Australian Customs and Lines

I honestly think that it is easier to leave Australia then it is to enter it. Leaving Australia is as follows:

1. Fill out a customs form.
2. Wait about 3 mins in a line.
3. Customs person plays on computer and says that you are ok to leave.
4. Go to waiting room and wait for plane.

However, entering Paris from Charles de Gaulle Airport is as follows:

1. Go to foreigner line and wait about 5 mins.
2. Get passport stamped.
3. Enter the EU.

It was 5 am when we entered France, there was one booth open with two people in there stamping passports.

It was even easier leaving from Frankfurt. We waited about a minute and then got our passports stamped and then left.

Malaysia was interesting.

KLIA has a very large customs area. I think there were about 20 of the two people booths open and about half of them were staffed. No waiting in line at all. You filled out your customs form on the flight, they stamped your passport you entered the country.

Leaving was about the same. Most of the customs booths were open (and this was during the Chinese New Year as well, you'd be amazed how empty Kuala Lumpur was considering how many people there aren't Chinese) no lines, no waiting, a couple of stamps and you were out of there.

Then I arrived back in Australia.

My customs form was already filled out on the plane. I had to wait about 10 mins in line because I didn't know (and I guess nearly everyone else didn't either) that you could go to a "self service" thing. They had about 10 booths but they could only hold one person. There were three open booths helping Australians and two for foreigners. In typical Australian fashion everything was slow because of the bureaucracy.

I could understand if this was the proper customs section. That bit was surprisingly efficient. We went in, answered a few questions, and left. That was it. But this was the bit where you get your passport checked before you go and get your bags. That was frustraitingly slow.

It seems to be an Australian phenomena. I had to go to the Centrelink office recently and I learned that they had renovated it. Before they had many sections each with at least one person there to help you (there were places for more but usually it was one person). No more. Now they've changed it to one counter for the elderly and carers and two for everyone else. They melded three sections into one "general enquiries" section just to increase the amount of time you waste in lines.

That sums up dealings with the Australian Government. You spend far more time waiting in lines here then you would over in other countries.

Bravo Australian Government. Bravo.

Travel Observations

Well I spent the past two months travelling a bit and I have observed a few things that I'm going to write about right now. I'm not going to bother writing too much detail at the moment, you will have to travel yourself.

It's also "part one" of a "series" of more then one parts that I will write about based on this trip.

Firstly, if the Parisian parking inspectors started to enforce parking laws in the same manner that you see here in Australia the government would be a hell of a lot richer, and the number of available parking spaces would be at least halved.

Incidentally French people seemed rather willing to speak English. It also helps if you know how to ask if they can in French. Will be writing more on Paris.

Brussels is rather boring but if you go in the off season you can find really cheap, good three course meals for about 10 Euros (about A$20). It's one of those choose from a set number of choices menus but one of the choices was a pepper steak.

Den Haag is nice and rather relaxed and unlike Amsterdam is far more car friendly.

If you are an Australian never, ever think of food portions in Australian terms when in Germany. I ordered a "kleine portion" at the Deutsches Schiffahrtsmuseum in Bremerhaven and was given three plates of food.

Prague is quite nice in the winter. The only problem is that since all the touristy things are located close to each other you will be surrounded by tourists.

Insurance companies in Europe are far more understanding then Australian ones. Until they offer you a hire car which comes standard with summer tyres. Does not help when you want to cross the Alps.

Germany has many cigarette and gumball machine things that you see along the side of the roads. If they did that here the machines would be stolen within minutes. Also cigarette packets only tell you that smoking can kill you. No pictures.

The same goes for pedestrian malls. There were no bollards protecting the Mac shop in München from being ram raided because they don't seem to do that thing there.

If you happen to head over the Brenner pass and you stop at the Europabrücke to look around, don't go to the McDonalds at the rest stop. Honestly, take the time and go to the restaurant instead.

The roads in Italy have along the sides of the roads either a) rubbish, or b) prostitutes.

I have many things to say about the Italian version of Wheel of Fortune, but I'm going to write a whole post on that.

The Forum Romanum is not very well signed, and the Colosseum has no signs at all. The official Colosseum tour is only 4 Euros, the other tours from some group thingy include the Colosseum and the Forum but are far more expensive.

For a tour guide for Rome (and the Vatican) one name: Jason Spiehler. Will definitely write more.

Incidentally Rome is quite expensive, and Roman pizza leaves a lot to be desired. (Time and the fact that Naples was flooded are the reasons why I didn't get to see Pompeii, or eat pizza from the birthplace of the food).

15 Euros to climb the Leaning Tower. So I didn't.

If you go to the Königsschlösser I personally think you shouldn't bother seeing Hohenschwangau. The tour is very rushed. Neuschwanstein however is far more relaxed.

I do wonder if Wagner was somewhat annoyed that they stopped work on the castle, considering that it was designed to be an embodiment of his operas.

Malaysia is ok to go to at the end of the wet season, except if you want lots of humidity. More will be written here as well.

South Ossetia

I'm putting the snake post on hiatus for the moment.

I think that this is far more important then that.

On the same day that the world saw the opening of the XXIX Olympic Games in Beijing...




...The Army of the Russian Federation entered South Ossetia in Georgia.

It's funny how that works isn't it?

This occurred less then a day after a ceasefire between the Georgian government, and the Russian backed South Ossetian separatists.

Today however, there was more news of this new war.

The Russians bombed the Georgian city of Gori.

Gori is a Georgian city 25 km away from South Ossetia.

The eyewitness story reveals quite a bit, at least with what the Georgian people think.

From what I can tell the Russians entered South Ossetia under the pretext of helping the South Ossetians maintain their pretend country, they are in a similar position to Abkhazia.

I guess that means that bombing military bases on the other side of the country is there to protect the South Ossetians. Who apparently have Russian passports.

I think the Russians don't see the South Ossetians as a breakaway group any more. They see them as a Russian enclave within Georgia. I guess that their actions, if supported by the other states in the Russian Federation in the Caucasus, would score them some pretty big brownie points.

There is also quite a bit of political manuevering going on as well.

Georgia pulled their troops out of Iraq, which I guess would put pressure on the US to get this conflict over and everything sorted out because even though I don't know what the Georgian contingent is doing over there, but I'm guessing that the US probably needs them.

But what we really have to look at is that innocent people are once again being affected by the actions of a few groups.

What makes it more annoying in a way is that it runs completely contrary to the whole ideal of the Olympics. And what makes it even worse is that the area of land in question, South Ossetia, is considered to be part of Georgia by everyone except Abkhazia, which also doesn't exist, and the South Ossetians themselves.

The only conclusion that I really can draw from this is that Russia considers South Ossetia the same way that the US considers Taiwan (or as they are known in the Olympics, Chinese Taipei). They don't officially accept that it exists, but for all intents and purposes they do.