Australia is so huge as compared with Taiwan. There are good and bad living and travel aspects when comparing both countries.
An ideal lifestyle might be a few months in each, each year?
I’m now back home, on the east coast. So many pictures and memories from my 10th trip to Taiwan yet to make selections from. Returning to Taipei in a few months.
At Taipei Taoyuan I spoke with a lady returning to New Zealand via Brisbane and asked why New Zealand and not Australia? It appears the slower pace of life there is the attraction.
The problem with Australian cities, like Sydney, is the high cost of housing. Migrants are pouring into Australia and houses cannot be built fast enough – which means existing housing is rising in value – and so is the cost of renting.
Taiwanese in Australia head for the suburb of Brisbane called Sunnybank.
WESTERN AUSTRALIA
The west is so far from the east coast (where the most people live) that it’s almost another country. It’s different. Vast, friendly and with different problems.
During the winter the town that becomes popular because of good warm weather and no rain, is Broome in the north-west of the state.
Originally a deep sea pearl diving town that had a population of Japanese, Malay-Chinese and others from Asia who integrated with European and aboriginal locals. It was once the most multicultural town in Australia. Sufficiently unique for National Geographic Magazine to run a feature story on the town.
The best time to visit would be during the southern autumn and winter. If camping then the earlier the better as space for tents is limited. If going 5 star then the Cable Beach Hotel would be the best choice.
Important – plan to arrive a few days before a full moon, it’s a big social function called “Staircase to the Moon” – viewing the rising full moon from the only hill in town, the Mangrove Hotel’s outside lawn.
The moon rises over a low tide view of mangroves stretching into the distance below. It’s a family night and worth attending.
Sunsets over the sea at Broome are viewed from Cable Beach just a few kilometers away. Camels on the beach too.
SEARCH for extra pictures by entering Broome in the search panel.
Technical photo details. Film was a Kodak stock made for underwater use – extra red. The soft focus was an accident. One of three screws had rattled out of the Nikonos 28mm lens (above water version). A failure at the time, today ‘artistic’ and a relief from the technically perfect digital pictures we’ve become accustomed to.
Using a Photo Filter art function the following picture was made, in addition to Picasa functions first. Both are free to download programs.
The soft focus error seems to have been overwhelmed by a pencil art effect.
Between Perth and Broome is Shark Bay and the much hyped Monkey Mia. I would not waste too much time in this region.
Also in the north-west is the US Naval radio communications base at Exmouth, now a popular location to swim with giant, harmless whale sharks.
There’s a popular story (yet to be featured in Myth Busters) that Japanese divers hired a small boat and went searching, alone, for a whale shark. When their film was later processed it was discovered they’d photographed a large and far from harmless Tiger shark.
