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Published: August 4th 2009
Hangzhou Airport Lounge
Can we get Club Penguin here?We left Hangzhou on the 11.20am flight to Hong Kong. We were all a little somber as we were leaving China but also a little excited that we were heading out on our vacation. For as long as I can remember I have wanted to go to Australia but there was always a reason why we couldn’t….too expensive, too far, etc, etc, etc. It was only a 9hr flight from Hong Kong so we were not going to pass up the opportunity!!!!
The flight was great because this leg to Hong Kong had been paid for by Kevin’s company as part of our relocation deal to get us home (they will then pay for our journey from Hong Kong to Boston after our vacation) and they booked us into Business Class. Comfy chairs, leg room, better food… no complaints with this journey!!! On arriving in Hong Kong we had quite a wait before our next flight so we made use of Kevin’s platinum card membership with Cathay Pacific and went to wait in the First Class lounge. Thank God is all I can say because wouldn’t you believe it, I get sick with stomach cramps and you guessed it…”the runs!!!”
Flight from Hangzhou to HongKong
Megan and Sophie enjoying Business Class service on the first flight of our day All of our time in China and I never experienced anything quite like this. I was mad because I couldn’t make use of all the perks in 1st Class. Kevin and the girls had a nice meal and I sipped water!!!!! I was lucky to use the bathroom facilities quite often and they do have nice hand creams and soaps but it wasn’t what I wanted. I wanted the food and drink!!!
With what felt like a dozen Imodium later we boarded our flight to Sydney. I was nervous because bathrooms on planes are not the best by any means but I was feeling a little better so was hopefull that the worst had passed. This flight we paid for so had to settle for “cattle class”. I do not know how tall people manage on these long flights because our knees were buckling! We did get some perks though thanks to Kevin’s platinum class…2 flight attendants asked us to let them know if we needed anything and even brought us our dinners before anyone else. Of course the people around us didn’t look happy! I think someone must have put a curse on us cause would you believe
Watsons Bay
Enjoying a few cold drinks at Doyles on the Beach while looking out at Sydney Harbour in the distance it….. I got travel sick, felt very nauseous and faint and had to sit with a sick bag on my lap and cold cloth on my forehead. It was getting bloody ridiculous!!! Thankfully we arrived with me in one piece and there were no temp checks on our plane for swine flu. They would have quarantined the whole plane if they had taken a good look at me!!!
We grabbed a cab at the airport and would you believe our cab driver was Chinese and from Shanghai. We travel to another continent and we are met by someone from China!!!!! I’m beginning to think this world is getting smaller and smaller!!
SYDNEY
Arrived at 6am, so started the day with an early check in at our hotel and a couple of hours sleep to charge up our batteries for the day ahead! When we were unpacked, showered and changed we headed off to Watsons Bay which is an area just up from Sydney Harbour. We grabbed a cab so that we could see the beautiful scenery on the drive up there and our cab driver was a huge help on giving us some ideas of places to go
Watson's Bay
I loved these Fish and Chips during the rest of our time in Sydney.
My Dad had recommended Watsons Bay for their Fish and Chips so we headed straight to “Doyle’s on the Beach” when we arrived for lunch. WOW!! The fish was delicious and was definitely worth the wait! It was maybe a little pricey but what the heck we are on vacation! It was so worth it to sit outside at a table by the beach looking out at Sydney Harbour in the distance while supping on a cold beer and eating good food! This is the life!!!
We walked around Watsons Bay for a while looking at the ocean and cliff views. The weather was pretty good considering its winter here in Australia at the moment. Blue skies, sunshine and temps around the mid to high 60’s. To head back we decided to catch the local ferry boat, and we’re glad we did. It took us back to Circular Quay which is tucked between the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. What a feeling to look at these magnificent structures and realize that we were actually here in front of them instead of seeing them on the TV or in
Watson's Bay
Our 2 beauties in front of a beautiful city! magazines. The opera house is huge and apparently weighs more than the bridge and has over 1000 rooms inside it. We were able to walk up to it but not go inside without paying for a tour. We were quite content to just look at it from the outside. It’s spectacular!
Our hotel was only about a 40 minute walk away so we thought it would be relaxing to walk some of the way through the Botanical Gardens. These gardens are beautifully maintained and there were so many different types of plants, trees and animals everywhere. It was really cool! Can you believe that there are signs that actually encourage you to walk on the grass. Usually they tell you not to do it! I was in shock in the bathrooms because they have special containers for “used needles”. It’s almost encouraging druggies but at the same time I guess it encouraging them maybe not to share needles. I don’t know, but you wouldn’t find it back home or at least nowhere I have been!!! Outside the bathrooms Kevin was waiting and was filming what sounded like a group of birds squawking. It was not birds, it was what
Watsons Bay
One of many views at the bay. This one is at Gap Bluff on the other side of the peninsular to the Watsons Ferry bay looked like bats but which was in fact flying foxes. 1000’s of them!!! They were hanging in large groups from all the trees in the area we were standing and flying in circles above. It was actually a little freaky and we decided that between the needle drop and the bat like flying foxes it was probably not the place to visit at night!!!
As a treat for the kids we found a cinema that was still showing Transformers and went to see it. We thought we had missed any chance of seeing it on the “big screen” so it was great to be able to see it here in Sydney. It was nothing like the movies in Hangzhou. The Australians know how to be quiet and enjoy a movie and no cells phones went off at all!! Yeah, of course by the time we got out it was late so we grabbed a sandwich at the local Subway (these places are everywhere in the world I think!) and headed back to the hotel. It had been a great start to our vacation.
Harbour Bridge - Before we came here we had booked to climb Harbor Bridge with
a company called Bridge Climb. Megan and I were terrified about doing it because we are both scared of heights. I had read that this is a good way to overcome such a fear so we were determined to do it. When you get there you have to put on one of their special jumpsuits and take off watches, jewelry, headbands and anything else that may fall off you. You couldn’t even take a Kleenex with you. Instead they gave you a hanky that goes around your wrist on elastic, a fleece jacket that is folded up and attached to a clip on a belt/harness that they give you. Even your sunglasses and baseball caps (that they provide) are attached. Everything has to be clipped somehow so that there is no chance of anything falling off you and plummeting at great speed onto the cars and pedestrians below. They give you a “latch” which holds you onto a guide wire along the entire walk of the bridge and a radio and headset so that you can hear your guide. The whole thing was well organized and thought out. Before you even leave for your climb they make you walk along
Ferry Ride
Claire, Sophie and Megan enjoying the wind in their hair on the ferry from Watson's Bay a walkway as well as up and down vertical ladders to make sure that you know what you are doing before heading up. I guess they don’t want any idiots up there that might fall off!!!
Most groups have about 15 people in them but we were lucky to have just 7 in ours - the four of us, Helen and Jackie from South Australia, and Ricardo from Honduras. It was a friendly group and our guide Alena was a blast. I had decided to go first in line directly behind our guide so that she would be close by if I had a panic attack and couldn’t move my legs (it has happened before!). We started off with walking on flat areas under the bridge but then had the task of climbing (one at a time) 4 sets of vertical ladders. Don’t look down, don’t look down, kept running through my head but let me tell you, it doesn’t matter if you look down or not cause your head is telling you that you are going higher and higher and that’s enough info rushing through your nerves to make your legs start turning to mush!!! Regardless, I was
not going to stop anyone else from making this climb (cause no one can get past you if you stop) and so I kept going and made it to the first stopping point. It was time to breath and then to realize that my girls were behind me and I needed to focus on them and their safety. Worrying about them actually helped!
Next we began our climb up the arch of the bridge. Megan and I surprised ourselves on this part because the views were spectacular. At a couple of points our guide pointed at things directly below us but we just looked out rather than down and did great! At various points we had our photos taken with different poses because you are not allowed to take a camera with you. Can you imagine the impact if that fell on you from over 400 feet. OUCH!! I did wish I had been able to take some views of the city though and a picture of the Opera house but we have the image in our memories so that will have to do! All of us received a certificate saying that we had climbed the bridge, and a
complimentary group photo so we will always be reminded of this day. It was a fabulous experience!
Manly - From the bridge we walked to Circular Quays again via Starbucks (you gotta love this chain…they are everywhere!!!) as we were going to get the ferry to Manly which is one of the popular beach areas around Sydney. Manly is a typical “seaside” town. There are streets full of souvenir shops, ice cream parlors, restaurants, bars, etc, etc, and they lead to the beach. It’s out of season here because its winter but we were surprised to see how many people were about. Very few were swimming but loads were surfing (as the waves were pretty big) and walking along the promenade. We sat down at a few places while the kids looked for shells and then there is nothing like sitting at a bar with a cold beer watching the sun go down. It was so nice! Of course the sun went and the cold set in. Our trip back on the ferry was FREEZING but so worth it to see the Sydney skyline, the bridge and the Opera house all lit up. Beautiful!
Darling Harbor and Aquarium -
We took the subway to the harbor and then the monorail which is a tiny little 3 car train that runs around a small area around Darling Harbor and the surrounding suburbs. It could only happen to us...the doors wouldn’t open and no one noticed us so we had to go to the next stop. Here we proceeded to bang on the doors and windows like wild animals until another passenger that had got off from another car finally saw us and alerted the guard. Talk about getting attention! At least we were off and as it happens we were actually at the side of the harbor we wanted to be. This week is the “boat show” in Sydney so there were hundreds of beautiful boats sitting at the docks. Kevin walked past them all dreaming of what could be or of what was unlikely to be!!!
The harbor is definitely a place to hang out. It’s again a hub for restaurants and bars and there is also a mall for shopping. The Aquarium and Wildlife World are at the end of the docks and an IMAX theatre close by so all in all it was very busy. Before lunch
we actually got the monorail to Chinatown which I have to say is terrible. It’s not just because I am comparing it to China- it is worse than any of the Chinatowns I have been to at various cities. We moved on to Paddy’s Market which was very close and loved looking at all the market stalls set up on the ground floor. Surprisingly there are a lot of Chinese stall owners but we told them that it was too expensive because we had bought the same thing during our stay in China for a fraction of the price. The merchandise looked the same as the stuff we bought in Shanghai so we assume that it all probably comes from the same manufacturer but because of shipping and the fact that everything here in Australia is expensive they are able to charge a lot more money.
We stopped for a late lunch/early dinner at an Italian restaurant near the aquarium and had some really delicious pasta and pizza. I could have sat there for the rest of the afternoon watching the people pass by but the girls were eager to get in to the Aquarium. The cashier was from
Botanical Gardens
One of many large and interesting trees New York so we had a little blast from home to prepare us for the real thing. The aquarium is fairly small and if I’m honest is not very good. They have some Duckbilled platypuses which were really cool because we haven’t seen them before and there were a lot of unusual colorful fish. The Dugong was quite interesting to see because it looks like a Manatee (which I love) except for the tail which is a different shape, and there were some sharks that we were able to see from a glass bottomed boat. Unfortunately the penguins weren’t out and there were no dolphins or seals so it didn’t take us too long to go through the whole place.
Our time in Sydney has been very enjoyable and we joked with Kevin by telling him that he should get his next job in Australia because we could see ourselves living here! Next step on our Aussie adventure is Brisbane so it will be a good night’s sleep and then off to the airport in the morning.
Goodbye Sydney…we hope to see you again!
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Dad
non-member comment
That brings back some memorres Claire. Glad you enjoyed Doyles and got to see the flying foxes. Enjoy the rest of your trip. Queensland is great north of Cairns.