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Published: October 6th 2010
Opera House
from the ferryHi everyone, it's Rach. At the moment we're in Cambodia and have been for 4 days. We were supposed to be moving on today but after waking up not feeling great (either through anti-malarial tablets or through the food) we decided a 6 hour bus journey wouldn't be too great. So as Stu lies in bed feeling ill I thought I'd give this blog a go. I must tell you now though it will not be as entertaining or informative as Stus' have been. But don't despair he'll be back in top form to tell you all about our Asian adventures. For now it's back to Sydney.
We arrived in Sydney on Tuesday 28th September and as we were leaving on the 30th, we had made sure that we had a full few days ahead of us. We'd managed to book ourselves into a hostel and had been advised there would be a free transport at the airport for us, we just had to wait at the 'Welcome Point' and someone would come to us. Hmm...well after 45 minutes of waiting for this shuttle (with another young girl who had arrived from England and was due to start work at
Weird bird
Another of Stu's nature photographs a new hostel), a little South American man came running towards us. He looked at me and asked if we were going to the "Jolly Swagman" (that was our hostel), after we advised that we were, he said there was supposed to be 6 of us. Now forgive me if I'm wrong, but I'm sure I've spent the last 4 months with just one other person?! Has he driven me that crazy that I actually invented 4 more people, surely not. So after insisting it was just us, the driver said we would wait for the others. 15 minutes later another girl turned up at the welcome point and in the meantime the driver had received a phone call advising there were some people waiting for him at the domestic terminal. Turns out this guy wasn't just our hotel's shuttle as we had thought, but he was just a regular shuttle that transports everyone to their different hotels. So off we went. Or so we thought. It wasn't until 1.5hrs after we had initially arrived at that 'Welcome Point' that we were finally on our way. Shattered!! All was not lost though as had we not been waiting at the
Bridge
from the ferry Welcome Point for that long then we wouldn't have met a couple who were leaving Australia and had bought 7 day transport passes covering all transport in the area. Their passes still had a few days left on them so instead of throwing them away they gave them to us. Bonus
Our hostel was a pleasant surprise, colourful and bright on the outside it seemed to welcome us from the onset. Our double room was basic but had a real bed and we both leaped (or collapsed) on it as though we hadn't been on a proper bed in ooh 4 weeks. Famished from the travels we decided to go for a little walk around the area and grab ouselves a slice of pizza before we hit the sack ready for our long day of exploring the following day.
The following morning we woke up bright and early and made our way towards the Botanical Gardens. Stu didn't mention before but whilst travelling as well as our no fast food pact we also decided that everyday we would make sure we went for a long walk so that we didn't end up coming back looking like teletubbies after
taking advantage of the amazing food we would be tasting. So we decided that instead of taking the easy option (the bus) to the Gardens we would walk the short 20 minutes. If you are now thnking that Stu and I have found a new interest in Botanical Gardens, you are WRONG. There is only one reason we wanted to go to the gardens as shown on the video. When we arrived at the Botanical Gardens we asked the volunteers where we could find the bats, they both looked at each other and laughed. Then they pointed us in a direction and said walk that way and look up. So we did. We heard the bats before we saw them and as my pace quickened I excitedly started power walking towards the noise, leaving Stu trailing behind wondering what kind of crazy woman had he married that got excited about bats!! We had been told about these " by Jenny & Daniel in NZ and even though they had told us and showed us pictures nothing could have prepared us for what we saw. The trees were covered in these bats. Everywhere we looked around us had bats hanging off
Our hostel
bright and cheerful the branches. We read a sign which explained that in fact the bats were "flying foxes" (we noticed they were a lot bigger than normal bats, plus the fact that they were around in daytime).They were infected with rabies and were damaging the surrounding area so the staff were finding ways to rid the garden of them.
We continued our walk through the gradens and arrived at a pavement next to the water. Ahead of us was Sydney Opera House. Now I have been to Australia before so knew what to expect with Sydney however this was Stu's first time. As we walked towards the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge came into view. We stopped to take photos, of the Opera House, the bridge, the Opera House and the bridge, us in front of the bridge, you know the score, we're tourists! We had a wander into the Opera House to see if we could sneak in and take a peek but were soon advised we had to purcase tickets for the tour whee we would learn all about the history of it etc. We only wanted a quick peek inside so decided against spending $60 on a tour
which we probably wouldn't really enjoy when we had other things to do.
Our next stop after seeing these two main sights was to the ferry harbour to take the ferry from Circular Quay to Darling Harbour and to the National Maritime Museum. Using our free transport pass we boarded the ferry and took the 15 minute ride round to Darling Harbour, passing Luna Park and going under the Harbour bridge on the way.
We walked across Pyemont Bridge round to the National Maritime Museum where it was now Stuey's turn to get excited. Since travelling Stu has re-discovered his passion for learning and has been reading a lot. The latest book whilst in New Zealand was Captain Cook's Apprentice, a fictitious novel based on Captain Cook's travels from the view of one of the apprentices...pretty self explanatory really. To say that Stu likes Captain Cook is a slight understatement, I would say he has become mildly obsessed. So here we were at the National Maritime Museum where there was a replica of the HMB Endeavour (the ship that he used to sail the world). Having also started the book I was slightly apprehensive as I couldn't get
past the first chapter so didn't think I'd be too fussed about seeing the boat, however I was surprised by how much I actually enjoyed it. It was a self-guided tour where instead of seeing the boat from afar you actually get to board it and go downstairs to where they slept, cooked, etc. Each section had a volunteer waiting to talk to you, to explain their particular section and what the Captain and his staff did there. It was fascinating to see how little room they had in which to sleep and eat and how they had to bend right down and crawl across one part to get from one side to the other.
After we finished at the Endeavour we decided to head back to the hostel to get a jumper, before continuing onto the Rocks. Once we got into our room we both collapsed on the bed and realised just how much walking we'd actually done. Needless to say we didn't go back out again.
Later that evening we met up with one of my friends, Niamh, from Stoke who after spending a few weeks on holiday in Australia decided that she was going to
move out there! I hadn't seen her since before Christmas so we had lots to catch up on. We met Niamh and two of her friends for drinks in the Rocks (the oldest part of Sydney) and then for dinner at a lovely Thai restaurant near our hostel. Typical that our last meal in a western country was actually the food of the country we would be visiting next!! Still it was a delicious meal and we chatted with Niamh and her 2 friends one of whom had just come back from travelling around Asia so was giving us lots of advice.
The following day was our final day in Sydney. Whilst checking out we met a Dutch guy who had just arrived and was looking for people to explore Sydney with. We explained that we were leaving that day but that we had planned to take the ferry over to Manly Bay if he wanted to join us. Brem had arrived the previous day and had walked over to the Botanical Gardens and to the Opera House but had not really taken it in due to his jet lag...good job he'd just met Sydney's newest tour guides. We
walked towards the ferry harbour again going through the Botanical Gardens (where I excitedly showed him the bats) and seeing the bridge and Opera House before we boarded the ferry to Manley. The ferry ride had been recommended to us by a few different people and we were not disappointed. The scenery was lovely as we looked back at Sydney Harbour and the Opera House and crossed over towards Manly Bay. At this point, Stu and I had decided that we didn't have enough time to get off at Manley as we had caught a later ferry than planned, so as Brem disembarked we said goodbye and stayed on ready for our journey back to the Quay where we made our way back to the hsotel ready for the next part of our adventure. And what an adventure it has been so far. I'll let Stu bring you up to date on our Asian adventure so far, but I cannot go without saying that Cambodia despite it's horrendous history is a beautiful country with generous and welcoming people and a fascinating and intriguing culture and although it might just be because of the place we are in now, but I
can't wait for the next part of our trip and the kinds of people we will meet.
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greg
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HOSTEL
the Hostel looks lke a giant cereal box......I love Sydneys botanical gardens, its beautiful......