We landed from our American Airlines flight from Sydney to Los Angeles after nearly 15 hours. However, Global Entry and some efficient luggage handling meant within about 5 minutes we were out of the airport. One last leg remained – and that was with Delta.

Delta surely made it memorable for Sharmila today. First, as we relaxed in the sofas of their Delta One area with the cappuccinos they made for us, they took the passports and our suitcases from us and took care of all the formalities without we having to do anything. Finally, when we had finished our coffee, there was a special security belt right behind where it was the two of us and three TSA agents.

After a shower and made to order egg breakfast, they put us in a Porsche and drove us straight to our plane. An elevator ride and an entry thru a secured staff door later, we were in the plane before anybody had started boarding. In fact, we were not even carrying our boarding passes with us!

That was totally royal treatment. Reminded me of how some of the Asian airlines roll out the red carpet for frequent flyers.

Nice way to finish off a really memorable trip.

Somewhere between Brisbane and Sydney, the sun trying to break from the clouds before setting for this evening…

Brisbane to Sydney, Sydney to Los Angeles, Los Angeles to Atlanta. 42 hours door to door including a night layover on the way.

Here are some of my first observations of Australia:

1. Australians are incredibly nice. Very polite and helpful people. We met people who have been in Australia for multiple generation. We met first generation immigrants from England, South Africa, Philippines, Fiji, India, Pakistan, Spain, France, Italy and even Ecuador. Everybody seemed to embody the same level of empathy and helpfulness.

2. Australians are very trusting. In all the domestic travel we did – 4 different segments – nobody checked our identities. We used our boarding pass on our phones to check in luggage, go thru security, board the flights and use the lounges. Not once did anybody ask us for our identity! I checked with my colleagues here. Apparently, that is how it is for domestic flights.

3. We did not see much pet dogs here . And not even one pet cat. The airport did not have any of your service dogs, comfort dogs and all that. Sum total, we might have seen three or four pet dogs in our entire trip. And unfortunately, did not see any dingo dogs either!!

4. Back to the airport. In every airport, for domestic passengers at least, there is only one security queue. Regardless of status, class of ticket etc etc. For that, the queues moved very efficiently. Again, the security folks were incredibly helpful. Nothing like some of our TSA experiences in the USA or CISF experiences in India. Here the folks were going out of the way to be helpful.

5. Public transport is efficient and quick. Found an interesting way of “buying tickets”. You get up on the bus, tap your credit card or iphone and go sit down. And tap it one more time as you get down. The system will charge you based on the distance.

6. Did not have to use any cash whatsoever. Or credit card for that matter. Apple Pay was good everywhere.

7. Did not see anybody drink Fosters beer anywhere. Remember the old ad – “Foster’s, Austrlian for Beer” ? Don’t know what happened.

8. Also, nobody said “Good Day, Mate!”

Truly enjoyed the country.

Noticed the apparent grammatical anomaly. The sign went off as I started re-reading it. Asked Sharmila to wait and waited for all the other ads to cycle thru. And it came back to this again. I was looking for phrases like “Employees of” or something like to preface the airport reference but could not find it. Am I missing something?

Dipped its tail in the water and went into a total zen mode

This is barely a year old

Brisbane was rainy the whole time we were there.

where does she look like she is?

That is the Story Bridge in Brisbane. Coincidentally, this bridge was inaugurated only three years before Howrah bridge.