Sydney, Sydney 3-8
It was the longest flight and trip for Young and Mom ever. We took QF102 from Pudong airport to Sydney at Mar. 6 night, transferring from Melbourne. When we finally arrived at Mel. It was already 10:05am on Mar. 7 local time. The flight was quite torturing, Young was starving for the whole night on the plane, since we had packed all our snacks without taking them on hand, and the dinner on Qantas was not coming until 11:00pm, when Young had already fell in sleep after hopeless waiting and crying. This unexpected situation made me feel guilty for Young. Neither did Young have her breakfast the next moring, since the food was still not so tasty and smell bad. While the only thing astonished mom was the flight attendance, first, there are many male, instead of "kong zhong xiao jie" as usual in China, then they are not so young and pretty/handsome. and most of them are very big and tall.
The flight was punctual, finally we passed the customs in Melbourne and trasferred to domestic flight of QF430 very smoothly. But it was another 2 hours later when N and Yin found us on the bag claim area in Sydney airport. Half an hour later, we finally arrived Chatswood!!
The Mardi Gras Parade was the highlight of the day. Only after a short break, we were heading for downtown, the day was a special day for Sydney, with main roads closed in downtown area. So we took the train/metro to watch the show. For the first time of Mom, Young and myself, we saw this kind of show, which was quite like a carnival for the "rainbow", and in Young's eyes, it was like a costume party like that in her school, so it was quite an eye opener for all of us.
That night, we had late dinner at home, with kangroo meat as the highlight! Wow, this is Sydney after a couple of times of exploring. It is still amazing!...
3月9日
Blue Moutain
Blue Moutain is only 2 hours away from downtown, but I was never there, maybe due to my laziness, or maybe due to lack of suitable company.
But this time it is perfect for the trip. First, it is Mar. 8, the women's day, though we realized only on today. Second, we have a nice tour guide and driver N, he was there at least twice, and he has got a suitable car for the event, a Chrokee Jeep. Driving here is quite different from that in Shanghai, the driver needs to sit on the right side and drives on the left side of the road, which is totally opposite to that of Shanghai. Also, all the kids under 10 years of age need to be seated in a baby seat, with seat belt on all the time. Actually all people in the car need to have their seat belts on all the way.
Well, after 2 hours of driving, we arrived the town in Katoomba under the Mountain. Then we found we were driving in the fog on the way to the Moutain. Fog, fog and fog, is the only thing we saw in the first hour of our stay there. But as people say, you could never forecast the weather in Sydney, especially in the moutain area, after some time, when we almost quit the hope to see the clear view of the Three Sisters Rock, the sun was shining! The landscape is really georgous, somewhat like that of Grand Canynon in the US, but this one is surely more green. We took some easy track to walk down, and saw a couple of falls there, but surely they are not that fancy falls that all. But the tourist information there is really good. All the tracks are well indicated on the map, or on the wood signs, with the length, the levels of easiness, and the probable walking time. So we finally took 3 different tracks. Two on the top the Moutain, and one on the bottom. I personally prefer the last one. We passed by some farm with beautiful cows and horses, and then we "took the road less travelled by, then it has made all the different".
Downtown 3-10
After a whole day's walk in the moutain, we are back to city life today.
Today's sightseeing places:
- Chinatown
- Darling Harbor, somewhat like People's Spaure in Shanghai, which is suitbable for all ages. Young was enjoying the kids places, and we can all walk and see nice views just sitting on the long benchs alongside of the harbor. Our lunch was also solved in the "Mega Bite" in the Harborside. The wooden pillars of the bridge, the Monorail, the pigeons, and the girls in school uniforms are all very impressive, as well as the Maritime Museum which as donated by U.S. government.
- Our last stop in the downtown was QVB, a very nice looking old building vs. shopping center. Shopping is the ultimate needs of all women....
Finally, it was time for home again. Mandarin Center and Coles were our last stops of the day! Chinese food is always essential for a Chinese!! whatever how westernized a Chinese could be, his/her stomach remains a Chinese one.
Harbor Bridge Vs. Opera House
Today we are heading for the most famous scenes in Sydney, the Harbor Bridge and Opera House, after some hard search of parking space near the Bridge, we finally found one with maximum 4 hours parking permit with hour rate at AUD4.40. Then we started walking around the bridge area, everything is just perfect for this visit, nice and warm weather, sea birds and ferry boats, yachts, and sailing boats all around the harbor, not so many visitors, and nice open air seats, this is almost the best view I can ever imagine of this area. Mom is always taking pictures, and Young is always posing.
The Rocks area nearby is the place with the longest history in Sydney, but for a Chinese, we would kind of tease the history, which is just over two hundred years starting from the year 1788. Well, as long as this place is new for us, it still worth exploring. This time, the highlight is the Lookout on the Bridge, when we found the small path through the Rocks area, and found the road to bridge, we are so excited! A walk on the bridge is worth trying, and a climbing is even worth waiting, since I am still worry about the height of the bridge. When we finally reached the Lookout, Young said she was going to pee, so we two had to turn around to look for a toilet. Only Mom and Yin did climb the Lookout! 5555...But I always enjoyed the time spent with Young, we stood on the bridge side, watching the nice views of the harbor, asking and answering questions. I hope she can remember the moment with me when she grows up.
After 2 hours of walking and climbling, we had some lunch in a cafe in the Rocks area, mom is always having problems with western food..While Young is quite happy with sandwiches. We thought we would be well prepared to go for our next stop, the Royal Botanic Garden, yes, it is quite near, but the only problem is parking. After over half an hour's searching for parking, finally we have to quit since the hour rate in this area is surprisingly high from AUD20 to AUD25,a really crazy place. I would prefer a walk in the forest next Yin's house, Young would prefer her favorite swimming pool on the deck. Botanic Garden, see you the other day...
Thanks to N, we had very nice home made Pizza as dinner, one shrimp and one pineapple Pizza, a perfect ending of the choatic day !!
3月11日
Today, we explored the north part of Sydney, which is Manly and its beach. It takes about half and hour to drive from Chatswood to Manly. It is supposed to be a very nice sunny day when we just about to leave for Manly. The biggest problem in Sydney is that it is so hard to predict the weather...Today, it was sunny, then cloudy, then rainy, and finally cloudy and sunny again. When we arrived Manly Beach, it was so cloudy and windy, so we just had a walk on the sand, but Young insisited that she could bear wearing her beloved Bikini. So after some walk, she got her dress changed. Her aunti and her stepped into a cold seawater outdoor swimming pool. But for only some minutes...Finally, we arrived Cabbage Tree Bay, sitting in the cafe, watching the rain, overhearing our noisy neighbors talking, since everyone was waiting in the only cafe to wait for the rain to stop. Poor Yin had to walk back to the car due to the "2P" regulation. "2P" means maximum 2 hour parking, so she had to walk back and move the car.
We waited for the rain to stop, and walked along some small track in the woods by the beach. Then we found some pathway to go down to the sand and rock. Young was excited to find a lot of beautiful shells. We spent quite some time looking for pretty shells. It could be a very nice place for picnic, our only pity today was that we did not bring any lunch with us. So we had to finish our beach exploring to feed ourselves. After the lunch in some Aasian restaurant, we started walking in Manly's town center. The Manly Wharf and the Corso street are the 2 main attractions there. Actually, we found some nice little shops there selling art pieces of local people and domestic decoration items.
Time passed by so quickly, we all fell into sleep on the way back home except the poor driver Yin.
3月12日
Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park
Today, the four of us headed for the National Park with this strange name. This time, the journey is quite smooth, when we arrived the park entry, the gate keeper was so keen to explain to us how the road is going, and also some other scenic spot in this area worth visiting. Seems that Aussies are very warm hearted in helping strangers. This was not our first time that we met lovely Australians, we had met people on the road who would point out the road we were looking for when we stood on the road reading a map, and people on cafe who would stood up to give us a seat when it was too crowded, also people who did not get mad at someone's driving technique...
Well, Ku-ring-gai is just so worth visiting, with beautiful landscapes and ocean view at West Head Lookout. We even took a trail down to the beach, it is a nice winding road in the wood, and the beach is small but cosy, with only four of us, we had our swim suits on this time!! Finally I used my swimsuit and goggles brought all the way from Shanghai. We enjoyed the beach and had our sunbath and picnic on it. Mom is becoming a photo taken fans, she is always busying at taking picutures...The only pity was the sea water was a little bit cold. Some fishing boats, sailing boats and motor boats were riding in front us now and then, the view with the Palm Beach and the tree sheltered house were all very impressive.
Our next stop was called Akuna Bay Marina, which was a station for boats and yachts. The only thing we could do was to have some drink there, with no possiblity to drive a boat...
The last stop in this park was Cottage Point, Yin and mom saw a helicopter landing on the water, which was very amazing. When I was accompanying Young in the car since she fell down on the road, and broke her leg... N was careful enough to prepare the first aid kit on the car, which was really a saver for Young, she was so afraid to see her leg breeding. Fortunately, it was only a small problem.
At night, our perfect ending of the day was the BBQ dinner prepared by N. In a nice early autumn night, we had this nice dinner in the garden, seems we are quite Aussie style already!
Adelaide & KI on the weekend
Weekend is always sweet words for workers. Last weekend on Friday, N plus the four women of us headed for Adelaide and Kangroo Island. N was always ahead of schedule, he would become so hasty when others do not abide by the planned schedule as much as he does. haha, usually in this house, it is me and my daughter. So it is always "兵荒馬亂" when we have a collective activity. When we finally arrived the airport, the only thing we had to do was to drop our bags and pass the security gate, since Yin had already checked-in online the night before, but the thing astonished me was that we did not even show up our passports to anyone. So we were quite ahead of boarding time actually.
After 2 hours' flight, we were at the gate of Adelaide airport, waiting for the car rental company to pick us up. Another unexpected fact is that Adelaide is having half an hour time difference from Sydney. A staff of the car rental company drove us to their office for us to pick up our rented car, a Toyota Collora. Since our ferry to the island was in the afternoon, so we drove to GLENELG for a short visit. It is said to be Adelaide's favorite beach for more than 100 years, with shops and dining places all around. We had our lunch there and got 2 nice little dresses Made in China for Young!! Another fact I did not notice was that Adelaide airport or Glenelg is far away from the ferry operating from Cape Jervis, the very south of Adelaide, to Penneshaw, the up east of Kangroo Island. It was a solid 2-hour drive, connecting to the 45 minutes of cruise. The man who owns the cottage house named Jim was already waiting for our car near a gas station when we recognised each other. His house is called PENNESHAW OCEAN FREEDOM, he said it is environmentally friendly accommodation, using solar energy and rain water, 'with stunning 180° views of the ocean from Bedroom, living area, kitchen, deck and stone patio.' Yes, really great view!!
Our dinner was in a restaurant called 'Bristo', after that, we had a walk along the wharf. And that was the best part of the day, we had seen Little Penguins standing in between the bushes or rocks in the shore, just near their caves down the rocks, 2 or 3 together. And when we drove to another road recommended by Jim, we saw Kangroos jumping on the sides of the road!! It was a night with bright and golden moonlight, I think it was the most beautiful moon I had ever seen, maybe I just forgot where I had seen such beautiful moon before, but it was really nice that night! Just like the poem says ‘海上生明月，天涯共此時’. It was just worth visiting for the scene itself!
3月16日
Saturday was our whole day on the island, we spent almost the whole day on the road, with our respectable Good Comrade N as the driver as usual. When I looked back on the island map, I found we had driven on more than half of the island territory.
Brief sightseeing spots of the day:
- Prospect Hill, a sand hill to commemorate an English captain meeting a French captain over 100 years ago...
- Seal Bay, with lots of seals lying on the sand beach or bush.
- Vivonne Bay & lunch at a roadside grocery store, with the sign of GOOD FOODKI . We had Sharks and Whiting as our lunch!
- Island Pure Sheep Dairy, selling sheep cheese.
- Emu Bay, we had walked on the beach, taken sun bath for a while and watched the sea birds named Pelicans and unknown.
- Kingscote, where we found a real brand name lobster with its reserve center. www.fergusonaustralia.com, the store keeper showed to us the pond keeping the lobsters and king crabs, which was really amazing! They are all so huge, and the legendary consumers are said to be mostly in Middle East, China and Japan!
The day finished with dinner in the house with a great ocean view with lobsters, oyesters and SA wine!
3月17日
The ferry Yin booked would leave at 8:30am, so it was another hasty morning. Another 45 mins. later, we were at Cape Jervis again. Our flight back was at 6:50pm, so we have plenty of time discovering downtown Adelaide.
That afternoon, we found the beauty of Adelaide.
First was the Museum of SA, which shows much of the aboriginal culture and pacific culture, but the most surprising one is the human skeleton shown in the first floor, which was donated by a man named Max in 1913.
Then it was Art Gallery, where we even found something from China. "唐卡' from Tibet, and other things like china and silk robe. There are much oil paintings from different period of time.
It was rainny and cold outside of the gallery. and our next stop was Royal Botanic Garden nearby. It was really nice, with a history over 150 years. In Australia, anything over 100 years should be named historic relics, haha.
3月19日
N called sick today to accompany his Mother-in-law, sister-in-law & niece-in-law to the market and beach.
First, begin with shopping at Paddy's Market! A good place for Young, she is always excited and interested in this kind of market, which is full of exotic and fresh little items she loves. Well, I found some good stuff too, just keep it for a while...
Then, Fish Market eating fresh lobsters and oyesters! People mountain people sea, as well as huge varieties of fishes that I had never seen before. It is a good place for me!
Followed by Bondi Beach visit. N and Young had a good time with the wave, N even bought some special bandaid for young for this event. It is made in Japan and waterproof!! I strongly believe that he will be a very considerate father! Mom was busying at taking pictures, and I had a nice nap under the sun!! It is a pity that we actually did not visit the naturalists' beach, :) but we had seen a couple of topless girls today...actually, topless is just nothing special here! Since this beach is the most populated beach in Sydney, if I do not take it wrong, and nobody seems watching these topless girls, only our mom is astonished a little bit though...haha.
Finally, the huge Bondi Junction shopping center. "shopping is always a pleasure", one of the ads. I remembered for a shopping mall, which is also suitable for every woman.
Ending with nice food and fruit we bought in the market today!!
3月29日
For the last Sat. in Sydney, we explored the city east. The Paddington Market was the choice for us. Seems everyone is happy about this market, we all found something that we love:
- stickers for Young
- necklaces for mom, me and Yin!
I had to say that this market is full of surprises, paintings,photographs, dresses, snacks, second-hand home decorations, designed accessories by local aritists, could all be found in there! So it is quite an experience for us, just wondering why we do not have that kind of weekend market in Shanghai.
Right after the lunch, we were on the way to the beach again!! This time, it is Watsons Bay, OMG, I even forgot the name of the beach! We had been to so many beaches in these two weeks, it is just hard to remember all the names. Young had learned how to swim under the guidance of N and Yin! Quite amazing for her, since she is quite afraid of water as I had known, but lately, she loves to be in the water pond and beach!
That night, we had the last dinner at "Ding Tai Feng" in downtown Sydney, it is the most authentic Chinese food we had in Sydney! and the Xiao Long Bao is just nice enough!
