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TRAVEL BLOG ENTRY
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"Some good some bad. When in a new city eat where the locals. They know best of course"
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We flew with Singapore airlines, from Singapore, through the night to get to Sydney and it was quite a long flight on one of their older model planes with not that much legroom. We came over the West coast of Oz as the sun came up and thought to myself that we were nearly there but no. That was a mistake as we had to fly for another 4-5 hours before we got to Sydney. From the air there's not that much to see. It's reddish, brown dirt for miles and miles as far as the eye can see from the air.
When we touched down we had to go through immigration control. I've never seen any thing like it! They don't like you to bring in any organic material at all.
If you've bought any food outside of Oz and you're coming into the country you have to declare it.
If you've bought any wooden souvenirs outside of Oz and you're coming into the country you have to declare it.
If you've got excessively muddy boots (and I'm not joking here) and the mud's from outside of Oz and you're coming into the country you have to declare it.
If the guys on the immigration desk find anything that they think may pose a threat to their ecology system they take it off you, burn it (or steam clean it and then irradiate it) and charge you for it. I've since heard stories from other travelers who've had the tyres from their mountain bikes confiscated and burnt because they had "the wrong kind of mud on them". In all It took us about 1 hour to clear immigration (and that's on a good day) but we went to meet some freinds who were flying in from the UK and it took them 2 1/2 hours to clear customs.
When we eventually cleared customs we caught one of the organised shuttle buses that takes people frome the airport to stops inside Sydney. All of the stops were outside backpacker places and hostels inside the city. This was dead handy as it dropped us right outside the place we'd booked for a couple of nights (Sydney backpackers). On reflection. If we were to fly for more than 6 hours again I would make sure that we were booked into a nice hotel for our first few nights. The last place we wanted to recover from travelling for over 9 hours on a cramped, sweaty plane was backpackers hostel. If you have the means, I highly recommend that you treat yourself and spend the extra few Aussie dollers and book yourself a few night in a little 3/4 star place for a few nights until you recover.
After a few days we managed to get in touch with some of our mates from Manchester who are staying out here. The good old Ibbos took care of us and put us up (or should that be put up with us?) for about a week until we managed to find our own place. Nice one Dave & Karen!
We ended up renting a place in McMahon's Point through a company called JP Austin. It's a really nice place with, pretty much, unspoilt views of the harbour bridge and the opera house and all the bays ect. It's so cool to get up in the morning be greeted by the sight we have from our front window. As we are staying in Sydney for 3 months we looked at several options for accommodation. It worked out a lot cheaper for us to stay in a really nice area with great views of the harbour bridge, opera house and city then in a grotty backpacker's place.
If we hadn't of stayed in McMahon's point then one of our other choices would have been Glebe. Glebe's cool. Very hippy-ish and dress code for the area is old beat up sandles/flip flops, baggy Thai fisherman's trousers, tie dye top and dreadlocked hair. It reminded us both a lot of Chorlton back home. There's tonnes of second hand shops, hand made craft shops and shops selling all manner of lotions, potions and oils. All the cafes sell the usual range of fare that's so popular with the tree hugging fraternity eg; tofu burgers, bean burgers, roasted veggie wraps etc. The market in Glebe is great as well and definitely worth a look. On the subject of markets if you go to any of the markets you will see a red tent. The girls who work in this tent are making a Turkish fast food that we thought was the best. It's 2 pieces of bread filled with spicey lamb, spinach and feta cheese. The whole lot is then fried. I guess it's a bit like a Turkish Croque. There's always a queue at their stall but it's well worth the effort.
During the course of our stay here we managed to do a lot of the "touristy things". One of the first things we did was to have a go on the harbour jet. This a really powerful jet boat that takes passengers up and down the harbour weaving madly in and out of other boats whilst performing 360 turns and emergency stops while the beach boys and the ace of spades blasts out of the boats speakers. At the end of 35 minute the driver stood up and turns to us all and with a massive smile exclaimed "well guys, I hope you all enjoyed that as much as I did"! We all did. If you book this with the Harbour jet (based at Darling Harbour) they give you a ticket to go up the Centerpoint Tower as well. The whole lot only cost AUS$65 and is well worth it.
Another place you must visit is the Blue Mountains. We only went for the day and I wanted to spend a few days there exploring and maybe going on a trek but I was the only one who fancied it and was out voted (bloody democracy). The day we did spend there was nice though. From the city center it cost us about $20 to get out there on the train, which took 2 hours-ish. While we were there we decided the best way to see as much of the area as possible would be to do one of the hop on-hop off bus tours. The views we had from some of the vantage points were absolutely brilliant and you can do it at your own pace. It probably goes without saying (as the clues in the name of the area) but it's not very child friendly and there are a lot of steps.
We also went and had a look at the sights that are local to that area such as the 3 sisters (a rock formation) and the old coal mine. There are also a few cable cars that can by a ticket for and this also includes having a go on the worlds steepest passenger railway in the world. It was all a bit main line touristy for me but enjoyable just the same.
There are loads of beaches around Sydney and there's a beach for everyone in Sydney, whatever your preference. I suppose the main ones that everyone goes on about are Bondi & Coogee beaches. Within the first two weeks of us being in Sydney we visited them both. Jo and I had big expectations for Bondi and had heard so much about it. The walk from Bondi junction train station to Bondi beach took about 10-15 minutes. All the shops that line the route are tourist tat shops selling an uninteresting selection of hats, flip flops, imitation footie shirts and badly copied brand name sports wear. If you get hungry there's no shortage of fish and chip shops, pie shops and burger joints (but very little of much else). And no building is complete unless it's wearing some badly drawn graffiti. I was supprised by the amout of rubbish strewn around the place as well. Considering Bondi is a worldwide known tourist attraction I wasn't expecting it to be kept in such a bad condition. Coogee was much of the same and we both agreed that we weren't in any rush to get back to them after visiting them. Both the beachs were heaving with Brits, Irish, Dutch, Germans, Italians and Spanish. All travellers. All with no money. All passing through Oz and just there to party. If that's what you're into these two beaches are for you.
Christmas day Jo and I went to Coogee beach for a barbecue with some friends of ours who were over for a holiday. Going to Coogee or Bondi on Christmas day is something that all the tourists do. The locals know better and go no where near either of those places on that day (actually a lot of the locals don't seem to go out of their way to go to these two places any day). We did have a really good day and it was unusual to be drinking a beer, sunbathing and eating a picnic opposed to wearing our winter woolies, eating a roast dinner indoors with the heating on full. Another weird thing was I don't recall meeting or hearing any Aussie people on the beach. We were totally surrounded by Irish folk. Everywhere we went that was the predominant accent we heard. As the day turned to evening the atmosphere changed. The friends we were with wanted to go to Bondi to see it (you've got to if you come to Sydney I guess) howevery it was dark now. Seeing Bondi in the day was bad. On the Christmas day night though it was........ Rough! It was like Blackpool on a Saturday night. We stayed for one drink and got a cab home.
Manly Beach is a good one to spend the day at there's a lot you can do there; volley ball, surfing lessons, para sailing. The crowd that go there aren't wandering around drunk and being annoying. It's great to just lie there and have a laugh at the life guards call people out over the loadspeakers. Eg; Hey! You! with the blue surfboard. Get out of the water you idiot! If we have to come in and rescue you we're gonna fine you $140. They don't mince their words those guys if you don't obey the safety signs.
My favourite beaches were Long Beach & Balmoral Beach. Both of them are a bus ride from the town centre and they're very chilled out.
There are a lot of walks that we did around the coastline and the scenery is really pretty. The best thing to do is buy a book on walks around the city. There are several books you can buy offering different walks and it just depends what you're into. They even have a nudest beach if that's your bag.
My favourite activity in Sydney was learning to sail and sailing on the harbour. I learnt to sail with a company called Ultimate sailing, based in Lavender Bay. I did the course over 3 Sundays and learnt tons of stuff about sailing. Our instructor was first class. Really helpful and supportive. It was just great and would recommend it highly if you come to Sydney.
We were here for the New Year's Eve party that Sydney puts on and it was a full day of activities and demonstrations. The best places to view all of the events that are staged are around the bridge area or areas where you have a clear view of the bridge. These areas do tend to fill up quite quickly so if you're planning to get a good spot you have to get to your chosen location by no later then 3 pm otherwise you'll struggle to squeeze in. We watched the proceedings from Blues Point and it was a great place to view from. Jo insisted we get there at 9 am but I thought this was a bit too early and I was knackered by the time the midnight fireworks went off. The firworks were well worth the wait. They were the biggest and loadest I've ever seen anywhere.
Australia day follows the big New years Eve party. Again this is an all day party and the whole of Sydney goes into party mode, again. I prefered Oz day I think because we moved about and saw different things. After watching the ferry race and the tall ships race I was felling a little worse for wear (probably because of the champagne cocktails) so we went home for a siesta. After a power nap we went to see Kasabian in Newtown.
We ate out a lot in Sydney and the food was ok. I suppose it's like any city, though at times I felt the service and quality of food didn't reflect the high price we had to pay. As always when you're in a strange/unfamiliar city or town eat where it's busy and where the locals eat. At the end of the day they know best. Thai food and Sushi are really popular here in Sydney and a lot of restaurants have a big pan Asian influence on their menus. The service isn't quite as good as it is back home and sometimes you find yourself having to call to the waiting on staff or go and remind them that you are still in the restaurant and waiting to be fed.
As I've said there are tonnes (heaps) of stuff to do in Sydney and there is something for everyone. If I had one line of advice to give people coming here it would be 'plan what you want to do before you come'. Also have a look at what's going on in Sydney before you book to come. There's always something going on here. During the time we were here there was a number major celebrations that went on; Australia day, New year's Eve, meeting of the queens, the cricket.
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Miss Shim says:
I'm really enjoying your blog, Simon. You pack so much in. It's great. Thanks!