Day 7 - Sydney First Day

8th July 2007. Day 7. Sunday.

We woke up early again. This time, is to catch the flight to Sydney.

We have booked Jetstar to fly to Sydney, it was 79 dollars one way to Sydney...a lot cheaper than Qantas, but the airport is a lot further than the Tullamarine airport. We had to go to the Avalon airport, which is in Geelong, and we decided to take the taxi there -_-

As we arrived in the airport, one and a half hour had passed, with the cost of around 150 dollars on taxi. One word, "OUCH"

We arrived earlier than expected, thus the check in process was smooth and without any crowd...

The plane arrived...

My companion while waiting: book and ipod...

Boarding

I was shouted "NO PICTURES ALLOWED!" when i was taking this pic -_-

Newayz, the flight took us approx an hour n a half, arrived to Sydney airport, took a taxi to our hotel Four Points, and checked in.

The view from the hotel room

The first destination to visit, the Rocks Market. Its some sort of a flea market that is only opened during the weekends...and it is being operated along a street that had been closed up for that day...not much things to see though...Msia's Curve's market is much better =P

The Rock's Market

that is the closest i got to the Opera House =P

Me & Dad

However, the street was still quite interesting as there are some weird stuff selling and the architecture on that street itself was quite a beauty

The Booths

Hotel?

Seems that most of the buildings here were being built during the old days and was being preserved till now:

Cool Building

And another...

And another...

And another...(Westpac!!)

And another...

One of the interesting inventions i saw...a wineholder consisting of only a board with two holes

We took around an hour to walk through the street...and after that went back to the hotel to rest

As we were walking back to the hotel, we passed by this building:


Sydney is indeed an old city.


My parents and sis decided to take a nap and rest in the hotel. As for me, I took my old, faithful Ipod, wore my jacket, slipped my mum's camera into my pocket, took the city map the hotel gave, and started my solo exploration of the City of Sydney.

With music blasting into my ears, i started walking from the hotel towards Medina Grande Hotel ( ;) ), then from there towards Town Hall, then to Queen Elizabeth Building, then from there i walked to Pitt St, through Pitt St Mall, then cut through some streets to Elizabeth Street, from there walked to Goulborn St, where most of the chinese are, then from there to China Town St, and finally, back to the Hotel...the whole journey took me a 2 and a half hour of walking... and i felt good =)

HSBC, with E&Y in the background

Some clock tower

Queen Elizabeth Building (QVB)

A Monument @ Elizabeth St

An interesting sight to see an ancient church between two modern buildings

First dinner in Sydney, would of coz be something Sydney is famous for: SEAFOOD!

One of the reason we chose Four Point Hotel is because it is located right next to Darling Harbor...thus, to satisfy our crave for seafood, we walked to Cockle Bay Wharf to find a place for seafood, and we found it.

Dad: "Order anything you want."
Me: "But...its quite expensive..."
Dad: "Aiya...since we are here, must eat till we are satisfied!"
Me: "0_0..."

Thus, we ordered.

Grilled Barramundi,

Lobster,

Fresh Oysters,

and Mussels,

along with a big bowl of Casesar Salad and a bottle of White Wine... =) I would say...that meal is the most expensive meal ive ever had =P

Me & Mum

Family (yea i know i looked weird...-_-)

The Family is Reunited Once Again! ^_^



**P/S: I will finish the blog tomorrow as all of the sudden blogger.com will not allow me to upload any photos...its late and i need sleep...sorry guys =)

Post Editted 7:56 AM 31 July 2007

An Insertion

A small insertion before i continue with my parents visit...went to the city with the gang just now for dinner at the si chuan place...an "introductory course" for jon ong towards si chuan food... =P

anywayz....had quite a lotta fun, laughs and very spicy food...

while waiting for the train to get back home...jon ong did this...



He shook his head left n right vigorously....



which reminds me...



of this:



>.<

Day 6 - Chill Out Day

7th July 2007. Day 6. Saturday.

We slept late. We woke up late. And we have no plans.

In the end we decided to go to Crown. While my parents went to have some fun in the Crown's Casino, me, jia, and jan went to watch a movie in Village Cinema...we watched......THE TRANSFORMERS.

Good movie. Thats all i can say. Those who hasnt watch it, watch it. Those who has, buy the DVD and watch it again, its worth it =)

Newayz....after that we went for dinner then went home...nothing much happened...just time to pack up for the next day's Sydney trip... =)

Day 5 - Penguin Parade Day Tour

6th July 2007. Day 5. Friday.

As my dad looks through all the brochures we took from the tourist information center, we decided on the GoWest to take us on the penguin parade tour...

The GoWest Brochure...

We arrived Melb Central at 11am, and took a stroll on Swanston towards St. Paul's church to wait for the bus to arrive. A cold morning, predicting a very cold remaining day...

The clock of Melb Central...showing 11am [Photo Courtesy of Jan]

St. Paul's Church... [Photo Courtesy of Jan]

The post box in front of the church...which is where we waited for the bus... [Photo Courtesy of Jan]

The first stop of the tour: The Gurdies Winery...due to the season, there are no grapes that can be seen in the vineyard...however, we were being offered to taste a range of wines. Sad to say, none of them are nice... =S

However...the scenary is nice, the atmosphere is comfy (although it was freezing), and the whole feel of it is extremely relaxing...worth a visit =)

The Winery [Photo Courtesy of Jan]

Wine Tasting [Photo Courtesy of Jan]

Jan + Jia + Jon [Photo Courtesy of Jan]

The Vineyard, look beyond it and you can see the sea [Photo Courtesy of Jan]

Us [Photo Courtesy of Jan]

License Plate: VINES 1 [Photo Courtesy of Jan]

A real, fire burning, heater [Photo Courtesy of Jan]

Me & Sis [Photo Courtesy of Jan]

The Second Stop: A center where they adopt injured and orphaned animals...which includes wombats, kangaroos, dingoes, cows, sheeps, wallabies, koalas, all kinds of birds, and some others...

It was raining quite hard when we were there...had to walk in the rain, feed them in the rain, look around in the rain...bleh...but still...was quite a good experience and a nice walk around... =)

Wombat [Photo Courtesy of Jan]

Me feeding Wallabies [Photo Courtesy of Jan]

Sleeping Koala [Photo Courtesy of Jan]

Emus [Photo Courtesy of Jan]

Kangaroo [Photo Courtesy of Jan]

The Third Stop: We left the center tired and stinky-ish and head to our next destination, the Nobbies, which is located on Phillip Island itself.

It is basically a very very big rock located out at the sea, but is able to be seen from the coast...however, the coastal line is mainly cliffs, thus walk ways are built for tourists to walk on and enjoy the view...and the darn cold wind

Drove past cows grazing on grassland [Photo Courtesy of Jan]

The Nobbies [Photo Courtesy of Jan]

Family [Photo Courtesy of Jan]

Me n Jia....and yes, im freezing my ass off [Photo Courtesy of Jan]

The GoWest bus...which is the bus we were on [Photo Courtesy of Jan]

The Final Stop: Finally, the main show of the day...the Penguin Parade! As cameras are not allowed to photograph the penguins...there will be no pictures of those cute little creatures...we were led to a stage (like a football stadium, only that we are staring at the beach instead of the field), and we waited, in the cold wind, for the penguins to return from the outer sea from their hunt...the first group that returned had triggered chaos among the spectators as those penguins are incredibly small, yet amazingly smart...they would actually wait till each group member is present before they continue walking...else they would just stand there n wait, or swim back into the sea, until that missing member is back...

All i can say abt them is cute...extremely cuteeee...

The Penguin Parade [Photo Courtesy of Jan]

Us Again [Photo Courtesy of Jan]

Gotta check under ur car before u leave...just in case those lil penguins takes it as their burrows ;) [Photo Courtesy of Jan]

The tour ended as we hop on the bus and head back to CBD...i slept through most of the journey, as most of the people did...as we arrived in the city...we had dinner in the Vietnamese Restaurant Merkong, which is also the first for me...and i have to say that the food there is just fantastic...even though there are rumours that the soup are actually being "recycled" >.<...

Even though everyone is tired...the day is still being rounded up by a trip to Max Brenner Chocolate Bar...with a satisfying meal of hot chocolate, cinnamon chocolate bun, and waffles with chocolate and strawberries... =)

Hug Mug, only in Max Brenner[Photo Courtesy of Jan]