Category Archives: Australia

My life in Australia

The Man Who Sued God

Posted on October 18, 2012 | 15 comments

I was looking to watch a movie last night and I saw one of my friends Facebook’s status: “OMG (Oh My God) is a great movie.”

So I googled and found out that it is a Bollywood movie and it looked interesting so I convinced my husband to get this movie from our local Asian grocery shop and we watched it together.

It is a film about our relationship with God, how instead of being God-loving, we have become God-fearing. How religion has become a business run by god-men  ( referred to as ‘salesmen’) who aren’t in fact very spiritual at all. While I was watching this movie, it came to me that I have watched a very similar movie before and then I remembered that it was “The man who sued God.”

The Man who sued the god (2001) is an Australian movie that I watched a long time ago and I really liked it. But over time I had completely forgotten about it.

The story was very similar in both movies but one aimed at the Hindu religion and other at the Christian religion but both conveyed the same message. My husband loved OMG and I did as well expect a few instances where it was hard for me to understand Bollywood humour and the subtitle didn’t help at those times.

So if you are into Bollywood movies then do watch OMG (Oh My God) but I am sure you will also love The Man who sued the god.

The story in a nutshell is:

Billy Connolly plays Steve Myers, a lawyer who became a fisherman from frustration. When his one piece of property, his boat, is struck by lightning and destroyed he is denied insurance money because it was ‘an act of God’. He re-registers as a lawyer and sues the insurance company and the church under the guise of God, defending himself.

Billy Connolly is excellent, his wit and charm is on display throughout the film and it is very, very, funny, most of the time. The story itself is very intriguing; it successfully provokes your thoughts and captures your imagination with interesting questions.

I don’t want to spoil your fun so please watch either or even both of the movies and tell me what you think.

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Posted in Australia, Movie Review

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Helensburgh Hindu temple

Posted on October 15, 2012 | 11 comments

I am sure you get the vibe from my blog that I am not a very religious person but I do enjoy going to the temple occasionally. My husband always reminds me how religious my mum is and he finds it a bit surprising that I am not like my mum in the religion department. I always tell him, “If I have a clean heart and make sure that I am not hurting anyone in my day to day life, God will consider me as a good citizen and will be happy with me. There is no need to really visit a temple all the time or pray for hours :)”.

There are not that many Hindu temples in Sydney and most of them are not close to where I live so planning is required to visit one.

From time to time I feel like I should go to the temple and pay my respect so I drag my husband along for some prayer. Last weekend we managed to go to a temple in Helensburgh called Sri Venkateswara Temple. It is around 45 minutes’ drive from my apartment or an hour from Sydney city center (55km). The temple is built on top of a hilly area 400 feet above sea level. It has four ‘praharam’ (encircling corridors). Sri Venkateswara Temple was built in 1978 by the Indian people in Australia as a South Indian-style Hindu temple.

So far there is no Nepali temple in Sydney but they are planning to build a version of Nepal’s famous Pashupathi in Sydney.

At the temple devotees are supposed to leave their footwear outside and wash their hands and feet before they enter the temple. The temple area inside has small shrines for each of the Gods. There are priests performing rituals at each of the shrines at a pre-determined time.

There is a temple counter inside which provides visitors with more information about temple rituals and prayers.  They also sell puja for $15 which goes towards maintenance of the temple. You get a plate of puja which has Sindoor, flowers, dhup and fruits. Also, you can buy diyo (oil lamp) if you want to light just the diyo.

The temple has deities like Lord Venkateswara, Goddess Mahalakshmi ,Lord Chandramouleeswarar, Goddess Thripurasundari , Lord Ganesh, Lord Subrahmanya , Lord Navagraha, Goddess Durgambika , Lord Rama , Goddess Andal , Lord Krishna, Lord Brahma , Lord Hanuman, Lord Garuda  , Lord Sudharsana , Lord Viswakshena , Lord Dhakshinamurthy and Lord Chandikesa.

I have seen lots of South Indian weddings being performed inside the temple in my previous visits.

I know it doesn’t sound so right but I love to go to this temple because they serve a great Indian food in their canteen during weekends. I always have Masala Dosa (made by stuffing a lightly cooked filling of potatoes, fried onions and spices in a fermented crepe or pancake made from rice batter and black lentils) and Vada (a donut  shaped dish made from lentils and gram flour or potato) . They are so cheap but so yummy. They do sell other South Indian vegetarian dishes as well but those two are my favourite especially with masala tea (spiced Indian style milk tea).

The temple opens 8am – 7pm, week-ends and public holidays; 8.00am to 12.00pm and 4.00pm to 7.00pm on weekdays.

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Posted in Australia, NSW - Australia

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Chinese garden of Friendship

Posted on October 8, 2012 | 9 comments

Last weekend, we went to visit a hidden treasure of Sydney, in the middle of the city in Darling Harbour.

Initiated by the local Chinese community to share their rich cultural heritage and celebrate Australia’s 1988 Bicentenary, the Chinese Garden is the result of a close bond of friendship and cooperation between the sister cities of Sydney and Guangzhou in Guangdong Province, China. The Chinese Garden of Friendship was designed by Sydney’s Chinese sister city, Guangzhou.

Even though I have been living in Australia for so long I have never been inside the Chinese garden. I have walked past the garden numerous times but for some reason never thought to go inside. Last weekend the weather was so good that I and my husband decided that we must go out and enjoy the sunny day. So we took a train to the city and walked to Darling Harbour from Town Hall train station.

We were in the garden by 11am and there were only 3 people on the queue to get tickets to go inside. We got the ticket and it cost us just $6.00. We started our tour from the right hand side door of the garden.

The whole garden cannot be seen from any one point within the garden. It has a number of features including the Dragon Wall symbolizing the bond between New South Wales and Guangzhou, the Water Pavilion of Lotus Fragrance, the Twin Pavilion and The Tea House that offers traditional Chinese tea and other refreshments. The garden is a popular venue for weddings, providing many beautiful backgrounds for photographs.

We were there to enjoy the day so we just walked around the garden and enjoyed the sun taking photos from time to time. There was a big pond in the middle of the garden and it had big colourful fishes. I actually forgot that we were in the middle of the city once we were inside. As spring has started here, there were so my beautiful flowers in the garden. I just loved everything in it: the trees, well-trimmed plants, beautiful spring flowers, calm lotus pond and the magnificent temple.

It was peaceful, serene, beautiful and calming. There is a waterfall which gives the feeling that you are in some national park. There are some alcoves to rest and overlook the whole garden to just soak in its natural beauty. We took so many photos as wherever I turned there was a beautiful view. The garden isn’t large but there are plenty of places to sit and take in the views. It took us about an hour to meander through the garden.

We saw a beautiful bridal carriage which is the imperial bridal carriage was used by Chinese Emperors in ancient times with extremely ornamental decorations. The jade carriage is typical of the historical carriages of past dynasties. It is believed 100 skilful artists were engaged in the laborious and intricate carving work. Over 300 tons of raw jade were used, the finished weight approx. 2 tons.

The carriage has a canopy decorated with entwining dragon motif with two lanterns in front. The main body of the carriage is carved into elaborate openwork of dragon, phoenix and fairies which are the symbol of Luck, Prestige and Authority. The two front shafts are cut as two lively charging dragons, guiding the carriage. Behind the carriage are two ornamental fans, which symbolise Royal Dignity.

The age and the cost of the carriage are unknown, however it is believed the carriage came from the Chinese Province of Guangdong and it is said to be the only carriage known to be outside China.

As we were walking around we saw a few people wearing traditional Chinese costumes and taking photos so we decided to find out more about it.

We found a place in one corner of garden where you can hire a costume for $10 and pretend to be a Princess/Queen/Emperor/Empress. They let you roam the garden with the costumes as long as you like and parade around the gardens and take as many photos as you like.

So me and AS decided to dress up as well and become Chinese for a while. I choose a red dress and the lady in the shop helped me to do my hair. AS choose a dark blue one and even got a long white beard to try with his costume. This was one of my favourite photos of the day.

Once we were dressed, the lady from the shop took a few of our photos. From there we walked the whole garden taking photos in different locations. We felt like we were in some movie walking around in the costumes and taking photos. Lots of people stopped to look at us and a few even asked us to pose so they could take a photo of us :). It was a really interesting experience to feel like we were in China.

I saw two girls wearing the costumes so we took photos with them as well. It was so much fun. I really loved it.

If you feel hungry there is a teahouse. You can also hire a 45-minute audio tour in English and Mandarin, if you like.

For the price, we had an amazing day, relaxing and wonderful.

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Posted in Australia, NSW - Australia

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Traffic chaos around the world

Posted on September 7, 2012 | 16 comments

When I think about traffic, I think there is no way the traffic can be as bad anywhere else as in Asia like in Kathmandu, Bangkok, India, Vietnam , Hong Kong, etc. but in the past few months I have been surprised that in Europe, the traffic is worse than in Nepal.

I know Kathmandu has more cars on the road than the road can handle. To cross the bridge from Kupondole to Thapathali, it can take you an hour but believe me that is not as bad as what I saw while touring around the world.

While I was in India, I asked the driver why his car’s side mirrors were closed. He said, it will get scratched (by other cars) if it is opened so he left it closed. Imagine my horror to be in that car for weeks knowing he doesn’t even have side mirrors in use. I was definitely scared about my and my parents’ safety. But after a few hours on the road, I realised that not only the car we were on that had its side mirror closed but every vehicle on the road was using the same trick.

Then I got to experience tuk tuk in Bangkok and I will tell you it is not a great experience that I will cherish. There are so many cars and tuk tuks in Bangkok along with motor cycles and bicycles that you wish you were not sitting in an open vehicle in the summer heat stuck in traffic.

It was the same story in Vietnam with the traffic but in Vietnam we had booked air conditioned car which made our journey bearable. I couldn’t imagine being on a non AC car for 4-5 hours in the summer heat.

But there is one thing common in all these places I have mentioned above. They all have narrow roads with too many vehicles on the road and traffic chaos along with very slow traffic like 40km/hr.

In US, the traffic seems to fine expect in New York. In New York, cars were not even stopping for pedestrians on the pedestrian crossing even when the crossings are so big that you could see it easily from 100 meters away. In other parts of US, they have very wide roads and I really loved their freeway with their exit numbers. Even in peak hours most of the roads seem to cope a lot better than in Asian countries.

My perspective of traffics changed when I landed in Europe for my last holiday. I took a bus tour around Europe but in England we did our own driving.  I drove a very small car for a couple of days and was shocked to see narrow roads everywhere. The good thing was that at least everyone was following the traffic rules so things were under control. While in Germany, we were on a no limit highway where there is no speed limit for cars and we could see that cars were zooming away in front of us. Funnily enough these types of highways are the one that have the least accidents.

Anyway travelling around Europe, everyone told us that wait till you get to Italy and you will realise what crazy traffic is. In my mind I was thinking, I am sure I have seen crazier traffic in Asia.

But the day we reached Italy, Italian drivers proved me wrong. OMG Italian traffic is a real example of chaos. Especially in Rome, there is no room for error. People were driver cars as if they were walking so there were no signals and they were driving the car wherever they can fit it into. And the worst thing is the roads are very small. On top of it, vehicles are parked on both sides of the road. In one occasion, our tourist bus had to reverse almost 500 meters in a tiny road because the place we were supposed to turn right at had a car parked on the corner making it impossible for bus to turn into the road. There was no other option but to return in reverse. I really believe that Italians are really good drivers after driving on those roads for years.

When we left Italy, I thought I had seen the worst traffic in my life but oho boy, how wrong was I. As soon as we entered Paris, I saw more extreme traffic chaos. The freeway we entered in Paris was so busy that we were crawling. The guide was telling us that our hotel was only 15 minutes away but it took us almost an hour to get there. I saw a bike colliding with a car just in front of us as well. Also one of the days we were there, I noticed the main city roads had no white marking so we didn’t know how many lanes it had. To top all this, motor bikes and scooters were everywhere squeezing in wherever they can.

I am sure I still haven’t been to any places like China and Mexico to see more chaos that traffic causes but I am glad I went around at least to these places because it made me realise that we definitely are in a better place in Australia. Next time when I am stuck in traffic, I won’t get frustrated as I have seen worse. I really appreciate the roads and rules we follow in Sydney. I guess all the people who whinge about Sydney’s roads and traffic need to have a round trip to Asia as well as Europe to appreciate how good we are compared to there. I know there are better roads in the world but definitely we don’t have one of the worst ones.

Safe driving everyone!!! Remember no life is worth reaching 5 minutes quicker to any places.

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Welcoming Spring with Cherry blossom festival

Posted on September 4, 2012 | 9 comments

Last weekend we went to a Cherry blossom festival to welcome spring.

I always wanted to attend the Cherry blossom festival in Japan and imagine my surprise and excitement when I found out that one of the councils (Auburn) in Sydney has organised a Cherry blossom festival in their botanical garden.

Japanese Sakura, Cherry Blossoms, bloom once a year for about two weeks, providing a beautiful spectacle. Cherry blossom viewing parties (Hanamis) are very significant events in Japan and having a picnic lunch under a blossoming cherry tree is a popular Japanese tradition.

It was nice and sunny afternoon and we got there after driving for more than 40 minutes. There was a guy at a roundabout who instructed us toward a mostly empty parking lot. We parked our car and walked toward the entrance of the garden. We had to pay $4 to enter. As soon as we entered, I could see so many people already there, next to the Japanese garden where there were rows of cherry blossom trees. The path looked really beautiful but we had to wait for a while to take our photos as there were so many people already.

Once we took our photos there we entered the Japanese garden via the moon gate.   We waked around the Japanese garden and got to see more cherry blossom trees. It has a big beautiful lake in the middle with ducks and swans playing in the water. I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t gone to such a beautiful place before.  Also at one corner, there were two Japanese musicians playing beautiful music. Inside the garden there was also the Tea House Garden, the five traditional mountains, the main waterfall, the central island, the bridges, the Ryoan-ji style Garden, the pines and the Azaleas.

From there we went and visit Scented Garden and sunken Rose garden. As it was too early in Spring, there were no roses but still there were other flowers that made the garden look really lovely.

After a while we got hungry. I regretted that we hadn’t packed a picnic as I saw so many people were enjoying their lunch in the garden. There was a cart selling coffee and cakes and another one was a Japanese cart at the entrance to the gardens selling Takoyaki, a ball-shaped Japanese snack made of a wheat flour-based batter and cooked in a special takoyaki pan. It is typically filled with minced or diced octopus, tempura scraps (tenkasu), pickled ginger, and green onion. We waited in a long line for more than 40 minutes and bought mixed large pack. They weren’t the best and we regretted again that we didn’t bring anything from home. Normally I love them but that day we couldn’t finish 16 balls between the two of us.

After lunch we continued our trip toward Australian Native and Rainforest Garden. The rainforest area of the Garden sits between the billabong and the adjacent Duck River. There is a thick canopy of foliage over the area with a large amount of vegetation which produces a moist, deep leaf littered, mouldy floor.

From there we made our way to Fauna Reserve and Aviary. We saw Swamp Wallabies, Red Necked Wallabies, Eastern Grey Kangaroos, Emus, Rufous Bettong and the Common Wombat as well as beautiful peacocks.

The best part of the trip was, it was a perfect sunny day to walk in the garden and enjoy natural beauty and the worst part of the trip was the garden had only one toilet for women so there was a really long queue. To make it worse, the toilet had no lock and there was no toilet paper or soap either. Please Auburn council, you could make everyone’s trip there nicer with proper toilets.

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Posted in Australia

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