The Best Day of my Aussie experience...

Jan 4, 2008

Well each day I have spent down under has been a great day… I have thoroughly enjoyed the country and the people and the weather and the experience… but Jan 4 will be my most exciting and best day of the entire trip…

So it can be divided into 2 parts… the day and the evening/night...

Day : Many of you would not have heard the name Sachin Tendulkar – to most others he is someone absolutely special – as he is the best cricketer India has ever had and one of the best cricketers (top 3) to have ever played this game across the world… but the fact is that none of you know what he means to me… for me he is my inspiration and my icon…. He is one person who I have drawn courage and strength in my most critical times of life and ones when I felt the most alone and low on confidence… The man has not only given millions of people across the world happiness and joy with his cricket… but also inspired millions by the way he plays the game and lives his life….

So anyways… on the 3rd day of the Sydney cricket test match – the man scored his 38th test hundred… it was an innings worth watching not only for the shere class and mastery of the genius at work but also the ease and sublime touch with which he made everything look so easy. His presence in the middle got the best out of not only him but also the other members of the team and he looked at his defiant best…. And the crowd at the Sydney crickeyt ground saw one of the best innings by him… and gave him a huge round of applause… a standing ovation… not seen by many… Well my day was already made… or my trip was made… my hero played like a hero…

The most interesting and funny thing is that the Australians like him as we Indians like him… and in all my conversations with others… they wanted him to do well and Australia to win… : )… interesting…he is admired and cherished as if he is one of them… like no other sportsman in the world of cricket or maybe even otherwise? …

So a note here about the Australians… well I was pleasantly surprised again… wonderful people… happy, good over all, helpful… of course confident… but also friendly… jovial… But they sometimes get a little cranky… especially when their cricket team performs poorly… (which it rarely does)… and become slightly irritated and also aggressive… we faced that on the first day of the Sydney game- we were only 2 indians in the section of the crowd… surrounded by all Aussies… and guess what India had them on the mat… and they lost it a bit… they started teasing us and trying to make fun of us…. : )…. But all they could do was try… : )… we took care of them and when they became a little weird… our stares were enough to take care of things I guess… But overall I love the aussie public… great sportsmen… and nice people… and they believe in work hard and play hard… One other example of how sporting they are is when one of their bowlers was not doing well – they were giving him a hard time at the boundary as well… making jokes and having fun with him… but they were equally happy about applauding Laxman and Tendulkar when they did well….

Night : Well the Sydney harbour bridge is a unique bridge, suspended from the top by an arc which supports it by 4 huge pillars… no support from the bottom… for those who don’t know I guess this is a similar but different technology to the Howrah bridge in Calcutta India… The Sydney bridge was built in 1932… so many years back and is a fascinating structure…

So in 1999 a private company leased the bridge climb (a journey to the top of the arc) and got permissions to throw it open to the general public… and on jan 5th… we did this bridge climb at 9.15 pm in the night…

We went there, you better have prior bookings else you might be disappointed, and they spoke to me to see whether I would be comfortable… all I said was I am confident and I leave it to them to decide if they think I can do it… and they agreed fortunately… So we got changed into climbing suits and kept away all our belongings into a locker… the funny thing is that they took away my cane (the white stick I use to walk) as well because it could not be attached to me… So the suits are those one piece ones in which you enter from the back and it covers all of you with a zip on you back…. Then we were introduced to our instructor Mick… nice guy… it is a group of 12 that goes… at a time… and in all it takes 3 hours to go up and come down… Till date 2 million people from across the blobe have done the climb…

Going on, so they gave us harnesses, we were safely tied… and given a strong hook that would be attached to the railing of the bridge climb ladders… so that we remain attached all times…

Ok a little more about the climb before I go on… it consists of 1437 steps… and is at a height of 134 meters… and you start at the bottom, climbing through normal steps, bridges, passages (very small), vertical ladders (the toughest part)… and long walks on narrow walkways… up in the air through the train and road bridges and way up above all of them… The entire path is very narrow… with max of 12 inches and at most time 4 inches space other than that of a person crossing, whereas at timesnot enough space for one person to cross alone… squeezing by…

So after the hooks, we were given a bag flees attached behind us… a rain coat attached behind again on the harness… a radio with a headset attached behind… and also a torch in a headband…

Then we were made to climb and walk down a smmulation few steps… before we started the ascend…

So imagine… it’s a quite quiet area… and it was dark at around 10 in the night… when just 13 of us (including the instructor) started the walk… we first went up some 30 meters… and walked a narrow passage in the open with railings on both sides for some part and only one on others… the walk was about 30 meters long as well… and it was funny being up not being surrounded by anything really… but having the train and road bridges above us… it was slightly scary as I couldn’t see anything… no cane…and all I could feel was the railing… and didn’t even have anyone to hold on to… but was at the same time quite exciting… some thing different… why not… we walked a bit more and started going up the stairs again… I was carefully sensing the steps with my feet… the rails with my hands… slow at some places… almost confidently running at some others… of course the person behind me was verbally helping at times… and my friend who was ahead of me was also guiding me at a few places… but most times it was me alone and the darkenss.. and the wind… and the smell of sometimes nothing… We went up a little mor… 60 meters… and then came the toughest part… the vertical ladders… that passed between the actual car bridge and on the way down the train bridges… Well I should mention this… when I was parallel with the car bridge at the time of climbing one of the 4 such vertical ladders… I was super excited… I could hear cars zooming by me 10 feet away… at high speed… and there was nothing around me… I was up in the air… literally… and these fast cars that have always fascinated me flying by… the sound… the feel… undescribable…

So we condinued climbing up… way above everything else in Sydney now… all we could see was the illuminated harbour… buildings… and the world below… except for that 2-3 feet of stpes/ passage/ bridge… we ad nothing supporting us… we were up in the sky all by ourselves… although I had 12 others with me… the feeling was being all by yourself… alone and enjoying flying high in the sky… guess what I actually started singing “I believe I can fly”… So we finally reached the top of the arc… 134 meters above the harbour… the feeling was incredible… mesmerizing…. Standing alone with high winds blowing right into your face… body…. Touching the face… the hands… all you can see is lights… and feel is open space all around you… no obstructions… no disturbances… no sound except for the wind and the breathing… and even the foot steps at times… the feeling of being in control but totally helpless out there… the feeling of just being with yourself… and of such immense pleasure and joy… I was excited and happy… sorry guys I cannot put inwords what I felt… it was just incredible… I was in a different world… and on the way back from there my slow and careful steps as well the sensing of the rails with my hands became faster, more experimentative… confident… and bolder…

Just standing up there was something will be etched in my memory forever… that whole climb was one of the best experiences of my life… especially because it was the nightand the world was beautiful when I stood up there…. And I was transferred into a unreal world… peace yes this is the word peace was what I felt… no fear of anything… calmness… and satisfaction….

Anyways we came back… and that ended a great day for me…. the best of my Australia trip…. One I will remember for ever… got down at 1am… totally worth everyting… and my one recommendation for Sydney… must do… an experience of the lifetime….

We were not allowed cameras… but the guide took a couple of photographs… which I will put up on facebook…

In between these 2 special parts of the day… was another special occasion…. Meeting Anthony (who was a great help on this trip with his suggestions and recommendations and local guide in sydney), Angela, Ali and Shiri… Go Wharton… we met at Bondai… had some delicious Thai food… and it was so nice to meet my Wharton friends… I of course miss them… or rather you (if any of you is reading my blog at all : )

Other things I did in Sydney other that watching the game… went to Manley beach… in a boat or Fairy (sorry for the spelling again)… well this was also a lot of fun… the cruise on the water so was so nice… we were on the deck… standing… it was late evening and again mild winds coped with the sound of the ocean… with the well illuminated harbour… wow… the beach was nice… and the coastal walk was also fantastic… We went with Nalinka- Ganeka’s friend…. She was an interesting and a very nice person … and we went then to her favourite restaurant… Alfredo’s for Italian dinner – where an old gentleman was churning old tunes on the piano… excellent evening…

I have had an amazing vacation… lucky and thankful for this… and am going to go back to India and then to the US all happy and ready to refocus on where I left off….

In the meanwhile… I have fallen in love again… : ) Australia…