(LĐ online) - At the end of the trip, my 7th grade nephew answered the question "What did you realize?" "We must study well so that in the future our country will be as rich and beautiful as Australia!"
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| Opera House |
• FROM SAIGON TO SYDNEY
The Jetstar plane took off from Tan Son Nhat at 10pm. At this time, many of my friends had gone to bed to listen to music, read books and gradually fell into a peaceful sleep on a late night of the year, while I was busy dragging my luggage onto the plane. The huge double-decker Boeing 787 gently took off across the East Sea, then flew over the skies of Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia... The little nephew sitting next to me suddenly asked: "Are the people under my wings awake, grandpa?". I smiled: "We flew up to 11,000m without any impact, so they still slept soundly, my child". The steady sound of the engine echoed forever in the vast night sky, the passengers dozed off for who knows how long! Then the dim light appeared through the plane window, the sky outside was gradually getting brighter, it was also the time when the plane was entering the airspace of Australia, it took nearly 6 hours to fly across the desert, from above we could see green, scattered houses, then crowded streets, the plane gradually lowered its altitude, the city of Sydney grew under the wings. The plane gently landed at Sydney International Airport located on the Pacific coast, southeast of Australia, the airport clock said 11 local time but the watch on my hand said 7 Vietnam time. So after 9 hours floating in the sky we left Vietnam for Australia, we crossed Asia to Oceania.
Oceania has the smallest area of all the continents on the globe, surrounded by the Indian Ocean to the west, the south and the Pacific Ocean to the east. Oceania has 14 independent countries, of which Australia is the largest with the most developed economy , then New Zealand, the rest are small island nations, the smallest island nation is Nauru with a population of only about 10,000 people, an area of about 21km2, if you ride a motorbike within a few hours, you can go around the country.
Australia, or commonly known as Australia, is vast, accounting for 86% of the entire Australian continent, spread over nearly 6 meridians, Australia is to the southeast of Vietnam. The west coast of Australia is 1 hour away from Vietnam while the east coast of Australia is 4 hours ahead of us, which means that at 10 pm we took off from Saigon, it was already 2 am in Sydney the next morning. Sydney is a port city located in the state of New South Wales, the most populous, bustling and developed city in the land of kangaroos, Sydney has 6 million people while the whole of Australia has only 23 million people, the population density here is nearly 500 people/km2. The central area with magnificent and massive constructions is concentrated around the Harbour and the Opera House, the constructions are planned quite reasonably, combined with the harmonious arrangement of green trees, making the city beautiful and luxurious, from every corner visitors can take satisfactory photos!
Coming to Sydney, international visitors cannot help but visit the Opera House, also known as the oyster theater, a unique architectural work that is one of a kind in the world , looking like giant oyster shells put together to form a large, beautiful white building located on the Pacific coast, standing out against the blue of the sea and the azure of the Sydney sky in the summer. Here, people often organize cultural and artistic activities and many national and international cultural events. Opposite the oyster theater on the other side of the Harbour Bay is the Sydney Harbour Bridge made of steel across the strait, also known as the coat hanger bridge because inside the bridge, the architects created light-hanging arms that look like coat hangers. The project was completed in 1932 but until now it is not outdated in terms of functionality and aesthetics, the bridge is used for almost all means of transport, from trains, cars, trams, motorbikes, bicycles and even walking on both sides of the bridge... People say it is impossible to count them all, but there have been millions of beautiful photos of the Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge that have been transmitted by tourists all over the world. Commercial, tourism, cultural activities... are bustling, people and vehicles are crowded in the center of Sydney, Australia's means of transport are quite diverse including taxis, Uber, buses, old trams, trams, ships, canoes... quite crowded but the road system can be said to be wonderful, making the travel of city residents and tourists always smooth, during our days here we used all kinds of vehicles from morning to late at night to return to the hotel but did not get stuck in traffic and did not witness or hear about any traffic accidents.
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| An ancient church in Australia |
Far from the center to the north of Sydney are villa neighborhoods with many old villas hidden in green gardens, flower beds or rows of ancient trees on the streets creating a peaceful, romantic space of a city that is among the "top ten" richest in the world, where the average income of people is up to over 55,000 USD/year. Maple trees are a typical tree that is planted almost everywhere on the streets of Sydney, there are trees that are hundreds of years old, with trunks that are so big that several people can hug them, and their foliage intersects to shade the streets. In the parks, there are a variety of trees and flowers, including many ancient banyan trees that are quite carefully cared for, with secondary roots planted in the ground to support the branches and leaves to continue to grow. A Vietnamese friend in Sydney told us that in Australia there are laws that prioritize the protection of women, children, dogs and trees. Then he told a funny story: A woman often beat a dog given to her by her husband's ex-lover. Every time she saw it, she hated it and beat it up to relieve her anger. The neighbors felt sorry for her so they filed a complaint and she had to go to court. The court sentenced her to 3 months in prison. After the verdict, the judge muttered to himself: "What a stupid woman! With her husband by her side, why don't you beat the dog to relieve your anger? Why do you beat the dog and end up in jail?"
In Sydney, there are many different museums, but perhaps the place that attracts the most visitors and leaves the strongest impression is the crime museum, also known as the police museum, or the justice museum. Perhaps in this world, there are few countries that have a crime museum like Australia, a country that started with prison camps, or like Las Vegas, USA, where there are many mafia subjects. This museum in Australia is famous for attracting domestic and international tourists, especially students who are often brought by teachers to visit and listen to stories instead of lessons about morality and law. There are many criminal stories of many cases, stories, images, artifacts and footage of each case displayed from the beginning to the end, gruesome murders, fascinating crime solving scenes, extremely diverse faces of criminals, the cunning tricks of criminals cannot be hidden from the law and are all brought to light. Stepping out of the crime museum, people can learn many valuable lessons in life, from morality to justice, from greed, hatred to law... without the need for any heavy theoretical lectures.
Australia was formed and developed on the basis of immigrants, first from the British, then Europeans, then Asians and almost all people from other continents have been present in this country for many generations, mixing the blood of different races together, creating intelligent and dynamic generations today. Looking at Australian society, people can easily recognize it as a derivative work from the British but youthful, vibrant and diverse, rather than an aging, quiet Britain. Looking at Australians, people can also recognize it as a version of the British but more open and friendly than the indifferent and cold British, although they still have plenty of elegance. Australia is fortunate to be surrounded by two oceans and separated from other continents, so wars almost never take place directly here, but the Australian army was sent to fight in many places around the world from World War I, World War II to later regional wars such as the North-South Korean War, the Vietnam War, Egypt-Libya, Syria, Borneo... And, there were many soldiers who died in battle, of course not as many and not as heroic as the countries that directly fought to protect their homeland. But they still built magnificent memorials to commemorate the dead soldiers with the saying engraved in the hearts of Australians "There is no greater love than the love for someone who dares to sacrifice for you". Today, Australia has over 40 universities, many of which are famous in the world, attracting many international students to study and research, Vietnam alone currently has over 24,000 students studying at different universities across Australia. Besides, Australia also invests in education abroad from preschool, kindergarten to university, postgraduate... Australia is famous as an education exporting country!
Sydney is a young city compared to the world but it is the first city to be built, the most populous and most developed city in the land of Kangaroo. Sydney today deserves to stand shoulder to shoulder with other famous cities in the world in most aspects of economy, culture, life, peaceful society, beautiful landscape, high quality of life and satisfaction of the people. Leaving Sydney in the state of New Shouth Wales, we flew to the state of Victoria to the city of Melbourne, and went down to the south of Australia to catch the cool breeze blowing from the South Pole.
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| Author at the Opera House |
• FROM MELBOURN TO WHERE TWO OCEANS MEET
It took us an hour and thirty minutes to fly from Sydney to Melbourne airport, the sky bus picked us up and took us to our accommodation, a spacious apartment with full amenities, from the kitchen essentials to cook for ourselves if we wanted to, to a washing machine, dryer, internet and other daily amenities, but the price was only 5 million VND, equal to the rental price in Vietnam, maybe even lower than in some big cities. In my hometown, spring is starting, while in Australia it is summer, but luckily these days the weather in both Sydney and Melbourne is cool, around 18 - 20 degrees Celsius, the highest is only around 25 degrees Celsius.
We hopped on the Tramway with our backpacks on our shoulders and went around the city. No one checked the tickets. Everyone swiped their cards on the cash register. The driver just stopped and opened the door for passengers to get on and off at each station, then closed the door and continued driving. The transportation network in Melbourne is considered one of the most extensive and best in the world! In addition to taxis and ride-hailing vehicles, the main network includes buses, trains, and trams. Trams are often extended with many carriages, including rubber-wheeled and iron-wheeled types that run on rails. A network that goes throughout the city, to many stations, on time, and serves the city's residents and international tourists well. In particular, there is an ancient tram that was born about a hundred years ago, similar to the Hanoi tram that we rode nearly 50 years ago. The shape is still the same but they have painted and refurbished both the outside and the inside at a speed not much less than modern trams, of course this type does not have air conditioning because the old technology did not exist, only high windows to catch the wind. The purpose of the City Council is to let nostalgic people relive the memories of the technology of the previous centuries, and also this type of tram is free to travel in all stations in the city called the City Circle Tram, the train serves the people and tourists all day and night. With this old tram we can go to all the tourist attractions, markets, restaurants, shopping places, entertainment places... Travel all day and night without paying! Melbourne is ranked after Sydney in terms of population and development, but it is also very magnificent and even has more modern features because the city government has demolished some old buildings to build new ones in a modern style and at every street corner we can take satisfactory pictures.
Melbourne also has many museums, I chose to visit a special museum that I have not seen in other countries I have been to: the Immigration Museum. It turns out that Australia began with British prisoners who were exiled by Lieutenant Colonel James Cook, an explorer and navigator of the British Royal Navy, who discovered the eastern part of Australia and commanded the transport of prisoners from England to land on the mainland to establish prison camps. With British civilization and modern means and weapons, the indigenous people here could not resist, the British expanded the prison camps and established colonies in the late 18th century, the British Royal Family named the island Australia from then on. With a new land rich with many mines such as gold, minerals of all kinds... attracted generations of British people to land in Australia to develop and get rich, first of all the British, Scots, Italians and many other Europeans over the centuries, they brought British and European industries and culture to Australia. Then Asians, mostly Chinese, Middle Easterners and almost all other continents, immigrated to Australia, forming 6 colonies. In 1901, 6 autonomous colonial parliaments merged to form Australia with 6 states as it is today. Since then, Australia has continued to welcome immigrants from all over the world. Immigrants come to Australia for many reasons: looking for new lands to invest in and exploit, poverty and hunger to find land to live; earthquakes, wars, evacuation to find a peaceful place; political conflicts to take refuge... They come to Australia by ships that cross the stormy seas, called boat people, and also by plane, they go legally and illegally, in general, all kinds of people pour into Australia, to the point that an artist painted a picture of wheelbarrows filled with all kinds of people pouring into Australia with a warning in English, roughly translated as "Stop dumping garbage here", the picture is hanging in a prominent place in the museum. Everyone thinks that in reality, how can we avoid racial and cultural conflicts, how can we avoid many crimes? However, with a strong culture, a suitable and strict legal system, immigrants have together built Australia to be always peaceful, free and developed into a prosperous, modern industrial country, with a friendly, open society worth living in. Mr. Dung, a Vietnamese living in Australia, is both a tour guide and a driver who takes us around, strictly obeys traffic laws without even a small mistake! Once, because a customer brought many suitcases and took up a trunk seat, a child under 10 years old had to sit on an adult's lap. A said, "Here, the law does not allow anyone to get on a car without a seat and without a seat bell." I joked, "Are you afraid of the police?" He replied, "No, but I am afraid of the law. We follow the law, the police also follow the law, but the police do not have much power to do otherwise, so there is no begging, no agreement." Perhaps that is why everyone strictly obeys the law, creating an orderly and self-conscious society. Australia follows a Constitutional Monarchy, the former king was Queen Elizabeth of England, now Charles III (Charles the Third) has a spiritual symbolism, in reality the society operates under a representative democracy, the Prime Minister is directly elected by the people. During our stay here, we heard that Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese proposed to his lover on Valentine's Day. We wish them happiness and share the joy with Australians. Because of the multicultural society, food in Australia is also very diverse, there is industrial processing, there is also handicraft, European food, Asian food, Chinese, Indian, Thai, Indonesian food... and even types of food with the taste of the Middle East, Africa... On the street, we also discovered "Obama's Bun Cha" with a picture of President Obama sitting drinking beer from a bottle in Hanoi, feeling happy because the dish of his hometown has followed the image of the US President to Australia. I was curious: “Do Australians eat Kangaroo meat?” and went to try it but Australian restaurants and many other places did not have it, only China restaurant had grilled Kangaroo skewers and Kangaroo stir-fried with beans.
From Melbourne to South Australia, it takes 3 hours to drive on the highway through the modern industrial area in the suburbs and then along the Pacific coast on the road called "Great Ocean Road", a 240km long road built entirely by hand by 3,000 veterans of World War I with hoes, shovels, wheelbarrows, hammers, hand tampering... because at that time there was no modern road construction equipment like today. After passing the town of Apolo pay, we come across a simple wooden gate with the name of the road in memory of the old veterans who opened this road. It's simple but tourists jostle to take pictures. The road runs through the national forest and through the middle of rolling hills on one side and the Pacific Ocean with its rolling waves on the other, the scenery is truly majestic! On the way back, the car followed the western highway across the vast grasslands with herds of cows, sheep, horses... leisurely grazing under the white clouds wandering in the deep blue grassland sky, giving us the peaceful feeling of the Australian countryside. The Great Ocean Road leads to southern Australia to the scenic spot "12 Apostles", which is also the meeting place of the two oceans, the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. I stood still, listening to the wind and waves, looking at the meeting place of the two great oceans from the west down and from the east up, to understand that millions of years ago, nature must have been like this! The interesting thing is that from here the sea opens up to the south pole of the earth, without the surrounding continent, so in the past people recognized that there were only 4 seas. Familiar sayings such as "Five continents, four seas", "Four seas are brothers", "You go to four seas, five continents..."... Now there has been a change when in June 2021, world and American scientists acknowledged that there is a fifth sea, the Southern Ocean. From southern Australia, going straight down, we meet the Southern Ocean, a new ocean name that is not surrounded by continents but the sea surrounding the continent of Antarctica. Here in the middle of summer, the sky is high, the summer sun is bright, but the wind blowing from the distant sea is quite cold, giving us the feeling that the wind carries the icy breath of the Antarctica blowing towards the southernmost part of Australia.
Melbourne, a port city, the capital of Victoria state, has grown prosperously and experienced massive immigration over the centuries, now with 4.5 million people from hundreds of countries around the world. Sometimes people call Melbourne a prosperous and splendid city, with high rankings in education, healthcare, excellent transportation network, beautiful landscapes, a cool, fresh environment, and an open, friendly society. Melbourne has continuously held the top position for the title of the world's most livable city for 6 consecutive years. At the end of the trip, my nephew, who is in grade 7, answered the question "What did you realize?". "We must study well so that in the future our country will be as rich and beautiful as Australia!"
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