Tasmania - My First Day

Home sweet home! After a good 10 days well-spent in Tasmania and Melbourne, I am glad to be back to my safe comfort zone in Singapore. I've added on some new characters in my addresses - wonderful people whom I've met during this trip as well as old friends whom I bumped into at the airports in Australia. Small world indeed. I normally write after every trip that I made, so be prepared for an avalanche of ramblings and babblings.

This was perhaps my hastiest and most unplanned trip that I've ever made, having decided on it and booked the tickets just one week before I flew off. My superior had been generous in granting me this long leave, which I sincerely appreciated. I suppose she reckoned I needed this break badly, after watching me suffer from the most excruciating headaches ever during my rotation, driving me to see a neurologist and having an extensive MRI done to exclude a subarachnoid haemorrhage or a centenial bleed. It was God's blessing that everything turned out normal and I was able to make my presence felt in the Oz.

When I told one of my friends that I would be backpacking in Tasmania, there was a momentary dead silence......and followed by a comment: "We are too old for this". When some learnt that I'll be heading there alone, exclamations followed: "What, ALONE? Are you sure?" Now, I know my non-Singaporeans friends out there are going to laugh their heads off or shake their heads in disbelief when reading this, but yes, I have to spend most of my time explaining why I'm going solo on this trip for once. Gosh.....I really don't want to launch into a long story here, which I can sense some of you are probably tired by now while reading this.

Ok, this is my first trip ever alone. For the countless trips which I've made since my graduation, there had always been a friend or family travelling with me. I've flown out of the country alone at times, but would usually be greeted by family members or friends at my destinations. But this time, I'm all alone in Tasmania: no friends, no family. And it was going to be a budget tour for me....or supposed to be .

Launceston
After a decent 7 hours on the plane, during which I caught the "inspiring" movie "Under the Tuscan Sun" by Diane Lane ( synopsis: a newly divorced American lady who found a new life and man in Italy, the land of romance), I made a transit at Melbourne to Launceston, Australia's third oldest city. My first impression of the city: serene, towny, sparsely populated. With anticipation, I arrived at Launceston Backpackers, a very small old building that didn't quite live up to my expectation. Before I had left for the trip, a friend who had backpacked in Tasmania warned me: " I don't think you can survive the backpackers inn. Choose a single room with your own toilet." Well, I did get a single room, with a shared toilet though, and no sheets or blanket. I had to pay extra to obtain the latter. The worse part: the room had no windows! Only a small opening at the ceiling that communicated with God knows what. The shared toilet had no soap, no locks, which meant anyone could've had access to it anytime of the day. It didn't help when the rain descended on the same day. I had to make a trip to the city to book for my day tours, and thankfully found a subsequent alternative accomodation at a nice decent lodge nearer to the city. I decided that I had to have a taste of what it was like staying in the backpackers after all, since it had been my first intention. That was perhaps the longest night I've ever had, saved by the numerous textings and talking on the phone with my friends to keep me alive. Thank you, my friends who had responded, from the bottom of my heart.

I am glad the fruitful subsequent trips to the Cradle Mountain, Cataract Gorge and the city itself made up for all the misery that I had over the first day at Launceston.