Sunday, May 27, 2007
Back from Sydney
Yup! Finally back from sydney. 7 long days, mostly fun, sometimes frustrating, but overall enjoyable. I was still wondering how should I summarise the entire week into a short post, so I thought I would just point out the highlights of our trip.
A usual morning in Sydney.
I never realised that my boyfriend can look so cute when he wants to. Geh... Anyway, this is our 2nd day in Sydney and first day out to the city to jalan-jalan. That is the Sydney Tower at the background.
Attractions we went
Day 3 (Monday):
Sydney Wildlife Park
Me trying to kiss a giant fly and strangle a reticulate python before it strangle me.
Richard's hand forming a bird shadow.
Two idiots!
Sydney Aquarium
The Sydney coastline
Which jaw belongs to the great white shark?
Richard trying to imitate the grouper fish.
This fish always freaks me out!!!
Day 4 (Tuesday) with Raj.
Sydney Taronga Zoo
I always like going to the zoo. I become a kid again, running here and there, yelling with delight. I like the zoo. The cute animals, the noise, the smell... did I mention the most adorable animals. I never get tired of going to the zoo.
And here is the same.
The Lion and Tiger posing for me.
The most beautiful cat in the world.
(Not mine)And my favourite Red Panda
Isn't she the most adorable?And it is so super hard to take her picture without a semi-pro camera or SLR because she keeps on running about!
And I could not get a picture of her cubs, so I googled it:
I WANT! I WANT!
I was searching for the crocodile, and there it was right under my nose! Damn shit scary!
5th Day (Wednesday)
Sydney Opera House
No trip to Sydney is complete without going to the Sydney Opera House. Surprisingly, it's main theater the Opera Theater is smaller than Malaysia's Istana Budaya in space size.
On a side note, did you know that Istana Budaya is one of the ten most sophisticated theater in the world and is on par with London's Royal Albert Hall?
Too bad we could not take photos inside the halls. Kononnya it is still copyrighted. Yeah, right. So we'll have to be satisfied with outside.
And since we were at the Opera House, why not catch a play as well? So we opted for Ying Tong, a comedy about a member of the Goons who went mental. We were laughing ourselves hysterical as the psychiatrist went about diagnosing the patient.
Doctor was going through the DSM-IV criteria for manic-depression.
Dr: Grandiose delusions?
Patient: I am god!
Dr: Exaggerated self-esteem?
Patient: I am greater than god!
Powerhouse Museum
One of the coolest museums I had seen. Too bad we could not spend longer time here.
The Strasburg ClockThis is one of the coolest clock I have ever seen. It is something like the cuckoo clock, except much much more elaborate. It is like a digital clock, except that it is mechanical: It tells the time and day and:
- the position of the planets with respect to the Sun
- what stars are visible from Sydney at any time together with the position of the Sun and the Moon
- the phase of the Moon.
- times in major cities throughout the world.
- the 28-year cycle of the Sun
- the equation of time
- the 19-year cycle of the Moon
Cool right? And the coolest thing about it happens 5 minutes before the hour: The Procession of the 12 Apostles. Where the 12 Apostles will march by Jesus. The cutest thing is when it was Peter's turn, instead of turning to face and bow to Jesus, he turns away and the window open to reveal the Devil and the cock crows 3 times. Judas marched in with a bag of silver.
And at the hour, in the alcove below that, the enactment of the ages of man will happen, starting from a crawling baby, to a young man and to a bent old man.
Interesting right? And this is just a replica. Imagine seeing the ORIGINAL Strasburg Clock in Prague!
Guess what this is. Click on it for more info.
Boarding the train to nowhere.
Hanging for dear life.Too bad we could not spend more time in that museum (we spent 4 hours there). We had to be chased out because they were closing.
Day 6 Thursday
Botanical Garden
I know, I know, what the hell can we see in the botanical garden. Well, we just needed to escape from my overbearing aunt who kicked us out of bed at 6am, so we went to the garden and fell asleep under the trees. Woke up to terrible sunburn.
Those aren't fruits. They are bats.Observatory
We get to see the dog-star Sirius through the telescope. It is super cool in the observatory. The whole area rotates to show us the exact area we want to see.
And after a heavy lunch, what better way to burn it off but by dozing in the sun.
Day 7 Friday
Blue Mountains
We spend a freaking whole day at the National Park, and it was a reminiscence of the time we spent with Grace at Bako National Park. Being greedy, we decided to walk the entire bushwalking tracks, meaning we walk up and down the canyons at least 4 times... and God, it was hard work. I barely could feel my legs after we were done.
We left Sydney at 7.00am to catch the first bus that leaves for the Blue Mountains. So officially, our journey started at exactly 9am.
Map 1.
Yellow line is where we walked. Blue line is where we took the bus.
BIG RED DOT - This is the start of our journey.
1. The first of cascades we will see. Katoomba Cascade
A view halfway between 1 and 2.
2. Reid's lookout. The waterfall is where the previous cascade empties into. Check out the bottom of the picture. There is where No. 3 is gonna be.
3. Yup, at the bottom of the fall. Actually, this is just a ledge, it will fall more.
4. Furber Steps.
These steps ran down along the sides of the cliff, they were carved from the rocks itself. Going down is easy. I pity those going up.
Map 2
5. The Giant Stairway. This stairway is steeper than the Furbers Steps because it is an almost 90 degree descent down into the canyons, bypassing the Three Sisters along the way.
Not meant for one who is acrophobia (fear of heights). The sense of vertigo is just amazing. We went down halfway to visit the Three Sisters, and climbed up again. I tell you, the horrors of climbing. And the embarrassment when an old huge size man overtook us.
Between 5 and 6.
Richard called them petrified birds.A closer look yielded
6. Eagle's Point: The best lookout spot to see the Three Sisters and most of the valleys.
The Three Sisters. Until now, I still have no idea why they are called the three sisters. Why not the three stooges, or the three musketeers, or the three big stones (they aren't stones, just soil undergoing wind erosion). No matter how I look at it, I can't see the features of a human in those rocks. Unlike the Perempuan Mengandung mountains in Kuching, Sarawak.
*A quick google yielded the answer. In ancient times, there are three beautiful sisters who fell in love with three men. I'm not sure if each fell in love with all three men, or vice versa, but a huge war broke out because the tribal superstition said no to the union and a witchdoctor turned the three sisters into stones to protect them (very poor protection I would say), but the doctor was killed and no one can turn the sisters back.
The Jamison Valley
And we ate lunch here. Got hot red bean soup, hot milo and sandwiches. And sitting there with 20kmph freezing wind buffeting us. Brrrr....
Map 3
We took a bus to Busstop 16 and started the 2nd phase of our day. Time: 1300hr. 4.5 hours to sundown.
7. Fern Bower.
Another sharp descent into the bowels of the temperate rainforest.
It looked like the camera fell.We planned to walk around to the amphitheatre and walk up the Leura Falls, but to utmost dismay, the path was closed due to landslides. Hey, I thought only Malaysia has landslides!!
So up the cliffs we climbed again
ARRRGGGGHHHH!!!!! My hands were shaking so much from exhaustion that the Image Stabiliser in the Canon could not help.8. Leura Cascades
These pictures would turn out so much better if I got a tripod and my semi-pro camera with me.
9. Bridal View Lookout.
The distant waterfall is where the water from Leura Cascades poured into.
We are now at the other side of the Three sisters.The Eastern Sky at the moment:
Having less than 1 hour of daylight left, we reached 10.
Our last views of Blue Mountain:
The Eastern sky at the moment:
We hurried back to stop 18, hoping to catch the last bus of the day. And we reached the busstop just in time to see the last bus turn the corner and disappear. Tired, with parkinsonian legs, we started shuffling back to the train station.
This is taken with flash. It was 6.30pm and it was already pitch black. Thank God we managed to get out of the forest before the last of the light disappeared.
We reached Sydney at 9pm. And that concludes our journey to Blue Mountains Sydney.
This map incorporates Map 1,2 and 3. That is how much we have walked.
And it barely scratched the World Heritage Park that is called Blue Mountains.
We only explored the area circled red.Next time we come, I am so going to go rock climbing, abseiling, mountain biking and spelunking.
**********************************************************************
And the last day was spent packing and getting things done. My Doggy got a washing.
And this is last view of Sydney.
It is sure damn more bigger than Brisbane. At least it doesn't go to sleep at freaking 6pm in the evening.
Our cities lie in ruin,
but this is only a temporary setback!
We will not be denied!
We will--AGGHH!
*gets snatched and eaten by the alien mutant*
- Alien News Anchor, Rampage: Universal Tour
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