MANNY CANTO: In-Depth-ing in Australia

It is indeed a privilege to visit Melbourne, Australia through the generosity of my sponsors – my sister Sarah Jane Canto Casimiro and my brother in-law Caruel Casimiro.

Together with my brother Eleazar Canto and his wife Sheila Rose Palada Canto, we arrived midnight at Melbourne International Airport last June 18, 2024 and were welcomed by zero degrees freezing cold weather.

It is wintertime in Australia and the weather is terribly cold. But anyway, this is an opportunity again to visit Australia, popularly known as “The land down under”.

My first visit was in 2012 in Adelaide, South Australia when we attended for the first time the Life Saving World Championship.

Melbourne is the coastal capital of the southeastern Australian, State of Victoria. Melbourne is the coffee capital of Australia where we have a chance to experience the best coffee in Australia. Thousands of baristas in thousands of cafes across Melbourne take pride in brewing the quality of coffee beans, and Melbourne does not tolerate bad coffee.

We travelled by train to reach the center of the city which has the modern Federation Square development, with plazas, bars, malls selling all branded stuff, restaurants by the Yarra River. In the Southbank area, the Melbourne Arts Precinct is the site of Arts Center Melbourne – a performing arts complex – and the National Gallery of Victoria with Australian and Indigenous Art and houses some world-class art in its permanent collection and the good thing it is absolutely free to see.

One of the most interesting facts when you visit Australia is their public transport system, you can purchase the ” Myki pass” which is a set of amounts of money for a set number of days of unlimited travel by train, tram or bus which we experienced already and super comfortable and less time consuming compared to using a car.

The City of Melbourne is diverse and multicultural. There are varied nationalities living in Melbourne and Filipinos are among them. We met a bunch of Filipinos living here and they live a life comfortably and supporting their families back home which is one of our values and culture of “Malasakit”. Filipinos here are branded as the great workers especially in the medical field, some of them are doing menial jobs but earning well. The resiliency of Filipinos is our weapon that we can survive in any situation abroad. We can easily adapt to any kind of situation in life.

More of Australian escapade in my next article.*