Day 24, Friday 14th May, Melbourne

The Jetstar flight had a tailwind and got to Melbourne Tullamarine half an hour early, at 10 am local time, but we had to hang around waitung for a bay to free up, and then inside the terminal there was half an hour's wait for checked luggage (possibly because I checked in so early and my stuff was right at the back?).

The immigration card asked all sorts of dangerous questions like "Do you intend to live in Australia for the next 12 months?"  and "How long are you planning to stay in Australia? --days --months -- years". I thought about all the consequences (residence, tax, pension, health insurance) and answered accordingly.

The customs declaration said, if unsure, say yes. For instance to the question:
"Are you bringing in goods worth more than $900 in total which have been purchased outside Australia or tax-free in Australia?"
Well any visitor from abroad would have to say yes, counting suitcases, clothes, mobile phones, cameras. The immigration officer in fact changed that yes to no and got me to sign it. There were two further declaration checks, with crosses and squiggles being added before I got to the final customs inspection. I showed my Angkor souvenirs (organic materials) and the soles of my shoes, which were free of soil, and passed through.

In the plane, passengers were not defumigated, they seem to have stopped that nonsense.

So at last I went through the door and was met by my sister and brother-in-law, Beatrice and Charlie, who drove me back to their home in Diamond Creek. Where all 4 suitcases sent by post were waiting for me. Two of them had been opened by Australian customs, one had been found not to accord with regulations, containing shoes contaminated with foreign soil. A second piece of paper mentioned decontamination, so I'm not sure whether the shoes in question have been decontaminated and put back, or are awaiting destruction in Sydney if I don't respond within 30 days.

I had an afternoon siesta of a few hours but otherwise no readjustment was necessary. In the evening I took the train to Fairfield and was treated to an excellent Japanese meal by my daughter Caren and her boyfriend Leo, here:

Caren and I had visited the bottle shop next door and looked at wines, we chose a New Zealand 2009 Pinot Gris called Ta_Ku, with a mystical poem on the back of the label and adescription of the wine:
Enticing pear and citrus aromas. Generous fruit flavours. Presence and persistence.
It tasted quite nice.

Caren and me:

Caren is moving out of her Brunswick flat on Saturday 22nd May, so I can take that over by the end of the month, including current internet connection and enough furniture and equipment to start off with. And once insurance and a flat battery is sorted out, I should have my first wheels too. I will probably recharge the battery by driving the two hours eastwards to Cockatoo in the Dandenongs to visit my brother Stephen and his family.

Here are Charlie & Beatrice with cappuccino and donuts at Greensborough shopping mall on Saturday morning:

Now that the journey is over, I'm glad that  there were no major problems, nothing was stolen and I only lost one day in Siem Reap due to food poisoning. I have visited three countries I have been interested in for quite a while and now know where I would return to, for instance Luang Prabang, and where not, for instance Phnom Penh. And when: NOT in the hot season. Which of course any travel agent would tell you.

Munich is now much further away than it was at the start, not just in kilometres but in the immediacy of the problems and issues existing there.

I have delved into a few of the issues awaiting me here, from mobile phone contracts and pre-paids (amazingly expensive, about ten times the German level) to the pressing issue of health insurance, which is also tied up with residency which I want to avoid for now until I've got answers to some questions about tax etc. So I really need to see a financial consultant and probably an accountant too very soon.

But for now, I am concluding this travel diary and, even though many entries were delayed a few days, most things were still fresh enough for me to record them accurately, so it has been worthwhile. Next time I will not rely on other people's software and strangely constructed interfaces and logic, but make my own, which will be a project to work on in the meantime.

My first impressions of Australia: it is pleasant to be back in a temperate climate, where the cold shower water is actually cold on the skin; prices seem to me to be exorbitant; it is good to be home where the voices on the streets and coming from the television are in my language. The lad in the bottle shop (where it was difficult to find a bottle of wine under $10!) asked "Wanna bag?" and saw me off with "see ya later". All very easygoing and straightforward and egalitarian, just right.

Here is the view from the window as I finish this diary: