August 11, 2004 - SFO->LAX->Auckland->Brisbane

- click to see photos -

10:30 - NW Corner of the South Bank, Brisbane: I'm sitting on a wooden bench in a rain forest, listening to the roaring trickle of a small creek running by just in front of me. I thought it would be fun to try to relax for a moment here, but the constant hum of machinery nearby is a bit distracting. To my right is a Nepalese Pagoda built during the World's Fair in 1988, and around me are school campuses and a nice boardwalk along the Brisbane River. The only thing missing is people; it's Ekka Day, a local holiday where everyone goes to the fair (a vast simplification, I'm sure, but that's what the taxi driver told me). There are a fair number of people walking around round the park I'm sitting in, but the city areas are completely deserted. I have about a day in a half here in Brisbane, and I suspect much of it will be spent in silence. Yippee.

Evening - People here are really nice. I like them. I also like their accents.

The tipping custom here in Australia is still unknown to me. I've been trying to tip people in taxis, hotels, and restaurants, but so far no one has allowed me to give them more than they have asked for. I hope I'm not insulting anyone! The one person I asked directed me not to ask her these things, as she was a visiting exchange student from the Czech Republic.

Also, things are not cheap here. I was amazed at the prices of books at the local bookstore, and food has been costing me on the order of $20 AUS per meal. Perhaps I am going to the wrong places.

the flight to brisbane

August 12, 2004 - Brisbane->Honiara

16:46 - One never knows what is going to be demanded at the airport check-in counter.

Grievance #1: I have 51 Kg of luggage (two bags), which isn't so bad for the amount of equipment I'm carrying. Unfortunately, the maximum allowed luggage aboard my Solomon Airlines/Air Vanuatu flight is 20 Kg per passenger. The nice woman behind the counter gave me 36 Kg of "free" luggage, and charged me $11.08 AUS per Kg over, amounting to $167 AUS in excess baggage charges. Even with my recent weight gain, I'll bet that I weigh 15 Kg less than many of the guys on board. Since weight = money, I just cashed in all of my change for a Diet Coke, a rare departure from my self-imposed aversion to soda. I refuse to lug those useless metal discs around with me on the little flights I will be taking from Honiara to Sege and back. I wonder if there's anything else I can dispose of before my return flight.

Grievance #2: I have a single backpack that I like to carry onto aircrafts. It politely fits the long-way into overhead bins, and can fit under the seat in front of me if it must. Unfortunately, it can be quite heavy, and weighed in today at 14.4 Kg. The nice woman behind the counter said that she would allow me to carry it in board, but that I had to go buy another bag and separate out my gear into two 7 Kg parcels. Uh.... ok. I don't really understand that one, but I had to do it in order to get my boarding pass. At the risk of violating the well-thought-out airline restrictions, I'm going to pack it all back up into one bag once I make it onto the plane. Argh.

Grievance #3: I had an allen wrench confiscated by security -- you know -- because I am totally the type to dismantle the plane I'm on while flying to a remote location to photograph marine life. Now I can't use my tripod. Next time I should be more careful to avoid putting my fellow passengers at risk!

I feel a bit sick now. Funny how minor setbacks can spoil one's mood. It's really just the allen wrench confiscation that I'm annoyed with. Oh, and that I had to put my camera in a crappy bag. I suppose I should be used to these sorts of things by now. I'm absolutely dreading the little flights I'm going to have to take to get to and from Seghe. Who knows what I am going to be charged!

An an unrelated note, Bilikiki Cruises gives passengers cool, fluorescent-green baggage tags whose purpose is to flag our baggage as 1) probably containing very expensive stuff, and 2) baggage that must make the flight because the boat isn't going to stick around if it isn't delivered. As a convenient side-effect, it's also easy to spot fellow passengers. I've already met Greg and Wendy, and also spent some time chatting with Mark (not a Bilikiki Passenger), who is going out to a remote island to do a survey on marine mammal conservation for the local fisheries.

01:59 - The Bilikiki is one smooth vessel! We've underway already and I can barely feel it. Despite all my previous fussing, the 3.5hr flight went smoothly, and the eleven passengers on the flight were met by crew members, who shuttled off our luggage and drove us to a hotel to board tender boats bound for the mother ship. I've heard that the roads here have been improved considerable in the last decade; whereas nine years ago it was virtually pocked full of potholes, most of the road we took was paved and smooth. Along the way were a variety of fluorescent and sodium-lit buildings: some were rudimentary wooden structures consisting of no more than support beams and a roof, and others were nicer, more modern looking buildings surrounded by fences. Local stands ran along the entire path, each with a single kerosene lamp to provide light in the darkness. We seemed to attract some attention. A small group of boys walking along the road yelled something indecipherable as we motored by in our bus, and other groups made similar verbal exclamations as well.

After a midnight briefing, most people descended directly to bed. Greg and I stayed up a bit to assemble our cameras; I hate rushing to assemble an underwater camera housing just before a day of diving. Rushing combined with underwater cameras can easily lead to flooding.