Up Under: Four Days in Sydney

day 1

the bus ride

What do you call a smiling Sydneysider? A tourist.

It was a glorious Saturday morning and it was cloudless in Sydney when I landed. The sun spread uninhibited against the azure blue sky as I made my way to the bus stop.

I was greeted by a gruff bus driver, who impatiently answered my question about how much my fare was. Four dollars and fifty cents got me a forty minute bus ride. Not bad at all.

There was almost a festive mood around Sydney due to the World Youth Day, and you could see groups of people with T-shirts that read 'I love Jesus' unashamedly, or the ubiquitous red-and-yellow WYD SYD 08 jackets.

The United Colours of Sydneyton.

I finally arrived at my destination, and I had the pleasure of having lunch with YC, my long lost neighbour.

the neighbour

YC was working as a pharmacist in one of the hospitals in Sydney. We grew up in the same taman back home, in fact he was my neighbour three doors down and the one closest to my age.

We were never really close as kids, although we did spend many a days playing badminton or going to the local playground. Somehow as we grew up, we found out to our delight that we had great conversations with each other.

How we met each other again was a real coincidence actually. When Mum came down for the holidays last year, I was driving her to St. Kilda. As we rounded the corner of Flinders' St. Station, suddenly I saw YC and his parents waiting for the light. We honked, and they glared at us in a 'What are you honking at?' manner, when realisation suddenly dawned on their faces and they broke out in smiles.

Eight hours away in Malaysia, we live three doors down. What were the chances that we would bump into each other in a traffic light intersection thousands of miles away in Melbourne? We took the opportunity to exchange numbers then and that's how I ended up in a Chinese restaurant in Sydney talking with YC again over plates of char siew and siew ngap.

It was good reminiscing about the old days and our struggles with today. YC was actually fairly insightful into life despite being a few years my junior. The water in Taman Desa must have some kind of emotional IQ booster.

the place to stay

I ended up in P's place later that afternoon, because she had to bring little M to watch Disney on Ice (the lucky girl!).

It was quite a cozy little house and the guest bed was extremely homely and comfortable. It was well-situated as well - five minutes walk to the Westfield shopping centre, ten minutes to the train station and restaurants.

the rest of the day

P brought me to this wonderful little cafe overlooking the bay and we watched the evening sun turn the yacht-saturated lake into a rippling sheet of silver and gold while we sipped our mochas and lattes. (Little M had a babychino, which thankfully, I found out did not contain caffeine - this child is hyperactive enough already!)

Later that evening, we walked the Darling Harbour area to look at restaurants for dinner, and stumbled upon a nice Mongolian BBQ place. You chose whatever meat you wanted and they would cook it for you on this huge, flat circular metallic stove while you watched.

The harbour itself was beautiful at night - the streams of neon and necklaces of orange lights invigorating the Saturday night party-going crowd. I also remembered a group of Egyptians distinctly, WYD revellers who were breaking into song spontaneously while waving their flags.

We ended the night with supper at the Lindt cafe. Lindt - that's right - the makers of that fine chocolate which you buy from your Coles or Safeway. In Sydney, they've got a freaking cafe. It was pretty good chocolates and even better beverages. (Little M had another babychino. Kids are growing up too fast nowadays. In my time, all we had was Fernleaf milk, and we'd better darn well like it!)

Exhausted (as you are from reading this entry) I closed my eyes when I got back into bed, and I slept the best sleep I've had for awhile.