Breakfast in Victoria Harbour - or, at home on two continents
Victoria Harbour
I always enjoy being the first customer at my local coffee shop located slightly above the harbour at the door step of my apartment in Melbourne’s youngest district: the Docklands. Here I can sit on my own on an early Sunday morning, and enjoy the excellent service and the peaceful waters and surroundings, at least for a short while.
The pretty little yacht harbour is to my left and the mighty Etihad Stadium in its background, where only two days ago the UK’s famous band ‘Coldplay’ gave one of their celebrated concerts, lighting up the harbour with beautifully fireworks and pleasant tunes.
There is very little activity on an early morning: a Melbourne City council boat is cleaning up the bits and pieces left over from Sunday night, and the odd foreign tourist is taking pictures of herself.
While the calm is truly enjoyable, the scenery reminds me of some of the Asian countries where I spent about 14 years of my professional life prior to moving to Australia. By this time, locals at the harbour of Hai Phong, in the back alleys of Jakarta and at the river banks of the Tonle Bassac in Phnom Penh would have set up shops and entire noodle soup restaurants, babies would be fed and older children taken to school on the back of motorbikes; street cleaners would clean the mess that the night market had left behind. All around there would be sounds, speaking, honking, and children calling out.
The pretty little yacht harbour is to my left and the mighty Etihad Stadium in its background, where only two days ago the UK’s famous band ‘Coldplay’ gave one of their celebrated concerts, lighting up the harbour with beautifully fireworks and pleasant tunes.
There is very little activity on an early morning: a Melbourne City council boat is cleaning up the bits and pieces left over from Sunday night, and the odd foreign tourist is taking pictures of herself.
While the calm is truly enjoyable, the scenery reminds me of some of the Asian countries where I spent about 14 years of my professional life prior to moving to Australia. By this time, locals at the harbour of Hai Phong, in the back alleys of Jakarta and at the river banks of the Tonle Bassac in Phnom Penh would have set up shops and entire noodle soup restaurants, babies would be fed and older children taken to school on the back of motorbikes; street cleaners would clean the mess that the night market had left behind. All around there would be sounds, speaking, honking, and children calling out.
In contrast: early morning in Hanoi
Australia, in its own way, is different, more orderly and subdued.
To ‘Australia-aficionados’ such as myself, the continent is reminiscent of vastness, natural diversity, wilderness, outback, adventure, vibrant colours, and danger (let us not forget the 10 most dangerous animals homed on the continent live here[1]). Australia has all of this this but in reality has become more and more urban in the last decades, with some 80% of the population now living in cities.
Life in Melbourne reminds a bit of London some 15 years ago, perhaps because Melbourne is farther away than London from the centre of European fashion, latest trends and cultural activity, and yet it is leading within Australia.
Melbourne provides a vast array of options from art and culture, architectural beauty, live events, festivals and exhibitions, beach culture and water sports, sightseeing opportunities in surrounding areas, access to wildlife sanctuaries – whatever you like, you name it, but you can live there and never come across a kangaroo in your lifetime.
Australia also stands for an orderly, clean and relatively safe living environment, which I enjoy - though yet at times I do miss the down-to-earth hustle and bustle of Southeast Asia: the welcoming, smiling faces, the easy conversations, the prompt service, the speedy internet, dinners at river banks watching beautiful sunsets, and above all, the giggle and the laughter.
Whenever these memories return, I know it is time for me to book a flight to Hanoi, Yangon or Phnom Penh, and immerse myself again in their lives and cultures for a short while - until I return to my coffee and to writing another article in Victoria Harbour.
[1]http://www.australianfauna.com/t10dangerous.php
Melbourne January 2013
To ‘Australia-aficionados’ such as myself, the continent is reminiscent of vastness, natural diversity, wilderness, outback, adventure, vibrant colours, and danger (let us not forget the 10 most dangerous animals homed on the continent live here[1]). Australia has all of this this but in reality has become more and more urban in the last decades, with some 80% of the population now living in cities.
Life in Melbourne reminds a bit of London some 15 years ago, perhaps because Melbourne is farther away than London from the centre of European fashion, latest trends and cultural activity, and yet it is leading within Australia.
Melbourne provides a vast array of options from art and culture, architectural beauty, live events, festivals and exhibitions, beach culture and water sports, sightseeing opportunities in surrounding areas, access to wildlife sanctuaries – whatever you like, you name it, but you can live there and never come across a kangaroo in your lifetime.
Australia also stands for an orderly, clean and relatively safe living environment, which I enjoy - though yet at times I do miss the down-to-earth hustle and bustle of Southeast Asia: the welcoming, smiling faces, the easy conversations, the prompt service, the speedy internet, dinners at river banks watching beautiful sunsets, and above all, the giggle and the laughter.
Whenever these memories return, I know it is time for me to book a flight to Hanoi, Yangon or Phnom Penh, and immerse myself again in their lives and cultures for a short while - until I return to my coffee and to writing another article in Victoria Harbour.
[1]http://www.australianfauna.com/t10dangerous.php
Melbourne January 2013