Canberra Getaway
Leanne is an Australia born Malaysian. So in order for the Malaysian Government to recognize her status, both of us as parents had to make trip to the High Commission of Malaysia to submit the applications in person for Malaysia Birth Certificate and Passport in Canberra. For some reasons, the High Commission no longer accept applications by mail. Even so, we can expect to get things done on the same day, which I reckon to worth the hassle.
A day prior to submission, we had to stop by the police station to get Leanne’s passport and birth certificate applications certified along with the thumbprints. Police officer Constable James was very helpful in certifying our documents. Throughout his years as a police officer, this was the first time to thumbprint a 3.5 weeks old infant. According to Constable James, the youngest person he has ever thumbprinted was an 18 year old crime offender. Ironic, Leanne’s first time to leave the the house since birth was to a police station.
The next day, we departed on a day trip to Canberra, the Nation’s Capital. With cheap fares from Virgin Blue Airlines, we took the earliest flight possible, at 7.30 am. Short domestic flights do not offer variety of food onboard. After all, it’s only an hour flight from Melbourne to Canberra.
Upon arrival, we had to take a cab to the High Commission of Malaysia at Yarralumla, which is 10 minutes away from the airport, depending on daily traffic conditions.
Welcome to the High Commission of Malaysia, Canberra. The architectural structure itself, portrays very much of a typical Malaysian village. At the Consular section, things went pretty much out of hand for them. There were just too many application submissions to handle at the same time. Their messed up processes caused a lot of inconvenience and confusion for us Malaysians at the High Commission. Anyhow, we were told to collect the documents between 3.30 pm and 5.00 pm later on that evening.
Later, we headed down to the city for brunch. It was such a nuisance to catch a cab in Canberra. Cabs are nowhere to be seen when you needed them most. Completely unfamiliar, we requested the cab driver to drop us at the nearest shopping mall, which we ended up at the Canberra Centre, hoping to kill our hunger with some nice food.
Despite the the earlier unpleasant experience at the Consular section, our documents were handed to us right on time. We then rushed to the airport, to catch the next flight back to Melbourne, departing at 5.00 pm.
Unfortunately, a Virgin Blue ground staff at the counter informed us that they were unable to amend our 8.00 pm scheduled flight to 5.00 pm flight. Such amendment would cost AUD$300 per pax. So at last, we decided to wait 4 hours at the airport instead for our initial scheduled flight.
A day trip to Canberra sure was tiring to say the least.
