Hello, mate!
From Down Under
For our special presentation in our talk show “Straight from the Sky,” we bring to you the 3rd Cebu International Documentary Film Festival, which is expected to happen this week at the Waterfront Hotel. Honestly, the first two International Documentary Film Festivals escaped my attention. But now it can be told that this is the 3rd such International event happening in Cebu City, which means that it is catching on and I guess there’s more than enough International documentary Films available in the market these days.
With us to talk about the Documentary Film Festival are Ms. Lilu Aliño, president of the 3rd Cebu International Film Festival, Marie Ernestine Pegarido and April Dequito, directors of this international event. So watch this very interesting show on SkyCable’s channel 61 at 8:00PM with replays on Wednesday and Saturday same time. We also have replays on MyTV channel 30 at 7:00AM and 9:00PM on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
* * *
Sydney, Australia: We’re in Australia for a familiarization tour by Cebu, Cagayan de Oro, Iloilo and Bacolod Travel agents sponsored by Philippine Airlines and Travelways International Incorporated of Alan Carvajal. We’re a total of 13 people who took PAL Flt. No. 211 on an Airbus 330 last Friday for that 8-hour flight from Manila to Sydney. The flight was very comfortable and smooth…but we were warned never to bring any foodstuff into Australia unless you declared it.
This was my first ever trip to Australia and we were surprised to see the long lines in their immigration. That’s because there are so many international flights coming to Sydney. Yes we arrived at the tail end of winter season here and yes, it’s a bit cold and the weather is quite mercurial. It rains all of a sudden and out of nowhere the sun comes up, then it rains again.
Alan Carvajal made sure that we wouldn’t be wasting time. So after the hour-long wait in immigration, we hopped over to the tour bus to immediately begin our tour. Somehow we got lucky. When the plane landed at the airport, it was raining cats and dogs. But when we started our tour the rain stopped and we went to so many places.
Our first stop was Gap Park for our first view of the Tasman Sea. You can also say that the Tasman Sea is where the Indian Ocean meets the Pacific Ocean. Also from a vantage point in Gap Park, you can also see the Sydney Harbour Bridge with the iconic Opera House beside it and yes the million dollar homes in that area.
Then our tour guide/driver Monty brought us to the famous Bondi Beach. It’s one of the iconic beaches of the world, where if surfing’s your thing, you’ve come to the right place. For a chilly rainy Saturday, there were so many people at the beach wearing their beachwear of course. There we were wearing thick clothing because it’s even colder than Baguio City in December. Although it was tolerable during noontime. But people were at the beach! By the way Australia is two-hours ahead of the Philippines.
By lunchtime we took the Magistic Lunch Cruise in Sydney Habour for a sumptuous buffet lunch and also to see the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House one of the world’s most identifiable opera houses. Monty told us that the Sydney Harbour Bridge is nicknamed “The Coat Hanger” because its design is so simple; it resembles a wire coat hanger that you’ll find in any closet. Yes the weather turned colder when we were at sea. But the view from the sea of Sydney was fantastic!
After the cruise, we went up to the Sydney Tower Eye, the tallest structure in Australia, where the 360-degree view was terrific. Again while waiting for the crowd, it once again rained hard. But when we got to the top of the tower, the sun was up again, giving us a great view of Sydney Harbour.
We then went to the Sea Life Aquarium to see Australia’s captive sharks and other marine animals. Alan Carvajal made this trip extra special for the group because he billeted us in the Ibis Sydney Darling Harbour Hotel. Though it is only a 3-Star, it has the best location in Sydney because it is right across the National Maritime Museum in Cockle Bay, where the warship HMAS Vampire was there on display with a submarine docked beside it and an old sailing ship also docked nearby. Because the National Maritime Museum is just a stone’s throw away from our hotel, I will see this on the last day of our visit.
What impressed me most with Australia was the fact that despite its being a huge metropolis… traffic was not snarled. Unlike the notorious traffic jams that we are now experiencing in Metro Cebu. I can only second-guess that they still use the Sydney Coordinated Automatic Traffic System that the City of Cebu bought from Australia in the early 90’s.
- Latest
