Sydney Part I

29th Dec 2007 - 1st Jan 2008

with Monica and Karen

by flight

This is my first real trip to Sydney believe it or not, after 4 years of being in Aus... We thought about the idea of going to Sydney over new year's over a dinner a few months before n before long we got the flights booked and accommodation sorted

Our flights were early in the morning at 5am... Monica's cousin and his friend who were out fishing (it beats me too... malaysian guys seem to love fishing :S and fishing at night as well) sent us to the airport... karen took a qantas flight while mon n i took a virgin one (how that happened i still dont quite understand... i think karen booked her flight n then realised that hers was the last one available so we had to take separate flights)

upon reaching sydney airport, the first thing we felt was unfriendliness... seriously, this is not even the typical villager complaining about how ppl in the city are not friendly... we were confused about how to get to the city so we decided to ask this lady at a counter who seemed to be the only available person to talk to n she was so rude n even lied to us that there are no buses to the city

we hopped on to a bus that's supposed to take us to our lodging... the second thing we realise... buses are bloody expensive in sydney... double the price of brisbane... well, this is a villager's whinge of how expensive cities are hehe...

we were staying at the malaysian hall... its the first benefit i have got from the malaysian government (except when i was called to serve the country and do my country honour in national service) it costs us 4 bucks per person per night... n the location is not too bad as well...

it was a hot day in sydney... hotter than in brissie surprisingly... we caught a bus to the city after putting our stuff in the room... third thing we realised in sydney, there is nothing to eat in the cbd... ok, this may seem like an unfair accusation but its true... aside from maccas, all shops were closed n even if they were open, i didnt think there would have been anything nice...

n being the girl with the highest metabolic rate among the three, i was starving and whining while walking up and down the streets of sydney... we finally found a food court at queen victoria building that was open... the food was not spectacular but i topped it up with an ice cream so i was happy again

so we started shopping around queen victoria building (qvb)... supposedly the shopping central of sydney... bought a little bit of stuff... sydney has way more shops than brisbane... lots of small retailers and not just the chain stores that care to operate in brisbane

as we walked out of qvb, we bumped into elise and julian... our friend from brissie who's doing her internship at morgan stanley... what are the odds of that... n we agreed to meet up the next day...

next, we went to paddy's market... nothing to fancy... lots of stalls selling junk... one part of it sells fruits... lots of very cheap fruits... 10 mangoes for 6 bucks... we didnt buy anything cos we didnt feel like it... well, i felt like mangoes but no one else wanted to share 10 mangoes with me so i had to give it a pass

then i saw this shop that was selling clothes n decided to try something on except that when i went in to the fitting room, it was a communal one... absolutely shocking... they dont even have those in asia... n i swear i was changing with some prostitutes cos they had tats all over n enlarged boobs hehe... it was quite an experience