On the Ground Again.......

Melbourne is on the southern edges of the country and the weather seems to be a bit nicer than Sydney. After we landed and I made my way through customs, I was asked to participate in training a dog that smells baggage and lets authorities know that "something a'int right". The officer said the dog needs motivation and encouragement so success once in a while is important for the dog. The guy sticks a sausage that is a foot long inside my zipper bag and asks me to proceed to the next check point. I told the guy the damn sausage was so large (an inch thick) I think that I smell it! I thought if the dog misses this one....... The pooch nearly went ballistic as I walked by, go figure. Apparantly..... neither explosives OR FOOD is allowed to be brought into Australia!

I made my way to the STAR bus which is a hotel shuttle serving the downtown hotels. A local rep for the bus there helped me find where I get on the bus, helped me with my luggage loading the bus and then refused to accept a tip for his help. The bus driver came over and helped out too and even he would not take a tip. Then the door man at the Hilton helps me with all of it and wheels all my luggage into the hotel and right up to my room! He will not accept a tip! Well, in reading the local magazine a little later it says tipping here in Australia is not customary. They will be accepted in some places and situations, but it is not a custom and not expected. In some businesses, an employee is not allowed to accept a tip. WOW! Steve Weiland must have loved being here!

I unpacked and took a long shower to clean the essence of "airport" off of me. I went out for a walk along the south wharf and the banks of the Yarra River which runs throught the city. I quickly realized that utter exhaustion was settling in and my head started to ache. Doing the math, I realized that I had slept for about 8 of the last 50 hours. I thought about what sleep depravation does to a person.......then headed back to my room and was fast asleep by 7PM local time.