Oh Wow! will be the first impression I got the moment I saw the IBM office building. You can check in maps.google.com the exact location of my office. Copy "Flinders St, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia". Now in the map you will see "Flinders Street Station" and beside this is a water area. This is the Yarra River. On the other side of the station you can see South Bank Promenade. And between SouthBank Blvd and Southgate Ave and before the Cook St, is the SouthGate. A city of its own. It has two major towers. One the HWT Tower and the IBM Tower. My office is located in the IBM Tower. We have around 29 floors, sorry I donno the exact number floors IBM has. And I am in 19th floor. The problem is I can take the photos of SouthGate but I can't take photos inside the office as cameras are not permitted inside the office. I am enclosing few pictures from the picasaweb for now. If I am in Melbourne this saturday(as talks are going on to cancel the Sydney training trip as we have client meeting on Monday and Tuesday), will take several photos and send it.
Melbourne has various places. But the main city is much smaller than our own tnagar. And the funniest thing, for this they have 5 stations. As I have said earlier there are trains going to most of the main cities and towns in Melbourne. And there are connecting Trams and Busses. And If I buy a daily ticket, which is valid for the whole day, then I can board a train or bus or tram from any place to any place at any time during that day. I cannot use it the next day. I am yet to explore the concept of weekly and monthly. I didnt go for weekly and monthly right away because I donno whether the sydney is trip is cancelled or not. If it is not cancelled then it is a waste, to buy a weekly or a monthly ticket, as I will be losing 4 days in sydney. Instead I thought I will wait till next wednesday to get either of those tickets. And here people call the main area of melbourne city as CBD, Central Business District. And in the CBD we can find all the major offices and the financial institutions. CBD is made of maximum nine major roads going from flinders street station and it ends in Victoria Street(check google maps). The streets, Elizabeth, Swanston and Queens are considered as the major shopping hub. Offices and shops are there in the other streets too.
I have been through Elizabeth Street and Swanston Street doing window shopping. There is a big super market in Melbourne named BigW. Guess I have mentioned it earlier, if not it is the original version of our Big Bazar in Chennai and Bangalore. The BigW is in the corner of Latrobe stree and Swanston Street. Harvey Norman a big electronic supermarket is in the Swanston Street. The branch in which my bank account is, is in Collins Street. Collins Street infact has all the financial institutions. I saw a citibank there and understood why they charge Rs. 100, when you go to a bank to do any transaction in India. They need to maintain the offices across the globe right. Infact I felt i might reduce loads of weight, because I was walking around the streets in the first two days. Yesterday didnt go for any shopping so no walking. Today I am thinking of going to room early by 09:00pm and watch a tamil movie. There is a movie channel in my hotel room which has adult movie running throughout the day. And the charge is 14.95$ per day, I think so.
The Yarra river which is next to our office has river cruises and all other added attractions. Need to go in that once Priya arrives here. I dont want to tour to all the places once alone and the again with Priya because then I will get bored. So waiting for her to come and tour Melbourne. My team mate Atanu Debroy is very helpfull. He is a guide to me and he has helped me a lot in locating most of the places. His wife is also coming in October for a month and a half as his kid is going to school. So during october we are planning to do a family outing and enjoy the places. Lets see how it all works.
In the food court available in the ground floor, there are various restaurants. But due to my selectiveness in food i have not yet ventured into all those and as of now having only Naan and dhall(either yellow or brown) to avoid any stomach problems. Later on I will slowly start experimenting. On tuesday I went to get many things for breakfast and also to eat from BIGW, so my hands were full and everything was heavy. So decided to take a taxi to hotel. It was driven by a Indian student. He is studying accounting here and in his last two months of course. He took me to the hotel. On the way once the meter reached 11$ he switched off the meter and said "Me Indian, You are an Indian, so I want to lessen your burden". There was another 900 meters to 1 km travel but he never asked or demanded even a single cent more than 11$. As a courtesy I offered him 12$ he said 11$ is more than enough and left. Good Guy na.
I got a map from the hotel and it was quite usefull till date. It shows the street names and also the station names in the melbourne city and the surrounding suburbs. Ok, all this is enough, but what i do in office. Today is the fourth day and they have spared me free till today to finish of the major works like bank account activation and other things. Here native Australians don't work on Fridays. So, my work will be starting from Monday. Depending upon whether I am going to sydney or not, I will start working. If I am going to sydney then it will be a seperate travelogue all together.
Ok thats all for now. Will continue in the next mail. See you all.
I have not given any explanation to any of the photos now. I will give you the comments for all the photos i take. Ok.
Take Care.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
My Serviced Apartment
Photos Of my Serviced Apartment :
http://picasaweb.google.com/guruswaminathan/MyServicedApartment?authkey=EOHru40JiHU
http://picasaweb.google.com/
In the Chennai Airport
Here are the photos of the people who came to see me off.
http://picasaweb.google.com/guruswaminathan/InTheChennaiAirport?authkey=isQRdD15TGc
http://picasaweb.google.com/
Travel Experience
Idho vandhuten. Ungalukellam ennoda Australia trip pathi solla vandhuten. Will continue in English, inorder to avoid any confusions. I left to Australia on 02nd August 2008, by Malaysian Airlines flight MH180. Initially my trip was planned for 24th July. But then my Visa did'nt come. I guess, as I have experienced in the past 24 hours, my name and its length gave the Australian Immigration department a problem. So, I have to reschedule my travel to 30th July. Australian Immigration Department will, only, send a document to say that the Visa has been granted from this date to this date. But it needs to stamped or in other words eveidenced or authorised in my passport. Without which I cannot travel. I was waiting for that till 01st of August. I was forced to reschedule my ticket for the second time. And I have booked the tickets for 02nd August. I have a biiiig suitcase from American Tourister, a medium sized suitcase, a small suitcase and a travel bag full of vessels. I was wondering how much will be the extra baggage charge i need to pay. Even though my company reimburse me a good amount i dont want to get into trouble by paying a huuuuge amount. In the airport, I met Chintamani Mama, Padma Mami, Ramani Mama, Bharathi Mami, Guru, Swami Mama and Sathy Mama. Appa, Amma accompanied me in our i10. Priya with the luggages and her parents and sister came in a qualis. Rajmi and kids came in an indica. Athi came from office. It was only me travelling but there were 14 people to see me off. Mamas and their families left the airport at 07:00pm as they had to perform few duties the next day. Appa, Amma, Akka, Athi, Surabhi, Shrawan, Father-in-Law, Mother-in-Law and Sister-in-Law got entry ticket and came inside the airpot to see me off. Good that they came inside.
When I went to check-in my baggages, I had 33 kgs extra. And then the person in the check-in counter threw a bomb on me that the cost per KG will be 1100. My God. I was shell shocked and managed to stand straight. Then trolled off the luggages to the palce where the others were standing. Discussed with them and gave them back the travel bag which contained the vessels. I should thank the Malaysian Airlines officer as he increased the maximum eligible luggage limit to 25 from 20, due to which i need to pay for 20 kgs. After paying it and after attaching the tags to my check-in bags, with a heavy heart that i have to pay so much for the extra baggage, i came to the place where others were standing. Bade my final byes to them and proceeded to immigration. The queue was huge and there was only one officer. I thought it will take the entire time. But to make us feel relieved two more officers joined in and the queue moved faster than I expected. The proceeded to the security check. With a single suitcase to walk around was much easier. But since the check-in officer told me that my hand baggage should be only 8 kgs I need to remove the handy cam from the hand baggage. I need to carry it around and also use the stroller to pull my hand baggage with me. Security check was never a problem as i dont carry illegal or harmful. So, finished off the security check and proceeded to the lounge and wait. Since two passengers who has to arrive in the flight, from Malaysia to Chennai, took time to retrieve their baggages, our flight got delayed by 15 minutes. At 10:15 the flight started and by 10:25 we were flying.
They gave us a headfone which cannot be used outside the flight because the wire had two pins in the end which makes it impossible to connect it to the reggular audio player we all use. There was a in-flight radios playing tamil and hindi songs. So were listening to it. In my ticket the meal preference was given as "Asian Veg Meals". And I was thinking of getting a roti and rice. I was shocked. When others recieved white rice and sambar, a saffron rice was given to me packed with half cooked veggies. I couldnt eat the veggies. So with difficulty finished off the rice and then had a bread and some juice and slept off, not to feel hungry. But thank god i didnt feel hungry when the flight landed in malaysia at 05:00 am the next day. Being a known place to me, malaysian airport was more friendly than frightening. I went to change my AUD to MYR and then had a nice cup of coffee. I was sitting in the lounge for a long time. Then it struck me what if these people give me the same meals again. I went to the Malaysian Airlines counter and asked them to change the meal preference. They said it cant be done as i am approaching them just an hour before. I felt a bit disappointed. Since I have got the frequent flier card in the flight(thanks Ramani mama for notifying me about this), added the miles of my trip, MAA to KUL to MEL. I went to burger king and had a large fries and a ice milo so that, even if i get same the meal i wont feel hungry. Then went back to the lounge and I was one of the first few to clear the check off and set in the gate lounge. Lounge i was sitting earlier was outside the gate. Unlike Chennai airport where you have lounge just outside the gates, in KLIA(Kuala Lampur Internation Airport) has a lounge inside the gate so that people can finish of security check and get into the flight. If you have noticed in chennai airport we wont be having chairs to sit once you are inside the check-in area. But in KLIA they have put chairs at every possible place to make you comfortable.
I dozed off during my waiting time before getting into the flight. Then the announcement came and the entire crowd rushed up to board the flight. Unlike the earlier flight, this had tvs on the back of every seat. And they were telecasting movies and TV programs continously. One channel dedicated to one movie. Once the movie gets over it starts off again. So, I watched Billa 2007, Aaja Nachle and Independence Day(Priya, see how i am lucky all are my favourites). They served meals and I recieved a similar meal. I asked the airhostess, a kind good looking one, whether i can swap it. She asked my preference and i told indian vegetarian would be fine. Priya would have loved the meal served to me initially. It was rice with brinjal. The airhostess got me basmati rice with channa masala and told that this is the only one available. I was so happy and grabbed it immly. I stuffed the entire content into my stomach without delaying. Had a cup of coffee and back to watch movies. All the movies was over by 6pm. I still had 1.5 hours travel. If you have thought that i watched the enire movie, no, starting from a good scene till the end!!!. I slept off for the rest 1.5 hours. I was given a passenger information card which has few questions. You need to answer either 'yes' or 'no.
Some of them are
1. do you carry more than 10000AUD in cash or other forms.
2. do you carry gifts or gift articles more than 900AUD
3. do you carry sport shoes or shoes with mud
4. do you carry wooden articles or traditional medicines.
5. do you carry any processed foods.
6. do you carry any articles with feathers or eggs
7. have you visited south africa or africa in the past 6 days
8. have you visited any farm house or animal farm in the past 3 months.
Three more questions were there but i forgot. I woke up only after the flight landed. Even though it was a smooth landing we experienced a bit of bumps which woke me up. I was thinking of Tulimarine International Airport to be as big as KLIA. But it wasnt. We got out of the flight and came to collect baggages. As my friends told me already there were officers with dogs to sniff the luggages you carry. These were not big dogs but small cute dogs. I loved one of them which was roaming around in a rather sturdy looking officers hand. Then proceeded to the customs. In between a officer was checking the passenger information and guiding through various gates. I was wondering about the concept behind it and till now I couldn't understand. I was in a long queue which was moving at the rate of a snail's speed. The only difference is it didnt come back everytime it moved forward. I got the answer for the delay, the moment the custom officers came into my view. They read our passenger information card. They ask you to put the luggage belts for scanning. If we have answered Yes for any of the questions, especially 5 and 6, and if they find anything suspicious they ask you to open the bag and examine it clearly and thoroughly. There was a guy who was having 4 suitcases with sweets from Sri Krishna Sweets and Adyar Ananda Bhavan and the officer was rather strict and examining it as if she is looking at ugly insect. It was written in the Airport that, don't put Australia's future in trouble.
For me since nothing was there except clothes and clothes and clothes, the custom officer left me off after me informing him that i have ayurvedha medicine and a pair of new formal shoes. They didnt ask me for the prescriptions for the medicine and Priya, no metal detector gave a beep at my knee. I came out and was searching for the person who has to pick me up. Unfortunately I have made a mistake again. I didnt send me the itinerary to them. They dont follow the details in the mail it seems. I was waiting there for 45 mins and then picked up a tax and came to the hotel. It was a service appartments and it was good. I loved the place. I settled down and went to the nearest 711(24 hours store which sells of important day to day need products - like milk), and got a phone card to india. It was pretty chill outside. But manageable. I came back to the room and since i was not feeling hungry, i started trying to reach pgthur or blore. My bad luck I couldn't get connected to both. So enquired the reception and that guy told me it will be 2.50AUD per 30 secs. I thought ok I need to inform them of my safety so i dialled pgthur as Priya will be travelling and informed my parents. Then went to bed. And slept off right away the moment my head hit the pillow. There is a train station very near to my guest house. But since today is the first day, I thought instead of getting into trouble finding the right train and station let us go by a taxi and return back in train. In the morning i need to rush up to the office so didn't want to take risk. But in the evening I can right.
Came to the office and informed my team Prashanth and Atanu. Prashanth came down to pick me up as Atanu was not in office. My laptop was almost ready when I reached the 19th floor. I met my connections manager to do my onboarding formalities and came back to collect my laptop and settled down. The office is huge. Next to the Yarra River and nearer to Findlers Street station, which is similar to our Chennai Central. I need to check out the train tonight. Had mini meals from the Indian Restaurant which is in the ground floor food court. Had rice, channa masala and dhall. So yet to venture out to find out more about this exciting new place. I haven't taken much photos. But will take a few tomorrow andshare it with you. Expect the link which has photos of people who came to see me off in Chennai Airport. Will meet you all soon with more updates. Bye for Now. Enjoy Life and Take Care.
And if there are any mistakes please bear with me as i have been writing this parts by parts from the morning. I was moving aorund to meet people and to settle down.
When I went to check-in my baggages, I had 33 kgs extra. And then the person in the check-in counter threw a bomb on me that the cost per KG will be 1100. My God. I was shell shocked and managed to stand straight. Then trolled off the luggages to the palce where the others were standing. Discussed with them and gave them back the travel bag which contained the vessels. I should thank the Malaysian Airlines officer as he increased the maximum eligible luggage limit to 25 from 20, due to which i need to pay for 20 kgs. After paying it and after attaching the tags to my check-in bags, with a heavy heart that i have to pay so much for the extra baggage, i came to the place where others were standing. Bade my final byes to them and proceeded to immigration. The queue was huge and there was only one officer. I thought it will take the entire time. But to make us feel relieved two more officers joined in and the queue moved faster than I expected. The proceeded to the security check. With a single suitcase to walk around was much easier. But since the check-in officer told me that my hand baggage should be only 8 kgs I need to remove the handy cam from the hand baggage. I need to carry it around and also use the stroller to pull my hand baggage with me. Security check was never a problem as i dont carry illegal or harmful. So, finished off the security check and proceeded to the lounge and wait. Since two passengers who has to arrive in the flight, from Malaysia to Chennai, took time to retrieve their baggages, our flight got delayed by 15 minutes. At 10:15 the flight started and by 10:25 we were flying.
They gave us a headfone which cannot be used outside the flight because the wire had two pins in the end which makes it impossible to connect it to the reggular audio player we all use. There was a in-flight radios playing tamil and hindi songs. So were listening to it. In my ticket the meal preference was given as "Asian Veg Meals". And I was thinking of getting a roti and rice. I was shocked. When others recieved white rice and sambar, a saffron rice was given to me packed with half cooked veggies. I couldnt eat the veggies. So with difficulty finished off the rice and then had a bread and some juice and slept off, not to feel hungry. But thank god i didnt feel hungry when the flight landed in malaysia at 05:00 am the next day. Being a known place to me, malaysian airport was more friendly than frightening. I went to change my AUD to MYR and then had a nice cup of coffee. I was sitting in the lounge for a long time. Then it struck me what if these people give me the same meals again. I went to the Malaysian Airlines counter and asked them to change the meal preference. They said it cant be done as i am approaching them just an hour before. I felt a bit disappointed. Since I have got the frequent flier card in the flight(thanks Ramani mama for notifying me about this), added the miles of my trip, MAA to KUL to MEL. I went to burger king and had a large fries and a ice milo so that, even if i get same the meal i wont feel hungry. Then went back to the lounge and I was one of the first few to clear the check off and set in the gate lounge. Lounge i was sitting earlier was outside the gate. Unlike Chennai airport where you have lounge just outside the gates, in KLIA(Kuala Lampur Internation Airport) has a lounge inside the gate so that people can finish of security check and get into the flight. If you have noticed in chennai airport we wont be having chairs to sit once you are inside the check-in area. But in KLIA they have put chairs at every possible place to make you comfortable.
I dozed off during my waiting time before getting into the flight. Then the announcement came and the entire crowd rushed up to board the flight. Unlike the earlier flight, this had tvs on the back of every seat. And they were telecasting movies and TV programs continously. One channel dedicated to one movie. Once the movie gets over it starts off again. So, I watched Billa 2007, Aaja Nachle and Independence Day(Priya, see how i am lucky all are my favourites). They served meals and I recieved a similar meal. I asked the airhostess, a kind good looking one, whether i can swap it. She asked my preference and i told indian vegetarian would be fine. Priya would have loved the meal served to me initially. It was rice with brinjal. The airhostess got me basmati rice with channa masala and told that this is the only one available. I was so happy and grabbed it immly. I stuffed the entire content into my stomach without delaying. Had a cup of coffee and back to watch movies. All the movies was over by 6pm. I still had 1.5 hours travel. If you have thought that i watched the enire movie, no, starting from a good scene till the end!!!. I slept off for the rest 1.5 hours. I was given a passenger information card which has few questions. You need to answer either 'yes' or 'no.
Some of them are
1. do you carry more than 10000AUD in cash or other forms.
2. do you carry gifts or gift articles more than 900AUD
3. do you carry sport shoes or shoes with mud
4. do you carry wooden articles or traditional medicines.
5. do you carry any processed foods.
6. do you carry any articles with feathers or eggs
7. have you visited south africa or africa in the past 6 days
8. have you visited any farm house or animal farm in the past 3 months.
Three more questions were there but i forgot. I woke up only after the flight landed. Even though it was a smooth landing we experienced a bit of bumps which woke me up. I was thinking of Tulimarine International Airport to be as big as KLIA. But it wasnt. We got out of the flight and came to collect baggages. As my friends told me already there were officers with dogs to sniff the luggages you carry. These were not big dogs but small cute dogs. I loved one of them which was roaming around in a rather sturdy looking officers hand. Then proceeded to the customs. In between a officer was checking the passenger information and guiding through various gates. I was wondering about the concept behind it and till now I couldn't understand. I was in a long queue which was moving at the rate of a snail's speed. The only difference is it didnt come back everytime it moved forward. I got the answer for the delay, the moment the custom officers came into my view. They read our passenger information card. They ask you to put the luggage belts for scanning. If we have answered Yes for any of the questions, especially 5 and 6, and if they find anything suspicious they ask you to open the bag and examine it clearly and thoroughly. There was a guy who was having 4 suitcases with sweets from Sri Krishna Sweets and Adyar Ananda Bhavan and the officer was rather strict and examining it as if she is looking at ugly insect. It was written in the Airport that, don't put Australia's future in trouble.
For me since nothing was there except clothes and clothes and clothes, the custom officer left me off after me informing him that i have ayurvedha medicine and a pair of new formal shoes. They didnt ask me for the prescriptions for the medicine and Priya, no metal detector gave a beep at my knee. I came out and was searching for the person who has to pick me up. Unfortunately I have made a mistake again. I didnt send me the itinerary to them. They dont follow the details in the mail it seems. I was waiting there for 45 mins and then picked up a tax and came to the hotel. It was a service appartments and it was good. I loved the place. I settled down and went to the nearest 711(24 hours store which sells of important day to day need products - like milk), and got a phone card to india. It was pretty chill outside. But manageable. I came back to the room and since i was not feeling hungry, i started trying to reach pgthur or blore. My bad luck I couldn't get connected to both. So enquired the reception and that guy told me it will be 2.50AUD per 30 secs. I thought ok I need to inform them of my safety so i dialled pgthur as Priya will be travelling and informed my parents. Then went to bed. And slept off right away the moment my head hit the pillow. There is a train station very near to my guest house. But since today is the first day, I thought instead of getting into trouble finding the right train and station let us go by a taxi and return back in train. In the morning i need to rush up to the office so didn't want to take risk. But in the evening I can right.
Came to the office and informed my team Prashanth and Atanu. Prashanth came down to pick me up as Atanu was not in office. My laptop was almost ready when I reached the 19th floor. I met my connections manager to do my onboarding formalities and came back to collect my laptop and settled down. The office is huge. Next to the Yarra River and nearer to Findlers Street station, which is similar to our Chennai Central. I need to check out the train tonight. Had mini meals from the Indian Restaurant which is in the ground floor food court. Had rice, channa masala and dhall. So yet to venture out to find out more about this exciting new place. I haven't taken much photos. But will take a few tomorrow andshare it with you. Expect the link which has photos of people who came to see me off in Chennai Airport. Will meet you all soon with more updates. Bye for Now. Enjoy Life and Take Care.
And if there are any mistakes please bear with me as i have been writing this parts by parts from the morning. I was moving aorund to meet people and to settle down.
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