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Paddy's Market, Sydney
The enthusiastic busker playing an aquaphone Next morning, we walked through the very convenient hole in the fence to the station and bought our all day tickets for $23 each. This would allow us to access trains, most buses and some of the ferries across the bay. Just one problem – they were working on the train tracks over the weekend so we had to catch a replacement bus instead, which was nowhere near as comfortable and I couldn’t get up and walk around if I needed to, when my back got stiff. By the time we arrived at Central Station in Sydney I could barely straighten up. We had stopped next to Albert Park so I did some stretches and walked a little to get it mobile again. We wanted to see Chinatown first so we caught another bus, fortunately only a few stops, and got out at Paddy’s Market – famous in Sydney and like a scruffy version of Queen Victoria Market in Melbourne. We just put our noses through the door and moved on.
There was a busker on the corner of the road playing children’s songs enthusiastically for a young spectator on an Aqua-phone (beer bottles filled with different levels of water
Chinatown, Sydney
The gate at the entrance and suspended by strings on a horizontal pole. Each bottle played a different note when struck with a drum stick.)
“There’s a bear in there. And a chair as well”. He was very good and very friendly – full of beaming smiles. He was obviously enjoying himself and pleasing us, so I dropped $2 in his box.
We crossed the road and soon encountered Chinatown. It has a similar entrance gate to the Melbourne one at each end but it is much longer and has several shopping malls within it, as well as a lot more restaurants. From outside the Golden Century Seafood Restaurant we were amazed to see tanks beside the door containing the biggest crabs and lobsters I have ever seen – all squashed in together. On the other side were large fish trying to swim about. I suppose it was a way of showing how fresh their seafood was and the quality – but I felt sorry for the poor things all jammed in.
The last restaurant in the street had a much happier sight – a lovely long slim golden dragon hanging from the awning above our heads. With my love of dragons, what
Chinatown, Sydney
Huge crabs in a tank outside the Golden Century Seafood Restaurant. better way to say goodbye to Chinatown.
We saw on a map that was a garden nearby at the edge of Darling Harbour, the Chinese Garden of Friendship, so I persuaded Barry we should see it (“Why do we need to see a garden?”
“Because I like beautiful gardens and Chinese things, and it’s only small so it won’t take long.”) The clincher was when I discovered that Seniors could go in free because it was Seniors Week. Inside was a delight – an oasis surrounded by the city but completely separate from it. It only looked small from the outside but they had packed so many wonderful areas inside that it was like “Dr Who’s Tardis”. It was designed and built by Chinese landscape architects and gardeners using Taoist principles of ‘Yin-Yang’ and the five elements of earth, fire, water, metal and wood combined to produce perfect harmony and balance and the energy of qi.
Two granite Chinese lions guarded the entrance that led into a courtyard with sculptures and bonsai trees. There were several areas of water (Lake of Brightness and Lotus Pond were the lovely names of two); lots of halls and pavilions, one on
Chinatown, Sydney
The gorgeous golden dragon top of a created mountain with a waterfall cascading down one side of it; superbly kept trees and other plants everywhere; and a wonderful dragon wall which was a gift from Guangdong, China, and had one gold-brown dragon representing that region and a blue one representing New South Wales facing each other with the Pearl of Prosperity carried on a wave between them and symbolising their bond (dragons – so of course I loved them).
There were also quite a few animals residing there. We saw two Ibis sitting on top of one tree on the edge of the lake; huge multi-coloured Koi (carp/goldfish) in the Lotus Pond; some small honey-eaters feeding in the bottle-brushes; a turtle sunning itself on “Tortoise Rock” in the Lake, so called because of its shape; some Magpie Larks, one loudly demanding food; a colourful medium sized lizard sitting on a rock near the path and three of the quite large Eastern Bearded Dragons (also lizards), two on one of the Water Pavilions and one in the Tearooms.
It was lunchtime when we finished looking around so we went into the tearooms. Barry managed to get a table right next to the Lotus
Pond, looking at the Dragon Wall and with the lizard just near us. It was a perfect setting. The lizard wasn’t at all afraid of people and even started looking at us and bobbing his head. Maybe it was his way of asking us to feed him – we didn’t, as our lunch was not good lizard food.
We finally said goodbye to the lizard and left the amazing garden. Right outside was a little blue sight-seeing train. The driver called us over and said he was doing round trips of Darling Harbour. It was a good way to see places I didn’t want to walk to so we agreed. The seats were a bit hard and there wasn’t much leg room but we enjoyed it. We passed a wonderful children’s park full of water activities; the Harbourside Shopping Complex; some old submarines and another old naval ship; an IMAX Theatre; Madame Tussaud’s Waxworks; and the Aquarium. There’s certainly no shortage of things to do at Darling Harbour but most were too expensive so once we were dropped back outside the Chinese garden we just walked through the children’s water park and marvelled at the hundreds of kids enjoying
The Chinese Garden of Friendship, Sydney
Lake of Brightness. If you zoom in you can see the Ibis sitting on top of the weeping willow in front of the pagoda. themselves and getting wet in such a variety of ways. Made me wish I was a kid again!
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