Our time in Melbourne, Australia

Trip Start Nov 29, 2008
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Trip End Jan 11, 2009


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Flag of Australia  , Victoria,
Saturday, December 20, 2008

We arrived in Melbourne, Australia on Dec 15 and stayed till Dec 20th.  We stayed with Rasanayagam and Pirie family.  This includes Kalyani's cousin and Puvi and his wife Saku.  Also includes Tanuja, Lance and Jeshua.  Jeshua is a two year old and he is very intelligent and cute.  He got along very well with Kiran. 

During this part of the trip we were joined by Kiran and Varun.  They wouldn't miss a trip to Australia paid by parents, would they?  Kiran joined us at Hong Kong on our way to Australia while Varun joined us directly in Melbourne on Dec 18th.

We also met old colleague from NEC days - Phil Tannenbaum.  He is now acting CIO of Bureau of Meteorology.  If you problems with weather prediction in Australia you know whom to blame :)

We visited Melbourne city center (note I did not say downtown - I am learning) several times, went to Queen Victoria market, visited a nice Animal Sanctuary and saw kangaroos, wallaby, koala bears etc.  Highlight of the Melbourne trip was clearly visiting Philip Island and  watching the amazing tiny Penguin parade.  They would precisely at sundown come ashore and start parading (waddling) in hundreds to their little dugouts where they have their young ones.  You can watch them up close but you cannot take pictures or be noisy so as not to disturb them.  It was very chilly and windy and we had to sit in front of ocean to wait for them but well worth the effort.  I would highly recommend this to anybody going to Melbourne.
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