My Arrival in Australia (Lessons Learned)

My arrival into the country was pretty fast paced and through this I learned an important lesson regarding arriving in a new country (for more than just a holiday). Moving to another country is never just as easy as arriving and you’re set. Upon landing I decided that I was Superman and was going to get everything done ASAP. Boy did I ever pay for it! Here’s how my first few days went down:

Here I am!

My flight to Australia was somewhat of an oddity. The reason I say that is because I slept like a baby on the flight. This worked out great as it was an overnight flight as I left Singapore around 1:00am to arrive in Melbourne sometime after 10:00am. My arrival formalities were standard and uneventful, and I made my way over from the airport to the hostel and freshened myself up. Nothing beats a nice warm shower after a LONG flight!

I really hit the ground running after arriving. My next two days were full in terms of administrative duties and getting myself set up. After my shower I made my way to the CBD (downtown) to go to the bank and identify myself (show my passport) so that I can get access to my bank account. Everything went smoothly except I’d have to wait a week before getting my debit card, which was no problem as thankfully I had just enough money leftover on my travel debit to cover me until then. The banker joked that I didn’t waste time when looking at my passport as my stamp showed I just arrived the same day.

Once done at the bank, I crossed the street and got myself a SIM card for my phone. Optus here in Australia has a great pre-paid plan where for $2/day you get pretty much unlimited everything (including data). Free wi-fi is a rarity here in Australia, most places try to charge you a ridiculous fee such as $5.95 for 30min and 150MB bandwidth. The only place so far where I’ve found free access is McDonalds. Thankfully my phone functions as it’s own wi-fi hotspot and so I always have my own personal connection. That $2/day really does go a long way!

The next day I had a meeting and arrival seminar at the WorknHoliday agency office. Funny enough I had a Frenchman who was giving the seminar and I was the only attendee. One of us made a joke of doing the seminar in French, and why not? The seminar was great and all, but very long. In all it lasted about 4 hours with one break where I had my first experience ordering coffee. We covered how to use public transit, jobs, touristy stuff in Melbourne and Victoria, pretty much all the bases.

Didn't all this sound fun? All my administrative tasks were all done, but sadly I was completely spent. When you spend days sitting in waiting rooms waiting for your number to be called, or seminars on how to use the bus, you can’t help but feel a little frustrated. My best advice is to give yourself a little bit more time to arrive, adjust, and see the city (you’re on holiday anyways right?). Thankfully after a nice weekend camping with some local friends I got myself out of that rut and started being a tourist again and saw the city. So do yourself a favor and relax... Shouldn’t you be on holiday?