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Yeah why is it only in SA where you get 5 cents for every empty bottle? I hate it when I'm driving somewhere and I see the driver in front of me toss rubbish out of the window.
Only 5 cents?
An empty bottle was worth 10 cents in Toronto, back in the early 1990's.
Imagine if every empty was worth 20-25 cents in WA.
I'll put that in the "everything causes cancer" category!
I think I was confusing myself with sunscreen chemicals and UVA.
"Oxidation" and "free radicals" are main contributors to melanoma,
which may be from using mass quantities of strong chemicals (like strong sunscreens for example)
which break down under strong UV and become "free-radicals" under your skin,
which in the case of sunscreen is most likely if you don't reapply every 1-4 hrs
(they want you to protect the sunscreen itself from UV, lol)
And since everything has risks,
and there are a lot of unknowns still
I'll go on enjoying smoldering-hot noon-day sun.
What a pleasant conclusion to our debate, lol.
Neither of us budged and now I have smile on my face
and I imagine you do too.
I think in many ways Australia is a much more tourist-friendly country than America is. The system of visitor's information centres (indicated by those 'i' signs) is consistent from Hobart to Broome. Amenities like public toilets are generally well advertised in both city and country. In the US, by contrast, accommodation seems mostly restricted to motels on the interstate, hotels in the cities and maybe a couple of good backpackers in even big cities. Supermarkets seem more accessible in Oz than the US.
I think the US is as visitor friendly or probably even more so than Oz. At pretty much every border crossing you will have a State Tourism office, with toilets. Perhaps you will be expecting we use the blue i sign.. we always use the standard international symbol. But if you go to the main tourist spots you will ALWAYS find a tourist information centre. If you cross into Maine from New Hampshire, pretty much every town on the coast will have a local Info office, in addition to the Maine information office right off the motorway.
Accomodations in the US are NOT limited to hotels or motels off the interstate. If you had had a car and had driven around you would have seen this.. Its not that much different from Oz. If had gone on a bus tour of Oz I probably could have come up with a similar mis-assumption. Resort towns will have more choices than remote towns, just like Oz. Cities will have more than remote farming communities. When I go to NY like to stay in suburban hotels in Connecticut, Westchester or North Jersey.
We have more 24 hour supermarkets that in Oz and they make it convenient to shop. I can place my order online and I drive to a covered driveway and they load my groceries in the trunk, smile and I sign electronically to acknowledge I received the goods.
That's when you can actually find the visitor's centres in the US. What I mean is, there's no nationally standardised system of information centres like we have here, most of the visitor's centres in the US are run by the local tourism board or are privately run. If I just get into town after a long drive, I don't want to be looking all around town looking for a visitor's centre to help me find accommodation etc. Here it is easy to find visitor's centres because they are clearly marked by the same signage all across the country.
Incorrect. The main tourist offices are run by states, just like in Oz. You also have local tourist boards, just like Oz. Every state has a tourism board website where you can order (free) brochures and maps, or they allow you to download. I just downloaded tourism books for several states to my ipad. There is also a national web site, just like Oz: Discover America Vacations, Hotels, Restaurants, Packages & More
And just like Oz, each state pretty pretty much runs the show from a local perspective. When you cross borders on the main interstate you will find welcome centers. If you had had a chance to had driven a car in the US you would have seen signage off the interstate as well as the roads into the main cities/towns. Just like, Oz NOT EVERY TOWN has a tourism office. The signage is either a green sign or brown sign. Some places DO use the blue i sign. We may not use the standard blue i symbol, but its not Australia, you can't expect everything in the US to work just like in Oz; when I lived in Oz, I did not expect things to be the same as in the US. thats the beauty of exploring other countries, you have to throw out what you expect to see, based on what you know and just go with the flow.
Last edited by minibrings; 09-16-2011 at 03:07 PM..
I think the US is as visitor friendly or probably even more so than Oz. At pretty much every border crossing you will have a State Tourism office, with toilets. Perhaps you will be expecting we use the blue i sign.. we always use the standard international symbol. But if you go to the main tourist spots you will ALWAYS find a tourist information centre. If you cross into Maine from New Hampshire, pretty much every town on the coast will have a local Info office, in addition to the Maine information office right off the motorway.
Accomodations in the US are NOT limited to hotels or motels off the interstate. If you had had a car and had driven around you would have seen this.. Its not that much different from Oz. If had gone on a bus tour of Oz I probably could have come up with a similar mis-assumption. Resort towns will have more choices than remote towns, just like Oz. Cities will have more than remote farming communities. When I go to NY like to stay in suburban hotels in Connecticut, Westchester or North Jersey.
We have more 24 hour supermarkets that in Oz and they make it convenient to shop. I can place my order online and I drive to a covered driveway and they load my groceries in the trunk, smile and I sign electronically to acknowledge I received the goods.
^^ And you can expect to get tourist info even at 5:30pm.
^^ And you can expect to get tourist info even at 5:30pm.
So you've noticed the short opening hours of practically everything in this State?
Try being an avid DIY'er like my husband. He curses this place for the fact that many DIY type businesses are open only on Saturdays (of course not on Sundays) and often only til noon or 11am. Some of them aren't even open on Saturday at all, many closing at 4pm on weekdays. They expect you to take time off work to spend money there. Lots of money. Making it easy for the customer is not in most businesses mission statements.
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