Visit Sydney in ONE Day

Circular Quay at night..
The Acryl ( can't remember correctly ) pass. Look at the huge rock. I guess that is why they call this place "The rock" ( which is beyond the tunnel)
Bondi Beach happiness - to admire the sunset and soaking those painful legs in the cool water. Look at the waves...
Best shot of the sunset so far..
I tot Kings Cross is part of Monopoly
Till I found out that it is part of Playboy's network and perhaps some gangster network too. I look too tourist for the bouncers to hassle. They only ask " Hey Kid.." . Guess i looked underage at best.
The ride from Paramatta to Harbour. Trying the "show your teeth 'smile.
First View of Bondi!!
It was just awesome. hey, where are the bikini clad girls? But it was darn cold at this time and still could not figure out that this is summertime. brrrrr...

City Centre where the view of Sydney tower is apparent.
The road towards Darling... harbour
Check out the ships at the Maritime Museum.
A group of Asians were singing and dancing. I think this is part of the college initiation cause another group of Asians were laughing aloud behind me.
The QV shopping centre with the elegent classic architecture. Check out the 2 chockie shops.
This lady posed for a very long time to his husband/ father / somebody. ahem... dun want to know.

So, here is the cheat strategy if you have only one day to visit Sydney & want to be cheap.. i mean affordable.(spend the same amount of money for food.. it is good here). Here was my strategy

Take an overnight flight and arrive into Sydney in the morning.

DAY 1

Morning

Head towards Circular Quay. Get a AUS16 dollar day pass to use all the ferries, bus and trains.

Go to Sydney Zoo by taking the ferry ( did not manage this as the time did not fit )

Check out the Rock, Opera house, Bridge & the shops in between.
-> Check out the pedestrian way on the bridge to save more money.

Afternoon

Take a train towards Central. Here you can walk towards Darling harbour ( optional Sydney aquarium and Australia critters )

Check out Queen Victoria shopping centre, St Andrews Church

Then walk towards Chinatown. Here, go to Paddy Market where the stuff are the cheapest. Get all your holiday gift here. Remember to hit this place before 5 pm. After 5, walk around the chinatown street as the shops close later than local shops.

Evening

Heads towards Bondi Junction via Central. Take a bus to Bondi beach or Coogee Beach and look at the sun set.

Have dinner here in one of the ocean fronted shops

Night

Check out Kings Cross for the other side of Australia.

Take train up north or sourth or east before 1200 pm. That will help you cover as much distance as possible in that day.

Regular readers will note that this is the first time that I have no photos of food or extreme food. I guess the only extreme food this time is in building a taste bud for cheese and crackers. Vegemite? No problem!!

Icons of Sydney: The many ways to skin a cat.

One of the must see of Sydney as I arrived there is definately the Sydney Opera house / Harbour bridge area. ( This blog will be a testimonty of my arrival here) I did not realised how special this place is until I see it with my own eyes as the train approaches Circular Quay train station. It was just wonderful, and being there in person is really special. The cold wind with the glaring sun helps me to appreciate my time at this area. From here on, i was captivated by this Emerald City. Glad to be here on the 75th year of the bridge!

I am sure this chaps appreciate the bridge , and the view ...

A monster of a bridge and a mister of the opera. The tale of 2 cities. I understand Mark Twain came here.

A man name Uwe ( german , of course ) whom i got to chat with during the boat trip. Suggested to him on what to do when his wife come over for new year. As if i am a local... One of the few body shots of me. This one is taken by a chap from China who reciprocrated my gesture. He was trying hard to avoid taking the picture of a couple who were snoring there. :)

Some excellent guy came to the bridge so they put in an excellent plaque.

Not many tourist will come here but i managed to find the way up to it. You can actually cycle accross the bridge. Reckon better than paying AUS150 ( RM 450) for the 1 hour bridge walk.

It looked more magnificent at night..

Self reflection of the restaurant at the opera house. Cun belekun ..
Looked like a whale is going to eat me... yikes!
Wonder how the architect got this figured out. The beams are huge concretes interlocked with each other.
Looked like a hat from here. Check out the Japs who needed to take a class photo. I met them at the airport, prob middle high students. How lucky. In my time, school trips are to Muar Tanjung area.
Oh, the botanical garden.

One of the better photos la .. ya?

Seemed that this is taken about water level. have not figured how I did this yet.

Hustle and bustle of the pier.

Loved the architecture. Here, the crawlies have given this place a robust look.

Happy to be able to get these 2 icons at a location that no many people have used.

The aborigines techno group performing.
Ahso .. group'o photo'o. Very japanese'o. Too bad'o block'o the opera house'o.

In summary, Macau is about gambling ...

You will most probably not agree but in my book, Macau is a passe. I did get to eat some nice food there but HK food is much better. The only thing here worth a second look is the Portuguese food and egg tart. ( 7 HK dollars ). OF course, the plethora of mushroomed gambling hotels here. There is a total of 34 BIG gambling areas here. And because they provide free transport, drinks ( water and coffee ) and entertainment, we happily obliged checking out 5 of the 34 casinos...

Between new and old, Grand Lisboa and Lisboa Hotel belong to Stanley Ho, the richest man over here.
Not so high tech stuff, great entertainment with skinned girls parading their stuff. Can see all the saliva of old men on the floor. Where else can you get shows like " One night in Tokyo" in Macau? I did enjoy this place , they have an area for football and I caught Manchester United getting whacked that night.
The Venitian is an excellent place. I tot i took much more pics of this place but could not find the photos. Very grand , super large the the feet hurts from walking. 2 of the chaps nearly died and became extremely grumpy. hehe. There are 4 man made canals with shops littering it. I just love the fake sky.
Shi and I. ohhh .. looked hideus. Against my advice, she lost HK40 dollar in slot machines. Hey, nobody win in Casinos.

So, the 'trick' is to always go to the ferry terminal to get the free rides to these hotels. And one can basically walk from one end to another. Some restaurants are open throughout the night as well as pawn shops. And of course, there are loads of 'side business' here. No girls approached me with their 'call cards' no matter how hard i tried - dressing like ah pek, dress nicely, looked like hamsap etc. So sad.... even Nick got it. :)

Kem Pelangi Photos - 11- 14 November 2007

This camp is called El Sanctuary. Located in pristine Melaka in an area that nobody actually knows, it is run by a Caucasion with his family. The best part is the food here is excellent. The eldest son is actually a chef from Marriot KL.
Hooo Hummmm .. are the kids awake? Was on patrol duty and caught some chaps. Ok la, understand the need of youth to disobey...hehe

Yun Ting catching me catching her during the night service. Look at the ambience with the lighting against the rock. This place is extremely cooling indeed.

And of course, kids catching each other's eyes .. this stare really tell how both of them were being 'nice' to each other...This are my group members. A group of initially quiet youth who amazed me with their 'kwai'ness. Excellent bunch of kids, would not asked for others.

We had games...

Learned new things & enjoy the success ( or the lack of it)

And the group won No TWO in the performance. We did a love story with adaptation of korean movie, Malay movie, Bollywood and a sprinkle of learnings!! One great thing that we learn is to go beyond what we think our limitation is and let God help us to go beyond.

At 12 years old, he emerged as one of the leading actors that day. Bright future indeed

Yes, we are extremely happy with the pressies .. look at the loot!

Look how evil the guys are .. Loads of photo sessions..

But as usual, am mostly popular among the girls... ahemmSee, she was even looking at me like... oh .." how handsem...."

Somebody got to do this picture twice as we got the legs at the first go. Look hideus eh, all kangkang and stuff... all in all, a time well spent on my 4 days of annual leave. Hope we keep in touch and one day.. will meet again. Gooooo Mentakab , Temerloh and Muar !!