3/6/02 Sydney, Australia
(Phillip)
I hope this doesn't mess up Kelly's ordering too much. I thought I'd post my regular summary of what we're doing. We've done so much in Sydney already; it's been great. Sydney, of course, is built for tourists. Lots of things to see and a great transport system. We're staying in a college suburb called Coogee Beach, very close to the world famous Bondi Beach. The dorm we're staying in is literally full of Americans, and walking through the streets you're more likely to hear American accents than Aussie! Quite strange.
I think, at this point, we've covered most of Sydney's big sights. Today we did the Harbour Bridge, and took in a play at the Opera House; tonight is the Observatory. The reason we went to the play was that the Opera House tour was fabulous yesterday. We got to watch the Royal Orchestra practice and watched the set of the play we eventually saw, "The Lady in the Van" (it's British, of course), being setup. Incidentally, did you know there are 56,000 tiles on the Opera House roof?
Last night we got to meet some of the cast from Australia
's "Temptation Island". Nothing too special, we had no idea who any of them were anyway! I got to drink some beer though, which is quite a treat for me. Oh and I got to spend over an hour trying to sort out my Bank of America accounts that they hadn't bothered to close when I left. That was a frustrating two phone cards sorting out that mess! I think it got taken care of though.
What's strange about traveling the way we are is that it's very difficult to keep track of where you've been. People will ask you "Did you go to Brisbane" and it's strange not to be able to answer of the top of your head. We always have to think about it since we've done so many places in such a short time. The big problem is that it's only going to get worse!
Perhaps the thing I was looking forward to most about Sydney is happening tomorrow. Some of you may know that my family is complete nutters when it comes to the sport of rowing. We've been at it since we could swim and my brother coached in Sydney for a while. Tomorrow one of his friends is going to take me rowing here. My brother sent me an article once about rowing in the bay here and how it's been known for sharks to attack the boats! Very exciting :)
Right now I'm filing my American taxes in the other window and trying to arrange the meeting of my friend Jesse (not the one we're staying with) in Bangkok next Wednesday. We fly to Singapore on Saturday morning and I'm trying to convince Kel that we can just sleep in the airport again (7am flight). She's not going for it though! :)
The basic plan for Singapore is 3 or 4 days. We don't have accommodation booked, nor will we. We'll likely just catch the bus from the airport to the backpacker area and try to find something. There's no YHA's in Singapore, which makes booking anything less than US$100 a night very difficult. Once there we immediately have to find a flight or train to Thailand. Hopefully flights that let us avoid the hassle of Malaysian visa's (the train would go through Malaysia). Then on the 15th we meet Jesse and then over to Laos or up to Chaing Mai to go trekking, rafting and elephant riding.
That's about it!
Posted by Admin at March 5, 2002 11:31 PM