G'day mate!

As mentioned in my previous post, it's some sort of a tradition that Bo would treat me to a vacation as my birthday present ever since we got married... A tradition that I must follow for as long as I live, if the pocket permits that is...

Anyway, I think I am due in giving you the story of my trip...

We arrived Sydney very early Tuesday morning last week... Though we had some sleep in the plane, we fell fast asleep the moment our heads hit the pillow... The coldness of Sydney's mild Winter was also the reason why we decided to stay indoor on our first day. We woke up just in time for late lunch and a little drinking and went back to sleep.. But not until we booked a tour to Blue Mountain for the next day.

The Blue Mountain tour took a whole day. Started with a visit to Featherdale Wildlife Park where we mingled with some kangaroos, wallabies and emus. Then, we went to a picnic park where we learned how to throw the boomerang and learned about Aboriginal culture; which I failed even after 3 tries and Bo excelled even on first try... I made a joke about him being an Aborigine and that he has the look anyway, to which he got mad. And then, we went to have lunch at this beautiful country club. After lunch, we went on Flyway Cable Car that took us to the valley. After a walk in a thick rain forest, we rode the world's steepest railway at 52 degree! I swear my heartbeat stopped for like an hour, the ride lasted only 3 minutes. After that, we went towards Sydney and dropped by at Leura town and wander through antique shops, arts & crafts shop and the famous Candy store... I swear I've never seen as bizarre candy store as this one. They have Cinnamon flavored Mintos! Heading back, we travel through the Sydney 2000 Olympic Site.. We concluded the tour with a river cruise that took us back to Circular Quay... After saying our goodbyes to the rest of the tourists, we made our way to Captain Cooks to make reservations for dinner the night after.

The morning of my birthday, we woke up late again and had brunch at the hotel.. We then made our way to Paddy's market. This market is only open from Thursday through Sunday and mostly ran by Asian. The products, although relatively cheaper than any other place, were lack of quality and mostly bear the sticker "Made In China". But an original Aborigine's art piece can cost you your limbs!

That night, we had dinner on board the Captain Cook Cruise Ship... Food wasn't great, nice but not great.. But the ambiance and the view were to die for. We made some new friends from Ireland and had great conversation. The service was professional and the birthday song sang to me late in the evening made me blush! Oh, and they couldn't believe me when I told them my real age!

The remaining of our stay we spent on visiting Sydney Aquarium and the Wildlife World, where we get to see the dugong live for the first time. We didn't want to go to long distance tour because we thought it would be better to spend the time exploring the city on foot. One of our favourite spot in the city was Queen Victoria Building or QVB. It's an old building, I think dated back to Victorian era, the architectural of the building showed as such. So, I thought it's okay if I didn't get to the museums... QVB is a shopping mall. And they were a lot more near there. My favorite has to be David Jones, an equivalent to London's Harrods. This was were we had late lunch (or almost dinner) for 3 days in a row. It was the fresh natural oyster that kept me returning for more. And in QVB also where I shopped, though not as crazily as how I did during my trip to London in January.

One more thing, when we were there, the H1N1 case wasn't made a big deal. It wasn't in the newspaper or TV, there was no death reports. Makes me wonder if Malaysia is the only country that's making a big deal out of it?

We made it a point, that we'd return to Australia again one day. Maybe to different part, but definitely returning. Maybe make it as a stop over point to America or New Zealand. I am already excited at the thought!

Pictures uploaded in Facebook. Enjoy!