3 Full days of Brisbane, done.

Alrighty. Tonight is our last night is Brisbane. Brisbane is pretty cool. Weather was great, farmers market was awesome, not too congested but still lots of shops.. the only disappointing thing is the chinatown which is pretty much non-existent.

We spent the first two days kind of wandering around Brisbane, and on the second night, we met up with our dear friend Sandra and her boyfriend for dinner! Sandra is our friend from home who is here in Brisbane for medical school. It was great seeing a familiar face and sort of getting a short personal tour.

After dinner, she took us to this great dessert place called Max Brenner. I was pretty much too full to eat much, but what I had was delicious.. a bit pricey, but well worth it!

Today, we had a day trip to Moreton Island. Our first activity was sand boarding, which is pretty much what it sounds like.. boarding down a giant sand hill! The sand dunes, a.ka. the dessert, were so soft.. which was really nice.. except that the walk up to the top of the hill after toboganning down was a pain in the behind.

We ended the excursion with a snorkel by the shipwreck. Was alright.. not really my cup of tea since fish kind of freak me out lol.. and the flippers kept giving me foot cramps. Sigh. Was nice being in the water though haha

The craziest part of the day was meeting someone from our middle school on our day trip! What are the odds.. out of all the places to be, out of all the days, out all the tour companies.. some random person from Ottawa whom we've not seen for 12 years.. it's like fate or something lol.

We also met this girl from Singapore who is also leaving to Singapore tomorrow. What are the odds right? It's amazing the people and friends you make during your travels. Definitely one of the highlights for sure.

Anywho, that's all for now. Forecast for Singapore during our stay.. 29 degrees celsius, feels like 42 with the humidity, 80% POP of thundershowers.. can you say.. mind-blasting heat!? Time to ship those sweaters back home eh? hahaha

View of the CBD from the Story Bridge

The Desert at Moreton Island

Me and the sand board!

Beach where we did the snorkeling at Moreton Island

Farmers Market at Queen St.

Botanical Gardens

Queen St.

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Kangas and Crocs.. yumyum!

Aight, so I'm in Auckland now, but since I just got here, I'll wrap up my Sydney posts and begin New Zealand blogging after.

So I spent the last 3 days of Sydney at home in bed recovering from my cold. Still not better.. I have a feeling this cold is going to drag on for another week at least, but I'm going to move on with my life lol.

The one time I did go out this week, my kind cousins took me and Alyssa out to dinner to have some exotic meats (Himika was staying with her cousins that night). We drove into the city and went to The Autralian - A Heritage Hotel, to have some pizza.

Crocodile pizza

Duck pizza (sadly, they were all out of emu)

Kangaroo pizza

Unfortunately, still being sick, I didn't get to enjoy the full experience as I did not really have my sense of smell or taste. So the crocodile tasted like chicken and the kangaroo tasted like beef. Alyssa says that they have distinct aftertastes but I didn't notice it. Either way, the pizzas were still delicious ^_^

We'll be making a short stop in Brisbane after New Zealand so perhaps I will get a second shot at crocodile and kangaroo.. hehe

Anywho, until the next time, seeee ya!

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Mountains and Caves

Man, what an awesome weekend! Of course, I was sick the entire time, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to see the beautiful Blue Mountains and Jenolan Caves.. and even though I'm even more sick now and will probably have to spend the rest of Sydney in bed, no regrets baby!

Blue Mountains is about a 2-hour train ride from Sydney. It's a small touristy town. Very quaint and the air is clean and clear as anything. Being at a higher elevation, it's quite chilly up there. Definitely bring layers if you go! I'd recommend wearing a sweater even under an outer shell. We stayed at the YHA hostel up there. Not as nice as the Sydney Central one, but it was alright. The room itself reminded me of a wartime medical ward lol.. the walls were beige and kind of bricky, and the bunk beds were this green-blue scrubs colour.

We spent our Blue Mountains day at Scenic World. Took the Skyway, railway, and cable car a couple of times. Amazing amazing view. The railway was awesome.. steepest in the world or something.. like a friggin rollercoaster.. was so much fun! Lots of rainforest and different walks you can go on. If you're a more experienced hiker, bring a walking stick and you're ready to go!

Blue Moutains. Visibility, 125km. Beautiful day!

Skyway that brought us across the gorge

Me at the Katoomba Cascades

View of the Three Sisters from the Skyway

Day two of the weekend brought us to the Jenolan Caves. It's about an hour bus ride from Blue Mountains. The road to the caves is a windy one down the mountains.. on one of those really narrow ones that you see in the movies where the horse carriage gets driven off the cliff lol. Again, beautiful view getting there.

The Jenolan Caves are limestone caves that are comprised of a few different caves. We only went into the Lucas Caves though. Soo nice. The cave tour took about.. maybe an hour and a half? The guide takes you to the different chambers and turns the lights on and off as you go through the different passages. Quite chilly in the caves as well.. stays about 16C year round.

One of the chambers in Lucas Caves (random view)

Somewhere in Lucas Caves

Lucas Caves

Lucas Caves

View from Govett's Leap in Blackheath

Anyway, back in Sydney now. Alyssa and Himika are out today seeing the aquarium and wildlife park. Sucks that I have to miss those.. was looking forward to the aquarium.. but alas, must sacrifice for my health. I'm determined to get the better part of this cold over with before New Zealand, and I've only got 3 days to do that.. and knowing my crappy immune system, I'd best make the most of this rest time.

Actually, I'd say my immune system did rather well considering the stressful semester I had.. it held off pretty well.. the intensity of this trip was the breaking point though. Hopefully after I've recovered, I'll be able to stay healthy for the remainder of the trip. That being said, since I'll likely not be doing much for the next few days, there won't be many interesting photos.. so perhaps instead, I will post photos from other days.

Enjoy! ^_^

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Sydney Days 2 & 3

Days 2 and 3 were pretty busy. We didn't do that much, but were up early and out for most of the day.. I can certainly say that all three of us had majorly sore feet at the end of each day. Totally worth it though!

On Wednesday, we went back to the Sydney Opera House to take more outdoor pictures and walk around. Then we met up with one of our friends from home who now goes to the University of Sydney. She toured us around the campus and then we met up with her friend for dinner. The campus is really nice.. way better than anything you'd see in Ontario. It's got a very European and open feeling.. there's this building/area called the Quadrangle that totally gives off a Harry Potter vibe. After dinner, they gave us a short night-time tour of Sydney around Darling Harbour. It was absolutely gorgeous.. wish we had a beautiful harbour lol

Thursday we checked out of our hostel and moved on to visit the Chinese Friendship Garden. It was really beautiful! Alyssa said it was exactly like the gardens in China.. we took lots of awesome photos there.. the lighting was perfect too hehe. Then after that, we went to the National Maritime Museum, and spent most of our time on HMS Vampire (a retired warship of some sort), and the submarine beside it. Was pretty cool =] Our last stop was the Sydney Tower. Actually, Alyssa had ambitiously planned 5-6 things to see, but I think we underestimated how long each activity would take and how tired we would be. The tower was alright.. similar to the CN Tower I suppose.. the view was great and a nice place for us to rest our feet whilst looking out at Sydney.

To end Thursday off, we met up with my cousins in Sydney and they took us out for Thai dinner, and then back to their place, where we will be staying for the remainder of our time in Sydney. My cousins are awesome =] Living on the other side of the world, I'll probably not see them very often after this, but I would definitely make a trip back if I had the opportunity.

Safe to say that it's been an amazing first few days travelling! The only downside to it all is that I've caught a cold and decided to take the day off to rest while my friends continue on with the itinerary. Guess my body isn't used to so much exertion.. but better to recuperate now so that I can enjoy the weekend at Blue Mountain and the Jenolan Caves! So I'll leave you with some selected photos from the past 2 days.

Later!

Sydney Opera House

Outside Quadrangle at Sydney U

Graffiti Tunnel at Sydney U

On our way to Darling Harbour

Alyssa and Himika at Darling Harbour

Chinese Friendship Gardens

Warship and Submarine at National Maritime Museum

Me and Lego man at Sydney Tower

Sydney Tower baby!

View from Sydney Tower

Watching the sunset from Sydney Tower

Thai dinner

Dinner with Sau-wai and Dody

Sydney welcomes Nicol

Man that flight was long.. my toes swelled up so much.. my feet felt like balloons lolz but it wasn't so bad. Slept over half the way there. The view was beautiful though =]

If only I had wings to see this every day...

Alrighty. So arrived, toes were back to normal size (lol) and then took a shuttle to the hostel. YHA hostel is just off George St., near chinatown or "little China". There are sooo many Asians in Sydney. And not just tourists.. it feels like we're in Asia dude.. and they were all speaking Asian too. I was so looking forward to seeing an Asian person with an Australian accent.. luckily I did hear a few.. it was satisfying =] haha. Everyone downtown is fully suited up.. it's like New York. Suits and people walking realz fast. Weather-wise, it's kind of cool but humid.. definitely have to wear a jacket or sweater, but you get sticky kind of fast.. meh.

Anywho, so the first lunch in Sydney.. Lees Malaysian! Curry laksa baby! mmmm.. the real stuff too. So yum. Probably not the healthiest way to start my trip, but at least it wasn't McDonald's right? lol

Curry laksa. Yum.

Oh right, should probably tell you about the hostel too. So there's no free wi-fi, not even at Starbucks.. so I had to buy me some internet. $10 AUD for 24 hours. Ah the price to stay connected.. but phone service here is awesome I hear.. free incoming calls as long as you have a sim card.. even if there's no money on it. And everyone here has an iPhone. Right, so the hostel is like dorm life.. reminds of my McGill days.. bunk beds and shared washrooms. It's a new experience for Alyssa and Himz, but they are enjoying it for sure. Pretty nice though.. definitely better than university dorms lol.

Walked to the Sydney Opera House and picked up our iVenture cards.. so tomorrow, we'll be starting activities at full speed! Walking in my Adidas shoes all day though was a huge mistake. Definitely not enough padding in the heels.. so it looks like I'll be wearing my Nikes for a good portion of the trip. Good thing I brought them eh!? Otherwise I'd have to be buying myself a pair of shoes. The view at the harbour was awesome. And the vegetation is cool too cuz we don't get palm trees in Canada. I love palm trees =]

Oh and another random thing.. food and drinks here cost soo much. A 500 mL bottle of Coke costs like $4+ AUD. Anywho, I'll leave you with a couple of pics and I'm off again!

Peace out homies!

Goodbye Canada!

Goooodbye Canada!

The three amigos off of their worldly adventures.

At the Vancouver airport right now.. had a meal and now just chilling until the flight to Sydney. The flight was alright.. should've blown up my neck pillow though cuz it's hard to stay asleep with your head bobbing back and forth. Something smelled totally narsty on the flight though.. could not locate it for the life of me.. thankfully it only came once in a while o_O hahaha. Anyway. I find it absolutely fascinating how giant structures of metal are carrying hundreds of people in the air lolz.. I'm thankful for it cuz it's an amazing view for sure!

Approaching YVR.

Don't worry momma, I'm still eatin' dem veggies! With a side of Sprite to rinse it down ;)

Bento box at YVR.

Alright alright. Shouldn't be spoiling you guys with too many photos on the first day eh? Welp, from here on out, it's going to be fast-paced. Alyssa was saying on the plane how she feels like Sydney is going to be over really quick.. 10 days is short for sure, but with a jam-packed schedule, I have no doubt the days will roll on by.. so adios dudes, and for you Canadians, don't forget to vote tomorrow.. or today (wherever you are)!