How much time in Australia?

Frankly, unless you know a little about where to find things of interest to
you - you'll waste most of your time in Australia. The country is about the
same size as the continental USA, with about the same level of diversity!!

Of course. I am stupid, but not _that_ stupid

The country is just too big to do in one time, so for now I'll go to
Sydney or Melbourne and do the East Coast. Perth would be cheaper, but
it's so far away from everything else, even if many regard thw west
coast to be better...
Still don't know for how loing I will stay, probably 4-6 months. As
some people say, you can stay _years_ and it's still not enough. So
just have to make the best of it...

On 17 Sep 2004 21:24:38 -0700, (Jacob Stepaschko)
wrote:


Frankly, unless you know a little about where to find things of interest to
you - you'll waste most of your time in Australia. The country is about the
same size as the continental USA, with about the same level of diversity!!

Of course. I am stupid, but not _that_ stupid

The country is just too big to do in one time, so for now I'll go to
Sydney or Melbourne and do the East Coast. Perth would be cheaper, but
it's so far away from everything else, even if many regard thw west
coast to be better...
Still don't know for how loing I will stay, probably 4-6 months. As
some people say, you can stay _years_ and it's still not enough. So
just have to make the best of it...

Hi Jacob

There is never enough time.

I went 'round the world last year. 19 weeks, over twenty countries (not
counting the Monacos and Luxembourgs etc) 21 flights, 4 rail trips, 57
hotels, countless zimmer frei and b&bs, five apartments etc etc. LA, SF,
Las Vegas, St Louis, New Orleans, the deep south by car, DC, NYC, Virgin
Islands - and that was before we hit Europe and drove around the EU and
Britsh Isles.

They told us it would be one of those "it's Tuesday - this must be
Belgium" type trips.

It wasn't. I planned it for a year, knowing my own interests and
limitations. We treated it as possibly our only chance to ever do it, so
see as much as we could, but also as a chance to see where we'd like to
return to if the chance came again.

So do it that way. Decide what it is you want to see, plan the time,
book what you must, and act accordingly. I used 'nodes"; specific points
that I booked in advance - SF, New Orleans, DC, NYC, USVI, Madrid,
Granada, Riviera, Paris, London, Singapore. But I left gaps of sometimes
weeks between them so that if we liked a spot we could stay longer, and
if we were bored we moved on.

Do it your way; you'll have a wonderful time. And if you get up near the
Tweed Coast email me and we'll have a beer.


Cheers, Alan
--

On 17 Sep 2004 21:24:38 -0700, (Jacob Stepaschko)
wrote:


Frankly, unless you know a little about where to find things of interest to
you - you'll waste most of your time in Australia. The country is about the
same size as the continental USA, with about the same level of diversity!!

Of course. I am stupid, but not _that_ stupid

The country is just too big to do in one time, so for now I'll go to
Sydney or Melbourne and do the East Coast. Perth would be cheaper, but
it's so far away from everything else, even if many regard thw west
coast to be better...
Still don't know for how loing I will stay, probably 4-6 months. As
some people say, you can stay _years_ and it's still not enough. So
just have to make the best of it...

Hi Jacob

There is never enough time.

I went 'round the world last year. 19 weeks, over twenty countries (not
counting the Monacos and Luxembourgs etc) 21 flights, 4 rail trips, 57
hotels, countless zimmer frei and b&bs, five apartments etc etc. LA, SF,
Las Vegas, St Louis, New Orleans, the deep south by car, DC, NYC, Virgin
Islands - and that was before we hit Europe and drove around the EU and
Britsh Isles.

They told us it would be one of those "it's Tuesday - this must be
Belgium" type trips.

It wasn't. I planned it for a year, knowing my own interests and
limitations. We treated it as possibly our only chance to ever do it, so
see as much as we could, but also as a chance to see where we'd like to
return to if the chance came again.

So do it that way. Decide what it is you want to see, plan the time,
book what you must, and act accordingly. I used 'nodes"; specific points
that I booked in advance - SF, New Orleans, DC, NYC, USVI, Madrid,
Granada, Riviera, Paris, London, Singapore. But I left gaps of sometimes
weeks between them so that if we liked a spot we could stay longer, and
if we were bored we moved on.

Do it your way; you'll have a wonderful time. And if you get up near the
Tweed Coast email me and we'll have a beer.


Cheers, Alan
--

in article , Ken Pisichko at wrote on
9/17/04 7:32 PM:

Raffi Balmanoukian wrote:

That's not to say you can't travel on a shoestring (I try to) but finding
yourself in Threeways for a month because you are hitching will mean you
will have spent a lot of time on nothing.

I beg to differ. Spending "time" at # Ways NT is a perfect way to understand
the isolation and perhaps dreariness that "city dwellers' experienced when
moving to the outback. You will truely understand the outback mindset after
spending a month at 3-Ways. However, that does not mean it is for nothing!!

Aboriginal people lived for millennia in the country surrounding 3-Ways and
never thought negatively about it.

Travel is a mid set. If your mind set is cities, then stay in the cities near
you and in YOUR country...

OTOH, if you are not looking for one-upmanship and "bragging rights", then by
all means, go to outback Australia.

I have this "attitude" because I am still ticked off at getting a 3 day visa
to
visit Saigon in June, 1971. I stayed with UN soldiers (Canadian) and saw lots
of stuff that never got into the news. And why am i ticked off? because i met
some travellers in HK who told me you could only get a 3 day visa. Alas, I
listened to them and lost out because at that time Canadians could have a 14
day visa. Bummer! I lost out on some very "interesting" travel opportunities
that the Canadian soldiers told me about. Yes, I seem to have bragging rights
for travelling in Saigon "during the war", but I really would have liked to
have been there longer and seem more outside that city.

Go for the longest time you can - and then reflect on those experiences for
the
rest of your life.



I'm afraid you picked on my example, added one and one, and got three.

You will find a good many comments by me in this NG that reflect exactly
what you're talking about. I'm not much for cities in most places (my
country or any other), although they too have their attractions and merits.
My personal passion in Australia is, in fact, the outback and have written
about that elsewhere here as well.

The point I was trying to make is that time, in itself, is not much of a
criterion for planning a trip. If you have heaps of time and no money, you
will end up doing next to nothing because you will always be planning your
activities around your resources available, not by the possibilities at
hand.

I have met many a backpacker - and traveled with a few - who had all the
time in the world but always chose the cheapest option because they couldn't
do otherwise. They ate poorly, slept poorly, traveled where they could get
for free whether or not they were actually interested in the place, people,
or culture. They would have been better off asking "would you like fries
with that" for another few months, or a year, knocking a couple months off
of their trip, and seeing perhaps a smaller area but in depth.

And if that area of interest happened to be Threeways, or Innamincka, or
Birdsville, or the namma holes on Mt. Beadell, more power to them.

in article , Ken Pisichko at wrote on
9/17/04 7:32 PM:

Raffi Balmanoukian wrote:

That's not to say you can't travel on a shoestring (I try to) but finding
yourself in Threeways for a month because you are hitching will mean you
will have spent a lot of time on nothing.

I beg to differ. Spending "time" at # Ways NT is a perfect way to understand
the isolation and perhaps dreariness that "city dwellers' experienced when
moving to the outback. You will truely understand the outback mindset after
spending a month at 3-Ways. However, that does not mean it is for nothing!!

Aboriginal people lived for millennia in the country surrounding 3-Ways and
never thought negatively about it.

Travel is a mid set. If your mind set is cities, then stay in the cities near
you and in YOUR country...

OTOH, if you are not looking for one-upmanship and "bragging rights", then by
all means, go to outback Australia.

I have this "attitude" because I am still ticked off at getting a 3 day visa
to
visit Saigon in June, 1971. I stayed with UN soldiers (Canadian) and saw lots
of stuff that never got into the news. And why am i ticked off? because i met
some travellers in HK who told me you could only get a 3 day visa. Alas, I
listened to them and lost out because at that time Canadians could have a 14
day visa. Bummer! I lost out on some very "interesting" travel opportunities
that the Canadian soldiers told me about. Yes, I seem to have bragging rights
for travelling in Saigon "during the war", but I really would have liked to
have been there longer and seem more outside that city.

Go for the longest time you can - and then reflect on those experiences for
the
rest of your life.



I'm afraid you picked on my example, added one and one, and got three.

You will find a good many comments by me in this NG that reflect exactly
what you're talking about. I'm not much for cities in most places (my
country or any other), although they too have their attractions and merits.
My personal passion in Australia is, in fact, the outback and have written
about that elsewhere here as well.

The point I was trying to make is that time, in itself, is not much of a
criterion for planning a trip. If you have heaps of time and no money, you
will end up doing next to nothing because you will always be planning your
activities around your resources available, not by the possibilities at
hand.

I have met many a backpacker - and traveled with a few - who had all the
time in the world but always chose the cheapest option because they couldn't
do otherwise. They ate poorly, slept poorly, traveled where they could get
for free whether or not they were actually interested in the place, people,
or culture. They would have been better off asking "would you like fries
with that" for another few months, or a year, knocking a couple months off
of their trip, and seeing perhaps a smaller area but in depth.

And if that area of interest happened to be Threeways, or Innamincka, or
Birdsville, or the namma holes on Mt. Beadell, more power to them.

in article , Ken Pisichko at wrote on
9/17/04 7:32 PM:

Raffi Balmanoukian wrote:

That's not to say you can't travel on a shoestring (I try to) but finding
yourself in Threeways for a month because you are hitching will mean you
will have spent a lot of time on nothing.

I beg to differ. Spending "time" at # Ways NT is a perfect way to understand
the isolation and perhaps dreariness that "city dwellers' experienced when
moving to the outback. You will truely understand the outback mindset after
spending a month at 3-Ways. However, that does not mean it is for nothing!!

Aboriginal people lived for millennia in the country surrounding 3-Ways and
never thought negatively about it.

Travel is a mid set. If your mind set is cities, then stay in the cities near
you and in YOUR country...

OTOH, if you are not looking for one-upmanship and "bragging rights", then by
all means, go to outback Australia.

I have this "attitude" because I am still ticked off at getting a 3 day visa
to
visit Saigon in June, 1971. I stayed with UN soldiers (Canadian) and saw lots
of stuff that never got into the news. And why am i ticked off? because i met
some travellers in HK who told me you could only get a 3 day visa. Alas, I
listened to them and lost out because at that time Canadians could have a 14
day visa. Bummer! I lost out on some very "interesting" travel opportunities
that the Canadian soldiers told me about. Yes, I seem to have bragging rights
for travelling in Saigon "during the war", but I really would have liked to
have been there longer and seem more outside that city.

Go for the longest time you can - and then reflect on those experiences for
the
rest of your life.



I'm afraid you picked on my example, added one and one, and got three.

You will find a good many comments by me in this NG that reflect exactly
what you're talking about. I'm not much for cities in most places (my
country or any other), although they too have their attractions and merits.
My personal passion in Australia is, in fact, the outback and have written
about that elsewhere here as well.

The point I was trying to make is that time, in itself, is not much of a
criterion for planning a trip. If you have heaps of time and no money, you
will end up doing next to nothing because you will always be planning your
activities around your resources available, not by the possibilities at
hand.

I have met many a backpacker - and traveled with a few - who had all the
time in the world but always chose the cheapest option because they couldn't
do otherwise. They ate poorly, slept poorly, traveled where they could get
for free whether or not they were actually interested in the place, people,
or culture. They would have been better off asking "would you like fries
with that" for another few months, or a year, knocking a couple months off
of their trip, and seeing perhaps a smaller area but in depth.

And if that area of interest happened to be Threeways, or Innamincka, or
Birdsville, or the namma holes on Mt. Beadell, more power to them.

in article , A Mate at
wrote on 9/17/04 8:25 AM:

Jacob,

Frankly, unless you know a little about where to find things of interest to
you - you'll waste most of your time in Australia. The country is about the
same size as the continental USA, with about the same level of diversity!!



Much, much, much more diverse IMHO.

in article , A Mate at
wrote on 9/17/04 8:25 AM:

Jacob,

Frankly, unless you know a little about where to find things of interest to
you - you'll waste most of your time in Australia. The country is about the
same size as the continental USA, with about the same level of diversity!!



Much, much, much more diverse IMHO.

in article , A Mate at
wrote on 9/17/04 8:25 AM:

Jacob,

Frankly, unless you know a little about where to find things of interest to
you - you'll waste most of your time in Australia. The country is about the
same size as the continental USA, with about the same level of diversity!!



Much, much, much more diverse IMHO.

Raffi Balmanoukian wrote:

The point I was trying to make is that time, in itself, is not much of a
criterion for planning a trip. If you have heaps of time and no money, you
will end up doing next to nothing because you will always be planning your
activities around your resources available, not by the possibilities at
hand.

I have met many a backpacker - and traveled with a few - who had all the
time in the world but always chose the cheapest option because they couldn't
do otherwise. They ate poorly, slept poorly, traveled where they could get
for free whether or not they were actually interested in the place, people,
or culture. They would have been better off asking "would you like fries
with that" for another few months, or a year, knocking a couple months off
of their trip, and seeing perhaps a smaller area but in depth.

And if that area of interest happened to be Threeways, or Innamincka, or
Birdsville, or the namma holes on Mt. Beadell, more power to them.

Thank you for the clarification. Your points are VERY well taken. To each, their
own - and I say that today after giving a US hitch-hiker a ride into the USA,
through US customs etc. He left Alaska on Wednesday and here on Saturday he was
planning to be home (in Minnesota, the state i was driving to) on Saturday evening
(about now as I write this). At the border, US Customs and Border Protection asked
me a bunch of questions (I am a Canadian and thus a "guest" while in the USA) and
then asked him ( the US citizen) why he was hitch hiking instead of flying or
taking the Greyhound bus. His reply?? To save money and spend the time looking at
the countryside.... All travellers have different priorities.