[Sydney Trip] Day 11: Till we meet again

It's our last day in Sydney. For breakfast we had home-cooked bacon and egg muffins, munched away while doing our last minute packing. And then since it's still early, we stopped by at The Rocks market for final dash of shopping :)

Then we're off to airport to check-in. Once our luggage were taken care of, we went to Kingsford area for some noodles at Mie Kocok Bandung. Their sweet yamie, kolo mie, pangsit goreng, cendol as well as the snacks were tasty. I noticed that Indonesian restaurants in Australia usually accept only cash payment, and they provide free flow drink - at least some plain water, but some places offer hot tea with sugar. So usually we didn't order any more drinks.

Lunch at Mie Kocok Bandung

Our Scoot flight TZ1 took off on the dot at 2:05pm.

All in all I really enjoyed our vacation Down Under. Sydney and Melbourne are very lovely cities to explore. Gorgeous landscape, beautiful views, great food, lovely markets, pleasant and warm people. We had a good time during our road trip too. As of the last day, the odometer in our rented car showed more than 3000 km travelled since the day it's collected.

Till we meet again!

Sydney aerial view

[Sydney Trip] Day 10: Sydney City Tour

First stop of the day was Bondi beach. The famous beach was empty as it was a windy, cold morning.

Panoramic view of Bondi beach

Along the way we passed by Paddington market. And I couldn't help but to stop and take a look :) Among the 5 markets in Sydney that I've been to, I'd say that Paddington had the most unique items but The Rocks had the best view.

The colorful Paddington market

Before noon we rushed to Palace Chinese Restaurant at Piccadilly Tower for dimsum lunch, before the place became too crowded. The dimsum was served the old style, where the waitresses walked around the restaurant wheeling the carts stacked with yummy dishes to offer to all patrons.

Dimsum lunch

After lunch we left the car in Piccadilly Tower and took the public bus to The Rocks. Then we walked along Circular Quay and Opera Quay towards Opera House. The whole place was so lively, buzzing with people.

Along Circular Quay and Opera Quay

Opera House

We had a quick tour in Manly too.

Manly Wharf

In the spirit of a cloudy day, we had hotpot dinner at home. Beef meatballs, fishballs, fishcake, tofu, mushrooms, vegetables, and steamed rice plus sukiyaki dipping sauce :)

[Sydney Trip] Day 9: Canberra

Our accommodation at Albury was Siesta Resort. We stayed in unit #306, the biggest one in the complex. It’s a two storey unit – the first floor had living room, dining room, kitchen, washing area and common bathroom; while the second floor housed a master bedroom with attached bathroom and 2 other bedrooms with a connecting bathroom. Dining, cooking and washing utilities were provided in the unit, except for detergent which had to be purchased from the reception. The washing area was equipped with washing machine, dryer, iron and ironing board. The kitchen had fridge, oven and microwave. It even had this semi circle-shaped hole allowing the cook to pass some dishes out to the living room. The dining table was a long one with 8 white chairs. The living room had 3 comfortable sofas and a tv. The whole floor was covered in carpet.

Our unit at Siesta Resort Albury

In the master bedroom where I slept in, the attached bathroom was hidden behind a door that looked like a closet. It had an vintage-looking bathtub, a shower cubicle and two sinks. Wow! The whole place felt like a charming refurbished old house.

In the morning we took some time to explore the resort area and we found a huge chess board, mini golf area, playground and swimming pool.

At Siesta Resort Albury

We started our second leg of the Melbourne-Sydney trip at around 10am to reach Canberra for lunch. We had fried kway teow, fried rice, stir fried vegetables with tofu and laksa with char siew to share at Asian Noodle House, Dickson area.

Asian food for lunch

Then it's time for a brief Canberra city tour. Unlike Melbourne and Sydney, interesting places in Canberra were scattered all over the city. I suppose it's because the whole city was entirely planned for. At least there's no starting point which we could start at to explore the city on foot. At a glance, it looked soulless, a stark contrast when compared with Melbourne and Sydney.

My sister said that the main attraction in Canberra was its parliament buildings, governmental buildings and the various embassies, which I wasn't interested in visiting.So we drove by the grand Parliament House and then decided on whim to go to Telstra Tower (Black Mountain Tower), the most interesting place we could find in wikipedia on Canberra :p

Canberra city tour

The tower, 195m high, was located at the top of Black Mountain. We took some time to go up to its indoor observation deck and the two outdoor viewing platforms. We were awed by the panoramic city view and its surrounding countryside.

Panoramic view from the top of Telstra Tower

Another stop was made at Goulburn which was famous with its Big Merino, the world’s largest concrete sheep. Next to the statue there’re a petrol station, a Merino museum and a Merino cafe.

It was grilled chicken for dinner at Oporto, before we reached Sydney at 10.30pm.

Big Merino in Goulburn

[Sydney Trip] Day 8: Melbourne City Tour

I tried vegemite today, out of curiosity as it was dubbed as original Australian food. It's a dark brown paste made from yeast extract. At a glance it looked just like normal chocolate jam. But in just one try, I knew I would not want to eat anymore of that :p It tasted just awful!

We braved the cold and windy morning to take the tram to Queen Victoria Market. The market was a large covered space with many stalls selling various stuff. There’s even a pet shop inside. At another end there was the fresh food section with many fresh fruits, vegetables and also meat and cheese.

Queen Victoria Market

After Victoria Market we stopped by at Harbour Town and also Bourke Street Mall, while soaking in the city atmosphere at the same time. We took the free city circle trams with running commentaries on the city's best spots. Sitting inside the tram while watching the crowd and enjoying the city view was therapeutic. It's much better than braving the confusing traffic. There's nowhere else but Melbourne that had this weird rule for cars to queue on the left-most lane before turning right. Guess it's to accommodate the tram tracks which shared the same road as the rest of the vehicles.

Melbourne city tour

The first leg of the journey back to Sydney started at about 5pm, and we reached Albury at 8.26pm. The city centre’s quite big but only the restaurants were open that late in the evening. A restaurant called Thai Puka was chosen and it was a good choice – their dishes were all good.

Thai dinner in Albury

[Sydney Trip] Day 7: Dandenong Ranges and Warrook Farm

Our accommodation was Best Western Atlantis Hotel at Spencer Street. After the good experience with Moorings at Metung, the rooms in here felt so small. We stayed in 2 separate rooms, one was the normal room for 2 pax and another was the family room for 5 pax. The bathroom tiles were marbles, making it slippery. There was only a small partition between the shower area and the toilet/sink area, which meant water being splashed everywhere. There was only one cloth hanger behind the door, and the door had no lock whatsoever. Even better, the door could open by itself as it could not be closed completely. When the door opened, whoever standing in the corridor could easily see the inside of the bathroom as the big mirror was strategically placed from one corner to the other. We're wondering what could happen if the unit was occupied by business associates :p

Oh, one more complaint: the TV channel in one of the rooms couldn't be switched to other channels. But one good thing, continental breakfast was included in the rate. Anyway we did not expect much and there wasn't much either on the buffet, just some scrambled egg, baked beans, toasts, apples, coffee, tea and juices. But it's enough for us.

So after a quick breakfast, we visited Grants Picnic Ground at Dandenong Ranges National Park. We bought some bird food to feed the wild birds that flocked the feeding area. At that time there were mostly cockatoos that had sharp claws and beaks. Long sleeved shirts were recommended to avoid some scratches. The park’s surrounding was serene and peaceful with really tall trees in the area.

Dandenong Ranges

Next, we’re off to Warrook Cattle Farm to see sheep shearing, whip creaking, cow milking, and demonstration on working dog herding sheep in the farm. From one point to another we were transported using a wagon, it’s so cool!

At the end of the tour we walked around the garden and saw a wombat named Stewart, and some kangaroos lazing around under the sun. As the restaurant was already closed for the day, we just had some chicken pie, beef pie and scones with jam to share before taking off.

Warrook Cattle Farm

Our next destination was Brighton Beach with its colorful beach cabins along its shore, a popular tourist icon. Too bad it was a cloudy afternoon with strong wind, not a good time to visit a beach. But still, I could not miss the photo opportunity with such brightly colored backdrop. It's really unique.

Brighton Beach

Dinner was curry yong tau foo at Grand BBQ, Target Center, Melbourne. I usually try to have healthy ingredients in my yong tau foo by choosing clear soup base, lots of vegetables and non-fried stuff. But since the food-lover hosts loved curry yong tou foo so much, I gave it a try. And it did not disappoint. The big bowl of soup was rich and flavorful, with noodles, tofu, crab balls and fishcakes. Yums.

Curry Yong Tau Foo

[Sydney Trip] Day 6: Metung and Squeaky Beach

We woke up to an excellent view today at Metung! We stayed for a night at Moorings at Metung, a waterfront accommodation overlooking Bancroft Bay.

Sunrise at Metung

The unit that we stayed in was really nice and big. It had 3 bedrooms complete with heaters, 2 bathrooms, washing machine and a dryer, kitchen with bar and dining table, living room and also a balcony. Cooking, dining, and washing equipments were provided as well. The complex offered both indoor and outdoor swimming pools, BBQ areas, tennis court and also private marina.

Our spacious unit

Private marina

The town itself was small with one bakery, one supermarket, and one petrol pump. In the morning we bought some groceries from the only bakery in town to prepare some bacon and egg sandwiches. It would be really nice to spend longer time there but we needed to get going.

We hit the road again at 10.30am and drove through Bairnsdale, Sale, Yarram Town and finally reached Wilsons Promontory. It's a peninsula located at the southernmost part of Australia mainland. The area was protected under Wilsons Promontory National Park, and it had survived various disasters like flood and fires through the years.

There's a secluded beach deep inside the Promontory, called Squeaky Beach. The drive from the Promontory's entrance to the beach itself took us at least 20 mins. But it's all worth it. The pristine sands are soft, warm on the surface but cool underneath. Bright blue sky, amazing ocean view. Big rocks formations at one side. There were just a few other people to share the fabulous beach with. There's this little creek just next to the shore, with cool clear water running through it. Might be the best beach I've ever been. The beach earned its name from the squeaking sound the sands made when walked on barefoot, courtesy of ultra-fine quartz sand particles with same size and shape.

Panoramic view of Squeaky Beach

The pristine beach

Lunch was at Mad Hatters Seven Dwarfs at Foster Town.

After another long drive, we finally arrived in Melbourne at about 6pm. We did some shopping at Costco before having pizzas and pasta for dinner at Papa Gino’s, Lygon street.

It's Italian food for dinner

[Sydney Trip] Day 5: Road Trip to Melbourne

We started bright and early at 6:48am for our road trip to Melbourne. We drove through Grand Pacific Drive towards Wollongong and had a quick break at Garie Beach and also at Otford Lookout point, Royal National Park.

Scenic coastal drive

A sight to behold

On a whim, we decided to go to Nan Tien Temple, one the largest Buddhist temples in southern hemisphere, without realizing that it’s a Monday – the only day in the week when the temple’s closed 

Our next stop was Kiama, a township located 120km south of Sydney. We saw the Kiama Blowhole, where water was sprayed up every now and then from the hole formed by the rocks on the coast. What an apt name for the place, as Kiarama, the original aboriginal word means 'place where the sea makes a noise'.

At Kiama

Lunch was also in Kiama, where we spotted a Thai restaurant named Thai Harbourview and went right in. It was a good choice – their pad thai, tom yum and sausage fried rice were good.

Thai food for lunch

Given that our hotel is located in Metung, about 700km far from Sydney, the planned coastal drive was proven to be an ambitious route. So it’s then decided to switch to faster route via Capital Territory. We stopped by at one KFC outlet for a break and then at Jen & Dazza’s diner at Cann River for dinner. After what seemed like a long drive, we finally reached the hotel at 10:13pm.

[Sydney Trip] Day 4: Taronga Zoo and Darling Harbour

The first item in the itinerary today was Taronga Zoo. Located in the shores of Sydney Harbour, it offered terrific waterfront view from many lookout points. Upon entrance we boarded the cable car to enjoy the pretty scenery below: the greenery and animals in the zoo, and the tranquil harbour.

We watched the free-flight bird show at noon where the keeper showcased the birds' unique skills and agility. There were coin-snatching Galahs, flocks of cockatoos, majestic kites and many others.

Taronga Zoo

And we spent some time covering the zoo grounds, taking in the sights of the colorful animals. The zoo was preparing for dinosaur exhibits in the coming month so some dinos had started to appear in some spots in the zoo, although they're not in action yet.

Taronga Zoo

As the food sold in the food court did not look appetizing, we decided to skip lunch and just munched on some croissants and puff pastries that we brought along with us. After we concluded our zoo visit, we drove to Kingsford for some martabak from Roseberry Bakso House and bakso goreng from Pinangsia Noodle House. They were so tasty they could beat other martabak and bakso goreng in Jakarta hands down.

Then it's time to explore the Darling Harbour! It's a great place to have some leisurely stroll followed by nice meal in any of the restaurants and cafe lined up along the way. Lindt cafe was our choice, we had hot chocolate and ice cream there.. heavenly!

Darling Harbour

I've heard so much about Hurricane Grill restaurant and felt that we had to give it a try, especially when our food-lover hosts also seconded the idea. It's so popular that making reservation was the way to go. Initially we wanted to go to their Darling Harbour branch but it was already full booked, so we went to their Top Ryde City branch instead.

The BBQ pork ribs were really tasty. Juicy and soft meat that's really well marinated, slathered in finger-licking good BBQ sauce. Yums! Their baked potato served with sour cream was great too. What a nice way to end our day.

The famous BBQ pork ribs

[Sydney Trip] Day 3: Markets and Botanic Garden

Saturday's market day!

I was excited to see and experience the markets in Sydney so we included quite a few in our itinerary. Today we visited Eveleigh market, Organic market and The Rocks market.

Eveleigh market was a farmers' market where most stalls sold their fresh produce. Beside honey, pretty flowers, fruits and vegetables, there were also wines, baked goodies, cooked food and ice cream.

Eveleigh Farmers' Market

Organic market that we visited was at Orange Grove public school. It was not so big but it sold various stuff from food to second hand books. There was a children playground too that's open for public.

Organic Market

The Rocks market must be the one with the best view, as it's nestled within the historic Rocks area with gorgeous backdrop of Harbour Bridge and Opera House. The stalls were neatly lined up under bright white tents. Most of the stall holders designed and sold their own stuff and everything was displayed and packaged attractively.

We also bought some cakes from French Patisserie with Courtyard Cafe, located next to the market. The cakes were really pretty I had a hard time choosing.

The Rocks Market

It's Indonesian cuisine for lunch today at Ayam Goreng 99, Kingsford. We ordered their ayam bakar, tahu pepes, sayur asem and mie ayam. Their ayam bakar was really tasty - it was marinated very well, I could tell from the breast meat that had the tendency to be tasteless. Their sayur asem was good too - the remark came from me who wasn't one to enjoy sayur asem :)

After lunch we strolled along the street to go to White Lotus Asian Food Market that sold all sorts of Indonesian food, snacks and spices. The variety there was amazing.

Lunch at Ayam Goreng 99

Next stop was the Botanic Garden where we wanted to see Mrs Macquaire's chair. Apparently the place offered the best view of the Sydney harbour. We spent some time there before going off for sunset mass at nearby St. Mary's cathedral. The tall tree with purple flowers complimented the grand church architecture really well.

Mrs Macquaire's Chair at Botanic Garden

After mass we stopped by at Chinatown to buy some bbq pork buns and emperor puffs. The piping hot puffs were only sold here, from a small booth smacked between a Chinese restaurant and bread shop. The queue was quite long and it didn't get any shorter. There was only one Chinese lady taking orders, serving and taking payment in brisk manner. To me the puffs tasted just alright, it didn't justify the snaking queue. In fact they're quite dry with only some very little custard in the middle. I wondered if it's really custard or just the uncooked part of the puff :p

As we planned to have BBQ at home, we shopped for some meats at Woolworths before going home. The BBQ was done at the balcony with the new BBQ set. On the menu: steaks, sausages, risoles, teriyaki salmons and fries. Yummilicious.

[Sydney Trip] Day 2: Featherdale and Blue Mountain

Planned to have breakfast at Oporto but apparently the branch that we headed to was already closed down. So we stuffed ourselves full with some breads and pastries from the nearby Pattison's Patisserie.

And off we went to Featherdale Wildlife Park! It's about 45 mins drive from Sydney city centre and by the time we reached there the sky was cloudy. Luckily after a while it started to clear up. From the entrance the park did not look big at all, so I wasn't expecting much. After the entrance we're in the first area where some birds and wombats were kept in cages. It's an open ground in the middle where peacocks, wallabies and emus roamed freely. Then from there it started to open up to much bigger space for different animal sections. Farm animals, reptiles, little penguins and many other faunas could be found in the park. There's also a picnic ground for group gathering.

Featherdale Wildlife Park

It's cuteness to the max at the koala area. Most of the native marsupial animals just spent time sleeping or lazing around on the trees. Only a handful of them could be seen eating. One koala was put outside, ready to be pet by the visitors. The keeper even offered to take our group photos with the koala. This was really different from the practice in other zoos and parks where holding and taking photos with koalas mean extra charge.

Another interesting activity in the park is feeding of the wallabies. The food which was put inside ice cream cones could be purchased there.

Stamp stations were scattered around the park and we could collect them as keepsake by stamping our "passports" that were given at the entrance.

Featherdale Wildlife Park

From the park, we drove further to Leura, a suburb located about 100 km west of Sydney. It's a pretty little town dubbed as 'The Garden Village'. We had our lunch at Wayzgoose cafe at Leura Mall: pasta, sandwiches, pies, fries, and salad. For dessert we bought some fresh scones with cream and jam at a nearby store called The French Trader.

Garden Village of Leura

After another short drive we arrived at Blue Mountain. Spent some time there to enjoy the magnificent view and took some photos.

The Three Sisters

On our way back we stopped at Costco for some grocery shopping before we headed to An restaurant at Bankstown for its famous Vietnamese pho. The pho lived up to its name. The broth and the beef slices were awesome. Their beef balls were terrific! The pho was sold in medium and large bowls and we ordered 3 large bowls to share among 6 adults. The funny thing in here was the $3.50 charge imposed for an extra empty bowl to share the soup. So we just used the 3 small bowls in which the beef balls were served, to share the food :)

So Pho So Good

We also drove by Sydney Olympic Park, just to take a quick look. The park's huge and mostly dimly lit with very few people around.

[Sydney Trip] Day 1: Welcome to Sydney

Our trip to Down Under started at the wee hours when we took a cab to Changi airport for our maiden Scoot flight scheduled to depart at 2.10am. The queue at the check-in counters was very long, but luckily they opened quite a number of counters with visa checking conducted separately to ease the waiting time. An online check-in facility would be a great help. There was also a snaking queue at the departure gate. So we waited at a nearby killiney kopitiam stall where we could watch the queue.  

Once we entered the plane, we were directed to our 'economy plus' seats which are color-coded in bright orange. The space between rows of seats were satisfying - about 30cm wide between my knees and the seat in front of me, when sitting straight. The only thing we could complain about was the location of call button which was at the side of the armrest. Accidental pressing of that button was so common that I supposed the flight attendants might have started to ignore the flashing lights.

There was no entertainment provided except iPads loaded with selection of movies that were available for rental. Food are available upon purchase. As we bought the complete set of fly-bag-eat package, the food is included in the airfare. There were 4 choices in the menu: nasi briyani, creamy chicken, beef lasagna and soya chicken. The worst: beef lasagna - I could only taste the tomato sauce with all its sourness glory. Nasi briyani, creamy chicken and soya chicken were just so-so. The hot meal came with a packet of dried fruit chips and drink (with only 2 choices: coke or evian). I guess if I were to fly scoot again, I would not choose to buy their food unless they improve on it.

A tip to bring empty bottles was proven useful, as we could then refill the bottles at the water fountain after passing the board gate security, or at the dispenser inside the plane. Especially since we did not get our drink until the meal was served, 4 long hours after departure.

The flight was a non-eventful one, with very little turbulence and a little too cold cabin temperature. The attendants were not as uptight as other airlines.

Our maiden Scoot flight

It was sunny when we landed at Kingsford Smith Airport at 12:21pm. We briskly went pass the immigration, luggage belt (which were called 'carousel' down there) and custom check. Despite what people said about difficulties in bringing outside food into the country, we managed to bring in some mocha drinks, prawn crackers, and pempek with its sauce - but we made sure we declared everything. I made sure all food items were put in a single luggage. Luckily the custom officer wasn't interested in inspecting it.

For this trip we chose to rent a 7-seater hyundai imax with child seat to accommodate everyone. And the vehicle did not disappoint. It offered wide space, even the luggage space was wide enough to hold our 5 hard-case bags plus other small stuff.

Reaching Kingsford Smith Airport

Our first destination - Sydney Fish Market. It's midday, so it wasn't crowded although all shops were still open. Other than seafood stores there were also stores selling cheese, fruits, juices and other delicacies. We settled down at Nicholas Seafood Traders and had a bucket of fish & chips plus fried calamari to share while enjoying the view. Seagulls were aplenty, therefore a covered table was chosen to avoid certain undesirable excretion coming unto us :p.

Sydney Fish Market

Then we're off to Paddy's market. It looked more like Asian market with many stalls selling fresh fruits, vegetables, as well as dried fruits, toys, clothes and souvenirs.

Since it's a Thursday, when most of the shops open late, we squeezed in some time for window shopping at Queen Victoria Building and The Strand. The buildings were really unique with outstanding grand clocks in hanging in the middle.

Window shopping

For dinner we headed to Eastwood area for Korean bbq at Jonga Jip. There were many side dishes given out at the beginning of the meal. My fave was their salad - lettuce topped with tangy sesame sauce. The bulgogi beef slices that we ordered did not disappoint at all.. Yums! The only concern was the strong bbq smoke smell that stuck to us all the way home.

Jonga Jip Korean BBQ