Wednesday, November 11th
Yeah, not so much on the sleep side of things on the plane. We did have a bit to eat for breakfast before we arrived in Sydney at just before 11.
Believe it or not the Australian border was the one that caused me the most worry. For Malaysia we had no visa issues or anything but for Australia not only did we have to do an electronic visa we also know that they were very concerned about “biosecurity” - bringing plant or animal products into the country. What has been slightly troubling us is a woven basket that Sian had given us in Malaysia. When filling out our declaration forms we also noticed they were interested as well in our being in any water while there as well so two ticks on the wrong side of the form meant that we would be subject to inspection.
Landing in Sydney it was a very long walk to the immigration area but not a long time to wait to talk to the nice officer. He chatted a bit about our being from Canada and him wanting to visit before he highlighted our declaration forms and passed us through. Waiting just a few minutes for our bags we joined the rather enormous queue of people waiting to pass out of the secure area. We were directed over to the inspection area where we were familiar with the layout having watched the television show “Border Security” (a “fly on the wall” documentary show that takes place in various Australian airports). Instead of being taken to an inspection desk they told us to go into a small area in the middle of the room with two parallel railings about 10 feet apart, put our bags between the two railings then stand away from them on the railings. There were a number of people already waiting there with their bags in the middle. A few minutes later a sniffer dog was walked around the bags but, of course, there was nothing of interested and we were allowed to leave.
I think it was peak arrival time at Sydney. The waiting area was just jammed as we, in our slightly groggy state, tried to figure out what to do next. We wandered over a visited a “W H Smith” to see about possibly some snacks or drinks but were shocked at the prices (even with the exchange things seemed so expensive!). We are picking up our car rental from the airport on Saturday morning so I made a brief stop at their stall to request that we pick up the car earlier so we had an earlier start to the day (instead of my originally requested 10 am). A final stop at a coffee shop for some drinks allowed us some time to take a breather to figure out how we were going to get to the hotel…
What had been bothering me was the fact that the train from the airport is astronomically expensive compared to going pretty much anywhere else in the city. Indeed, the trip from one stop away from the airport was less than half the fare from the airport. I had been told that the walk to the next train station was not too far but we eventually figured we did not want to bother trying to figure it out and with the luggage it was all a bit of a pain so we headed down the corridor past the McDonald’s to buy our expensive train tickets to the hotel ($17.80 each). Damned if I was going to pay for a taxi anyway given that it was the middle of the day and we were not in a hurry. Bus? Hah!
The subway trains here are quite interesting - They are double/triple deckers. That is, there is an upper and lower middle section on each car with stairs at either end leading to small landing area by the doors (between each floor) where there are a few more seats. These remind me of the “Go” trains that I used to catch to visit Toronto in Canada. It was a bit of a pain though as there was no place for us to put our luggage so we ended up with the luggage largely on our laps for the trip. We took the “Airport, Inner West and South Line” Train to Central then transferred to the “Eastern Suburbs and Illawarra Line” for our stop, “Kings Cross”.
Of course the name “Kings Cross” brings a bit of a smile to our faces given that the original is in London and is a quite a big train station there. A lot of the stops and area names here are very familiar to us. When looking at hotels for the three nights we are here I looked around for something reasonably priced but, of course, there was nothing anywhere near the harbour (Circular Quay) so ended up picking Kings Cross as it was only a short train ride into the central area. Little did we know, as we do now, that the area is actually well known as the red light district of Sydney. Oh dear.
Passing out of the gates of the station we were in a small underground mall with a couple of takeaway places (one serving some very tasty looking sushi) and a convenience store. Catching the escalator up to the street we noticed that everyone was standing on the left rather than the right, as they do in London, which caused us a bit of confusion. A shoe store at the top of the escalator caused us to stop and admire the rather odd styles (very high heels, leather with metal studs, that sort of thing)…Mel is always interested in looking at shoes and footwear.
On the street I was a bit confused as to which direction to go despite having looked at Google Maps a few days ago. Heading right (correct) we walked to the hotel. The area does look a bit on the run-down side but on first glance not an area I would immediately peg as being “red light” - Sure we saw a few signs for “men’s clubs” but other than that the normal assortment of fast food shops - McDonald’s, Subway, Pie Face (Aussie pies), kebab shop, pizza shop, etc, etc. Passing over a busy road there was a bit of confusion as to which direction to go but we managed to find the street and proceeded to walk right past the hotel. The entrance was very understated and I mistook it for a restaurant! Indeed, it has an Asian restaurant attached. The dark entrance to our hotel is easily missed…
The “dark” theme continues throughout the hotel with the hallways and rooms decorated with blacks and reds - They appear to be going for “sleek contemporary”. I am not sure it works or if they are trying to hide lack of cleaning. Our room is on the first floor but there are no lifts so it was a bit of a struggle to get to. There is a small walk-in closet that contains the bar fridge. We have a small tiled shower/toilet room as well. In the main room we have a small desk, several chairs and a window though the later does not open and faces a brick wall with pigeons nesting on it (along with the requisite mess associated).
The laundry that Sian had done for us was still wet so we hung it up in the closet, put a few things in the safe then laid down on the bed for a few minutes. I was busy on my phone connecting to the hotel’s free wi-fi though I can use my phone in Australia for the same price as in the UK - That is, I have no roaming charges of any kind (it does not cost me any more than what I would pay there). This includes access to “data” or Internet while out and about. It will make things a lot easier and is certainly a lot better than not having either phone OR internet while in Malaysia.
We both had showers which helped us feel better after the long flight. I felt a bit more human particularly after being able to shave off my stubble.
Thinking about how to handle transport we had reviewed the various options available to us. Obviously buying tickets for each and every trip is not only inconvenient it is also quite expensive. They have various weekly or day-based passes but this also seemed to be silly to us as we did not know how much we would be using them. Eventually we settled on using the “Opal” cards which are “pay as you go” cards that you top up as required with cash (in London we have “Oyster” and in Hong Kong there is the “Octopus” - all work the same way). The “Opal” card can be used on any public transport in Sydney including trains, ferries and buses. The front desk confirmed that this sounded like the best option for us. Returning back to the train station we visited the small convenience shop to purchase the cards - There is no deposit and you can put any increment of $10 on it - All of the money paid into the card goes directly into transport. Given that the card has a maximum daily charge of $15 we agreed that $20 was a good amount to put on our cards to start with. To be honest, I have no idea how much we will end up using but if we have money left over when we leave the city I am not too worried as we can always use the cards again if/when we return or loan them to others that we know are visiting.
I wanted to give Mel a bit of a look around the city and in particular the biggest tourist area of them all: Circular Quay where the ferries all depart from but also where the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House are located. Having been in a hurry earlier we did not really pay too much attention on the train but now that we were all settled at the hotel we noticed on the way into town that the area is quite hilly and very residential with views of the harbour in the distance. The train passes right by the Art Gallery then under the Royal Botanic Gardens before arriving at Martin Place.
Martin Place is a big business area with an underground shopping area that we passed through before taking escalators up to the street. It was so nice to see the sunshine! It was mid afternoon and people were obviously at work so the streets were quite busy. The tall buildings around us were all quite modern as we walked to Circular Quay. Being used to this sort of area with where I work in London I noticed a number of small places to eat offering quite tempting food - They definitely like their sushi here!
Arriving at Circular Quay I am immediately drawn to the water where I spent some time looking for jelly fish in the clean waters. The area is always busy with tourists. There were some Australian native buskers playing didgeridoos.
We had some gelato (Italian ice cream) which was quite refreshing. A massive cruise ship was docked at the cruise ship terminal on the east (bridge) side of the quay that we stopped for a minute to watch as it pushed away from the dock. Mel got some good pictures of the ship with the opera house behind.
I had not really remembered too much but it was interesting to see that in addition to pigeons they also have large birds that look a lot like an “ibis” to me that scrounge for food on the street - Dark heads with a white body and a long curved beak standing about a foot high. Having been here a few times I guess I am now used to all of the sights but sitting back and thinking about it, it is quite amazing to think we are actually here. This is most definitely a world away from what we are used to!
After the cruise ship left we walked along the dock through the terminal area following the water along the “rocks” (the area of the city between the east side of Circular Quay and the bridge that was formerly warehouses but is now quite posh - I think it is safe to say it is called the rocks because was formerly a bunch of large rocks - now it is a steep area leading up to the road that goes over the bridge) passing the rather nice looking “Park Hyatt Sydney” hotel then around to walk under the bridge.
It is quite incredible to be standing under this magnificent bridge that is recognizable the world over - The famous Sydney Harbour Bridge. The massive concrete foundations and exposed metal frame make it look absolutely amazing.
There was a couple there getting their wedding pictures taken with the bridge and “Luna Park” (amusement park near the north end of the bridge) in the background.
The harbour was quite busy today and it was just interesting to sit and watch for the most part as Mel was busy snapping pictures every few feet.
Continuing east along the harbour-side under the bridge we entered into the Walsh Bay area where there are a number of old warehouses. When I last visited this area with my mother back in 1999 these were just starting to be turned into what we see today: Luxury flats, shops and even a dance studio. It is nice to see these long abandoned buildings being put to good use.
As we walked along we saw a sign beside the road “Artwork Ahead”. Hum. A few steps later in the middle of a roundabout was a car crushed with a large rock that had a face painted on it. Nice!
It was starting to get a bit late so we decided to head back towards Circular Quay to find something to eat. We headed up the hill towards the road going over the bridge to walk along Argyle Street that passes through the bridge foundations back to the Rocks. Walking along the road we noticed a series of older colonial houses that artists seem to be squatting in to prevent redevelopment (according to the signs we read). Looking in one of the houses I saw antique furniture set up with piles of dirt on top of them out of which plants were growing - Neat. It does seem that this area is the somewhat neglected side of the Rocks as I saw an older dishevelled man feeding birds in the park.
Passing through the impressive tunnel we were once again back in the Rocks. The tunnel also has one of the only steps leading up to the road going over the bridge - There seemed to be a lot of them. If you want to walk over the bridge this is where you have to go.
Looking around for something to eat we were not in the mood to really look around too much. We ended up at a German restaurant Löwenbräu Keller that was quite fun. The portions were generally quite monstrous and not really being drinkers we missed out on half the fun (it seems). The Oompah band certainly liked us as we were the only ones singing along with them - I remembered a lot of the songs from my trips to Oktoberfest as a child in Kitchener (formerly “New Berlin” in Canada). I had the sausages and Mel had the chicken schnitzel - Hers was huge mine not so much.
As we were eating we watched an Ibis eating out of the trash container right outside the restaurants. Incredible to see these large birds acting exactly like we are used to seeing with seagulls and pigeons.
Leaving the restaurant I showed Mel where I had stayed during my brief visit last year - It was just a short distance up the road from where we ate (we could see the entrance from where we were sitting). I showed her the narrow alleys that cross the whole area as we made our way back down to the harbour.
Travel really saps your energy so we headed back to the hotel by taking a train from Circular Quay. An early night back for us but we took the time to read up on what we might want to do tomorrow.
I have been picking up various bits of tourist information today so have a map called “Free Sydney Map & Guide” that has details of a free walking tour that we may want to do…Anyway, now for a bit of television.