One Year, One World

Posted by Jennifer @ 2:59 AM

Enjoying the Sunshine in Sydney
Sydney, Australia

It has been an absolute different way of travelling since arriving in Sydney! It is a beautiful city, very clean, easy to move and of course, other than the different accents, language certainly isn't a problem. It was interesting arriving into Sydney Airport. Luckily we had already been warned by our Singaporean relatives not to bring any food into this country. Along with New Zealand, Australia's customs is among the strictest in the world. Basically, if you ever come over here, leave all food, agricultural or wood stuff at home, or else you will have to declare them and have them inspected by the officers (many things end up in their garbage bins!). If you've got any soil on your shoes, also beware because they will be completely washed and cleaned at the airport.

That said, it also means that this country is extremely clean, and free of bugs that might otherwise have migrated over on the airplane. Apparently flight attendants usually walk through the aisle spraying 'something' to disinfect the plane. We didn't see any though, so we're guessing that they might have integrated that action into the ventilation system. It would be a bit disconcerting to have two cans of aerosol sprayed on you, I would imagine.

Anyhow, we arrived in Sydney on the morning of the 18th of March, and taxied over to Kirribilli to Janet's place. It was a beautiful day when we arrived, and it has been gorgeous for many days since. Janet made us lamb chops and sausages grilled over the bbq when we got there. Yummy! After lunch, we went for a walk to the city. There are two ways of getting downtown from Kirribilli: walking cross the Harbour Bridge, or taking the ferry. Sydney has a wonderful ferry service, by the way. It runs on time, and as efficient as subway systems in London or New York.

The first day, we walked across the bridge to get a sense of where things are, and enjoyed the Opera House. Needless to say, Winston has taken many photos of the Opera House since we've been here. We walked around an area called the Rocks, and went to the top of the Shangri La Hotel for a drink. Unfortunately we were refused 'gasp' entry as Winston was in shorts; there was a dress code after 6pm! We consoled ourselves by going down to the Opera House and having drinks down by the deck over there. Janet introduced me to lemon lime bitter, a non-alcoholic drink which I have since enjoyed a few more times.

It was very pleasant to be sitting in such clean and 'non humid' conditions. We realized we had been in Asia for a long time and it has been an interesting change adjusting back to western life. What has been difficult, is adjusting to the high prices of food and drinks, and entry fees to attractions. Ouch. We've really gotten spoilt with 5 months in Asia and enjoying the 'stronger' US exchange rate.

We have really noticed that there are quite a number of Asians residing here. Of course, we knew that Australia is as multicultural as N. America, but what has been amazing is the amount of Asian restaurants here! In Seattle, there is only ONE Malaysian (our favourite, of course) restaurant. Here, there seems to be a Malaysian/Thai restaurant at every food court and in every neighbourhood. It's been wonderful! We caught a ferry back to Kirribilli and got Thai take out for dinner. It was delicious, and we had red wine along with our meal.

We slept in on Friday and had brunch before heading out by ferry. We walked through town, visiting camera stores, and getting one of our flights changed at Air New Zealand. We also visited the beautiful Queen Victoria Building, a shopping center housed in a colonial building. Very lovely! Then it was a walk across the Darling Harbour bridge where Janet treated us to yummy ice cream. We had durian, lychee and green tea scoops in a waffle bowl. Janet's friend Jason met us there, and we taxied over to Little Italy where we had a very nice Italian meal with red wine.

After dinner, we watched "French Men", a film that is being shown as part of the Sydney French Film Festival. It was quiet good and we really enjoyed it. A nice coffee mixed with a discussion of the film closed the evening for us. The next morning, we slept in and had a lazy day. In the late afternoon, we ferried over to Circular Quay (ferry terminal in the city), and transferred to another ferry to Manly (30mins ride). It was a nice ride, with great views of both the north and east parts of Sydney. It got a bit choppy when we passed an area called the 'heads', where the calm harbour water meets the Pacific Ocean.

We visited our friends Ann and Simo, whom we met in Varanasi and shared a car up to the India/Nepal border. It was only 24 hours, but we had a great time exchanging travel stories and it was wonderful to meet up again in their hometown. Manly is a beautiful beach resort, where the locals go to vacation. Right at the end of the coast, Manly has 2 beaches: one by the wharf, very quiet and great for little kids while the other, part of the ocean is full of huge surfs, very popular with surfers, needless to say. We did walk over there and watched in awe of the huge waves.

At their beautiful apartment, we shared a bottle of red wine, then they took us out to a restaurant where we ravished a seafood platter, full of oysters, prawns, fish, octopus, crabs, mussels, smoked salmon and calamari. It was yummy! We shared 2 bottles of white wine here. We caught the last ferry back to circular quay arriving there at 12:50am, walked across the bridge, took photos, and finally tip-toed in around 2:15am!

It was cool and drizzly on Sunday morning so we chilled out at home. We caught a bus and met Jacqui at Bondi Beach, and walked along the ocean on the Bondi-Coogee walk. It was absolutely beautiful to see the beaches, waves crashing against the cliffs, and people surfing at every little bay or cove. By the time we got to Clovelly (before reaching Coogee), Justin was waiting for us with the car. We travelled with Jacqui from Bangkok to Hanoi, and met Justin (her boyfriend) while they were travelling through Vietnam together after the tour. It was great fun to meet up again, and look at her photographs from the trip. It's always fun to do the "Do you remember the time...". They gave us a ride back after a delicious pizza dinner, with red wine.

On Monday, we ferried over, and then hopped onto a bus to Chinatown. We have really enjoyed nice Aussie meals, but were ready for our Asian fix by then. It was close to the Darling Harbour, so we visited the Outback Center, where we enjoyed a presentation of the didgeridoo, an aboriginal musical instrument that looks like a huge stick. It was very well done, and we also enjoyed browsing through their shop. Next we spent 3 hours at the Sydney Aquarium. They have the world?s shark collection and it was quite cool to be looking at them either below or at eye level. The aquarium has built glass walkways through the harbour so we can walk around these large creatures. We got to dive with grey and white tipped reef sharks at Sipadan Island, but there were not as big as the ones we saw here. Most importantly, they did not have the huge teeth as the ones here.

Next we walked over to the Royal Botanic Gardens where we were amazed to see the thousands of bats that hung upside down at the top of the trees. It was weird to see bats out in the daylight; these are huge ones by the way. We?ve been told that they are called Fruit Bats or Flying Foxes. We saw them again today when we crossed the Gardens, but this time they were awake, making a ruckus of noise and flying over our heads. We ferried back to Kirribilli and met up with Janet and her friends Jaclyn, Lawrence and Susana for a scrumptious Indian meal and red and white wine. They are all from Melbourne, by the way. It was interesting to hear about the differences between the two cities. It is always fascinating to hear about these geographical rivalries.

We had to get up early on Tuesday morning in order to pick up our rental car, a Holden Commodore (made by GM) from Avis. Janet?s friend Katrina joined us, and the four of us headed off to Blue Mountains. It was slow leaving the city; traffic was crawling. By the time we were up in the mountains, we could feel a distinct change in the temperature. It was quite cold when we got out to visit Wentworth Falls. It reminded me of springtime camping trips back in Vancouver! We enjoyed a short hike below the cliff towards the waterfall, where a ?model? big huge 6-packs was posing for a shot. Hehe. ?Hubba hubba? as Janet said.

By then, we were hungry and headed off to Katoomba for lunch. Nearby is the famous Three Sisters, a rock formation with aboriginal background. Here we saw bus loads of tourists, mostly Japanese. We had planned to see the Jenolan Caves, but they were a bit too far for our small day trip. We decided instead, to take a cable car down to the floor of the forest, walked along the boardwalk, then caught the scenic railway back. This ?train? is the steepest in the world; in one section, it is 52 degrees! It?s definitely quite an experience indeed. On our way back, we stopped by quickly at Blackheath with a view of the northern side of the Blue Mountains. Here Katrina pointed out a kookaburra that was just perched on a branch just in front of the car. It was a cute creature with very curious expressions. That was certainly a treat for all of us! Dinner was on the Finger Wharf, the same building as the W Hotel. We shared a lovely round of pizzas. Back home, we met Nicky (Janet?s landlord and roommate) for the first time; she just got back from skiing in Aspen and visiting family in London.

We had the car till 9am on Wednesday, so Winston woke me up at 6am to take photos of the Opera House at sunrise. Zzzzzz? it was inspiring to see all the joggers out though, there were so many people around the park at that time of the morning. There is a section of the park which has 108 steps, and quite a number of people were concentrating on running up and down these steps several times. There were also several people out with their dogs; that is always nice to see.

After we returned the car, we took a ferry back to Manly, and did the Manly to Spit Walk. This 10km walk took us through beaches, National Parks, sandy and dirt trails, and beautiful views of the harbour and ocean every few hundred meters. It was an active 3 hours; we felt quite invigorated by the end of it. Very nice! We treated ourselves to a seafood lunch on the other side of the spit, then caught a bus back to Milsons Point (right next to Kirribilli). That evening, we all just chilled out at home, enjoying Thai take-out and watched 6 episodes of Sex and the City (including Winston) with red wine and ice cream. It was very comfortable indeed.

Today, we had sushi lunch with Jacqui in town, near her work (the building with blue cone, as we know it). It was fun to see her all dressed up in her suit. We have only seen her in travel clothes before. Next we visited the Art Gallery of NSW and St. Mary?s Cathedral. We also went to the Australia Museum, but did not end up going in because the exhibition (International Wildlife Photography) that we were going to see had just ended a few days ago! Bad timing. After a ride on the monorail, we had drinks with Bronwyn and her boyfriend Brad at Darling Harbour. We met Bronwyn back in 2000 when we were touring together on safari in Kenya. It was great to see her again after all these years.

It?s almost time to head back to catch the ferry now. We just enjoyed laksa, bbq pork noodles and sugar cane drink at a food court in Chinatown. They were yummy and cheap. Why is a meal more satisfying when it?s inexpensive? Tomorrow we will be having lunch with Steve and Kathy, whom we met while travelling in China in 2002. We are very much looking forward to it. In the evening, we will be going to a Rugby League game with Jacqui, her brothers, her 4 years old nephew, Justin and his buddies. It should be interesting. We have been told to expect a lot of noise and action. Looking forward to it, though I must admit that I know absolutely NOTHING about this sport.

We will be leaving this great town on Saturday and heading down to Tassie (Tasmania, as the Aussies call it) for a few days. It has been a very good stay here in Sydney, and in particular catching up with so many wonderful friends we have made over the years. I have been very detailed about the wines we?ve been having, because I don?t drink any at home! People here all drink, whether it?s wine or beer. It?s a daily culture here. I?ve actually enjoyed them, though just a bit at a time, of course. It has been interesting to myself that I?ve probably consumed more wine here than the amount I?ve had all my life! Crazy, eh? Well, maybe I?m finally building up a tolerance for it. Anyhow, it?s getting late, and we have to find a bus back to quay and hopefully not miss our last ferry back to the north shore.

Posted by Jennifer @ 9:54 PM

Relatives in Sabah
Sydney, Australia

Yes, I'm way behind on blogging, so this is a quick attempt to summarize our visit with relatives in Labuan and KK (Singapore will be another blog) before we settled down here in Sydney. Yes, it has been very comfortable here as we've decided to spend 9 days staying with my kindy friend Janet (we've been friends since we were 4!) and her flatmate Nicky. We're staying in Kirribilli, which is north of Sydney Harbour (fantastic view of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge) but I'm straying away from the purpose of this blog.

Anyhow, back to Labuan. That was the weekend of February 27th to 29th. Before we headed off by ferry, we went out to dinner with my friends Lynnette and Alex. We had yummy fish noodles. Lynnette took us to the jetty where we spent 3 hours cruising the S. China Seas to Labuan. There, we were well taken care of by Winston's Uncle Mike and Aunty Zita, and their three girls, Stephie, Samantha and Sharlene. We visited the entire island on Saturday. In addition to some nice beaches, we were very impressed by some of the free attractions on the island: aquarium, chimney (leftover from the old coal mine) and the bird park. We enjoyed eating out (of course), and also at home. We were also treated to 3 delicious freshly caught lobsters. While driving by one of the beaches, a group of fishermen had just returned from their day's outing and were in the midst of hauling out their catch. They caught many trevallies (jacks), lobsters, a porcupine fish, a couple of angel fish, and some snappers. We also got to visit two of Winston's grandaunts and all of Aunty Zita's family. It was a fun weekend!

It was pouring when we got back to KK. Dad picked us up and we got to meet my Er Gu (2nd Aunty) who had just returned from balmy Brisbane. Apparently it was 41 degrees celcius there, so she and granduncle decided to go back to KK a week early. It was great, because we would have missed them had they returned on the 5th. We had a nice dinner with steamed stingray and dumplings before having an early night as we had to wake up at 5am the next morning for our flight to Tawau (Sipadan Island).

When we returned from diving, we had enough time for one last dinner with the Wong clan (my dad's side of the family). Er Gu and Matha (the maid) prepared an enormous meal at home, and invited the relatives over. It was very yummy indeed, a first class home-cooked dinner with steam corn fed chicken, curry, stuffed tofu, to name a few. We showed them our dive DVD from Sipadan and entertained them for about 30mins. It was funny because Er Gu kept wanting to know if all the fish she sees is good for eating. We think that all Chinese parents are the same.

Friday, March 5th, we had one last dim sum meal with my Da Gu, then it was time to head off to the airport. We really enjoyed our stay in KK, eating all the wonderful coffee shop noodles and rice with dad, and hanging out with relatives and friends across Sabah. Diving at Sipadan was truly an amazing experience, and even a non-crazy diver like myself had an awesome time. We're off to meet a friend for dniner soon, so it's time to sign off now, and hope to catch up again next time we find a decently priced internet cafe. Did we tell you that things are very expensive here in Sydney?!!

Thursday, March 25, 2004

Wednesday, March 24, 2004

Monday, March 22, 2004