The difference between Sydney and Melbourne

Chances are that you will be flying direct to Sydney or Melbourne when you visit Australia, so what's the difference between the two cities? As a Sydneysider I love this advertising pitch to make Melbourne our Capital (sorry Melbourne).

There is a friendly rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne, similar to New York and Los Angeles in  America. Our Capital, Canberra, lies between Australia's two biggest cities, because we couldn't agree on which one should be our Capital. Melbourne is about 800-900 kilometres south of Sydney, or about a day's drive, and is therefore colder, and is infamous for its weather that we make fun of, constantly.

For much of Australia's history, Melbourne was Australia's biggest and richest city, which today is Sydney, so I'm sure it still rankles them down there. Melbourne would like to think they are more sophisticated, cultured, and cosmopolitan. Certainly, its easier to get around in Melbourne, and more thought has obviously been put into the planning and layout of the city.

I'll be doing some more blog posts on Sydney and Melbourne, however in the meantime you can view some of my old posts using the search engine, particularly our outback trip via Melbourne and the Great Ocean Road to the Northern Territory.

Dealing with Murphy's Law: Passengers stranded in Bali and why you need travel insurance

Many Australians love to visit the Indonesian island of Bali, and many were stranded in Bali due to a volcanic ash cloud that caused the cancellation of flights for several days. I must admit, like most Australians I have been to Bali, however as you know, I prefer Fiji or Hawaii. The event illustrates why you need travel insurance, because it can be quite costly to over stay a trip, as many people just budget for a certain period of time. Actually sometimes the best holidays are completely unplanned like one of our trips to Fiji when we lost an engine over the Pacific and had to turn around. We ended up staying an extra four nights and had a great time.

What I've learnt travelling and planning operations in another capacity is that things rarely go to plan, Murphys Law or what Clausewitz called, 'Friction', is always present in any human endeavour. People are unpredictable, they make mistakes, they make the wrong booking or they even can't fix jet engines that stop over the Pacific! I wasn't flying Qantas that time, but Qantas pilots are often ex military so they are adaptable, particularly once famously landing a jumbo with no engines in Singapore! The main antidote to 'Friction' or Murphsy Law is experience and adaptability, and of course cash, credit and insurance. Having $100 USD can get you out of a lot of trouble in most parts of the world, everybody accepts US dollars in my experience.

In conclusion rather than trying to develop, 'the perfect plan or itinerary' you should really be thinking about how can I become more flexible to react to opportunities and get around obstacles that life throws at us. Of course its much easier now with the internet, because you can buy transportation and accommodation with your credit card. In addition you can learn from the experience of others by looking at reviews on Trip Advisor or travel blogs.

Planning your trip to Australia

I can see that lots of you are interested in Australia, and are perhaps planning to visit us in the future. As I stated previously the Australian dollar is at a six year low, .74 USD, and probably only headed down. Of course if you have a Travelex Card or other Multi Currency card you can lock in the rate, but personally I can't see it rising above .80 USD anytime soon. I'm quite bullish on the United States economy, and I think the recovery is sustainable, particularly because of the cheap energy from Fracking and your insurmountable lead in the Digital Economy businesses like Apple, Microsoft, and digital manufacturing etc. As Asia becomes richer, they will tend to buy more American consumer products, at least thats the historical trend, which of course results in a stronger American dollar over time and stronger economic growth.

Whilst I was on my walk/run (more walking than running) this morning I thought about some blog posts I'll do on Australia on different topics. For example, about possible itineraries, eating out, going out, studying in Australia, doing business in Australia, and of course the fun things to do in my hometown Sydney. Australians work hard, but we also play hard too - we love to have fun. Some of you may actually be out here on business trips or being posted here as many companies have their Asia/Pacific headquarters in Sydney - and why not? Its more fun here than Singapore (sorry Singapore). From a business angle Australia has signed free trade agreements with South Korea, Japan, China and other countries in this region and Sydney's time zone is more conducive for doing business in this region of course. Plus, its only a 9 hour flight to Hong Kong. I'll do a more detailed blog post on doing business in Australia with a list of some business websites that you will find helpful.

Studying in Australia is of interest to a lot of US college students, because at my university, Macquarie, we have lots of American students and indeed students from all over the world doing a semester here, which is a great idea. I can recommend Macquarie University, although I am biased of course, because its one of the more progressive universities in Australia. We are the home of 'Big History.' We are the only university in Australia that meets the Bologna standard (EU standard), and are also heavily focused on research with our Masters of Research program. That basically means you can do your Masters or PHD here and be able to work in the EU. I'll explain further in my blog post on studying in Australia.

In the meantime what you can do is look at some of my old blog posts on Australia, including my driving trip to the outback and Ayers Rock in the Northern Territory via Melbourne and the Great Ocean Road. Its probably easier to just use the search engine  on the blog page and then move from older to newer posts.

Australian dollar drops to six year low

Today is July the 4th in Australia so happy Independence Day for my American followers. The Australian dollar has dropped to a six year low, so its cheaper to visit us. As I've stated previously our waning Mining Boom should see the Australian dollar slide, along with some mixed economic signals out of China. Personally, I can't see how a Communist dictatorship can manage the economy better than the free market in the long run, and my prediction is some type of Japanese style financial shock. The smart money is flowing out of China into our Sydney property market. That's good for us, I actually support the vision of, 'a Big Australia', with higher immigration and a faster growing economy, perhaps increasing our population above fifty million by 2050.

That means of course a bigger Sydney, and thats whats happening already with lots of cranes on the horizon building more apartments and of course our new Barangaroo complex on the harbour, which will be a combination of entertainment and residential apartments including another casino for the high rollers.

As I've said before Sydney is a great base for the Asia/Pacific Region, and there is a big American expatriate population here.  If you get the opportunity to get posted here definitely take up the chance to live here for a couple of years, or stay forever. Why, so much Asian Capital is moving here is of course our strong Property Rights based on the English system of law that we inherited of course, similar to the United States. We are a 'safe haven' in this turbulent region.

So, if you thinking about visiting us, now is a great time.