Aussie Trip Day 10&11

The final day in Sydney! Because Malcolm, Kerk and I spent the whole night trying to get each other smashed, we woke up really late at 1130. Nevertheless, Malcolm suggested we visit Sydney Fish Market for some seafood breakfast and off we went!


Sydney Fish Market

ditto

nice bridge

I've never been much of a seafood fan, but the fish and chips I had in Apollo Bay (i think) at the Great Ocean Road were great, so I was pretty disappointed by the fish and chips served here. Maybe it was the alcohol of the previous night, but I didn't really think it was nice at all. I wasn't the only one without an appetite tho. We ended up throwing away about half of what we ordered.

There were, however, plenty of other seafood at really cheap prices! It'll probably be a great place to visit for someone who loves seafood. Or seagulls. Many many seagulls.

After a quick visit, it was off to explore Sydney City with what little time we had left.


Malcolm says this is the Paragon of Sydney

We then proceeded to Darling Harbour in search of the legendary passionfruit ice-cream, only for Malcolm to forget where the shop was after a long long walk there. Kingyau's (gay) determination for ice-cream didn't waver tho, so we found ourselves walking all the way to Market Street to find another branch of the store.

Then it was back to Malcolm's place to pack up and get ready to fly back to Melbourne. After a quick dinner, we took our luggage and off we went back to Melbourne on a 9pm flight. We arrived back at Kingsgate Hotel at about 1130pm. Junyi and Kelvin came over for some drinks and we made plans to meet April and Lingwu to visit Victoria Market the next morning.

Day 11

Melbourne saved its 'best' weather for our last day, estimated to be about 3-4degrees when the wind blew, which was a regular occurance. After a 30minute walk in such weather, I was glad to reach Victoria Market alive.

Lack of pictures, my enthusiasm for photo-whoring had waned by this point. Anyway, Victoria Market was pretty cool, we wanted to buy a Megadeth t-shirt for yuda but decided that he wasn't worth 30dollars ^^. Then there was this handmade sweet shop, and also the giant hot-dog buns.


lunch at some random chinese place

Time was running out, and the weather was cold, so we settled at (fug i can't remember the name) for some hot chocolate.


junyi makes an appearance!

the trio with April

the trio with Lingwu

And after that, it was finally time to say bye bye to Australia and head back to Singapore. The trip was great, and I'm definitely gonna miss the good times I had in Australia.

Aussie Trip Day 9

First up for the day was football in Sydney at Meadowfield! The place we went to play was like a expanded version of the Tanglin/Marina, much bigger, more pitches, as well as smaller pitches for casual games. No booking is required, you just have to come and play. I wish Singapore had something like this.

The weather was slightly warmer than Melbourne, but the conditions were still fantastic to play in, and despite playing for more than 2 hours, we didn't really sweat at all.


the pitches

were many!

the cast! the best player was taking the photograph ^^

Eventually, we played a 8 on 10 with Singaporeans, Hongkies and a Chinaman. Being 2 men (technically a man and a woman) down, Team /S plus imports were dowm 4-2 at half time despite an inspirational show by Kerk in goal because nobody bothered to run back to defend. There was also this Chinaman who believed passing is only for the weak in our team but that's another story.


unleash the tiger - kerk won rave reviews for his performances in Sydney

The second half was more of the same, Team /S attacking, losing the ball, and turning around to see a 3-4 on 2 situation in their own half. The final score was 8-3. T_T

After the game, it was off to the DFO again!


DFO Sydney

I really preferred Melbourne to Sydney but the DFO at Sydney was definitely better than the ones we went to in Melbourne, although shopping was at a minimum for me again because I overspent at the first store I went.


then it was back to malcolm's place to bathe and rest

before we headed to the city to watch Korea v Bahrain at Sharks Sports Bar. The Korean fans in the bar were extremely passionate, but fucking noisy. I enjoyed watching their dejected faces when the Koreans were beaten 2-1.


the damage for the day, $150, the polo ralph stuff were really cheap. it was like $50-60 for a polo tee sold for about 120-130 here.

Aussie Trip Day 8

2nd day in Sydney! Our tour guide arrived in Sydney from Singapore at about 6 in the morning, and after dropping our stuff at his place, we were off to further explore Sydney!

Took a train to Darling Habour to visit the Rocks weekend market.

ky, kerk, jeremy, kerk

me with our ah beng tour guide T_T

the Rock weekend market

Honestly, I felt that the weekend market was pretty boring, nothing much to see, nothing much to buy. The few items that caught my eye were all ridiculously overpriced and so I left pretty much empty handed.

Then, because we were young and full of energy, we decided to take a walk across Sydney Harbour Bridge.

View of Opera house from the bridge

Sydney Harbour Bridge close up

And then because we were rapidly running out of stuff to do, we went over to Luna Park!

there were these stores with random games

like those in the ang moh movies where the guy takes the girl and they saggf after that

my favourite game store T_T

There were rides too, but the prices were pretty steep at $46 for unlimited rides. Also, most of the rides were nothing great compared to those I've been to in Taiwan, so we decided to give the rides a skip.

the only ride that I thought had some kick

Then it was back to Malcolm's place for a short break before we headed over to King's Cross!

waiting for things to get happening at King's Cross

Because of the number of strip clubs in the same area, competition was pretty stiff and the pimps will literally try to drag you into their joints. Discounts were given like nobody's business as well. The entrance fee to Porky's (a strip club) went from about $10 per person to $32 for the 5 of us in less than a minute (but no, despite out-voting ky 4-1, we didn't go. where's the fucking democracy?).

So we spent the rest of the night at a sports bar where we watched Malaysia lose 0-5 to a very impressive Uzbekistan (who were knocked out last night by Saudi Arabia T_T) .

back at malcolm's place. Kerk looks stoned as usual.

Football coming up tomorrow!

Aussie Trip Day 7

We're flying to Sydney today! The plan was to spend the first night at Travel Lodge Hotel Sydney, then to crash Malcolm's place the next two nights for free lodging. The flight was pretty early at 9, which meant that we had to be up by 6 to catch the Sunbus to Avalon Airport.

wake up, wake up

We arrived in Sydney at about 11, dropped our bags in the room, took some random tourist pamphets, studied the map, and off we went! It's useful to have an army scout around, even if it's Kerk!

taking a train to the Sydney Opera House

Sydney Harbour Bridge

and the Sydney Opera House

the Sydney Opera House

the view

from the opera house was great

The next destination was Darling Harbour, but because we were hungry, we decided to have lunch first.

Ky : Jiarming says that the food at King's Wharf's really good and cheap!
Foong : Let's go then!
Kerk : ......(stoning as usual)

And so, we took a really really long hike to King's Wharf for lunch.

Ky : This is it!
Foong : Fish and Chips, $30.
Ky : How about this?
Foong : Fish and Chips, $32.
Ky : This?
Foong : Grilled Chicken, $40.
Ky : Let's call Jiarming now to scold him.

We had decided to eat Subway for the 5039643896th time while in Australia when we came across this eatery called Genghis Khan, which was offering $15 dollar set lunches. After what we've seen, $15 seemed really cheap and we ate there. Nothing great, but it was alright.

Then it was onward to Darling Harbour!

Cockle Bay Wharf

the maritime museum

the harbour. its actually much nicer, but i dunno why i dun haf anymore pics of the harbour

The monorail in Sydney was $4.50 for a single trip. Which was why we didn't take it and ended up walking back to the hotel from Darling Harbour. Which was really really really far as well.

Our hotel was pretty good, quite accessible, and within walking distances to Chinatown as well as Market Street. And there was Fox Sports in our room, so we went to Chinatown for a quick takeaway order, rushed back to our room to catch the Asian Cup live.

Chinatown Sydney

back in the room watching the Asian Cup.

The only day the three of us were left to ourselves with no prior plans of what to do or where to go went down pretty well after all. =)

Aussie Trip Day 6

Finally, after 3 days of shopping, it was time to go back to sightseeing! We were off to the Great Ocean Road!

the hybrid car

the drivers

the slackers

the drive

the snacks

the scenery

On the way, we made a stop at the Split-end (i think) lighthouse. As with most tourist attractions in Australia, an entrance fee had to be paid to go to the top. Being budget travellers, we didn't pay the entrance, but the view at the bottom wasn't too bad either.

the lighthouse

the view

the strong winds

the group pics

And then it was the gate!

Great Ocean Road

the plaque

And after 6 hours, we finally arrived at our destination. The Twelve Apostles!

finally

gonna be a series of pics of the area

the sun was in my face for the nicer side, which meant that most pictures appeared darker than it was

like this one

the coastline was dam chio

but kerk is still stoning

and staring at the ocean. i think this is a damn nice picture.

the 3 of us were more awake

Have many many more pictures, but kinda lazy to upload so many. Besides, it was probably getting repetitive and boring anyways. Then it was time for the journey back. The travelling time was half-ed because we took the highway, but even then, it was a three hour drive.

despite driving for so long, the lion witch still has enough mana to hex

somewhere over the rainbow. this rainbow was the full perfect arc, but the span was too huge to fit it all into the camera (there was a longkang behind me i couldnt cross)

total distance travelled, 508km!

finally back in the hotel for a good night's rest.

Flight to Sydney was at 7 the next morning, so we quickly packed our bags and went to bed in anticipation for the next phase of our adventure!