As my stay in Melbourne is almost coming close to 6 months, I wanted to share the experiences with you all...
Post closure of my assignments with the US based projects, got an opportunity to look for projects across Rest of World. In the first look out on these lines, I have been offered a position in Melbourne to work for one among BIG4 banks in Australia. Having my desire to live a life in Australia (with DilChahtaHai inspiration) was really excited about it and given my willingness to be here.
It was a matter of 4 weeks that I could close out on the Visa process and all set for the travel.
December 2010 has been a mixture of emotions for me taking hard decisions on personal and perofessional front. With the support of my family, I could proceed taking up the opportunity on hand and geared up myself for the travel.
Thai Airways has been the option given for me which allowed maximum baggage. On 11th Dec 2010, flew to Melbourne with a break at Bangkok. Journey to Bangkok was around 4 hours and it was quite a short trip in sleep where I dont remember much significant. In Bangkok, there was a wait time of around 3 hours. Not so excited to shop anything or roam around much, went ahead upto the Gate to catch the Melbourne flight and layed on the chair. Tired of many things in that week, had a deep sleep out of control. The flight was about announce the last calls and just then one of the co passenger (Abhishek Tiwary, will talk abt him later) could make out that I am deep in sleep, woke me up to get on to the flight. Not sure what should have happened if I missee that flight.
Then onto the flight to Melbourne, again been lucky not to have anyone next to me and stretched myself and slept well almost for 5 to 6 hours. Not even cared to eat much and was deep sleep. Then at around evening (not sure of time zone in air :) made myself comfortable to sit and had some snacks served. Dont think too much, snacks are nothing than pumpkin seeds (if counted they may be some 15 in the pack)...
Had dinner which was served and was all set for landing at around 8:30 pm local time. There were not many questions at the immigration and had to lose some pickles as a part of the process. Not really sure how to reach the hotel, I approached the near by travel desk at airport and have been directed with a AUS $ 20 ticket in a group taxi.
The driver was too good and explained almost all about Melbourne and showed the landmarks while reaching the hotel Travelodge.
Travelodge is nice place and being the Christmas time, there were lots and lots of crazy tourists to the hotel and had to wait for sometime for my turn. Post formalities, i was given the room key which is big big surprise for me as # reads 1211 (room number 11 on 12th floor). of course my B.Tech friends can have a smile reading this as they only knew that my roll number was 1211 during college. Me always sentimental about 11, as there were so many dates, room numbers specially associated for me, I had my first step into the room so positively.
Then realised that I am so hungry and felt bad for not planning anything to carry with me. Here comes my friend Abhishek who also happened to stay in same hotel, and offered me some biscuits that he carried. The hotel was fantastic and here is the link to view some snaps in hotel:https://picasaweb.google.com/107051423475076950830/Melbourne?locked=true#
The toughest of the moments I faced and have been facing is about the sleeping habit. I really wonder at times if I am suffering from insomnia,... Being ahead in timezone, I have suffered and been suffering on the sleep since that day. What so ever I managed to be there at office and met my manager. With the help of my friend who has been staying here for long time, managed to buy a mobile at the near by Dry Cleaners shop where we get cheap phone. I got "Whiteberry" that I nicked it as..(in fact a Sony Erricson phone with all features of Blackberry). Second day I got challenged with the sleep and snoozed alarm and woke up almost late and rushed myself to office.
As days passed, I started to understand the discipline of typical Australians and their way of life. It has been a Live "f" TV as I roam in the city and people make ultimate fashion definitions here.
Men are always in suits and I started absorbing the culture here. Got to buy a suite month on month... and started dressing as needed. The body language got changed because of the dress I wear and really felt good about the same.
People in Australia are most friendly in contrast to the stupid media reports that float around in India. The city is so welcoming and the facts support the same; almost people from 140 countries reside here and imagine the extent of mixed cultures and celebration of life here. Restaurants in Melbourne are very famous as none of the people come here miss anything of their interest. If you are a non vegetarian, no need to explain the varieties that you can try. Me being a veggie have fun eating out at SubWay, Hungry Jacks, Lord of the Fries, and many other Thai restaurants.
Cooking being my famous stress buster, I could excel well and never missed an opportunity to eat what I wanted at home.
Weather in Melbourne is the most crazy and dynamic which cannot be predicted. One of my friends quoted saying "If you dont like weather here, just wait for 5 minutes"; it can be rainy, sunny, cold, warm ,, am not sure what all varieties one can experience with weather.
As I explain few of the important things about the city I will continue in future posts why life in Melbourne is really MAJESTIC... Untill then bye byeeeeeeeeee
Post closure of my assignments with the US based projects, got an opportunity to look for projects across Rest of World. In the first look out on these lines, I have been offered a position in Melbourne to work for one among BIG4 banks in Australia. Having my desire to live a life in Australia (with DilChahtaHai inspiration) was really excited about it and given my willingness to be here.
It was a matter of 4 weeks that I could close out on the Visa process and all set for the travel.
December 2010 has been a mixture of emotions for me taking hard decisions on personal and perofessional front. With the support of my family, I could proceed taking up the opportunity on hand and geared up myself for the travel.
Thai Airways has been the option given for me which allowed maximum baggage. On 11th Dec 2010, flew to Melbourne with a break at Bangkok. Journey to Bangkok was around 4 hours and it was quite a short trip in sleep where I dont remember much significant. In Bangkok, there was a wait time of around 3 hours. Not so excited to shop anything or roam around much, went ahead upto the Gate to catch the Melbourne flight and layed on the chair. Tired of many things in that week, had a deep sleep out of control. The flight was about announce the last calls and just then one of the co passenger (Abhishek Tiwary, will talk abt him later) could make out that I am deep in sleep, woke me up to get on to the flight. Not sure what should have happened if I missee that flight.
Then onto the flight to Melbourne, again been lucky not to have anyone next to me and stretched myself and slept well almost for 5 to 6 hours. Not even cared to eat much and was deep sleep. Then at around evening (not sure of time zone in air :) made myself comfortable to sit and had some snacks served. Dont think too much, snacks are nothing than pumpkin seeds (if counted they may be some 15 in the pack)...
Had dinner which was served and was all set for landing at around 8:30 pm local time. There were not many questions at the immigration and had to lose some pickles as a part of the process. Not really sure how to reach the hotel, I approached the near by travel desk at airport and have been directed with a AUS $ 20 ticket in a group taxi.
The driver was too good and explained almost all about Melbourne and showed the landmarks while reaching the hotel Travelodge.
Travelodge is nice place and being the Christmas time, there were lots and lots of crazy tourists to the hotel and had to wait for sometime for my turn. Post formalities, i was given the room key which is big big surprise for me as # reads 1211 (room number 11 on 12th floor). of course my B.Tech friends can have a smile reading this as they only knew that my roll number was 1211 during college. Me always sentimental about 11, as there were so many dates, room numbers specially associated for me, I had my first step into the room so positively.
Then realised that I am so hungry and felt bad for not planning anything to carry with me. Here comes my friend Abhishek who also happened to stay in same hotel, and offered me some biscuits that he carried. The hotel was fantastic and here is the link to view some snaps in hotel:https://picasaweb.google.com/107051423475076950830/Melbourne?locked=true#
The toughest of the moments I faced and have been facing is about the sleeping habit. I really wonder at times if I am suffering from insomnia,... Being ahead in timezone, I have suffered and been suffering on the sleep since that day. What so ever I managed to be there at office and met my manager. With the help of my friend who has been staying here for long time, managed to buy a mobile at the near by Dry Cleaners shop where we get cheap phone. I got "Whiteberry" that I nicked it as..(in fact a Sony Erricson phone with all features of Blackberry). Second day I got challenged with the sleep and snoozed alarm and woke up almost late and rushed myself to office.
As days passed, I started to understand the discipline of typical Australians and their way of life. It has been a Live "f" TV as I roam in the city and people make ultimate fashion definitions here.
Men are always in suits and I started absorbing the culture here. Got to buy a suite month on month... and started dressing as needed. The body language got changed because of the dress I wear and really felt good about the same.
People in Australia are most friendly in contrast to the stupid media reports that float around in India. The city is so welcoming and the facts support the same; almost people from 140 countries reside here and imagine the extent of mixed cultures and celebration of life here. Restaurants in Melbourne are very famous as none of the people come here miss anything of their interest. If you are a non vegetarian, no need to explain the varieties that you can try. Me being a veggie have fun eating out at SubWay, Hungry Jacks, Lord of the Fries, and many other Thai restaurants.
Cooking being my famous stress buster, I could excel well and never missed an opportunity to eat what I wanted at home.
Weather in Melbourne is the most crazy and dynamic which cannot be predicted. One of my friends quoted saying "If you dont like weather here, just wait for 5 minutes"; it can be rainy, sunny, cold, warm ,, am not sure what all varieties one can experience with weather.
As I explain few of the important things about the city I will continue in future posts why life in Melbourne is really MAJESTIC... Untill then bye byeeeeeeeeee
