Saturday, February 16, 2008

A Down Under Adventure - Hobart, Tasmania

Disclaimer: I apologize for spelling and grammatical errors, as I don’t have sufficient time to correct them. But, I am going to correct them, I promise.

Day 1

We arrived Hobart at 10:00am. I didn't reserve a car and all the rental agencies are fully booked. I enquired quickly and found out that we didn't need a car, if our stay is going to be only for 3 days. We took airport shuttle to hotel and made our way to the city (30 minutes walk or 10 minute bus ride). We learned about various tours they provide and made booking for 3 tours.

We had our lunch at La Panchetta, italian restaurant and wondered around rest of the day. Oh, btw, the only thing available in the evening was Thai Massage. I had a tension relief massage for 30 minutes and Sirisha had foot massage for 30 minutes. Can't tell if it's worth the money, but the massage was good.

Day 2

Mt. Wellington Tour:

A bus picked us up in the morning. It was cloudy; we didn’t expect to see much from the mountain. But, the tour guide was very friendly and it was very educational. Apparently, Wellington, a British general for whom the mountain was named after never came to Tasmania.

We also stopped at Women’s Factory as part of the tour. Apparently it’s where women convicts were kept. Places like these show the sad history of Australia. You have to give credit to Australian’s to keep such a sad part of their history alive.

Cadbury Tour:

We had our lunch at an Indian restaurant, Annapurna, and hopped a bus for Cadbury tour. It was a disappointing and time wasting tour. I won’t recommend it for anyone, people who came along with us also felt the same way. However, we stopped at Royal Botanical Gardens of Hobart and we were pleasantly surprised by the beauty of the gardens.

Wrest Casino:

Accidentally we stopped by the Wrest Casino, the oldest casino in Australia. The casino is situated, right across where we were staying. I played express roulette and won $40 bucks with $10 investment. They also had a very scenic view from the food court, along with some juicy (oily) snacks in their menu.

Day 3

Got out little late from our motel, and headed for famous Salamanca market. Salamanca market is open only Saturdays where local merchants can sell their goods directly without any middle men. Even then I haven’t find anything cheap in the market, everything is at least 20 to 30 percent over priced. We had two hours of shopping and had our lunch at usual Italian restaurant. We then headed for wild life sanctuary to watch Tasmanian Devils.

Wild Life Sanctuary:

This is a privately owned sanctuary that takes care of animals that are danger in anyway and orphans that were found by general public. Our tour guide showed us Wombats, Koala bears and Kangaroos.

No comments: