australia part 1: sydney

as i said, it took months of planning for my trip this time. not just because i know it'll cost a lot of money, but also because it involved going with someone who lives half a world away. fortunately, we were able to figure out a specific destination, managed to negotiate and compromise on a lot of things, and wriggled ourselves out of work at the same time.


day 1 - may 28
i arrived first in syd. went home to my bro's place, and then spend the first half of the day sleeping and shivering. man, i know it's winter time down under, but the house was freaking cold. and no heater at all in the entire house! after that i went out to the city to grab some lunch (thai food, oh so delicious. so unlike thai food in indo) and then do some city exploring with my bro. i forgot to bring his camera so we relied on my ixus.

good thing the weather was perfect blue. we went to the government house, then to sydney opera house, cross the street over to the rock area (which is the early settlement of sydney), and then walked across the harbour bridge (which is ... a LOOONGG way to go), go down the bridge to a park (ada luna park juga di sydney tapi sayang tutup), and then got the bus back to darling harbour. too bad the battery died so we couldn't take anymore pictures. we took the bus back to darling harbour and drank hot choco (me) and ate choc black forest ice cream (my bro) at the lindt cafe. excellent! too bad they don't have it here in indo.

when nighttime fell we went to see sydney opera house again, cause they're having the viv'd festival. old buildings and the rooftop of SOH were bathe in gorgeous lights that changed design every 10-20 minutes. dinner was at lowenbrau, a german resto famous for its beer, i was told. thanks to my bro's friends, sempet2nya gw disuruh maju ke depan resto untuk berpartisipasi dalam chicken dance dan mainin lagu edelweiss pake bell. haiyaa!! dah gitu gak bisa difoto lagi krn batre kamera abis. ARGH!


day 2
gotta get up early to the airport to pick up my friend. it was only 7am, so we couldn't check in to his hotel yet. so we ended up waiting in paddys market, for a dimsum breakfast at marigold, a chinese resto just across the street. worth the wait.. the dimsum was excellent. after that, we went back to his hotel so he could get some nap. we tried taking a stroll around the city in the afternoon but it rained the whole day so we ended up getting back to his place so i can get a hot shower and change clothes. i hate sydney in winter. i don't know how i could get used to the cold weather. but i love civilized country. not that i hate indo, it's just that being in a city where the people know how to queue and the streets don't have sampah all over the place is very nice.

dinner was at a korean resto, madang. ini kayak hanamasa but korean style. so we grill our own meat. deliciousssss! a must-visit-again resto! letaknya di gang gitu.. but very crowded. harus antri agak lama, and in the middle of rain, it wasn't very pleasant to do. fortunately the food was worth the wait.

day 3
got up early again to take pictures of sydney opera house (again! but this time the 2 guys brought their camera equipment along and i get to play with the video camera..) and then take the ferry to whatson bay and then bus to bondi beach. we missed the first ferry, so had to wait for the next one. it was freezing cold, and once we got to whatson bay, it was raining. me and my friend were cold and wet and did not enjoy the walk very much. so eventually we went into an asian noodle resto. the food was so so (chicken laksa for the 2 guys, crispy noodle with shredded duck for me) but the resto was warm and dry. so we were very reluctant to go out. but eventually the sun showed up and we managed to take the walk along the bondi beach. phew.

actually bondi beach is really beautiful, if it hadn't been for the rain, that is.

now this is an ocean pool. which means the pool is located next to the sea. kalau ada ombak gede, ya.. airnya masuk ke dalem kolam. keliatannya seru.

the photo opportunity was fun. but all the powerwalk my bro made me do and the rainy weather wasn't very inviting, so i ended up having aches all over my body. i was relieved to go back to the city by train, which means we don't have to walk a lot. :D yes, me and my lazy ass were tired. come to think of it, i complained a lot about the walk, and my friend complained a lot about the lousy weather. lol. what a perfect companion we made.

we then went to a famous resto, called hurricane at the darling harbour. they serve the BEST baby back ribs ever!! yumm! again, a must visit resto when in sydney. mind you the place is always fully booked. if you want to get a place without a reservation, show up no later than 5pm. otherwise you'd have a long queue ahead of you. if you do want to reserve, do so 2 weeks in advance.

after that we split up. deny went with his friend, and i and my friend went with deny's other friend's car. we agreed to meet at luna park to take photos of the sydney opera house with viv'd. when we got out of the plaza, the harbour was lighted with fireworks. apparently it was darling harbour's birthday.. so we ended up watching the fireworks for a while. very fortunate, cos after that it rained for the whole night. we ended up sitting in the car, not being able to see anything worthwhile. so deny's friend took us back home. phew. no more walk for the night.

tomorrow, we have to board the plane to cairns. now i gotta say i really looovveeee this place. the sun's warm, the ocean looks inviting, and the holiday experience was... let's just say i had a blast.



wish i could stay longer.