Do It Go

I could not wait to land and say my first G’day to some unsuspecting Aussie. We had been flying for what seemed like an eternity, a flight longer than our non stop marathon the Berlin from Phoenix, where we hired a taxi and toured the German city. Instead, we were two for the road, Dagny and I on our first trip down under, and we would not be staying at any of the luxury hotels Melbourne Australia kindly made available. We thought we would rent a caravan, or recreational vehicle,and visit the various sight of OZ. But first, we were starving (we thought,what with the time changes, we did not know what we were supposed to be) and so looked forward to food from the barbie. I was speaking Aussie already.

We went to New Quay, a place seemingly claimed by artists and had fish kabobs and crazy pizzas. We walked along the the peaceful scene and realized we were in a food court. We laughed when we realized the equivalent in India from our recent trip was a road of food hawkers. We delighted dealing with the Indian brethren of the food court stall-warts, and we wondered what Indian fellow would think of this. The food was food was good, if a little less adventurous. Needless to say a pub stop was in order, and we had some local brews,and when we had to speak to order, giving away our origin identity, we received hearty back slaps and hand shakes and we did not have to buy our beers. Thanks Melbourne. We whiled away the evening , headed down to the beach and strolled about. The next morning we grabbed a tall blond, also known as a latte, and loaded up the caravan a searched for breakfast, got our bearings and headed out .

Tags: luxury hotels, Melbourne
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“We gotta go to Yum Cha Dragon, what a great name,” said Patty, practically drooling at the thought of Chinese food. How a girl from the Bitter-root Mountains of Idaho developed such a of love of Chinese food, I will never know. Oh wait, I do know. I went back with her to meet her family for the first time in the spring and we had some of the Chinese food in her hometown. I knew we were in trouble when they had ketchup bottles on the table and not a chop stick in site. Plus they served pizza. Maybe now when she get s good Chinese food she can really appreciate it. She apologized for the hometown chopsuey debacle as we like to call it now. I just think it made us stronger. “Sounds good to me,” I said. “But if they have ketchup bottles on the table, I am out of there,” and we both giggled. Patty was fun to travel with, has been all over Europe, and this was the first visit for either of us to Oceania, no less, and Melbourne. We were reluctant to try the luxury hotels Melbourne has seemingly everywhere, and wanted the Chinatown experience.

“Maybe they have Yum Cha T shirts?” said Patty in her flat Midwestern drawl. She had studied economics at the University of Chicago, and after graduating become a well known model, appearing on billboards all over the US. Well since YumCha means drink tea in Cantonese that’s what we ordered straight off as we were seated. We were in time for buffet and had our pick of seafood dumplings as we plodded around the restaurant. The prawns were worth it, and even the usual Chinese themed interior of lanterns and bamboo made us feel happy and at home.

Tags: luxury hotels, Melbourne, prawns, Yum Cha Dragon
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