Sydney 2008: Part 1 – The Trip

Posted by azuan on May 23, 2008 in :: All Posts ::, TRAVEL | 0 comments

It has been almost 3 weeks since I came back from Sydney. Hectic schedule and lots of work have made it difficult for me to update the blog and publishing this trip report. Having almost 2.5GB of photos does not make it easier as well. I’ll try my best to cover my trip in a couple of post.

The recent trip was my third trip to Sydney with the first trip 2 years ago and the second trip last year. This time the main reason I was in down under is to attend and celebrate my sister’s graduation. Now that my sister has graduated I doubt I will be in Sydney again unless my work brings me there.

Anyway I’ll be updating this trip report in three parts:

Part 1: My trip to Sydney
Part 2: Sights and Sound of Sydney
Part 3: Malaysian Hospitality (MH) Kuala Lumpur to Sydney to Kuala Lumpur

The first part below simply covers what I went through in my 4 days in Sydney:

For the 4 nights in Sydney, my family and I stayed at this great service apartment, Meriton World Tower. It has a reasonable price on weekdays but a bit pricey, noisy and crowded on weekend! At 70+ floors, the World Tower offers the best view for Sydney. It was the tallest residential tower in the southern hemisphere until completion of Q1 Tower in Gold Coast. Still it’s high.

We stayed in the 72nd floor (if I can recall correctly) 3-room apartment that gives us this view. Amazing way to wake up every morning.

Of course, what is visiting Sydney without visiting the Opera House. To be honest, there is nothing special about this building but still it has its tourist appeal and a must-visit place.

Me and part of my family..

But for me the real attraction of Sydney is the Taronga Zoo. A unique experience indeed and simply make Singapore Zoo look like a bad joke. I don’t even want to dare compare with the Malaysian sad looking zoo.

To reach the zoo, a nice refreshing public ferry-ride. The ferry-ride gives you the best view of the Sydney Opera House, nice blue water, some warships, Elton John’s house and the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

“trying to find the most Gay-ish looking kind of house…hehehe�

If you strain your eyes a bit, you can even see crazy people who climb the Harbour Bridge. They are not crazy because they are doing the climb but because they are willing to pay that much money for a ‘climb’ that is more like a walk. Ok I am actually jealous because I do not have that much money to try it!

The Taronga Zoo comes with an interesting Cable Car-ride that oversees many of the animals. An interesting approcah to make the zoo more accessible to not-so-fit-people like me.

An of course lots and lots of animals.

Giraffes that’s have the best view in the world.

An excellent QLD Bird Show.

Other than the Zoo, the bridge, the parks and the Opera House, Sydney is pretty much a typical city. Lots of shopping can be done (very expensive though for many things due to our currency). Being a Muslim that simply do not bend rules when travel, we have to hunt for Halal food every time we travel. Australia has many Muslims so halal food is not an issue.

There’s always DIY Breakfast

Then there’s many Halal Restaurant like this excellent Malay food restaurant, Kasturi Cafe.

And delicious pancakes for desert somewhere in Darling Harbour. (Note that be selective on the pancakes..they do not serve halal meat)

And not to forget, unlimited supply of Krispy Kereme….Yummy!

In the next part, I’ll publish some sights and sounds of Sydney… Thanks for reading