Hello my dear friends and families who couldn't wait to read our next part of yours truly 'around the world trip'. Australia and New Zealand's part is actually the third one after we left Canada on May 5, 2002 and spent more than 2 weeks traveling in Europe. We went to Singapore and Jakarta thereafter and stayed for another 3 weeks before we left for Sydney, Australia on June 14. I wrote my experiences while in Indonesia in my mother language, Bahasa Betawi, mixed with Indonesian and the language of the future generation called 'Bahasa Prokem' so that most of you won't understand anyway. As I still love Canada and my friends there, here is the third part of my journey with Cecilia my wife, written in English with no trace of Australian and New Zealand's accent.

I chose a unique title again as I did in my 'Europe Through The Side Door' for this story because I had been to several special 'gates' traveling to and in both countries. Who amongst you had ever had a stranger coming over prior to a trip you were going to make and gave you NZ $ 200 with no strings attached? Yes, a fan of my writings who had been following me since I moved to Canada, dropped by my Mom's house and gave me that money. To top that, Cecilia and I got a special gift of Aus. $ 1000 for sharing our experiences in life. "What about the gate?," you asked. How many of you had ever gone through immigration booth without needing to stop at that gate? That happened to us on our way from Jakarta to Sydney through the Indonesian immigration counter. Our travel agent just waved at the officer and he let us went through without even asking who we were we and what our names were. Perhaps going through this special gate could only happen in Indonesia, I wonder. In addition (remember this is post September 11, 2001) we didn't even have to show our faces to the Qantas airline check-in people. The travel agent checked us in and just handed the boarding pass. Yes, there are many special gates in Indonesia. No wonder a few of my friends and relatives said this country is a "paradise" for doing business and I am sure you know what I mean.

There were other special gates that we went through while we traveled. First in Sydney. We didn't have to learn about any public transportation there because one of our friends picked us at the airport and the other one dropped us when we left Sydney for Auckland. We stayed for 1 night at the Winartas, my friend from IBM Indonesia who I haven't met for 20 years and 2 nights at the Basukis, our friends from Paroki-Sby. Throughout this third part of our journey, we had excellent demonstration of Indonesian hospitality. Imagine this. Our host and hostess in Auckland, AB and JB, an Internet friend from my Psychology mailing list let us use their daughters' room so that A the hubby had to sleep on the floor on an air mattress. BTW, A is a native New Zealander who had become 'Indonesian', thanks to J's brainwashing :-). Yes, only Indonesians would suffer for their guests and the immigration officer would wave at friendly tourists like us :-). Only among Indonesians would you find two-bedroom apartment that can accommodate 7 people and that how we stayed in Melbourne. You won't be surprised then if I tell you, I have a friend from Indonesia who had lived in Toronto for 25 years and is an executive with a prominent company. They don't have beds in their home which is a very big house, worth close to a million dollar. They all sleep on a mattress on the floor just like what we did in Melbourne.

As it happened numerous times in Europe, we felt grateful for all the gifts we had received in our Australia and New Zealand's trip. Thanks again to your prayers or your special blessings. The weather in Australian cities we visited were excellent. Even the local people couldn't believe our luck :-). Yes, on the other hand we were showered through-out our stay in New Zealand. The sun never said hi to us, not even for a second. Then we understood why it was like that. It was meant to be so that we had the time to gather with some Indonesian immigrants in Auckland. They are having a hard time and therefore I recommended them to read my sharing 'Pengalaman Imigran Toronto' that I wrote many years ago. It was a story of Cecilia's and my life as immigrant in Canada, the best part and the not-so-good aspect. A few said, if they could they would prefer Canada but it was the most difficult. New Zealand was the easiest for them to get permanent resident visa compared to Canada and Australia. Forget the U.S.A., none of those Aucklanders would like to get their shoes x-rayed when boarding the plane :-).

I haven't told you yet. When I was in Bandung, we went to the best (meaning most delicious) restaurant for 'martabak', an Indonesian delicacy. They sell both the cake type (martabak kue) and the egg and meat type (martabak daging). The name is Martabak Canada and if you are a local people, it is at Jl. Kebon Kawung. I asked the owner (I was assuming because he seemed to be the boss) why did he name it Canada. I thought he was once a Canadian landed immigrant that was not able to stand cold weather because these days, Bandung has hot weather, thanks to the pollution. He said, "In order to be well-known," (biar terkenal). I said, "Why don't you use Martabak U.S.A.?" "I don't want to be bombed," was the answered (saya tidak mau digranat). Well, that's one of the reasons why some of my friends in Australia and New Zealand prefer to live in Canada than in the USA, if they had a choice.

Till the next episode where I will tell you our experiences in the 3 cities and their vicinities that we visited. It may not be as interesting as our experiences with 'Marylin' (that some of you liked that episode very much :-)) but I have different excitement to share. Till then, bye for now.