Poker Dome

There are a whole series of self-dealt poker places across the city. Some are in pubs, and some are in purpose-built or dedicated poker rooms.

Oddly, they can only run SNGs, and not ring games due to crap laws.

bump i love australia!

josem, or anyone, do you know anything about this sleeping with the enemy living accomodations in sydney and cairns? looks not bad.

http://www.sleepingwiththeenemy.com

i'm flying into melbourne on april 7th, with a 1-year working visa. not sure where i'm going to end up though.

No, I know nothing about that website.

However, I did have a friend who just got back from 12 months away across the world, having spent just $1,400 (plus a round the world plane ticket) in total expenses (including accommodation).

He was on some 'couch surfing' program.

G'day mate,

I am goin to Oz in may and will staty for about a year (working holliday) buying a car there etc. What are the placec which I have to see in your opinion. And offcourse all the touristic stuff but aslo some things which aren't in the books.

Thanks in advance

I think that this thread details most of those things, especially early on.

The country is about the same size as continental Europe, so it is simply not practical to list everything worth seeing.

If you have something more specific, it is likely to be easier to assist.

housenuts, tbh dont go to stay at sleepingwiththeenemy, for the price you can stay in a better place with better people.

i hate sydney, but i did find most of the hostels in scummy kings cross most welcoming.

also in cairns stay in gilligans its beautiful for a hostel (ie failed hotelstyle)

otherwise my favorite place was brisbane

thanks ron.

couple more questions:

how much does internet cost a month for a regular broadband household connection?
are there many wifi signals around that are easy to freeload off? i know in canada tons of people leave their routers unsecure and you can basically get free internet.

do you ever see ice hockey being shown at sports bars? it's the playoffs soon and i'm going to need to be able to watch this. if not how much is a satellite dish?

Just found this thread. I might be able to answer very simple questions only. j/k.

Re ice hockey, go to http://yourtv.com.au/guide/ and check the Foxtel sports channels.

I imagine Stanley Cup games are on, other than that, not sure, but check here.

www.whirlpool.net.au
I'm pretty confident that this is illegal.

I have never seen this.
www.Foxtel.com.au is probably a good place to start.

not sure about the legalities but it's probably one of those grey areas. if people don't know how to secure their router they certainly wouldn't know how to see if anyone else was using it. happens all the time over here.

i had a hard time freeloading off a random wireless router. most are secured.

also, keep in mind that most broadband services here have monthly bandwith limits which sucks if you like to download a lot. i guess also that is more reason not to hijack a wireless signal cause you could conceivably be sending them over their monthly limit.

also, dont know the price of sleepingwiththeenemy, and also they mightve posted 'select' photos for the site, but compared to the hostels ive seen in kings cross in sydney, this place is much nicer.

Not sure if i want to get my laptop mailed out there.

Is Dell popular in Australia? I'd be looking for a cheap laptop that basically has wifi and that's really all that's important.

Definitely. See their AU site.

How much does it cost to go to the clinic in Australia? Do you guys have free health care? I have something on my leg that I just want looked at but will I have to pay? I have insurance but it only covers above $200 and I just want my leg looked at so it shouldn't cost nearly that much unless they need to amputate it or something.

also, are there free std tests for anyone?

The last general practitioner doctor that I went to charged me $A50, and I received $32.50 in a rebate from the taxpayer.

It is heavily subsidised through taxes.

I think it is fair to say that our system is somewhat between the US / UK models in terms of private/public contributions. You can probably look it up on an OECD website for more info.

Anyone earning over the average wage is essentially forced to take out private health insurance through tax penalties.

In Australia, we call those things on our legs "feet"

Cost of getting medical advice now is probably less than the cost of getting medical advice later.

I don't know, but Google should show up some results.

if you're in Melbourne ---> http://www.mshc.org.au/

Any first hand info on Bedarra Island?

No

Hey Josem, my mate James just started working with you at Pokerstars. Can you remind him to turn off my doomswitch please?

ajrees,

Try this

Could you briefly explain why anyone would want Australia to remain a monarchy? As an American I literally can't understand this. I guess it would be different if it were the king/queen of Australia.

Here's two links worth checking:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republicanism_in_Australia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_Au...lic_referendum

If the question put to Australians was "Do you want Australia to become a republic?", the YES vote would have easily won.

Hey guys

I will be arriving in Brisbane on the 22nd of June to start university there.

So, I plan to buy a computer after I am established there. Do you guys have some suggestion of a good store to buy computers? I also still don't know if I will pick a desktop or a notebook.

Thanks for your help