The Land Down Under - Sydney & Port Douglas

After a relatively easy (8 hr) flight from Singapore Airlines we arrived down under. Wow, can't believe we have arrived in Aussie, home of Aussie Rules Footy, the saying of "Good on you Mate" and the land of politically incorrectness (I love the "tell it as it is approach").

Sydney

We spent (5) nights at the Leisure Inn Suites in Kings Cross (good location, and inexpensive for Sydney - just don't stay their on a Fri or Sat if you want any sleep). To our surprise the area of Kings Cross was nothing as described by many of the travel books. Sure there are a few prostitutes and druggies but it adds to the lack of culture that the rest of the city so desperately needs, although residents would certainly argue this. Sydney is certainly beautiful and the harbor is exactly how you see it on calendars and postcards, with the exception of the Sydney Opera House. What surprised us most about city was the lack of integration with regards to the ethnic communities. Unlike Melbourne and other cities around the world with large populations of ethnicities, Sydney really lacks that feeling that you’re in a melting pot. Sure, there are specific pockets or suburbs, but one must make an effort to go to them. By no means are their loads of Thai, Indian, Greek, Italian or Mexican etc (exception is the Korean) restaurants in the downtown core. Unlike Melbourne, Sydney has a long ways to go before it can claim itself as a city of multicultural cuisine - maybe it is the city of "suburb" ethnic cuisine, but that's a stretch. Yes there is an ethnic vibe to the city, but it pales in comparison to Melbourne, London, Vancouver and Kuala Lumpur where the food is half the cost and have much more to offer if you are looking for good cheap ethnic food.

No doubt about it, the best thing about Sydney is the close proximity of the world class beaches to the office. We took the ferry to Manly and spent a good part of the day walking around and checking out the beach - awesome. If that wasn't enough, the next day we headed out to the world famous Bondi beach - it is everything that it is advertised to be. After a few beach days we spent our last day checking out Darling Harbor, another great place to hang around the harbor and spend time in the sun. What can we say, the weather was great during our stay and we did not even scratch the surface of what Sydney has to offer.

The weather was excellent during our stay which made walking around the city and the beaches really easy. The harbor buzzes with activity on the water and the backdrop of the central business district and the bridge, "the old coat hanger" is icing on the cake. Ah the Opera House, up close it is not that impressive, "Good from far but far from Good", is the best way to describe the symbol of Sydney. Up close the tiles are a brownie color. What struck us most about Sydney is it is an extremely expensive city, and really without reason. By no means is it a London, New York, Tokyo or Hong Kong, sure its got great beaches and a nice harbor, but come on, in none the these "world class" cities do the basics of buying a coke cost $3 at a corner store "new agency". For now we will chalk the exorbitant cost to having a small population and therefore a low volume of sales! Unfortunately we found all the tours in Sydney and for that matter Australia extremely expensive. A bridge climb $170, a wine tour $100 bucks - won't begin to list the inexpensive cost of a wine tour in South Africa, Napa Valley or Chile! To top off our trip to Sydney we were able to meet up with Chris and Sarah for a few beers and share some traveling experiences of Australia - must say the topic of conversation was the beaches.

Port Douglas

Took a (3 hr) flight from Sydney to Cairns and jumped in a rental car and drove an hour north to Port Douglas. The drive from Cairns to Port Douglas is very scenic as you hug the coastline the entire time. We stayed (3) nights in the Nautilus Apartments (great price, big self sufficient apartment and good location).

Port Douglas is a wee town in Far Northern Queensland. This part of the country is home to two World Heritage sites; The Daintree Rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef. Unfortunately for us, Australia has a very diverse climate from North to South and hence when it is warm and dry in the South East, i.e. Sydney it is hot, humid and very very wet in the Far North East. Our sole purpose of coming to the far north was to visit Cape Tribulation and the Great Barrier Reef. However during our (3) days in the far north, the average marine forecast was 25-30 knot winds, 3-4 meter swells and an average daily rainfall of 120mm - the annual rainfall up here is a staggering 4.5 meters. This part of the country is absolutely beautiful when the weather cooperates, as seen on postcards and in galleries.

The area is incredibly lush and very green, thanks to buckets upon buckets of rain and warm weather. Regardless of the bad weather, we were able to make a day trip to Cape Tribulation to see the rainforest. As you drive north of Port Douglas both sides of the road are lined with sugar cane crops and the rainforest in the background - incredibly green. On the drive up to the Cape we stopped off for a brief visit to the Mossman Gorge - nothing spectacular if you have seen any sort of river running down stream. The Cape itself was very pretty when the rain stopped. The sight of kms of golden beaches fringed by rainforest is amazing. The fact that the rainforest comes right down to the ocean's edge is an impressive sight to see. During this time of year flooding in these parts is a serious issue and (3) times we had to gingerly drive over flooded bridges ensuring we didn't flood the engine. The one thing that has been very evident since we landed on Australian soil is that this is not a cheap country to visit. Tours here are outrageously expensive, to give an example the day tour from Cairns to Cape Tribulation is anywhere between A$100 -A$120, all this for a boxed lunch a (1 1/2hr) ride and a stop over at a crocidle farm - Ouch, glad we rented a car and put in some gas to boot - all for $A60.

Tired of the rain we are moving south to Melbourne and the Great Ocean Drive. From Melbourne we will catch a flight over to New Zealand.

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