Australia Interesting Facts...

It's been about a month since I got back from Australia. It's a great little (in terms of population) country. Great weather, affordable (a little less than the US at the current exchange rates), with a diverse population. I would consider moving there and definitely plan to visit again as long as airfares are as cheap as they are. The culture seems to be close to British and European with an Asian influence in the big cities (i.e. Sydney). I saw a lot of Europeans and Asians and very few Hispanics (didn't see any in fact) and Blacks (very few).

The mass transportation system seems better developed than the US. I spent 10 days there and never needed a car. I only took a taxi twice. I got everywhere I wanted to go on planes, trains, buses, ferry, and foot. Of course, I stayed near the cities. If you want to go explore the Outback, then you would definitely need a car. Gas (or petrol as the Aussies call it) was about AU$1.10 per liter. That's over AU$4 per gallon or US$3.32 per gallon. It's probably more now since gas has gone up since I've been there.

I liked Brisbane more than Sydney. It's cleaner, not as crowded, and a lot prettier. Gold Coast is also a great place to hang out as it is the vacation hot spot for Australia with lots of high rises, beaches, restaurants, souvenir shops, and other attractions. You will definitely want to check out Surfer's Paradise while you are there.

Traveling in Australia is easy. If you are comfortable traveling in the US, you shouldn't have any problems in Australia. It's not hard to buy a plane ticket and figure everything out when you get here. There are plenty of places to exchange money, eat, find accommodations, and buy whatever you may need.

Talking to some of the locals, it seems Australians get paid better than Americans. The minimum wage is AU$14.31 per hour, but it seems that many low level workers make more than this. That is much higher than the US$6.55 per hour here. Also, it seems non skilled workers get paid substantially more there than in the US. When you factor in that the country has universal health care while most of our non skilled workers are uninsured and have no health care coverage, they earn substantially more than Americans.

I'm not sure how they do it. Things don't seem to be anymore expensive than what they are here. The only thing I can think of is that their government does not have the massive debt that we do and they aren't spending hundreds of billions fighting wars like we are. Or perhaps its because there is far less corruption and special interest groups in Australia compared with the USA. There are only 22 million people there, which is fewer people than there are in Texas.