Australia 2000, Part 2

Welcome, Abid!

A little more than two weeks ago, I said to some of you that, Inshallah, I will
be finishing Australia by the end of New Zealand. Well, here I am in the last
day of NZ and below is only the second of Oz! New Zealand is just to beautiful
to spend too long in front of a machine! Sorry!

Anyway, how are you all? Fine, I hope.

Guess what I did last night! Last night, in the Christchurch mosque, I cooked a
non-vegetarian meal for the first time in my life! (Minced beef curry type
thing.) And yes, I ate it too!

And two Friday's ago in Auckland, I ate a lamb/beef curry at a masjid there! Oh
no, what is happening to me? Help!


Ok, here is the next part of Australia...


MONDAY 24 JULY

When in Ngadisari, one of the coldest places in Indonesia that we visited, I
said to Mustafa: “Australia will be as cold but at least there they’ll have
central heating.” How wrong I was! Almost every house in Perth has air-con but
none have central heating. Despite having an extra duvet, for some reason I
felt colder than the previous night. Had a good night’s sleep nonetheless.

Kangaroos! After breakfast, Brian took us for a scenic drive along the Indian
Ocean coast. It was too cold to jump in but the coastline was beautiful. Then
we went kangaroo spotting at an out of town cemetery. (No, not dead ones.) I
got really close to them and then a little too close but it was so funny seeing
them skipping away! Saw loads more later, as we were to do so throughout
Australia.

Returned to Wembley, where our friends Brian and Lee live, had a light lunch
and then Lee dropped us off in the city centre, driving through the scenic
King’s Park. The first thing to do was to sort how to get around Australia.
Plane, bus or train? Planes were far too expensive. Buses were slightly more
than trains but afforded much more flexibility. But trains, though slower, are
much more comfortable. We bought two 15-day usage within 6 months national rail
passes. It was very good value. The prospect of travelling by train was
exciting!

We then walked through the city centre to King’s Park. Perth is a very nice
city – very pristine and orderly. It’s so clean and pristine that everything –
sidewalks, roads, lawns, houses, buses, trains - looked brand new. Even Brunei
wasn’t this pristine! Though very spread out, Perth has a good skyline. And it
was to capture this skyline that we went back to King’s Park.

Got there before Maghrib; prayed Zuhr and Asr; took twilight pictures; waited;
prayed Maghrib; waited; took night photos; returned to the city; had pizza for
dinner; and then headed for Thornley, an Eastern suburb, to visit an Indonesian
friend of a friend. Refreshmnets, chatting, emailing, chatting and it was time
to catch the last train back to Wembley. Tiptoed to bed!


To be continued...

Wassalamualaikum,
Muhammad ibn Rashid

PS: Mijan, yes, those pictures were of me.