When you reach a crossing, expect to be greeted by a ‘Keeet-keeet-keeet ……’ sound emanating from the signal post, which means you have to wait till the signal goes green and the sound changes to ‘kitikitikitik…’. If the sound is ‘kitikitikitik…’, it means you are welcome to cross the road. Better hurry till the green changes to the blinking red (signaling that no one will start crossing the road now but those who have started may continue crossing till the next pavement). But if your hear no sound, then you should press the big button on your nearest signal post for it to register that there is a pedestrian who wants to cross the street.
Towards the start of my stay, I tried to figure out why the country is different from ours. At a traffic crossing where everyone was waiting for the light for pedestrians to go green, I convinced myself that people here follow rules and so they were different. The very next moment my nascent theory fell apart as people started crossing without the lights going green!!!
But no, actually this is a reason, and the pedestrians only crossed when there weren’t any vehicles. It’s not at all a random walk like it is back home. And the vehicles were very considerate too. There are many places where pedestrians are given first priority, and at these places if a driver sees a person waiting by the roadside to cross, they would halt the speeding car and allow the pedestrians to cross. Often the driver would himself signal to us to go. Sure, such would not have been the case had it not been the law. But at the same time there are not many protectors of the law in such a lowly populated country. I haven’t seen a single traffic police anywhere. I suppose the concept is absent here.
The vehicles - international brands. Seeing many of the cars I drive in NFS (for example the Alpha Romeo) roaming the roads here is just awesome. Then there are those loooooong limos –as if the front and hind portion of a car has been taken and 5-6 cabins inserted inbetween. I am yet to see a car like small family cars of India. Most of the cars here have a separate large boot space extending out at the back. And I like those Ducatis as well.
Public transport largely revolves around the trams. There is a City Circle tram, free and specially meant for tourists. There are cabs, which are also quite impressive. There are some horse drawn carriages in the city as well, for people who want to get a Victorian taste.
The pavements are wide and spacious. And God, the people are always in a hurry while walking. It was almost impossible for most of us to keep up with them. I thought maybe it was because of their height, that they can walk faster. But when I saw a girl of height lesser than me, speed past me, it hurt my prestige. So I matched steps with her, to find out where I was being left behind. Realization dawned that it was not the space between the strides, but the time between them that mattered more. The delay between the front leg touching ground and the other one leaving is very less for most of these Melbournites.
All of us got familiarized with the streets, and developed a general idea for the directions, within the first 2 weeks, except for Kartik, who is simply hopeless, even after 8 weeks! Elizabeth Street and Flinders Street formed the backbone of our ventures to the city. We majorly went to Indian restaurants (like Flora, and Jaipur Curry) or sometimes to Hungry Jack's.
We generally use the trams. Before going out, just check the Metlink website, about the directions and the trams to catch to go to a certain place, with timings. Some trains in and around the suburbs and some buses(rare) also come under Metlink. Tickets are available in the 7/11 shops.
On 8th July, I got a penalty, probably one of my firsts, as I was caught ticketless on a tram. I had lost my 2x10 journey card with my wallet. I didn't buy another one majorly because it seemed unjust on me to pay twice for an incident for which I was not responsible, and also because the ticket is for 10 journeys, and so it would have remained unused. Infact I travel regularly over the weekends, so I had bought myself a weekend card. Of course I could have bought a ticket for that single journey itself. But on going to the ticket vending machine I found I didn't have coins. So I asked Jai, but he told me 'peace maar' and I did so.
It seems like I have a tendency to follow Murphy's 3rd Law a lot.(http://www.murphys-laws.com/murphy/murphy-laws.html)
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