Sydney Paradise! Part I

I see that everyone has left for some foreign country, so I would like to wish everyone good luck in their current hermitage, and hopefully they will fit in well etc...

As you all know, I'm back from Sydney! Sydney is pretty darn cool! Lotsa cool beaches, roads like Kuala Lumpur, and much better night clubs compared to Melbourne.

It started off badly enough.. Our plane to Sydney was to leave at 7.30am. Kristy, George, Ami and I were supposed to take a taxi to the airport at 4.15 am. Me being the lazy ass conveniently slept until I received a phone call at 4.30am, asking me where I was. Unfortunately it was too late for me to reach the taxi at Kristy's place, so I told them to head off by themselves. Then, Daniel went into superhuman mode and got everything ready with speed that would make Superman blush. 10 minutes later Daniel was outside JCH flagging down a taxi, who was more than happy to send me to the airport.

Obviously, I reached last, and was greeted by everyone warmly. A few were laughing at me for being late, but it was to be expected I guess. Heh. Anyways, had McD's (Aussies call it Macca's) for breakfast, and flew off to Sydney without further hitches. We immediately headed off for Maze, our Backpackers rooms. After placing our bags, we then headed to Hyde Park, since we couldn't check in until 1pm. We bought some food, and proceeded to eat it while sitting down on the green grass, with the sun shining down on our faces, a la Western style. It was a pretty soothing moment, and the two laziest people (Sven and I) tried sleeping, only to be awaken by the girls.

From left: Clemens, Sven

Enjoying time in the sun. From left: Ashwin(still don't know how it's spelled), me, Sven, and Clemens

Hyde Park

After a decent packed lunch, we headed to the Sydney Opera House, which I've actually seen before with my family, but what the heck. Still a beautiful spectacle. However, according to Clements, they sacrificed substance for style. It may look aesthetically pleasing, but the acoustics in the Opera House is allegedly pretty bad. The small stage inhibits bigger performances from being played as well. *Shrug*

On the way to Sydney Opera House

Having another lazy moment in the sun (on the Sydney Opera House footsteps!)

The whole gang. Clockwise from top left: Karmen., Ashwin, Sven, Yuka, Ami, Jarech (or Jaros, or Jaroslov), Kristi, George, me, and Clemens

Trying to act Japanese :) From left: Jaros, Ashwin, George, Clemens, me and Ami. Funny the real Japanese is missing

After lotsa picture taking, we headed off to the ferry area to check out the ferries moving about Sydney.

The docks

Me trying out Ashwin's glasses. Pretty cool eh? :)

On the ferry

Going under the awesome Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Quite ugly from far, the bridge's beauty only becomes clear when it is close.

An old ship (still operable I think)

Check out the submarine!

The myriad boats docked at Darling Harbour

Next stop was the Sydney Aquarium. The place wasn't too shabby, with some pretty cool creatures roaming around. Although I've seen them countless of times, it still didn't feel boring when I saw these huge sea creatures again.

Do you see that? Look closely, it's not seaweed.

If you haven't guessed it yet, it's an eel!



A close-up shot

This is probably one of the funniest thing I've seen. Don't worry, the turtle didn't break its neck swimming down or something. It was in this position the whole time I was there

Here's the turtle again.

Outside the Sydney Aquarium, we bought some delicious Gelato ice-cream (a unique Italian ice-cream made from natural products that produces a smooth and creamy texture) and sat down around the Harbour, silently lapping up our ice-cream while embracing the sweet radiance of the sun. Heavenly indeed.

After an hour or two, we headed off to Maze to check in. We ate at Chinatown, where I saw familiar food. There was Sizzling dishes, Laksa, Nasi Goreng Kambing and many others. I truly missed Asian food! After that, we headed to the first bar we visited in Sydney. Because we were given vouchers for free drinks in several bars and night clubs, we decided to check a few of them out. Scubar was quite disappointing, but a free drink's a free drink!

The next day, we decided to go off to Glebe Point to check out University of Sydney. And boy was I appalled at the condition of the uni.

Yeah, these ugly buildings are part of Sydney U

The only decent-looking building blighted by ongoing construction

Weather didn't help my view on Sydney U either

I'm not sure why people do this, but it's quite cool actually

Did a bit of shopping in Queen Victoria building

After profusely thanking God I'm in Melbourne U and not Sydney U (sorry all Sydney U students), we headed off to a Thai restaurant to eat some Thai food. The excellent food, plus a cute waitress made Glebe Point a worthwhile trip at least..

The second bar/night club we entered was Scary Canary and it was such a far cry from Scubar. Where Scubar was dinghy and empty, Scary Canary was brimming with life, and had a tasty interior to accompany the hustling people. Of course, the amount of hot women increased ten fold as well. But what I liked best about the place was the choice of music. Instead of playing music like any other night club, this one played House music WITH a live band, drums, guitar singer and all. The fusion was mind-blowing and really took my complete attention. The sizzling sexiness of the lead singer just made everything more pleasing.

The orange brackground masking her looks just made her that much more attractive.

I'm not sure what it is with Asian girls and tall blonde dudes but it was pretty interesting I have to say. Barely 5 minutes of dancing, Sven gets hit on by a not-too-beautiful-chick/slut and gets asked to head to the bathroom for some naughty time. However, Sven could only laugh at her, which offended her greatly, but it made a great story for Sven to tell. Half an hour later, he gets approached again, this time by a not-too-shabby Japanese chick. However, surprisingly, she left a few minutes later. It came to be that she noticed Sven since he came in but nothing materialised because Sven didn't come up to her. Poor Sven, he was thinking about the missed chance for a while.

To get his mind off the girl, we headed off to Star City to check out its casino. The entrance was mesmerizing, with a mini waterfall greeting us, as artificial rocks form a pool.

However, the casino itself was horrendous beyong words. The waiting list was a mile long, and according to the receptionist, we had to wait for at least 2 hours before we could find a seat. The problem was apparent when we looked around. There were only around 20 tables maximum at the casino, compared to Crown's 50 or more tables. The sad part was, they couldn't even find enough employees. There were poker tables left unhabited because they couldn't get a dealer. That was just disgusting, and made me lose my appetite for poker that night. The same problem was seen at all the other games, eg Blackjack, Roulette etc.

At home, the girls placing our passports together

Here we are at home, playing Bluff, Big 2, and Black Magic (and having lotsa fun in the process!)

The next day, we headed for the National Museum. We were greeted by a huge replica of Gigantosaur. Pity it wasn't real. I have always had this fascination with dinosaurs, and seeing them in their skeletal glory was a memorable moment for me. Malaysia really should find some dinosaurs soon.

Roar!

Some 'super smart' tourist took this picture, without realising the reason we took it in the first place. How can you miss the bloody dinosaur behind us? Lol..

A giraffe

From left: Mr Skeleton, his dog, cat at the back, mouse beside it, and Polly in its cage

The museum was interesting enough, giving me an insight into life in Africa, something which I've never really looked into. Also found out a few countries I never knew existed, like Lesotho and Eritrea. O.o . The bugs section was pretty cool too, considering I liked bugs too.

Afer that, we headed off to Bondi Beach. And what a beach it was! Sitting down in the cool sand while snacking on a McD's burger... Heaven!

From left: Karmen, Jaros, Yuka

Us trying to bury Sven.. In vain.. Have to find some other way to kill him ;P

View of the houses around Bondi Beach

From left: Yuka, Ami, Kristy, Karmen

.We went home exhausted, bus deeply satisfied with how the day went. Weather could have been better, but who cares? Later that day, we went to another night club near Darling Harbour. Pontoon was its name, and it was even more happening than Scary Canary! Only problem was they were playing contemporary R&B, which is not my taste at all. More hot chicks obviously! And again Sven was approached minutes into entering the night club. Because the girls were feeling tired, Jaros, George and I returned home with them while Ashwin, Clemens and Sven continued partying.

I'm not sure what happened that night but Sven told me a hilarious story about Ashwin. Now, Ashwin has always been an enigma to all of us; he was fun to have around, but we could never tell what was going through his head. So, according to Sven, here's what how Ashwin narrated his chance meeting with a girl in the club.

"So, I was dancing with this hot Indian chic, who has this huge set of boobs, and I was dancing with her. Then she took out her wallet to take some money, dropping a dollar coin. I picked it up.. And took it!" By which point he took out the fated coin and showed it to Sven and Clemens, grinning his usual grin. This was greeted by howls of laughter by Clemens and Sven. You would have expected him to give the coin back in exchange for a kiss or something, but NOO, he had to take it. Lol.. Typical Ashwin.. What's even funnier is his accent, which is a weird fusion between an Indian, Mauritian and French accent.

Girl's room. Yuka doing some weird thingy