Port Douglas

I had never heard of Port Douglas. So I was a bit surprised that D suggested we go there instead of the more popular Gold Coast. Then I found out that Port Douglas is the gateway to snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef and of course, I had heard of that!

We spent almost a week here, of which a couple of days were just for lazing around.

When we went – This was the week before Christmas. Still the low season so not very crowded. Temperature could get quite high at 34 degree in the middle of the day but the morning and evenings were perfect.

Where we stayed – We stayed at the Freestyle Resort serviced apartments, located about ten minutes’ walk from the beach and the main street. It is run by a really lovely lady, Anne, who took an immediate shine to Bobo. We loved the place all the more for it.

Do/See –

Great Barrier Reef – I have never snorkeled before. The one attempt I made in Egypt was a spectacular flop. This time I was determined to have a go and we went about it in an organized way. D had booked a day trip on the Quicksilver tours. They took us in a large ferry to a platform located just where the reefs begin. D and I both tried out the snorkeling equipment from the platform. With a life jacket, it is quite easy to have a go. I then went on a guided introductory tour. This is easily one of the most awesome things I have done. The corals look so different from land life forms. It was very strange looking from above into a colourful and new world. The tour lasted 45 mintues, with our marine biologist-guide pointing at various things for us to admire. They were exotic indeed but not things I had heard of. Still, it did not stop me from being completely gobsmacked.

Daintree rainforest – As if having access to one world heritage is not enough, we could also check out another one. D and I took turns to go on day tours to Daintree rainforest/Mosmann Gorge. This rainforest is 110 million years old and has some of the earliest plant life on earth. The guide pointed out all sorts of interesting trees and lizards. The tour also included a crocodile-spotting boat tour and a stop at Cape Tribulation where James Cook realized it was not all easy-going (and thus the name).

Kuranda – This is a hill station of sorts, accessible by a cable car or a train through the mountains. We did one each way. Both are lovely and offer spectacular views. The village/town had all sorts of attractions. We decided to focus on two – lunch and the butterfly sanctuary. Lunch was at the highly recommended Frogs Kuranda, where we sampled crocodile, kangaroo and emu kebabs. To this exotic fare, we also had the pleasure of exotic company when four Boyd’s forest dragons decided to play on the edge of terrace in which the restaurant was located. Considering our guide had spent considerable time in the Daintree rainforest trying to spot one for us, it was quite hilarious to see them walk about so happily in broad daylight. Post lunch, we went to the butterfly sanctuary which looked like a magical world with thousands of them fluttering everywhere.

Wildlife Habitat (or the local zoo) – This was a trip that the dad-son did by themselves. I have seen the evidence with a photo of the dad holding a cute Koala bear while the son stands next to him looking a bit scared. I believe it has some cute exhibits and obviously a toddler cannot have enough of animals as long as he is not made to stand next to one.

We could have done these attractions, one each day and still finished in three – four days. Infact, we met a lot of Australians who were doing long weekends in Port Douglas. However, the couple of days which we had as a buffer between the sightseeing tours were nice too. Port Douglas’s beach is rather lovely and in this trip, Bobo discovered the joys of dipping his toes in the water, playing with sand and hurling mud clumps into the sea. We managed to cook a couple of meals each. We had slow mornings almost every day, with breakfast in the patio watching the red-breasted parakeets that liked to frequent the tree outside our apartment.We visited the local grocery stores a couple of times. I took Bobo to the second-hand bookshop.

It was not just travel. It was also a vacation. 

Sydney

I have been fascinated by Australia ever since I read Bill Bryson’s ' Down Under'. There was no end to the natural wonders the place had, including the world’s oldest living organisms. However when the time to visit Australia finally came, the itinerary was attuned to traveling with a toddler. We spent a whole week in Sydney and one in Port Douglas. 

When we went - We were there in the Christmas week. Before I left, people warned me about the hot summer and the crowds. The temperature never crossed a pleasant 27 degrees in the day. Also, the tourist season picks up only post-Christmas. So it was a good time to have visited. 

Stay - We transited through Sydney to Port Douglas and stayed a night in Circular Quay. This was a stone’s throw away from the key attractions – Opera House, Botanical gardens, Harbour Bridge – and had lovely restaurants. After Port Douglas, when we spent a few days in Sydney, we stayed in Meriton Service Apartments on Pitt Street. While not next door to the sights, it was very well connected by bus and train to all the key spots, was the heart of the shopping district and CBD, next door to Hyde Park and had pretty decent restaurants. With a two-year old, a spacious serviced apartment worked better than cramped hotel rooms. 

See/Do –

Opera House – We went on an hour-long guided tour of the Opera House (have to book ahead. Can do it online). The iconic structure looks magnificent from up close too and the whole tour was very engaging, with quick dashes into the various theatres, a short video on the engineering challenges during construction and some wonderful sights from various vantage points. Highly recommended – laze around the Opera House after the tour watching the seagulls and the sea. Then follow through with drinks and food at the Opera Bar adjoining the seaside wall of the Opera House.

Royal Botanical Garden – Massive gardens with all sorts of exotic-looking flowers. Great for walking around and for a picnic.

Hyde Park – Lovely place for a picnic. Had a large supply of birds on hand for young kids to feed and chase. Every time we passed through the park, Bobo simply ran behind the poor birds.

Hyde Barracks Museum – An UNESCO World Heritage spot, it gave an idea of Australia’s convicts history. While everyone knows how criminals were shipped to the new land, it was heart breaking to see the crimes for which they were being punished (life sentence for stealing a horse!). The only reason I could see the place and listen to the guided audio tour was because we took turns babysitting. Bobo missed this bit, but I am sure he did not miss it at all.

Taranga Zoo – A really big zoo that can take up a whole day. There were very good maps available online and at the venue to plan our day. The Australian animals were the best to see since we could have seen lions and tigers in other zoos too. They also had a section for farm animals which my city-kid gawked at open-mouthed.

Bondi Beach – Long white stretch of sand, with surfers all around. When we went, the weather was chilly but that did not deter the surfers! We also dropped in at the Iceberg bistro next door from where we could see the seaside pool with people swimming furiously in the cold water

Manly – A ferry ride brought us to this beach/eating/shopping area. It looked very promising in terms of the beach and the food. Unfortunately it started to rain and we beat a hasty retreat in half an hour.

Blue Mountains – This was a day trip. We saw several brochures for tours but it was quite easy (and cheaper) to just take a train to Katoomba and then public buses thereafter. The big draw was the Scenic World, with the world’s steepest rail line, a skyway over a canyon and a cable car. We had lunch at ‘The Yellow Deli’ which had really yummy food.

The Rocks – Stone-paved roads that lead to various restaurants. We also read about the weekend markets here but never got around to seeing them.

Darling Harbour – Lovely place to eat and watch the sea. Also had a nice kids park with plenty of play equipment, most of which were meant for older kids. Still, Bobo persisted in playing

Sales – As it happened, we were there on Boxing Day and so I could visit the Boxing Day sale. Despite Australia being horrifically expensive, I could still find some bargains.

Sydney without a toddler would have been a little different and probably included more walks and restaurants and definitely more drinks. Still, it was a good place for kids and every place seemed to welcome them with open arms. So we managed to eat some great food and see some nice places, all with the kid strapped into a stroller. 

Sydney without a kid may also have taken lesser time to tick off but the amazing thing I discovered was that a slower pace meant that we could actually savour a place instead of constantly getting prepared for the next part of our day. Especially letting a toddler lead you can mean stumbling upon a game of chess in Hyde Park being played on a large board with waist-high chess figures and watching the final exciting bits before checkmate. 

Sydney was pretty ok. 

 

Farm Animals

D said, reading Bobo’s school diary ‘Bobo has to take pictures of some farm animals to school. They are making a collage in his class’

D sounded grave and serious.

‘Uh huh’, I acknowledged without paying much attention. Bobo’s playgroup had been doing farm animals all month. Bobo had taken a toy horse to school earlier. Bobo had also been repeating ‘rooster’ endlessly for a while. It was hardly a topic for grave and serious conversation.

D continued ‘I am going to write a note saying we don’t have pictures of farm animals’

I looked up shocked ‘Wait a minute. We have plenty of pictures of farm animals. My mom used to cut pictures out of Span magazine all the time when we were kids. Of course he is going to take pictures of farm animals’

I was not going to let my son fail at homework this early on.

D continued, still despondent ‘We don’t subscribe to Span. We subscribe to the Economist. They don’t have pictures of farm animals’

D had a point. The previous week I had foolishly attempted to read the magazine with Bobo on my lap. Trying to surreptitiously censor the pictures, I had noticed the astounding number of guns that had been pictured in the issue. Certainly no farm animals. But I was not going to lose an argument.

‘Of course they have pictures of farm animals. They had pictures of cows all the time during the Mad Cow disease’

D did not bother responding.

Suddenly something struck me ‘I will google the pictures and take printouts at work?’

D did not respond this time either but that was because he had the look of ‘my wife is such a genius on his face’

‘Gosh you are so brilliant’ he finally spluttered.

We agreed on that point.

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Post-lunch, when the office is usually quite empty, I began to google for ‘rooster’. I was quite sure I did not want to get cutesy cartoons of farm animals. I wanted the real thing just so Bobo could see what the animals looked like.

I stuck gold in the first hit. I printed a glossy colour picture of a handsome and proud-looking rooster on an A4 sheet.

Then it was onto ‘cow’. This did not look so good. She was massive, almost like a black and white brick wall. The problem was that she looked a bit disgruntled. The cow was from an article on the mad cow disease (Ha. Take that D) and maybe that is how mad cows look…? Still, I was not going to spend lunchtime looking for cows with mellow expressions. Bobo could take what I found.

Another glossy colour A4 printout.

Then it was the picture of a horse. I picked the first one I spotted - an insipid looking light brown mare. Bobo could do well with learning that not all animals are handsome or majestic creatures.

At this point I began to wonder how big was the collage that the school intended to do. Surely the kids would not be able to work on such large-sized pictures. And surely the school should not think I was some sort of non-tree hugger who took such large and wasteful colour prinouts for a pre-schooler?

I considered reprinting everything on a smaller scale but figured out that that would infact make me a non-tree hugger.

I assuaged my conscience by finishing off with a small picture of a pig.

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In the evening, I told Bobo that I had got the pictures of farm animals.

He obviously had no clue that he was supposed to take some to school. Still, he was excited by the envelope (Used one. Note - Environmentally conscious)  that I waved at him.

We went through the pictures one by one.

‘Rooster’, Bobo cried looking at the first. I gave him a big appreciative hug.

‘Penguin’ he cried next.

What!

I flipped the paper to see if I had printed the wrong picture by mistake. But no. he was looking at the massive, disgruntled cow in black and white. The only animal he had seen in real life that was black and white was the penguin. And he had last seen a real cow in India during his infancy, the memory of which he clearly did not retain.

It looked like my choice of getting pictures of the animals instead of cartoons was already providing an education.

Still considering he got the horse, rooster and pig right, I began to wonder if the picture of the cow had been a good choice.

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I showed the pictures to D, obviously waiting to hear more praise.

‘What huge pictures!’ D exclaimed ‘how big do you think the collage is going to be?’

‘Aha’ I replied ‘that is why I also got this small picture of a pig’

D said ‘This pig looks like it is quarter the size of a rooster. How do you explain to kids who have never seen farm animals which animal is larger?’

I protested ‘Hey. The teacher should think of that. That is why we send Bobo to school’

D continued ‘God, why does this cow look so weird?’

I was beginning to feel like the massive, disgruntled cow myself. I think D picked up the mood since there were no more comments.

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The next morning I handed the envelope with the pictures to the teacher at school, cow included.

I am yet to hear how the collage is turning out.

I hope I get atleast one star for my effort.