When Bill and I started to plan for this trip, one of the first questions we had to tackle was which countries we thought we might want to go to and which ones we would skip. We set about trying to find a good way to figure this out and decided that because this trip was so long-term, we would need to stick with less expensive countries. That pretty much eliminates the western world and a few other notable mentions - specifically Australia and Japan. We didn't worry about this oversight because we knew that one day in the near future we would visit these places as separate, independent trips.
We'd been working on the hellatious round-the-world ticket for months with the best reservation agent I have ever come across. We were literally days (as in less than a week) from leaving and still trying to finalize the reservation and get it ticketed. Finding flights in and out of India and onwards to China was a difficult feat - we were trying to book award tickets between the two most populous countries in the world, after all. Finally, our reservation agent found a flight on Qantas. This required connecting through Sydney, Australia. At that point, we had a decision to make - and I knew which way I was leaning - we could just connect or stay a while. Bill agreed that it would be a travesty to fly so far out of the way and not at least get out of the airport, so we allocated 10 days to the large continent (another travesty by an standards, but again, we'll rectify that down the road).
View of Sydney Harbour from the plane, notice the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House in the background
We arrived to Sydney mid-afternoon and headed to our hostel in King's Cross. We both collapsed in bed nearly immediately. We thought we were goners for the day, but we somehow rallied and ended up at a nice steakhouse down the street. We hadn't eaten one morsel of beef in 5 weeks in India and we were both anxious to eat a cow. As I'm sure we all know, Australia is known for it's beef, so it was "no worries" as they say.
In hog, er cow, heaven, we each ate our steaks and slurped our precious red wine in record time. We were sitting at an outdoor table and we could not get over the cleanliness of the street. It literally looked like you could eat off the ground. Coming from India, we were both a little shell-shocked to see such fantastically clean streets.
We made our way down to a bar where Bill immediately spilled a beer on a friendly English guy. He was polite and we ended up chatting. That's one way to break the ice, I guess. We told our new friend about how clean the streets were here and he laughed. "You are in the nastiest part of Sydney", he said. That actually is true. King's Cross is infamous for all-night bars and prostitutes and nasty places that somehow get away with the phrase, "Gentleman's Club".
We moved onto a swanky club that had a dress code that I didn't fit. I was wearing a new Indian outfit that I had bought and thought was pretty fabulous. A full skirt with a vivid print in orange and green and little silver dangly things that jingled when I walked, paired with a nice handmade cotton shirt. The fashion faux pas was the flip flops on my feet. We were sure we wouldn't even get in, but as we stood in line we were ushered to the front of the line along with the girls in front of us that definitely fit the bill. Maybe I looked exotic for them, I'm not sure, but we were all quite amazed that we made the cut. I felt woefully out of place though because every other woman in the bar had on 3-inch minimum stilettos and short mini-skirts. No, they weren't the prostitutes.
Night turned to early morning and our friend was quite intoxicated. We tried to usher him into a cab but he wanted to stay out so we felt obliged to leave, hoping this would convince him to stop drinking and go back to his hotel. Instead, he stayed and we left and we grabbed one more drink at a different place before really heading to bed.
The next day, we got up reasonably early and headed out to the Sydney Opera House. We shamelessly got a Starbuck's (or StarSucks, as my dad says) en route and tried to look cheerful for pictures of us in front of the beautiful Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House, despite the bad weather.
Bill and I in front of the Opera House with our Starbucks
The Opera House, like everything in Sydney, is ridiculously overpriced to take a tour ~$30 USD. We couldn't justify the price so we visited their fantastic bathrooms (backlit toilet paper!) and headed out. I connivingly convinced Bill to walk through the Botanical Gardens because as it looped around the edge of the harbour I thought we might be able to get a picture with both the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge in one shot. We did, but again the rainy weather made the pictures not-so-hot.
The Opera House and the Harbour Bridge
The detour had other fringe benefits. Australia has just crazy, large birds. Maybe everyone knows this, but I didn't. We saw lots of cool birds that I will never know the names to, and then came to an open field of wild cockatoos just hanging out. That was really cool.
One of a couple dozen cockatoos in the Botanical Garden
The day cleared up a bit and we found our way over to Bondi beach. Well-reputed as one of the best beaches in the world, it certainly lives up the hype. Crashing waves, fine granulated sand and people that can actually surf. We strolled along the coastal walk which is an absolute must in the city. The walkway has been well landscaped and as you stroll from beach level to street level and back down again, you pass old fashioned photos of what the area used to look like and see native flora.
View of Bondi beach from the Coastal Walk
The following day, we got up and had an easy morning in preparation for our big activity - walking across the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Maybe not in the sense you are thinking. I mean, over the top of the bridge. Bill hates heights with a passion. He has been constantly lamenting this whole trip that the vast majority of cool stuff requires death-defying heights to enjoy. I offered him an out, but I said that I planned on climbing the bridge either way. He didn't like the sounds of that and reluctantly agreed to go.
We had booked weeks in advance because we heard it can get booked really fast. As our luck would have it, it was pouring on climbing day. Bill was not pleased. But he was a trooper and we did it anyway. The set-up is pretty cool. They put you in a one-piece suit and make sure that any ancillary items are tied down or left behind so that some poor driver on the bridge doesn't get a rude awakening while crossing, courtesy of you. This means no cameras, no hats from home, etc. You wear a harness and have a roller clip that gets inserted into a cable hook as you arrive onto the bridge. The cable loops through the whole way and the roller glides almost effortlessly through. At no point are you ever unattached to the bridge. Because you cannot take pictures, they take photos at strategic spots for you and then give you one free group photo at the end. Of course, no one wants a group photo with a bunch of strangers; you want one with you and your honey, so the theory is that you will be willing to shell out an additional $16 USD per photo. Not sure what they're smoking, but we made do with the group shot.
If you aren't particularly concerned with heights, I think it is pretty serene. Bill thought that it was not bad and was only really nervous a couple of times - once when we went up between the two lanes of cars and once when we descended between a car lane and the train lane with a train passing by at that exact moment. Admittedly, that is a bit nerve wracking, but it's also kind of exhilerating and I almost knocked him down so that I could see the train. This was, on my part, totally uncool because they tell you time and time again to let the person in front of you ascend and descend fully on each ladder before you commence. If looks could kill, Bill would've bumped me off at that moment.
We walked around the Rocks after the climb, which is the original part of downtown. There isn't much left, save for literally a few rocks that is now an archaeological dig area. Otherwise, the bar and restaurants have capitalized off the name and most of the buildings are newer.
The following day, we took a ferry over to Darling Harbour. This was hardly necessary as we could have easily walked, but we had bought a red zone pass for a week (~$40 USD) which enabled us to ride the trains, buses and ferries an unlimited amount of time. It was expensive, but a good value when we added up where we wanted to go. We hadn't rode a ferry yet though, so we decided to take a spin in the world's largest natural harbor. We spent the remainder of the evening at Darling Harbour and then headed back to our hostel.
As I mentioned at the beginning, we had orginally allotted 10 days for Australia and we intended to stay in Sydney the whole time. But back in March, we made some Aussie friends, Cousin Mel, Mel and Ryan (a subset of the Snake Wine Bandits). We'd all become good friends and we called the airline and inquired about changing our flights. We were able to do so and made plans to meet them on their turf in Perth (capital of WA, or Western Australia).
Excited to be reuniting with new friends and experience first hand Aussie hospitality, we headed to Perth the following morning.
- Chrissy