Even though school holidays are over, the Zoo is still teaming with international visitors, lots of whom must walk from the city since they keep turning up at the station without myki cards. Lots of people from mainland China at the moment \u2013 (Chinese New Year) \u2013 which is lovely to see, but trying to deal with the fact that our ticket machines don\u2019t give change or deal with foreign credit cards and that even single trip users have to buy a myki smart card, can be very complicated when there is little or no shared language. Luckily I’ve been able to enlist the help of mandarin speakers on the platform. Once they know the score, people often go off and call a cab.
\nWith North Americans I don\u2019t have communication problems, but my heart sinks when I discover they have no change. North American credit cards don\u2019t have pin numbers and our machine takes nothing else.
\nLast week one tall and very handsome American, gave up and went outside to call UBER.
\nHe was joined by two sleazy looking characters (you know the sort, skinny blokes with tatts and bad teeth) with a large Rhodesian Ridge back dog. The guys started admiring his Blue tooth headset in a way that made me a bit nervous so I went out and hovered around protectively. But instead of mugging the man, when they found out he didn\u2019t have a ticket, they offered to give him one of their spare myki cards. (Most Melbournians have several by now) Then we all stood around and patted the very good-natured dog until the train came.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Even though school holidays are over, the Zoo is still teaming with international visitors, lots of whom must walk from the city since they keep turning up at the station without myki cards. Lots of people from mainland China at the moment \u2013 (Chinese New Year) \u2013 which is lovely to see, but trying to …<\/p>\n