November 17, 2005

11:53:55 am French Diary IV  

Saturday, November 12, 2005 - Bordeaux, Omaha Beach, and Caen, France - Cool, occasional rain, 55.

Drove most of the day to Normandy, arriving in time to visit the American Cemetary at Omaha Beach an hour before it closed. There was a sizable crowd, mainly French, probably due to the weekend marking the end of World War I (although this cemetery was only for World War II). World War I lingers in the European memory (and also the Australian and New Zealand memory) to a greater extent than it does in the American memory. Although I have not done the math, I suspect that if you measure WWI casualties as a percentage of WWII casualties, you will find the WWI percentage for the US to be lower than for the UK, France, Belgium, Germany, Australia, and New Zealand. The US got off lighter, so to speak, due to its late entry. New Zealand, I believe, actually had more WWI casualties than WWII. The US, however, experienced nearly the same number of casualties in Vietnam as WWI, so WWI has lost some significance for us. Armistice Day remains a government holiday, but it is now re-christened as Veteran's Day, and it is not a business holiday. In France, though, November 11 remains a major holiday, and in New Zealand and Australia, the day of their major WWI battle (April 25, Gallipoli) remains a huge holiday, equal in magnitude to our Memorial Day (originally Decoration Day to honor Civil War soldiers), or perhaps even greater.

We stayed one night at the Otelinn in Caen. It is right next to a museum on World War II and the 20th Century that ironically we did not go to due to time constraints. Caen is a small city of just over 100,000, but the town of Bayeux, around 15,000, is closer and more convenient to the D-Day sites. In summer it would be best to stay in one of the small villages of a few hundred or a few thousand people near Omaha Beach--e.g. Colleville, St. Laurent, Vieruille. Once the weather turns colder in October and November and the crowds diminish, many of the small museums, shops, hotels, and restaurants in these villages close for the season.

Sunday, November 13, 2005 - Caen, Utah and Omaha Beaches, and Paris, France - Cool, 50.

Spent the day touring different D-Day sites. The invasion area was 50 miles wide along five beaches: Sword (UK), Juno (Canada), Gold (UK), Omaha (US), and Utah (US). The battle for Normandy, a region in northern France, lasted for several months after June 6, 1944. D-Day is the largest invasion in human history. It was not the turning point of the war--that occurred one to two years earlier (Stalingrad in the Soviet Union, El Alamein in Africa, and Coral Sea, Midway, and Guadalcanal in the Pacific) but it opened a vital third front against Germany, allowing the Allies to push into Germany from the west and end the war.

There are dozens of battle sites and commemorative museums throughout Normandy. The bulk of these are along the five beaches. There is no central museum--instead there are numerous homespun museums full of personal memorabilia and often devoted to a particular aspect of the invasion, such as a specific US army unit. You can visit each site in about an hour.

Internet cafe is closing, so to be continued at a later time.

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September 18, 2005

05:17:36 am News Roundup  

Tuesday, September 13, 2005 - Galway, Ireland

Mainly a day of to do's. I made forward travel bookings while Deanna did laundry. An experience we've had throughout this trip is that you begin to learn the current event of local culture, but just as you become tuned in to all that is happening--local sports, currency rate movements, interest rate trends, economic growth, politics, ongoing news stories--you leave for another country. Events in the countries we have traveled through continue after we leave, and we do follow them as best we can, but usually I don't have time to comment on them because I'm writing on the issues in our next location. So now, let's catch up some random things from countries we have left behind.

- England won The Ashes over Australia on Monday (that's cricket) in what was regarded as the most exciting Ashes series in history. Now that I understand the sport, I find it much more interesting than I would have ever imagined. Like baseball, it's rich with strategy and statistics. I find it superior to soccer, a sport I have tried my whole life to like, but which never really ignited a passion in me. While I can't deny that it is the world's most popular team sport, I find soccer to be too modest in terms of excitement, strategy, and statistics. It has all of things of course, but in quantities too small for my taste.

- The Australian Rules football season has ended and the playoffs are underway. This is a hard sport to follow outside of Australia and New Zealand. Since leaving, I have seen one match on TV in Indonesia (a popular Australian vacation spot), and I have seen scores printed in an Irish paper (since Aussie rules and Gaelic football are similar).

- I've been meaning to write for months that two Pacific economies--Japan and Australia--that appeared as if they were on the verge of recession early this year are performing much better than I expected. I did not get around to noting this after each released better-than-expected Q1 GDP numbers, so I'll say something now that the Q2 numbers are out. I don't have the number in front of me, but Japan's Q2 GDP growth, announced in the last two days, was much higher than expected, something in the 5% annualized range, similar to their strong Q1 showing. In Q4 of last year, they had a flattish or down (I don't remember which) quarter, leading me and others to think they were heading for recession yet again. Job growth there has been strong this year and it appears their 15-year slumber could be ending, although they have had many false starts before. Their prime minister Koizumi won a landslide election last week and appears to have a mandate for domestic reform. This includes privatizing the post office, which in addition to delivering the mail, also happens to be the world's largest financial institution. Whether he will tackle the country's demographic time bomb remains to be seen. I think Japan's near-term outlook is more promising than I thought at the beginning of this trip, but I think their long-term problems remain, and I am not sure that they will be addressed sufficiently. Again, I don't have the number with me, but Australia's Q2 GDP growth number was quite good, something like 4%-5% annualized. The Q1 number was in the 2%-3% range, so the flattish Q4 result appears to be just a blip. Their central bank has continued to keep rates at the 5.50% level. They last raised in February or March just before we arrived in the country.

- New Zealand's central bank has also kept rates steady at the 6.75% level (I think this is correct--New Zealand is small and remote enough that you don't get much news on it outside of the region) they increased to while we were in New Zealand.

- Germany has a key election on Sunday. If we had a vote, we'd cast it for opposition Christian Democratic Union leader Angela Merkel for prime minister. We wrote on Germany and France's economic woes in one of our New Zealand posts. She has styled herself as a Ronald Reagan agent for change after a decade and a half of economic stagnation. France's next presidential election is not until 2007, but already the leading opposition candidate is casting himself in a similar role, and openly urging German voters to elect Merkel. Notable for Americans, both leaders reject the anti-American tilt of their countries present leaders, Schroder and Chirac. Merkel plainly states that an anti-American Europe cannot remain vibrant and relevant to the world. Germany knows it needs to change, but they are fearful of what the change entails. How well Merkel's party does on Sunday will say a lot about whether the country is ready to take the tough medicine it needs.

- We've written how flat income tax rates have swept through Eastern Europe and Russia, and noted with irony that these former communist countries now have a tax regime that we would prefer to that of the US. Merkel's finance chief advocates a 25% flat income tax rate for Germany and now the Conservative Party in the UK is considering whether they should adopt a flat tax theme after being routed earlier this year in the last parliamentary election. (They need to do something--like the Democrat party in the US they seem completely devoid of ideas. Why, they have so little to offer, that I would have voted for the Tony Blair and the Labour party, and that's saying something.) The integration of the EU tends to encourage economic competition between countries, and that makes it possible that the flat tax will spread to Western Europe. If it does, look for it to receive more serious consideration in the US.

- In an election result I don't really understand, Norway voters, apparently not content with a booming economy, being rated the best place in the world to live, and having one of the world's highest standards of living, have ousted the tax-cutting incumbent party and elected a Red-Green alliance that has pledged to spend part of the country's oil trust fund on welfare. That's like eating the seed corn when you are already full. The kind of thing you might consider if you were in a recession, but not during a boom time. Don't underestimate the ability of foolish politicians to project blue sky and sunshine forever when times are good, as many US state governments did when they spent their windfall in the late 90s and faced huge deficits in the early 2000s. There must be some local issues at play in Norway that we don't understand, but on the surface, this seems quite a bad decision. I'm bearish on Norway until I learn more, although I acknowledge that high oil prices can cover a multitude of management errors.

- I've seen two conflicting stories on housing prices in the UK. One said that prices were down again in the most recent month, and have fallen every month this year. The other showed a slight increase from July to August, but the rate of increase is declining.

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April 18, 2005

07:52:21 am Australian Question Time, Final Edition  

Now we at last get to the final questions that many of you submitted so many weeks ago. First, let us recognize on this web log what we mentioned previously via e-mail, that Simone Pritchard of Katherine, Australia wins the no*prize for correctly answering the question of who competed in the Australian Football League 2004 Grand Final. The regular season leader Port Adelaide Power beat the three-time defending champion Brisbane Lions, as you all now should know.

Okay, on with the questions. The ever-curious Darius Vaskelis asks a rather delicate question, that we will try to paraphrase for our general audience as follows. Mr Vaskelis states that he has read two things: 1) kangaroos are known for their sexual prowess and 2) some Aborigines, seeking to emulate the prowess of the kangaroo, have conducted certain anatomical procedures on a rather sensitive part of their body to replicate the kangaroo's amazing feats of endurance. Well, Mr. Vaskelis, we do wonder just what is the source of your prurient reading material? Nevertheless, we are here to educate, so we put this question to our panel of Australian correspondents. We found two individuals who claimed to have observed kangaroo mating rituals, strictly in the name of science no doubt, and both Steve Mack of Adelaide and Bob Pritchard of Katherine (why is it always men with these questions) reported to us that kangas are actually rather speedy when it comes to romance. They are not at all long lasting, as Mr. Vaskelis supposes, at least not when leering 40ish men are watching. Bob, a real Australian unlike Steve who is just pretending to be one, reports that he has never heard of the native ritual that Mr. Vaskelis inquires about; however, he has heard that an Aborigine coming-of-age ritual involves circumcision around age 12 involving natural cutting tools, i.e., a sharp rock. Well ouch indeed. I think we are all a bit wiser, now. Gentlemen, you can uncross your legs now, as we will return to more polite subjects.

Gentle reader Adrienne Johnson of Moline, Illinois asks why does Sydney, Australia have such a large population of Greeks? Her understanding is that other than Athens, it is largest Greek city in the world. We were never able to establish whether that is true, Adrienne, although we have no reason to doubt you. We do know that Chicago is the largest Polish city in the world other than Warsaw, so it is entirely possible that Sydney is number two in the Greek world. Australia, like the US is a nation of immigrants, and no, they were not all British prisoners! At present, something like 23% of Australians were born outside of Australia. By comparison, something like 99% of all Americans were born outside of Australia, but only 11% of Americans were born outside of the US. After World War II, Australia's population was only 5 million (it's four times that now), and the country pursued a populate-or-perish policy, which actively encouraged increased immigration from Europe, and not just from mother England. People from war-ravaged Europe poured in, especially those from Italy and Greece. Australia feared that a populous Asian country might look longingly at its vast unpopulated land, so it figured it better add to its population and fast. Australia thought Japan would invade it during World War II--it did not, but it did bomb Darwin over 60 times and it did launch a submarine attack on Sydney Harbor. Interestingly, Brazil--with a huge population relative to Australia--also felt that its relatively unpopulated interior might tempt a foreign power to invade following World War II. This is one reason it encouraged migration to the interior by building a new capital, Brasilia, in the jungle. We don't think like this today, but many countries post-World War II feared that history would repeat itself and their land may be invaded the next time around. So better to fill up the unpopulated areas with welcome foreign immigrants and internally migrants than have them filled up with unwelcome foreign invaders.

Speaking of Brasilia, our Toronto correspondent, John Kelleher--a Canadian by birth but an American at heart--reports that Canada now has Fox News Channel. In our January post from Brasilia, we reported that FNC was available in the Brazilian capital and noted that it was not available in Canada, as it had not received government approval (note: Al-Jazeera is approved in Canada). Well, embarrassed by his countries aversion to fair and balanced news, John quit his job last summer and launched a personal quest to bring Bill O'Reilly and friends to the Great White North. Great work John, I'm sure that lower taxes and private healthcare are about to follow. By the way, FNC is broadcasting loud and clear in Bali. Some guy is talking about raccoons in his roof, while the Andy Griffith theme is playing in the background. This is news the world needs.

John also has a question in which he asks, "Have you seen any sharks with frickin' laser beams tied to their heads?" Well, John, as I'm sure you know, fellow Commonwealth member Australia is home to many of the deadliest species on earth. Quick: How many of the world's 10 snakes are in Australia? Answer: 10! You can't swim on the beaches of Cairns for eight months a year because of the deadly box jellyfish. And don't pick up that seashell. It could kill you. Yes, even the seashells are deadly. However, we must disappoint you to report that laser-beam-enabled sharks only exist on the island of Dr. Evil, and are not present in Australia. We did see four sharks while diving on the Great Barrier Reef, however, if that makes you feel better. None attacked us.

Tonna Padgett of New Troy, Michigan has "A question on behalf of the girls here in the office---Deanna, how do you keep your clothes so nice and unwrinkled, living out of one suitcase? They want to know your packing secrets since they think you have yet to wear the same outfit twice!!!!" Well, Tonna, here's the secret. Nick has far fewer clothes and often wears the same outfit four days in a row. So, while Deanna has worn the same outfit twice, it just does not appear that way, because she is pictured next to Nick in either his white, blue, or black t-shirt. Also, we are using a digital camera with limited resolution, so you can not see the wrinkles. Actually, the most common question we received before we left was "How do you pack for such a trip?" so this is a topic that deserves more attention. In a future log, we may detail the complete contents of our luggage since people seem to be so curious about it.

But we will put off that inventory for a future day, and close with another question from the prodigious Mr. Vaskelis, who asks, "Based on the rising rates of skin cancer in Australia, how long until every Australian statistically will have it?" The truth is that we do not know--we just aren't that good with numbers. But we can provide some non-statistical insight on this subject. In the US, you read about how there's a hole in the ozone layer over take-your-pick: Antarctica, New Zealand, or Australia. This may be true, we are not qualified to say, but we can report there is a much simpler reason for high levels of skin cancer in Australia. The weather is beautiful and it is sunny all the time, everywhere (except maybe in Melbourne). Again, this is the country where no major city ever sees snow. Even now, a month into Fall, the weather is still warm or downright hot throughout the country. The simple fact of ever-present sun, combined with increasing awareness and early detection of skin cancer pretty much explains why skin cancer rates are high there. No articles ever mention these obvious points, but sometimes the simple answer is the overlooked one.

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April 14, 2005

05:16:52 am Australia For the Record  

Country Background:
Population: 20 million
Per capita GDP: $29,000
Size: slightly smaller than the US
Currency: Australian dollar, 1.29 per US dollar
Independence: 1901 from UK
Language: English

Itinerary

Monday, March 21, 2005 - Thursday, March 24, 2005
Qantas flight from Christchurch, New Zealand to Sydney, Australia
Qantas flight from Sydney to Adelaide
Three nights at our friend's house, the Macks. Steve and Mi live about six blocks from us in Chicago. Steve is taking a one-year course in Adelaide learning how to make wine. Nick and Steve first met at Andersen Consulting in 1989 and later worked together at Inforte.

Adelaide, South Australia
Population 1.12 million. All population figures from newspaper article in The Age [Melbourne] quoting from government estimates of 2004 population.
Temperature high/low during our stay: 80/60
Adelaide is the capital and largest city in the state of South Australia. Adelaide is the fifth largest city in Australia.

Adelaide Activities:
- Errands to include hair cut (Nick), dry cleaning (Deanna), getting watch fixed (Nick), a trip to the Big W (Wal*Mart's Australian operation!), and shopping at Rundle Mall (a street downtown). Nick continues to believe that the Macomb Wal*Mart is the best store on this planet for buying every day functional items.
- Wine tasting at McLaren Vale
- Driving around Adelaide and hanging out in Hyde Park, the Mack's neighborhood. Both are fantastically livable.
- Several very nice dinners, prepared by Mi, the master chef, with help from Steve; and at the Indian restaurant named best in Australia. Oh and I think we had some wine.

Thursday, March 24, 2005 - Friday, March 25, 2005
Driving a rental car from Adelaide to Brisbane (11 days/10 nights)
One night in Melbourne at the Comfort Inn & Suites Flagstaff City

Melbourne, Victoria
Population 3.6 million
Temperature high/low during our stay: 70/55
Melbourne is the capital and largest city in the state of Victoria. Melbourne is Australia's second largest city, behind Sydney. In the 19th Century, Melbourne was larger than Sydney was and it remained the more prestigious place until the 1960s when Sydney began to surpass it. Melbourne hosted the 1956 Summer Olympics. Melbourne is okay, but Sydney blows it away as a world-class city in our opinion.

Melbourne Activities:
- Watching opening night Australian Rules Football match on TV, Brisbane Lions beating St. Kilda Saints in a real ripper of a contest
- Lonely Planet self-guided walking tour of downtown area
- Driving around city and suburbs: St. Kilda, Collingwood, Fitzroy, Carlton

We were in Melbourne on Good Friday, a national holiday, so it was like being in Chicago on Thanksgiving Day. Most things were closed.

Friday, March 25, 2005 - Sunday, March 27, 2005
Two nights in Canberra, one night at the Chifley Hotel, and one night at the Saville Hotel

Canberra, Australian Capital Territory
Population 324,000
Temperature high/low during our stay: 75/55
Canberra is Australia's capital. It is a planned city, created from scratch, just like Washington, DC and Brasilia, Brazil. It is not located in any state; rather it is in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), conceptually similar to the District of Columbia (DC). Canberra is less than 100 years old, and really has only become a city over the last three or four decades.

Although it was a four-day weekend, everything in Canberra was open. Canberra has a reputation as a boring place because it does not have the café culture of cosmopolitan Sydney and Melbourne. But as a capital it works--its museums are high quality and it has a spacious open feel with lots of parks and a big lake in the city center. It's similar to Brasilia in this regard, although it was built over decades, not in four years like the Brazilian capital.

Canberra Activities:
National Museum of Australia
Parliament House
National Archives
War Memorial Museum
There are other museums we did not get to. You can spend a half-day each at the National Museum, Parliament, and the War Memorial Museum. All are good.

Sunday, March 27, 2005 - Friday, April 1, 2005
Five nights in Sydney at our friend's house, the Strongs. Deanna met Dana in high school through a mutual friend, Stacy (Berger) Seibrecht. Dana and her husband Mark work in Sydney. They just bought a house that we stayed at--it is empty pending renovations. They are still living in the house they rent, so we had the place all to ourselves, a nice change after months in hotels.

Sydney, New South Wales
Population: 4.23 million
Temperature high/low during our stay: 75/55
Sydney is the capital and largest city in the state of New South Wales. It is Australia's largest and best city, but it is not the country's capital as many people assume.
Sydney hosted the 2000 Summer Olympics

Sydney Activities:
- Harbor ferry (see Image Gallery)
- Obtain Chinese visas
- Receive final shot of hepatitis immunizations we began in Chicago. Obtaining malaria pills for Cambodia and India
- Museum of Sydney
- Opera at Sydney Opera House (Fledermaus)
- Architecture walking tour
- Walking around Sydney, something you could spend several days doing
- Royal Botanic Gardens
- Lawn bowling (see Image Gallery)
- Several dinners with Dana and Mark (see Image Gallery)

Friday, April 1, 2005 - Sunday, April 3, 2005
One night in Grafton, New South Wales at the Best Western. There is no reason to go to Grafton; it is just on the road from Sydney to Brisbane, where we stopped when we were tired.
One night in Brisbane at the Chifley Hotel on George

Brisbane, Queensland
Population: 1.77 million
Temperature high/low during our stay: 75/60
Brisbane is the capital and largest city in the state of Queensland. It is the third largest city in Australia. Queensland is the Florida of Australia, where everyone goes for a beach vacation. The area from Brisbane south to the border with New South Wales is known as the Gold Coast. Surfer's Paradise, about an hour south of Brisbane, is the heart of the Gold Coast with rows of high-rise condos along the beach. It's reminiscent of Waikiki in Honolulu, and similar to Waikiki, it's better than its reputation, which for inexplicable reasons is not that good. We spent most of the day in Surfer's Paradise and concluded that if you do not like it, you won't like much of anything. North of Brisbane is the quieter Sunshine Coast, where we did not go unfortunately, as we ran out of time.

Activities driving from Sydney to Brisbane:
- Billabong Wildlife Park (kangaroo and wallaby feeding and koala patting, see Image Gallery)
- Hanging out / walking on beach in Surfer's Paradise

Sunday, April 3, 2005 - Wednesday, April 6, 2005
Fly from Brisbane to Cairns
Three nights at the Rydges Hotel

Cairns, Queensland
Population: 99,000 according to Lonely Planet
Temperature high/low during our stay: 90/65
Cairns is the main departure point for snorkeling and scuba diving trips to the Great Barrier Reef.

Cairns Activities:
- Scuba diving on Great Barrier Reef
- Watching the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship. Nick had to search for over one hour for the elusive needle in the haystack--the one bar in town that a) had ESPN International and b) was open at 11 AM Tuesday, April 5 to be able to watch the game live. A lively crowd of five Americans (including us and one other Chicagoan, a Cubs fan, but otherwise a good guy) watched the Illini's sad shooting performance as the dream season ended in a 75-70 loss to North Carolina.

Wednesday, April 6, 2005 - Friday, April 8, 2005
Fly from Cairns to Yulara (Ayer's Rock)
Two nights at the Outback Pioneer Hotel

Yulara, Northern Territory
Population: a thousand or so employee residents and a few thousand tourists
Temperature high/low during our stay: 95/60
Ayer's Rock is the big red rock in the middle of desert that it Australia's most recognizable outdoor icon. The native Aborigine name for Ayer's Rock is Uluru, not to be confused with the nearby tourist village name of Yulara. So stay in Yulara to see Uluru. Uluru and Ayer's Rock are two names for the same place. If flying in, your airline ticket will read Ayer's Rock, but the airport is much closer to Yulara than Uluru. Got it? Some people don't stay in Yulara at all, instead visiting Uluru from bustling Alice Springs, a close-by metropolis of 25,000 people that is a mere four hours away (there is no closer "city"). Surprisingly, some people found this excursion tedious, so the tourist village of Yulara was created about 20 years ago. Yulara essentially is a half-dozen hotels, a campground, a grocery store, and the last gas station for over 500 miles (no kidding, so Image Gallery).

Yulara Activities:
- Two trips to Uluru (naturally!), to hike around it and to watch the sun set on it
- Hiking around Kata Tjuta/The Olgas. The Olgas are another rock formation about 30 miles away from Ayer's Rock. The Olgas are made up of several rocks instead of one big rock, and are as visually spectacular as Ayer's Rock. If you have traveled multiple hours to see Ayer's Rock (and there is no way to see Ayer's Rock without traveling multiple hours--it's not on the way to anything else), you definitely should see The Olgas as well. Like Ayer's Rock, The Olgas have two names for the same place. The Olgas is the English name and Kata Tjuta is the Aborigine name.
- Observatory Star Show. There's virtually no competing lights for hundreds of miles, so the stars at night are spectacular. It is most likely the clearest view of the stars you will ever see. Also, there are maybe 40% more stars in the Southern Hemisphere sky versus the Northern Hemisphere. So don't just look at the rock in the day, look at the sky at night!

A few points for future travelers. First, if you are pressed for time, you can see both Ayer's Rock and The Olgas in one day if your flights are timed right, with your departing flight leaving at least 24 hours after your arriving flight. You will probably arrive and depart mid-day, so immediately after checking in to your hotel, head out to hike one of the two sites, doing the other in early in the morning. You will have time to do another activity at night, such as the Sky Show or dining under the stars, since you cannot visit the rocks at night. It will be a bit rushed, but it's doable. We took two days, which was fine, but there was some downtime as there simply is not much to do other than visit the rocks. Second, rent a car. You can get by without one as there are tours to the sites, but it's probably cheaper to rent a car if you are doing both sites or multiple trips, plus you will have control of your time. You can rent either at the airport or at the village. There's a free shuttle between the airport and the village. Book ahead for best rates as there are only so many cars in this isolated area. Third, buy one of those silly-looking fly net hats in Yulara or at the Uluru visitor's center. You'll look stupid (see Image Gallery) but the flies are likely unlike anything you've ever encountered. Sorry Grandma Mason, even years of living on the farm will not prepare you for the flies at Ayer's Rock. Without a fly net, there is not a single moment over multiple hours that you will not be swatting flies. They land on your ears, face, lips, and any other place you do not want them. People without fly nets have to use their hands in a sort of human windshield-wiper motion known as the Outback wave. Finally, be prepared that everything is expensive when you are in the middle of nowhere. The nicest hotels are $300-$500 per night. We paid $150 for a decent room, but with a common bathroom. You can probably get a private bath for under $200, if you book ahead at least a few weeks ahead, which we did not and so they were all sold out. At times, the entire village sells out, which means you'll be driving four hours to Alice Springs to find the next closest room if you did not make an advance reservation!

Friday, April 8, 2005 - Sunday, April 10, 2005
Fly from Ayer's Rock to Perth
Two nights at the Rydges Hotel

Perth, Western Australia
Population: 1.46 million
Temperature high/low during our stay: 80/55
Perth is the capital and largest city in the state of Western Australia. It is the fourth largest city in Australia.

Lonely Planet self-guided walk of downtown area
Dinner and walking around in Fremantle, a suburb on the coast
Western Australia Museum
Art Gallery of Western Australia
Australian Rules Football at the Subiaco Oval: West Coast Eagles 88 Fremantle Dockers 80.

In the early 1980s, ESPN in the US would show replays of Australian Rules Football games. Nick and all his 16-year old friends were captivated by this sport of organized chaos, where there seemed to be no rules against physically attacking your opponent. Australian Rules is a combination of rugby, soccer, and Gaelic football, played on an oval field (a cricket ground) with a total area about three times the size of an American football field. Instead of the helmet and full pads of American football, players wear sleeveless shirts and short tight shorts. In other words, no pads whatsoever. It's a fantastic game, perhaps not quite as violent as it was two decades ago, but faster, better played, and just as exciting. There is as much history to the game as American baseball--most of the teams date back to the 19th Century. The Grand Final, played each September in Melbourne, draws 90,000 people and is the biggest sporting event in the country. Sadly, though, one of the game's great traditions has ended in the last two years. The goal judges no longer wear bowler hats and white sports coats. Now they are simply decked out in athletic warm-up pullovers. Fortunately, though, they still wave white flags and give the gunslinger salute to signify each goal. Kurt Jefferson would be proud.

We attended a West Coast versus Fremantle match between two Perth-based rivals. The crowd of 42,000 fans was split between the two teams, and while the fans were loud and passionate, the atmosphere was somewhat more civilized (fewer obnoxious fans) than what you might hear at a Cubs/White Sox game. Australians just might be the nicest, most polite people in the world. The whole country is full of people you would otherwise meet in the American Midwest.

Sunday, April 10, 2005 - Tuesday, April 12, 2005
Fly from Perth to Adelaide
Two nights at our friend's house, the Macks
Temperature high/low during our stay: 80/55

Adelaide Activities:
Migration Museum (small, but excellent)
Art Gallery of South Australia

Tuesday, April 12, 2005 - Thursday, April 14, 2005
Fly from Adelaide to Darwin
One night at the Quality Hotel Frontier
Drive rental car to Katherine, population 8,000
One night at Simone and Bob Pritchard's house, who we met climbing Huayna Picchu, the mountain overlooking Machu Picchu, in February.
Drive rental car back to Darwin for flight to Bali, Indonesia

Darwin, Northern Territories
Population: 110,000
Temperature high/low during our stay: 95/75
Darwin is the capital and largest city of the Northern Territories. The Northern Territories are not a state. A statehood ballot was defeated by the citizens of the territory several years ago, and whether to pursue statehood remains a much-debated issue.

Darwin-area Activities:
Museum & Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, good exhibit highlighting Cyclone Tracy
Fannie Bay Gaol (Jail) Museum (skip)
Military Museum, highlights Darwin bombing during World War II
Litchfield National Park to see the magnetic terminals mounds (see Image Gallery)
Watching Star Trek Deep Space 9 videos at Simone and Bob Pritchard's, Bob having every episode of the original series, Next Generation, Deep Space 9, and Voyager on tape
Hiking Katherine Gorge

If any city could be named Phoenix, it is Darwin. The city has risen from its own ashes twice in the past 65 years. In February 1942, Japan bombed the city, killing nearly 300 people, including many US servicemen. The city suffered 60 more bomb attacks in 1942 and 1943, none as devastating as the first day. On Christmas Day 1974, Cyclone Tracy damaged 90% of cities' homes. In one suburb, 97% of the homes were destroyed. Immediately afterward, 3/4 of the population was evacuated, mainly via airlift. Within 10 years though, Darwin's population exceeded its pre-cyclone level, and it has doubled since then. The city is much closer to Indonesia than the east coast cities of Australia, making it a gateway to southeast Asia. It is hot and humid year round, like a central Florida summertime.

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05:14:04 am Australian Notes  

A great book on Australia from an American perspective is Bill Bryson's travelogue that came out in 2000. The copy we have is titled "In a Sunburned Country," but it appears to be named, "Down Under," outside of Australia. If ever you travel to Australia, you should buy the book and read it before or during your trip. It's the kind of book we would like to write if someone we paying us to do so. That our web postings are not the equal of Mr. Bryson's writing caliber are entirely due to our receiving no compensation, and thus our patience, desire, and energy to write as insightfully and humorously as he is not being properly stimulated. That and we don't have a Dartmouth professor back home at our disposal to keep us from making statistical and factual blunders!

Having read Bryson's highly entertaining account of his Australian travels makes it seem a bit plagiaristic for us to write about our Australia trip. Read his book. There's no place we've gone that he has not been and our experiences are similar, albeit less colorful at times. We draw the same conclusions; largely that Australia is a wonderful country that most people know far too little about. The people are friendly, the weather is generally fantastic (it never even snows in any of the major cities to our knowledge), albeit very hot and arid at times, and the cities are modern, efficient, and inviting. Other than possibly the most annoying flies on this Earth, there is little for a tourist to complain about.

The country is bigger than you can imagine, and more empty than you would think possible. Picture a country about the size of the US (but again where the weather is much better!). If Australia was superimposed on the US, imagine the largest city is around where Washington D.C. is. That's Sydney, population 4.2 million. Put the capital around where Atlanta is. That's Canberra, population above 300,000. Place Melbourne, population 3.6 million near Tampa. Let's incorporate Cuba into the US and call it Tasmania, population 500,000. Adelaide, population 1.1 million, is around New Orleans. Put Brisbane, population 1.8 million, around Boston. And finally add Perth, at 1.5 million, the largest city on the west coast, where Los Angeles is. That's about it. We just discussed 2/3 of the population and all of the big cities. There's no other city much larger than Peoria. In the entire country. Nothing from Boston to Los Angeles, across the entire country. There is a big rock, though, about where Abilene, Kansas would be, and a lot of people visit it.

We will spend 3 1/2 weeks in Australia, visiting all states and capitals, other than Tasmania. But if anything, that's too rushed to try and see it all. We could have easily have spent five weeks. It's great. You should come.

What follows are some random comments during our time here. These are not comprehensive, and may not provide even an accurate impression of the country as a whole. There's just things that we took note, of or amused us, or that we felt like writing about.

- Australian society strikes a balance between being paternalistic and permissive at the same time in ways that seem odd. For example, prostitution is legal and nude sunbathing is present, but hard-core pornography is banned. Australians prefer participatory sports to spectator sports apparently. Pornography is legal in the Australian Capital Territory (equivalent to Washington DC), however. The US Congress is not the only legislative body prone to exempting themselves from the laws they pass.

- Road signs are extremely paternalistic. Think Singapore. On the east coast, you can't drive more than a few miles without being reminded that "Drowsy Drivers Die" or "A micro nap can kill in seconds." You are forever encouraged to "Rest, Revive, Survive."

- When Nick was here in 1990, there was a government campaign to reduce drunk driving, or drink driving as it is known here. That's probably a more accurate descriptor, as the Blood Alcohol Content limit is now only .05, hardly a state where you would be drunk. Anyway, in 1990, billboards all over the country would state "You Drink, You Drive, You Die. Bloody Idiot." The short version was "Drink, Drive, Bloody Idiot." Ads here are to the point. No messing around with diplomatic language. Now there's a big campaign to reduce speed, "Take Off 5." One public service ad shows a speeding driver hitting a baby carriage, and then shows a close up of blood all over the baby. Australians don't leave much to the imagination with their words or their visuals. Their isolation, it seems, results in a certain earthiness, both refreshing and surprising.

- For such an empty country, speeds limits and actual driving speeds are surprisingly low. Motorists in the UK may zip around their motorways at 90-100 miles per hour, but in Australia, you'll go either 100 or 110 KPH (61 or 67 MPH) thank you. There are areas with no speed limit, such as the Northern Territory (think Wyoming, but 10 times bigger with fewer people), but most of the country speed limits are not only low, but rigorously enforced. You'll encounter speed cameras at least once per hour and you will get a fine in the mail if you are going too fast.

- The roads are good, but probably not what you would expect. In many places, the motorways are just like US interstates, but outside of the cities, the main road will no longer be limited access and is often only two lanes. So using the visual map we provided above, imagine that portions of road from Boston to Washington D.C. to Atlanta to Tampa to New Orleans is only two lanes. It's not all that bad, though, because there is not that much traffic anyway.

- Considering that 1) there is no complete 4-lane, limited access motorway between any two capital cities and 2) the government has a budget surplus; we'd say they probably ought to step up road infrastructure spending. We think this would facilitate commerce and economic growth.

- Quick what two countries suffered the greatest number of casualties per capita in World War I? Germany? Austria-Hungary? Serbia? Turkey? France? Great Britain? Why no, it is New Zealand and Australia, perhaps the two countries furthest from the fighting. World War I was a nation-defining shared experience for these two newly independent countries (Australia, 1901, New Zealand, 1907) who dutifully followed former colonial master Britain into the war. Anzac Day (Anzac stands for Australia and New Zealand Army Corp) is a national holiday on April 25 in both countries, commemorating the disaster battle at Gallipoli, Turkey, where each country suffered thousands of casualties.

- Australia is about as reliable a wartime ally as the UK or US could ever hope for. They entered both world wars at the same time as the UK, even though they were not directly affected at the time. Earlier they provided troops for Britain in the Sudan in the 1880s, and the Boer War in South Africa and the Boxer Rebellion in China, both around the turn of the 20th Century. They fought along side the US in Korea, Vietnam, Kuwait and Iraq in the first Persian War, and most recently in Iraq. Also after World War II, they fought communist insurgencies successfully in neighboring Malaysia and Indonesia. Throughout the 90s, Australia has been involved in UN peacekeeping operations throughout the world. Most Americans are not fully aware of the loyalty Australia shows us in return for the US helping defend Australia from Japanese attack in World War II. Americans are aware of our tight bond with the UK, but we overlook Australia unnecessarily. They are every bit as worthy an ally as the UK, and frankly they have stuck with us far more often than Canada, New Zealand, or other English-speaking countries.

- On our drive from Sydney to Brisbane, we came across a radio station counting down the top three songs from April 1984. Why, we don't know (sometimes things here can be a bit behind), but it seemed to us a great thing to do. Nick's first guess as to what may be at the top of the list 20 years ago in a foreign land was "Footloose," which actually placed at #2. Upset that he had not guessed the #3 song (Wouldn't It Be Good by Nick Kershaw, apparently a bit more popular Down Under than it was in the States), Nick rattled off about 20 more guesses as to what the top song might be. His last guess, a one-hit wonder sung in German by Nena, 99 Luftballoons, was shouted out moments before the playing of the #1 song. This guess was, in fact, correct. There was a self-congratulatory scene of bedlam in the car, and then we continued up Highway 1 toward Queensland.

And now for a contest. We'll award a "Does anyone actually read this stuff" no*prize to the first person who can correctly identify what post previously mentioned 99 Luftballoons?

- Like those in many countries, Australian cities have a bit too much graffiti for our taste, although nowhere near as bad as South America. However, we must compliment the Aussies for their public toilets, always extremely clean, readily available, and accessible to anyone. What causes one country (the US) to have relatively less graffiti, but dirty, unplentiful, and inaccessible (customers only) toilets, and another (Australia) to have the reverse? Why do Australian graffiti criminals operate in public spaces, but never in bathrooms? What laws, actual or unwritten, governs the cleanliness of Aussie public toilets? And, given a choice, which society would you prefer?

- If Australia's land mass is the same size as the US, if they are developed, English speaking, and resource rich, and if they are 125 years younger as a country than the US, could Australia ascend to world power status at some distant point in the future? Today, their population at only 20 million makes their total economy far too small for superpower consideration. Environmentalists would argue that Australia's growth will be constrained by the inhospitable land. You just can't live without a great deal of difficulty in most of Australia. There is a reason everyone lives on the coasts, most of the interior is too barren. This is quite different from the US Midwest, South, Great Plains, and Rocky Mountain states. So, no, Australia cannot be a superpower, this thinking goes. While in Australia, we read two analyses of what the sustainable level of population is for the country. One environmentalist put it at 40 million, another at only 8 million! While we find that latter estimate preposterous (apparently everyone other than those living in Sydney and Melbourne need to return to their ancestral home), we do think the larger point that the barren land could limit growth is valid. Still we would not rule the Aussies out completely. After all, if you can build one of the glitziest cities in the world in an inland desert (Las Vegas), there is a lot that time, technology, and economic growth can overcome.

- Australia reformed its economy, beginning in the 1980s, eliminating its fixed exchange rate, currency controls, and privatizing and deregulating businesses. But there are many leftover welfare state anachronisms that remain, probably too many considering that they have had 14 consecutive years of economic growth. Unlike the US, there was no recession here in 2001. It's as if the boom-boom 90s never ended. But then, there never was as much boom-boom (and silly excess) here as in the US. In contrast, the early 1990s recession here was much tougher in the US, with unemployment hitting post-Depression highs. Australia's early 90s recession was much like the US recession in 1981-1982, in that regard. But since the early 90s recession ended, Australia has had consistent growth. It seems this prosperity may have caused some complacency, with further needed reforms put off. For example, the top tax rate is a backbreaking 47% and it kicks in at just over US$60,000. Now that growth is slowing (GDP was up only 1.5% in 2004, including a flattish 0.1% in 4Q04), there is some talk in the press at cutting taxes, funded by eliminating some of the many income exclusions present (many people receive a company car as an untaxed perk).

- Australia's current economic situation is similar to that of New Zealand, which we described at length in our New Zealand posts. Interest rates are high here (the Australian Reserve Bank rate is 5.50%, compared to 6.75% in New Zealand, but only 2.75% in the US and 2.0% in the Euro zone). The Australian Reserve Bank raised rates by a quarter-point in March (causing a record drop in consumer confidence), but held steady in April. Further rate rises are viewed as a 50/50 proposition. Rising inflation of around 3% is the concern, just as in New Zealand, the US, and much of the world. Unemployment is low at 5.1%, and employee shortages, and more generally supply shortages, are pushing prices up. Workforce participation is at an all-time high at 64%, but still at a level below some developed countries that have rates in the high 60s. One problem needing reform is that effective marginal tax rates for people to enter the workforce from welfare or to re-enter from early retirement are far too high, so many people that could work, do not. Factoring in a loss of welfare or retirement benefits with the actual tax rates on income, means that some welfare recipients or retirees would lose over 70% of the first dollar they earned should they work. Until that is fixed, it will be difficult to increase workforce participation rates, and the resulting labor shortage will pressure prices.

- The Australian stock market hit an all-time high around the time we entered the country. For many of the same reasons that we predicted on March 11 that New Zealand's market would be an underperforming investment over the next year or two, we think Australia's stock market may have a tough time going forward. We aren't as negative on it as we are New Zealand, although we wonder if this just reflects our not having spent as much time thinking about Australia's equity market as we did New Zealand's. (We spent more time in Australia with friends and watching Australian Rules Football, compared to our time in New Zealand spent reading the financial pages.)

Similar to New Zealand, Australia's main negative is high (and possibly rising further) interest rates, which make fixed income markets relatively more attractive and stock markets relative less attractive. We saw three-year investment company instruments advertised with a yield of nearly 10%, although we acknowledge we are not familiar enough with the market to know what, if any, level of risk these instruments carry. The second risk is that of slowing economic growth, which considering that Q4 growth was only 0.1% in Australia is a polite way of saying recession. There is surprisingly little worry about recession considered the Q4 result--we are not sure if that's because everyone is ignoring the elephant in the room, or if there is enough other data to suggest that the Q4 result is an aberration. We actually suspect it's the latter, as it does not feel like there is a recession at hand. Having said that, we trust numbers over gut feelings, and we're keen to see the Q1 GDP report out in a few weeks. Moreover, in a rising rate environment, there is always risk of recession down the road. We conclude that Australia has a significant, and above-normal, risk of recession occurring in 2005 or 2006. The third risk for Australia is that of falling housing prices, which is happening in Sydney, and if this continues or spreads, could itself lead to a consumer recession. See our March 21 post for discussion of housing price levels worldwide and in Australia.

The biggest factor in Australia's favor is that it is a resource-based economy, so while rising commodity prices are bad for keeping inflation down, they are good for Australia's economy and corporate earnings as a whole. Also, Australia's equity markets sport a relatively high dividend yield of 3.66% (the US is around 2% or less; New Zealand at 4.5% is one of the few developed markets that is higher than Australia), which should help total stock market returns. Finally, there's the Australian dollar. On the negative side, it is above its traditional level and it is likely too high on a purchasing power basis, although not as extended as the New Zealand dollar. On the positive side, strong commodity prices will keep funds flowing toward Australia, supporting the Aussie dollar.

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