A journey down under

Mom cried while she was sending me off at the airport. "It's just for 2 months" I said, patting her at the back, thinking that she is making a big fuss out of this. To me, I failed miserably as a son. Haven't been spending sufficient time with them and my siblings, the sense of guilt is overwhelming.

I boarded the plane at 12.40 pm with Amanda who is visiting her friend over in Clayton. I looked at the map and realised that Australia is not really far from Malaysia, yet the whole journey took 8 hours. Looking at the sky in the plane, I managed to put my worries, burden at the back of my head for a while. It was beautiful. I can see ice forming outside the window due to the low temperature and Amanda started taking shots at it using her new DSLR.

The night scenery of Melbourne City from the sky is truly breath-taking. Just by looking at the lights from above, I can tell that this city is well arranged. Amanda met up with her friends after that and that left me alone in the airport.

Had to sleep over in the airport yesterday as I arrived at 12 midnight. Took me quite a moment to get used to the currency. Bought a vanila shake from MacD and found a good spot at one corner to sleep over. It was cold in the airport and even with both my jackets on, soon I noticed that my fingers and nail beds were turning blue. Thanks to the body's homeostasis, I managed to conserve some heat via peripheral vasoconstiction. It was a rough night, but It was thrilling.

I managed to get a few hours of poor quality sleep. The fear of loosing my luggage kept me awake every now and then. I checked whether my passport and wallet are still with me constantly, just in case.


It was 5am in the morning, I bought myself a cup of steaming hot coffee that costs me 3 dollar and headed towards the bus station to wait for the shuttle bus that is scheduled to bring me straight to Monash Clayton Campus. While waiting, I enjoyed observing the people around me with a cup of coffee in my hand. The morning breeze was exceptionally fresh, I took a deep breath in and told myself, "you're a lucky man cyc, this is gonna be a hell of an experience".

Dandenong Airport Shuttle bus ( Melbourne Airport-> Monash Clayton 25 dollars)