Back down under... a few days in Sydney

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• Sept 21 - 25 Sydney

We finally said goodbye to Southeast Asia. It was so strange to leave Asia and get back to an English speaking country. Arriving in Sydney at the same time as about 50 other international flights, we stood in the immigration line for about an hour and a half - and that's before even getting to the baggage claim. We then waited in another hour long line to get through Australian quarantine. I was surprised at how unorganized all this was. I lost Jen in all the madness and ended up meeting her outside the terminal. Immediately we noticed how dry and cold the air was - probably in the upper 50s, lower 60s. I think after months in hot and humid southeast asia, my blood had thinned, and I have lost my tolerance for cold. We were also in shock after paying $40 for a cab from the airport to our friends Christine and Jamie's house. No more $2 tuk tuks...

We hadn't slept at all on the plane, so we crashed for almost the whole day while Jamie and Christine were at work. The first night, we had a little ladies night with Christine at Cargo on Darling Harbour. It was a lot of fun. The next day Jamie dropped us off in the morning at the Rocks, and Jen and I toured around central Sydney. We went into the botanical gardens. There are a ton of cockatoos there, and we came across some guy feeding them peanuts and sunflower seeds. He gave some to us and the birds jumped right on top of us and ate from our hands. They were so cute! I love all the sweet animals in Australia! We later met up with Jamie and Christine and went for a drink in New Town, though it was an early night.

We spent sunday at Manly beach with Christine. She took us around to other places nearby - the Manly beach walk, Mosman, Balmoral. The next day Jen and I headed out to Bondi beach. It was funny to see the pastey white Aussie women in their bikinis on the beach. It was CHILLY! And windy - we put our toes in the frigid water - it was hard to believe that anyone could swim in this. I guess the majority of people in the water were the surfers wearing wetsuits... It was still very beautiful and fun for people watching. We came back and used our new Thai cooking skills to prepare dinner for our gracious hosts - ok, my cashew chicken still needs some work, but Jamie and Christine were so sweet about it.

After a few days in Sydney, we caught our morning flight to Melbourne.

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Photos

Bats
While there were fewer bats than what I saw when I was here in May, they were still all over the botanical gardens... It was nice to see the gardens in the springtime, but late season was more impressive.

Me with Cockatoo
This guy startled me as he flew right up onto my arm.