Once the locals, particularly the taxi drivers, find out you are from Australia they are more than willing to offer you all they know about your fair country!Once the locals, particularly the taxi drivers, find out you are from Australia they are more than willing to offer you all they know about your fair country!Once you say you are from Australia, the floodgate is open "Sydney?" "Melbourne?" they ask and it's incredible the number of people who have relatives and friends studying somewhere downunder!

A very chatty taxi driver was pleased to hear we were from Australia and he spoke, in hushed tones, about how he very much liked a singer who was from Melbourne. From his approach which seemed to invite us into some secret to be shared, he whispered that he was, in fact, fond of a singer called "Kylie Minogue"!

Another cabbie was an absolute wealth of knowledge on Pauline Hanson. The whole journey was a recount of her recent history, although we were a bit confused as to why he was so fasciated with this icon of Australian politics!

Arriving in a hotel in Taiping we were a little alarmed..."The Crocodile Hunter is dead" the owners said once they found out we were from Australia. They continued to elaborate with details of how he met his gruesome end in the clutches of a crocodile. We thought the worst had happened and that we had just been out of touch with news headlines back home. Months ago this horrible event had happened, they informed us. It was then that Andrew realized that it couldn't be true and he reassured them that when we left Australia, Steve was fine! Relief all round!