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Sydney with my Family
 "This
is like KL!" I exclaimed as we travelled on the highway in a taxi from Sydney
airport to the city. (KL stands for Kuala Lumpur, capital city of our home
country Malaysia).
As we walked along George Street, a high street with major shopping centres,
our 9 year-old Jessica commented, "this is just like London!" Well, that
is so typical of this family of mine. My husband and two daughters have
travelled so widely that we often have this habit of making a reference
to other places, and often a new reference for every next corner!
True enough it felt like KL as we travelled the highway early on this quiet
morning. George Street, filled with majestic classic buildings, did remind
one of London's high streets - Oxford Street or Regent Street! And it was
a sunny but cool summer morning that was similar to London's summer air.
The start of a holiday &
there's plenty to do
Slowly, the shops housed in the spectacular Queen Victoria Building opened,
beginning at 10.30am. This building housed a department store as well as
a shopping arcade comprising of designer shops and other high street shops.
From the basement, you could actually come up and find yourself shopping
at Grace Brothers department store on the other side of the road. And Pitt
Street is just outside. More shopping is available here, done while walking
on a cobbled car-free ground and enjoying some buskers’ performances.
Our serviced-apartment was only a few minutes' walk away from the town center,
located at The Rocks. This point is where the first white sailors who “discovered”
Sydney set foot on the continent. I love the arts, so this was just the
area for me. The many art galleries around the street market selling artsy
stuff put up shows on a regular basis. Just round the corner is Circular
Quay, where one can hop aboard different ferries to different parts of the
coast around Sydney. The Museum of Contemporary Art is located nearby. A
walk through this area is always interesting as there is always some entertaining
busking in front of the Museum or at the quay itself. A short walk further
away, you arrive at the breathtaking Sydney Opera House with the amazing
Harbour Bridge not far from sight.
Sydney is a beautiful city boasting a spectacular harbour front. It is also
a very clean and orderly place. When we visited Chinatown we had expected
a little more rowdiness and litter similar to Chinatowns we had seen in
other non-Chinese countries, but we were pleasantly surprised. It was just
as clean and orderly as all of the other places we saw in Sydney. From here
we walked on to Darling Harbour, and true
to its name, it's a darling place (though in fact, it was named for a prominent
person).
Apart from the scenic harbour view, there was plenty for us to see and do.
There are an endless string of cafes and restaurants, an Imax theatre and
a museum, dozens of luxury hotels including one housing a casino and a shopping
centre (Star City), and a vast children's playground.
We managed to spend the whole afternoon up to evening with our children
and our friends (also with children) moving around without expending much
money or effort. We sat down at a cafe facing the harbourfront playground
and the whole time that we were having our “adult chat” with each other,
the children were happy entertaining themselves safely in the playground.
Besides “doing nothing”, we were only once coaxed into paying for a 2-seater
paddle boat ride in a nearby manmade lake @ AU$ 12 each.
Australia Day, and
it’s off to Sydney’s Suburbs
We ended the
day with dinner at an open-air food court offering stalls of Asian and Western
cuisines. Unlike some other big cities, Sydney's city centre is a very walk-friendly
place. We experienced this even at night, on the night of Australia Day.
We took a little walk to see the spectacular firework displays and celebrations
over Darling Harbour.
Australia Day dawned, and we joined the day's celebrations at Hyde Park
located only 2 blocks away from Pitt St. We could see that this was a joyful
and exciting day for everyone, with lots of free stage entertainment, and
the ceremonial staging of the all-important annual installation of new Australian
citizens. The spirit was infectious and made more colourful by the generous
distribution of little Australian flags, visors and the imprinting of paint-on
flag tattoos.
We enjoyed ferry rides to Taronga Zoo (www.tarongazoo.com) about 15 mins
from Circular Quay) and Manly Beach (also 15 mins. another direction), located
at another part of the Sydney Coast. A word of caution about the zoo admissions.
There was a bit of confusion between my husband and myself regarding the
entrance fee to the zoo. He could not join us to the zoo, but he had been
the one who actually bought the ferry tickets. I only found out later that
the ferry ticket (AU$ 48) actually covered a return ferry trip AND the zoo
entrance. So I had paid the same AU$ 48 admission fee for myself (and a
lesser price for each child) twice! The ticket should have included that
information, and the zoo should have taken the responsibility to check,
especially when it was quite obvious that many of us came straight off the
ferry.
We were a bit disappointed with the zoo as we did not see many animals,
nor were we allowed to go near them or to touch them. Our children made
up for that later when they did all that at the Australia Zoo on the Sunshine
Coast. Even so, the trip was a nice family outing away from the city.
Manly is a neat and quiet township boasting a beautiful beach. Our 7 year-old
Melissa approved thoroughly, announcing "Wow, it's like what you see on
TV!". The water was turquoise in colour and crystal clear. This was the
first place we came across extremely cheap souvenir shops carrying cheap
everyday knickknacks. After having slowly gotten used to how expensive Sydney
was by now (esp. food and lodging), we were amazed to find that stuff in
these shops were cheaper than similar things back home in Malaysia! Fancy
slippers (flip flops), for example, cost only AU$ 3 a pair. During this
trip we got so used to the ratio 3:1 Malaysian Ringgit to Australian Dollar.
Such pretty flipflops cannot be found at under RM 10 back home! That was
the one hindrance to our complete enjoyment, I suppose - the recent rapid
increase in the exchange rate. My husband had visited Australia earlier
last year and said that he only had to multiply Australian prices by around
'2' instead of '3' now!
Our next stop was Sunshine Coast, Queensland. To make full use of our 2-week
vacation, we had booked a short flight to Brisbane at an incredibly cheap
airfare offered by Qantas (www.qantas.com.au). One-way fare for the 1-hour
flight cost each of us (adults and children alike) about AU$ 88. At Brisbane
airport our friend drove us for about an hour back to her house in Caloundra
City. This is a charming little town which was very quiet and had lots of
lovely beaches. Apparently, the progression of development and tourism has
fanned out from the Gold Coast, on to Noosa, and then Caloundra. Though
Caloundra is quieter, it still has its own wide choice of restaurants and
cafes, like everywhere else in Australia.
Laid Back, Gorgeous
Queensland
During our
3 nights' stay at our friend's nice house by the beach in Caloundra, we
managed to squeeze in a drive to other interesting parts of Sunshine Coast,
namely the Australia Zoo (www.crocodilehunter.com, the URL due to this being
the resident zoo of the TV personality, the Crocodile Hunter), the Coloured
Sands and Noosa.
The drive to the zoo took about half an hour. This is a very friendly zoo.
As mentioned earlier, there were plenty of animals to see and touch, specifically
the animals indigenous to Australia such as Koalas and Kangaroos. Our children
had a lovely paired photo taken for AU$ 19.90 a print. At Taronga Zoo, we
had to pay AU$ 3 per entry to pose with the sleeping koalas, and we had
to use our own camera! Moreover we were not allowed to touch or disturb
the Koalas in any way!
The drive to the Coloured Sands in Sunshine Coast took about one hour from
Caloundra. This is a vast beach where one can actually drive on the sands
during low tide. Just as its name says, the sand is of varying colours and
it runs for miles and miles. This was an eye-opening experience for our
family! Jessica said "it's like we're in a desert!" Indeed it was, as the
distance between the nearest tree and the water was at least half a mile
away! It was also here that our friends taught us surfing and body-boarding,
in the middle of the "desert"! What an overwhelmingly exciting experience!
Noosa was further back down, and is a slightly busier town with more tourists.
It also had its own wonderful beaches. On our third and last day in Caloundra,
our host/friend and his family drove us for about two hours to our last
stop, Gold Coast. "This is just like Las Vegas!" I first thought, on seeing
the hustle and bustle of entertainment in the day and the bright lights
by night. However, as our 4 days progressed here, I slowly realised Gold
Coast's own unique atmosphere.
We visited the Warner Brothers' MovieWorld and Dreamworld theme parks ...
the children's dreams come true! We stayed at a serviced-apartment here
too, and were happy that it was smack in the middle of the famous Surfers'
Paradise area, where the action is! Apart from the world-renowned Surfers'
beach, there were lots of shops and restaurants here.
We had our first dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe across the road. Our children
equate HRC to good old McDonald's wherever we travel, and would be happy
to have their meals alternating between these two places. I was quite impressed
that this was the first HRC we had been to with a breath of fresh air, as
it had big windows wide open. The whole place was so airy for a change,
without the unpleasant “trademark” HRC smell of stale cigarette smoke!
During the first few days we had abandoned our idea of renting a car in
Gold Coast. This proved sensible as we were spending so many hours in each
theme park. In addition, there was one day when we were completely rained
in by a storm. We had rainstorms throughout our stay in Australia, which
the locals said was unusual for this time of the year. Public transport
was readily available. A repeated trip to the same destination showed a
big difference in price between bus and taxi: one-way by bus cost AU$ 1.60
and one way by taxi cost AU$ 12! The monorail system, which we did not try,
appeared to serve only a small section of Gold Coast.
We were caught with the crowd and in heavy rain at the bus-stop outside
MovieWorld one day. That was at the end of the day, and so we had to wait
for a few rounds of buses before we could board ours. My advice is check
the bus schedule in advance and take earlier rides to avoid the crowd.
Gold Coast is a beautiful place with lots of fun and entertainment for the
whole family. Plenty of nice beaches here, with fancy hotels such as the
world famous Palazzo Versace (owned by the Versace family) and Jupiter Conrad,
home to an ever busy casino. Endless eateries same as elsewhere and many
theme and amusement parks such SeaWorld and Wet n Wild to occupy your day.
We rented a car and drove around Gold Coast to take in the sights on our
last day here. Then we drove for about an hour to Brisbane Airport and caught
our night flight back to Kuala Lumpur. (rental net total cost around AU$
99 with airport dropoff).
Despite the rainstorms we encountered, I loved the Australian climate. Even
when it's hot, there is usually a cool breeze and a breath of fresh air!
I will definitely return to visit other parts of Australia.
*Australia Day falls on 26 January every year.
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