Australia in Eight Days

We flew to Sydney on Jan 11, 2010. It was a quick visit to Aussie so we stayed put in Sydney for five days hoping to avoid the feeling of being rushed. Besides, there's lots to do in Sydney!







We stayed at a vintage hotel in the area they call The Rocks. It's a cute area right next to the Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House. We did a few city walks and found the place big and loud. After all, it's Australia's largest city with well over 4 million people!


We were a little dissappointed in the lack of cleanliness at our hotel...from the reviews we read it sounded like it's hit and miss whether the place will be clean. On the other hand it was a really interesting heritage type place with a nice TV room where you felt like a ghost might be sitting on the old chair next to you! We only had crawly visitors (cockroaches) on the first night so can't complain too much! We're all getting used to bugs on this trip.




The Harbour Bridge is really big and you can pay to walk over the top and get a great view - and exercise!










The whole district was really alive especially at night along the harbour. There were always sounds of the local aboriginals playing a diggeridoo along with modern boom box music, selling CD's and taking donations.







There was also the odd sidewalk performance going on. We stopped to watch some 'fireman' putting on a pole-climbing, fire-juggling show. It was quite entertaining!



We even did a shopping day together and went to a really nice mall called the Queen Victoria Building. It was full of big clocks. The one in the picture was really interesting with lots of moving parts and included the date. There was a big door and as the hour approached all the people around us were aiming their cameras at it (including me). The clock chimed a few seconds early and we all stood there ready....and then.....and then.....nothing. We all walked away quietly. Wonder what's behind the door...Matthew's laugh for the day!





Rob and Matthew went on a pirate ship lunch cruise in the harbour. They came back stuffed and said it was really good. Especially the food!




Sarah and Diane went.....guess where? To the opera! Why not? It was the Sydney Opera House! We went to the opening night of a french love story called Manon. It was very nice!

Oh yes and we also went to Chinatown to the market and bought Sarah a sundress for $5 and some Croc look-alikes.






Then we took an overnight coastal train ride up to Brisbane. No, that's not it in the picture...it was a bit bigger than that.
We hung out near Gold Coast (south of Brisbane) until we borded our Asia Airline flight to Malaysia. Gold Coast and Surfers Paradise is a really busy beach place but we didn't explore much (just did laundry and ate pizza) so can't comment further!

Those are Australia the hightlights in a nutshell. We didn't go on any animal or bird tours but had fun anyway! We'll rely on others to tell us their Aussie touring stories okay?


Then....off to Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia. Population: 3 million.