, it will be a private all gay trip. The boat they use is a million-dollar yacht called the Phantom which belongs to an Australian pop singer. He doesn't use it often, and rents it out for reef trips. The crew of three was a cute captain who wore a see-thru bikini, his blond buxom mate (mistress?), and a good-looking young mate. They also host nudist groups, and take gay groups out twice a week, so they're very much at ease with the likes of us. The Reef is about 20km from shore, so it takes an hour to cruise out to it. Everyone goes snorkeling, even me the non-swimmer, and some will scuba dive. It's really quite a treat to see the beautiful coral and all the fish swimming in and out of it. The giant clams are amazing, so huge, looking as if they're ready to trap the unwary. However, since they close slowly, they're not really a threat. At one point, a gorgeous hunk from Atlanta decided to snorkel in the nude. Of course, he was teased about watching out for funny fish, and the cute crewman said "He's going to sunburn his bum, and someone's going to have to rub lotion on it all night!"

There are several other tours that are available in the area. One takes you to the Daintree river, where a naturalist takes you down the river explaining the flora and pointing out the occasional crocodile. A trip to High Gate Farm will introduce you to a great variety of tropical fruit, some of which you can taste, such as the custard apple or jack fruit. The fruit is really delicious, and makes you wish you could buy it back home. Other things you can do, either on tour or on your own, are visiting the Habitat where there are zillions of birds, lots of kangaroos, crocodiles, and even a few koalas, taking a sky tram over the rain forest, or visiting the rain forest which was pretty dry on my trip. Port Douglas is a nice little town. However, unless you rent a car, it's difficult or expensive to get back to Turtle Cove at night from Port Douglas or even Cairns. The thing to do is get friendly with someone who has rented a car! The traffic is light enough that driving on the left is not a problem for most visitors.