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Published: September 24th 2012
I arrived in Sydney the day after the Qantas explosion. When I boarded the KST shuttle bus (affordable for round-trip hostel and airport transport), it was all anyone was talking about.
I haven't always felt safe with transportation (especially on rides through Sumatra and Borneo and on smaller planes where you feel every inch of the road or the slightest gust of wind), but the destinations seem to justify the risk as long as I'm not choosing a war-torn country. I suppose there’s the thrill of
carpe diem, but I wonder, having begun traveling at a very young age, if the odds are slowly stacking against me?
I pretend a practiced nonchalance when a plane leaves the tarmac and give a sigh of relief whenever the seatbelt sign goes off with a reassuring ding. I might even give a smile of self-satisfaction (
as if my intrepid decision to take the flight had something to do with the pilot’s success in getting us airborne). News of explosions and a slight anxiety during lift-off won’t stop this gal from travelling anytime soon.
The good news was that nobody was hurt during the Qantas explosion and the pilot and crew did
an exemplary job of keeping everyone safe. Stories like this make me feel like there’s a chance of survival should anything go wrong. Reading the exact details made me think that the bad guys get all the media and that we need to be reminded of the heroes more often:
During an emergency landing in Singapore the autopilot system disengaged while the plane was still 1,000ft off the ground. The plane was 50 tonnes heavier than its top landing weight, because it could not risk shedding fuel, and the inflight computer had warned against applying maximum braking until the nose wheel was on the runway. This posed a serious danger that the plane would plough off the runway before stopping.
Captain Richard de Crespigny completed the descent manually, throwing the jet into maximum reverse thrust to bring it to a halt – with 150 metres to spare, burning brake pads and four blown tyres. (Wearden, 2010)
Wake Up!
The name of the hostel was a bit ironic as I felt like I was waking up from a long and peaceful dream. After diving, swimming and not having to chat on a cellphone in what felt like a satisfyingly long time, entering Wake-Up Hostel where lots of backpackers (and residents, it seemed) chatted within the computer café with headsets covering half the conversation left my ears buzzing.
The place was as tall as it was wide and, at some points, felt like a backpack fraternity-sorority house. The prices seemed steep after traveling SE Asia, but that was to be expected especially with Australia’s exchange rate doing exceptionally well at this time.
I was supposed to call a friend-of-a-friend, Nimo, who had taken a year to work in Melbourne and who had agreed to hang out. I heard his
telltale laugh resounding like he had heard the best joke anyone had ever told, one of those laughs that makes you crack a smile despite not having a clue about the joke. Nimo and his Sydney friend, Dre, walked in. It was good to see Nimo’s familiar face. It also triggered some déjà vu since I would be returning Stateside very soon.
Our group grew in number as we ate a light dinner and then headed out to a bar to shoot some pool. It was nice having a refreshing beer with Nimo’s friends (and despite the photos, I didn’t have both pitchers). I felt a little spoiled being the only girl in the group, but everyone was a perfect gentleman except in humor, which made for a lot of good jokes.
Now, I may be biased because I was only in Sydney for a few days, but I was so impressed by how genuinely friendly people came across. I would want to spend more time in the city down the line to say this more confidently, but first-impressions were great.
The shops closed earlier than the States. The Aussies seem to understand that all work and
no play makes Jack a dull boy. With the strong currency and great vacation time, I can see the appeal of living in Australia.
There is a large Asian population and a very small Black-African population. Nimo pointed out that it was like being in the States if slavery hadn't existed and more Asians had immigrated, a somewhat alternate universe. This comment also made me realize how long it had been since I had been in the States where race is more in the forfront of everybody's mind.
We booked a Blue Mountains tour and lucked out with an awesome guide despite not seeing any kangaroos. Mick, who was not only knowledgeable about Sydney and its surrounding sites, but had plenty of travel tales to share. He'd worked behind the scenes for famous bands and rock musicians while living in the States. His most startling story was about how he tried to make a trip into Canada when he, for no explicable cause, was held-back by Homeland Security. They allegedly interrogated him for hours. At the end of the meeting, he said, they presented a transcript of the entire interrogation and told him to sign the documents and
thereby agree to all the contents. He explained that there was no way, in the time allotted to him, that he would be able to read the thick book of papers.
They didn't respond.
Instead of protesting more, he took a few seconds to look at the book and asked, "Cool! Can I get a photo with it?"
I don’t think they appreciated his humor as he didn’t get the photo.
Nimo and I couldn't claim witness to the actual events, but found them not entirely unbelievable. Sadly, after the incident, Mick never returned to the States figuring that there were plenty of other destinations for him to choose from without harassing security.
Works Cited
Wearden, Graeme. (2010, December 3rd). Qantas Crew Praised Over Actions Following Mid-Air Engine Explosion. The Guardian, UK. Retrieved September 23, 2012 from
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/03/qantas-crew-praised-engine-failure
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The Travel Camel
Shane Dallas
The ding of the seatbelt sign
I too am not comfortable with take-offs, despite all those flights I have taken. That ding that accompanies the extinguishing of the seatbelt sign is probably the most pleasant noise you can hear on any plane.