Our flight on Thai Air was nice. Too many movies to watch. I finally got to watch UP while Eric watched that teeny bopper Beth Cooper movie. Sometimes I wonder about that boy. Heheh. We had two meals on the plane which were decent, not great, but better than nothing. I thought the plane was on the hot side though, which I didn't like, but as usual, I managed to sleep a few hours.
After about 9 hours, we finally landed in Sydney. Eric got sniffed by a drug dog, and had to empty his pockets. Turns out his vitamins were the culprit. The Sydney airport is pretty busy. We would have been stuck in the customs line forever except this customs official singled us out to ask us questions and let us get out through a separate exit. We were off!
It was about 8am when we got out. Since we figured we probably couldn't check in yet, we decided to just take our time at the airport figuring out how to get to our hotel. We found a train (subway) stop not that far from our hotel so we decided to tackle public transportation via train. First impression - Sydney is not cheap. Cost us $30 to buy two tickets on the train to our stop. The trains are pretty neat. They look like double decker buses and are fairly clean and comfortable.
We got off at our stop (Central) which is the main terminal. It was huge! Platforms everywhere. We found the right exit and made our way to the Leisure Inn. Our hotel turned out to be close to Chinatown and an area frequented by backpackers. Lots of cheap hotels in the area (although not Thailand cheap, mind you). Our hotel, which cost us about the same as the Dusit Thani in Bangkok, reminded me of a college dorm. Our room looked just like a depressing dorm room, small with a sterile bathroom, fluorescent lighting and a slightly uncomfortable bed. At least it was clean, that's all we can ask for.
Since we couldn't check in until 2pm, we headed out to get a snack and find some internet access so we could plan our day. We ended up at the Central Cafe. OMG, prices are so expensive. A normal breakfast (eggs, bacon, hashbrowns) would cost you $18. A soda was $5 and coffee was $4. I settled on a bowl of oatmeal for $7.50 and Eric had a coke. We realized that keeping within our per diem was going to be pretty tough here. I didn't realize Australia was so expensive!
Anyhow, we were flipping through this tourist info pamphlet we picked up at the airport and came across this ad stating that they served the "tastiest dumplings
in the world." At first I was like "please, no place serves the tastiest dumplings except Ding Tai Fung. Upon closer inspection, lo and behold, the ad was for Ding Tai Fung! There was one in Sydney! Naturally, we packed up and headed out to find this gem. It had started to sprinkle. The weather here is odd. It's rainy and cold, and then it's hot and dry. I kept taking off my jacket and putting it back on. We finally found the DTF and pigged out on xiao long baos (soup dumplings) and cha jiang mein (black bean noodles). It was quite tasty. I didn't realize they had 47 locations. 47! I have only eaten at four. 43 more to go!
After lunch, we intended to walk around the Chinese gardens near Darling Harbour. We first came across some Egyptian festival, outfitted with some camels and a sphinx. The Chinese gardens turned out not to be free. After Eric did some recon, we decided it wasn't worth paying for and headed down the street to something
called Paddy's Market instead. Paddy's Market turned out to be a flea market of sorts, similar to the night markets we visited in SE Asia, but definitely not cheap. A pair of pants or a dress would be $30 and shirts were $15. Since we can find those same prices at Nordstrom's or Macy's, we didn't think it was worth even bargaining. I did find a stand that sold beautiful crystal jewelry. I ended up buying two pretty headbands for my nieces. Bargaining here is not easy. The woman wouldn't budge on the price, but when I started walking away, the male counterpart gave me $5 off. Better than nothing, they were really pretty.
Afterwards, it was finally time to check into the hotel. By this time, Eric and I were functioning on fumes, since we both slept only 2 hours on the plane. We got to the room, freshened up and I passed out. I think Eric was blogging and downloading pictures and didn't sleep, but I was out.
We had plans to meet Eric's friend, Cyrus' brother and some of his friends for dinner that evening. We met up at the Opera Bar near the Sydney Opera House.
The Opera House is nice, not as impressive as I thought it would be, but it was interesting in architecture. After a drink, we headed to one of many restaurants that dot the harbour. This area reminded us a lot of London, the Thames River with the Harbour bridge subbing for Towers Bridge. It's the same feel.For dinner, I had fresh Tasmanian Mussels in a tomato and garlic broth and Eric had a kangaroo fillet. The mussels were very good, tender and sweet. The kangaroo was interesting. It's very lean, and has the texture of filet mignon. It's a little gamey, I can't say I cared for it, but Eric finished it off. We topped it off with a bottle of wine and some desserts. We ended up paying $100+ for the two of us. Definitely going to be an expensive trip....
We ended the night at an internet cafe for an hour while we uploaded our blog and Eric checked on his fantasy football teams. We headed back and got ready for bed. Someone had a sick sense of humor because they were playing Jaws on TV. Naturally I had to watch the whole darn thing. Great Whites. Not sure how I am going to be able to go diving now.
For the pictures of the day, go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=bigtandeze&target=ALBUM&id=5402600877285967233&authkey=Gv1sRgCJ6NyJKC3_WcBw&feat=email
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