Last Day in Oz

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Lynne, Chris, Bob and I, still had to see Bondi Beach. We had valid tickets for the open top bus, so walked to Central Station, was entertained by a well informed courier, then caught the bus to Bondi beach, via Hard Rock Café. The bus drove around Fox Studios, no-one was around and it was only when I checked on the internet that I realised a lot of famous films and tv series were shot there.
Dark City
Babe: Pig in the City
The Matrix
Farscape Series 1
Mission Impossible 2
Moulin Rouge
Star Wars Ep 2
Kangaroo Jack
The Quiet American
The Matrix Sequels
Star Wars Ep 3
Stealth
The bus drove through Paddington Town Hall, Oxford St. Then past Victoria Army Barracks; the first cottages were built around the 1840s and the area is still famous for its charming terraced houses protected by the National Trust.
Couldn’t wait to see Bondi Beach, Australia’s most famous beach, it is located in the suburb of Bondi, seven kilometres from the centre of Sydney. Bondi is believed to be an Aboriginal word meaning the sound of breaking waves. A shark net is laid about 150m off the beach, set in 8m of water. (There has been no shark fatality since 1937). We only had about an hour to have a bite to eat and view the beach. The beach was crowded but didn’t spot many surfers. We boarded the bus up to the North of Bondi then it turned around and drove all along the sea front for one extra look.
Then the bus carried on back to Sydney through Rose Bay and Point Piper: Point Piper is one of Sydney's most exclusive residential suburbs. It is home to the city branch of the Royal Motor Yacht Club which overlooks Rose Bay.
We got off the bus at The Royal Botanical Gardens; Bob thought he was in heaven. Lots of trees, shrubs and plants of many varieties.
The previous evening whilst we were sitting in a bar on Circular Quay this Aussie couple told us to go and see the bats in the Botanical Gardens, ‘You can’t miss them’ they said.
Well, we kept walking around the gardens, asked a few people ‘where are the bats’? No-one could answer, plus no mention of them in the guide books or leaflets. We just forgot about them and set off on the path towards Circular Quay via the Opera House, to meet Ian and Julie for lunch. Then Chris casually remarked ‘There’s your bats’. I looked up and saw nothing, Bob had to point them out to me, and all I could see was loads of trees and greenery. I eventually spotted black blobs hanging from the branches of loads of trees and a screeching noise, which I thought was the bats but was a parakeet, he was a lot prettier. The bats were very active and were flying from tree to tree. I later read that one had to watch out for the fruit bats as you may get splashed, but they didn’t and were amazing, so many of them, I’m not very good at estimating but hundreds I would say. This was another place we had to drag Bob away from, what with the greenery and the bats, it was a hard task.
We had our last look at Sydney Opera House and the Bridge and then we met Ian and Julie for that long awaited lunch. They has already eaten, too hungry to hang on any longer, so after we told them about the bats, they ventured off to see them, whilst we had a bite to eat.
We flagged down a people carrier taxi to take us all back to the hotel, collected our luggage, then the airport transfer bus turned up right on cue. At Sydney airport we booked in straight away and then made our way to the Money exchange to get some Bali money. The currency for Bali is rupiahs and 100,000 rupiahs was worth £6.00, so for the following 6 days we were millionaires, the notes came in 100.000, 50.000, 20.000, 10.000, 5000, 1000 and 100 denominations and I got in a pickle loads of times when paying for items.

The flight lasted 6 hours and the people sitting next to me had only paid AU$6.00 each (about £2.40) plus airport tax. A new airline Jetstar was promoting there company, what a bargain, the plane was choc a block but we were well looked after.

When we arrived in Bali it was late at night, but warm and humid. We were greeted by Balinese reps from Travelmood, in national dress; long sarong skirts, matching tops and little bandana type of hats. Two reps were holding up our names on placards, it was funny and made us all laugh. I have always wanted to be greeted in this way and it did make everyone feel special!

We were staying at the Bali Hyatt in Sanur, south of the island. Classic Balinese-style resort on world-famous Sanur Beach, home of Bali’s first beach resort and largest traditional village; set within 36 acres of tropical botanical gardens, with more than 1-km of pristine sand. It was splendid, very grand and from the moment we arrived until the minute we left, the staff treated us like royalty. As soon as we alighted from the bus we were greeted by happy staff bowing, decking us out with flowered garlands of frangipani.
The hotel was out of this world. The Bali Hyatt lovingly features alang-alang thatched roofs, natural wood finishes and local fabric of Bali throughout the rooms and public areas. We were all seated and given a complimentary cocktail and a quick introduction to the hotels amenities. We were all a little tired, so were shown to our rooms and arranged to meet for breakfast in the morning. The bedrooms were another sight to be seen. Fresh fruit and flowers welcomed us to a classic Balinese room appointed in teak and traditional batik and ikat fabrics. Sliding glass doors open onto a private furnished balcony overlooking lush, tranquil gardens.

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