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Sydney to Melbourne

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I haven’t had a good long overland train ride since I left the US. Sure, there were some rail days in Europe but the legs out there are so short and full of transfers that you hardly get any time to relax. Long haul rail is like being on a ferry. You’re exposed to some truly desolate places with all time to unwind and space to stretch. I picked up some snacks for the road and got on my way. Luckily for me, my room is across the street from Sydney Central with a grocery store on the way. Easy and peasy. I found my platform and took my seat. First class on the XPT here is comparable to a typical seat on the Surfliner back home. Unfortunately I don’t get the second story views or the outlets I’ve grown to love. Why is it that outside of the US people think it’s acceptable to run a 10 hour long train service without outlets. Just absurd. My seatmate is an Aussie from the northern part of the country. He just flew in to Melbourne and is going out to the middle of nowhere to spend some time ...
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Sydney day two

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 I am once again in a country that knows how to melt cheese. Highly exciting. Yes, you can find things with melted cheese in them in Turkey and India. No, they are not plentiful enough or well done to be noteworthy. Pizza. I was craving pizza. I don’t think I’ve had any at all since leaving Italy. Since I slept in, I happily wolfed down a pie on my lonesome as a late breakfast. The topology of the transit network here is pretty unique and I’m having trouble wrapping my head around it. They’ve got a ton of electrified mainline rail running through the city center in tunnels which feels kind of S-Bahn like. Sometimes the trains through run and sometimes they’re pushed through a little loop and spat back out. It’s almost like the trains are run through a massive traffic circle underneath the city. On top of this (literally) there’s a tram network and one metro line. Also frustrating me is the letter designations. The mainline trains are labeled T and then a number. In any other part o...
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Sydney day one

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 A much needed full night’s sleep. Thank God for earplugs. Amaris had already woken up for her hostel’s 10 am checkout time. Since I still had a room, she came by to stash her bags inside. I needed breakfast so we walked to a cafe close by while I hashed out a blog post. Gotta keep that #content coming. After breakfast we popped over to the Sydney Opera House. Something our trip to the film lab betrayed is that the woman she entrusted to take a photo of her in front of the opera took a photo of her blocking the opera. Do-over success. With the botanical gardens nearby, it was only natural for us to wander over and explore it. The park is full of curious flora and fauna. Being an island, the only living things that look familiar here are either imported or humans. Everything else looks like it came from some uncanny valley of evolution. Great fun. First opera house of the trip I don’t go inside I can only relax in the grass for so long and suggested a cup of tea. Google betrayed a p...
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Cameron Highlands to Sydney Day Two

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 I tossed the eye mask when I was in the airport. It was clearly made for Asian faces. My head is too big and my nose is too pointy to wear the thing. I tossed it on at one point and it felt like a wrestler was pressing his thumbs into my eyes. Not pleasant. After trying to sleep without one, I’m seconded guessing my choice. I hate sleeping on planes and I hate waking up on planes. Become conscious, do not move. At least I managed to finish my book. We land and I breeze through immigration and customs. Annoyingly, the land of AUS still uses paper arrival cards. In 2026 that means you need to hunt down a pen from some Good Samaritan nearby. I nervously declare my sack of tea and the border force welcomes me to New South Whales. Fantastic. I’m renting an Airbnb which means check in doesn’t start until four. Luckily, it’s near central station so there are plenty of luggage storage options. I stash my bags with the local cig stop and head north. A fun coincidence, my friend Amaris from...
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Cameron Highlands to Sydney day one

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 An early wake up for a long travel move. Five hours of bussing to KL, too much time to kill, then a ten hour flight to Sydney. The first thing I discovered is that I’ve lost my eye mask. I picked up a nice one back in Chicago from Target. Big, adjustable, and more generous padding than a Victoria’s Secret push up. I’ll miss it. The ride goes easy enough and I even have an empty seat next to me for much of it. I took the liberty of making a stop at a convenience store last night for snacks and my sambal egg onigiri breakfast is filling a hole. Back in KL I dumped my bag at luggage storage and went off to get a roll of film developed. This lab is incredible. For four bucks they’ll process, scan, and email me the results and get it all done in under two hours. A gift after the lab in Delhi which still hasn’t gotten back to me after over a week and charging me double. To kill the development time I grab a bowl of noodles and another teh tarik. I didn’t sleep much last night and every ...
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Cameron Highlands Day Three

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 One thing I may never understand about this country is the napkins. Sit down for a meal and more likely than not, you won’t find any napkins on the table. If you ask, you’ll be handed a box of tissues to clean your hands with. They don’t absorb much of anything and they’re far too fragile to scrub oils out of your mitts. Today will be relaxing. Lots of doing nothing, reading, and drinking tea. Theres a night market but until then I’m just flipping pages, daydreaming, and preparing for tomorrow’s travel day. Right now it’s about four thirty and the most eventful thing I’ve done is laundry. It isn’t even strictly needed but it will be cheaper here than in Australia and it’ll save me a load out there. Laundromat, apartments, farm As luck would have it, the afternoon rain started right when my dry cycle finished. This meant I got to enjoy the exercise of riding as much like a Grab driver as possible. The local delivery guys don wait for nobody and in the rain with clean laundry and no...
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Cameron Highlands Day Two

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 The backpackers here say the thing to do is hiking. I set off for a trailhead and some breakfast. Malaysia has a fun nonalcoholic drink culture unlike any other place I’ve seen. Just about every place you go has a page or two of drink options listed. Granted, some of these are redundant such as listing coffee and coffee with sugar as two separate drinks. Still, the list is long. Motorcycling on the left is turning out to be easier than I thought. Figuring the instinct to ride American started out tough and got easy. With a motorcycle specifically, I found myself second guessing my lane position a lot. Lots of little motos on the wrong side here. Just enough to make you doubt yourself. I got to the trailhead and checked online after to see what I was in for. Three hours of crawling up a mountain though the jungle. Hmmmm, that’s not what I want right now. I guess it was my mistake to take a trail recommendation from a German backpacker. They’re notorious for calling a few dozen kilo...
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