Mission Australia 2013 - Day 04

Perth – Kings Park, UWA & CBD 

Perth – Cairns 

Shilpa had proposed to take us to Kings Park – the place to visit if we wanted to see the Perth downtown. Also, Neha had expressed her desire to shop to which Shilpa had proposed a store in the downtown area. We had our late brunch at Kings Park café where I found time to make final bookings for Cairns sightseeing. Watching some sort of Flag Salutation ceremony going on, I realized that the trumpet music was the same as that played at New Delhi’s India Gate – and then I wondered – of course British legacy (Queen of Great Britain is still the head of state of Australia even though just a ceremonial one).

Kings Park, Perth CBD

We had a great time there watching and clicking the Perth skyline and the beautiful clean highway system from the high Kings Park before moving on our own to the nearby park. The terrible heat soon brought us down to our knees and we decided to head-off to home via the downtown. GPS is always a great help while driving in a foreign land and when the downtown supermarket failed to impress us, we decided to head home to beat the heat. Our hosts couldn’t stop laughing at our heat experience and I couldn’t stop at my inability to tolerate the extreme heat despite being a citizen of North India plains where the heat is much more. Later, we attributed the probable reason to the location of sun and Perth’s proximity to the Equator.

Perth Downtown from Kings Park

I decided not to have Lunch and requested Shilpa to pack us a wholesome tiffin of Rajma-Rice for Airport. From my past experience I knew that I (& probably Neha too) would feel hungry after we would have checked-in and reached the Boarding Lounge. Soon after packing our car with our luggage, our hosts decided to give us another glimpse of their city by taking us to their University – the UWA. It was Neha’s first time in an international university and seemed pretty impressed – although having visited quite a few in US, I was not. Vineet shared my feeling and exclaimed – “Yaar, Glamour nahi hai Harvard-Stanford ki tarah” (Lacks glamour like that of Harvard-Stanford). We loitered around a bit before proceeding towards the Swan River area. By the time I pulled into the Lookout parking area, I was just getting accustomed to the parking rules of downtown with help from Vineet, of course. The breeze was turning cold and the skyline of Perth was getting dramatic with the skyscraper lights getting turned on one-by-one.

Cricket at Univ of WA

(looks similar to Roshanara Club)

Trying to put Glamour in the Photoshoot

Perth Skyline across Swan River 

As my concern grew over our departure and I announced our intention to depart for Airport, NOT to my surprise, Neha broke into helpless tears while I tried hard not to show my tears to our hosts. The fact was that both of us were taken aback by the superb hospitability of Vineet-Shilpa so much so that our thought of staying in Australia did not seem beyond their simple cozy home. Shilpa consoled Neha & I gathered up courage to pull out our car from the comfort and finally come to terms with traveling on our own with a baby. We drove towards Airport in the dark silently – our thoughts still pinned over our emotional breakdown just a while ago. We smiled at each other and soon were outside the Airport when the thought of filling the gas up came to my mind. I turned around and followed the GPS for the closest Petrol Station and filled it up. After reaching Airport for the second time, I noticed that the Gas Indicator still indicated 7/8 at which I panicked and took a u-turn for the Petrol. I pulled in and refilled again & was recognized by the Attendant inside when he calmed me by saying “Some Cars do not indicate the correct until 15 minutes of driving” – I said “WTH” and drove into the Airport. Since the Rental Bays were not close to the Gate, to save on the parking charges & the effort of pulling Ayana with luggage, we had decided that I would park right in front of the Gate for free 15 minutes while Neha would unload the car and I would get the Baggage Trolley for her. I was panicked when I looked for the trolley and returned at max speed to find her. I also kept my bag with me (handing over just the tickets and passports to Neha) and sped off to the rental area. Thankfully, I could find the Budget bays in time and ran off to the Counter after clicking pictures of the Car as proof. Later, I found that in spite of reading many stories about fraud damage charges; in developed countries such as USA & Australia; there is not much to worry about fraud charges with these reputed companies.

Neha could just enter the Terminal Gate when I found her and literally started running with the trolley while Neha followed me with Ayana in her Stroller. Upon reaching the Jetstar Counter, I realized we were not in India and there was no reason for me to worry about any probable delay due to poor crowd management. As it turned out, even after having our delicious packed dinner, our flight got delayed by 90 minutes which proved to be very tiring for us.