Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Play: 10 days Sydney and it's surroundings in March 2014 (Day 1)

I have been wanting to share our trip to Sydney and its surrounding but there is soo much photos to go through so have been delaying and delaying...and that is me being lazy :p

Anyway, finally I have started going through the picture and resizing them (cause its all too large to be posted) so here we go :)

This trip to Sydney was actually quite a spontaneous one... Initially, we wanted to go to Perth cause its nearer and therefore air ticket is cheaper... 

But one fine day in October 2013 , Scoot had this promotion of $24 one way to any destination and this promotion only lasted for 24 hours!!! So we couldn't let this opportunity goes off!!! 

After having some many unsuccessful attempt at the website due to high traffic,  i finally manage to book 10 tickets to Sydney in March 2014 for 8 adults, 1 child and 1 infant! And our air ticket in total is about $2600 only!!! This is definitely a steal!!!

But due to various reason, in the end only 8 of us manage to go... (6 adults, 1 child and 1 infant)

Finally, after months of planning, we are departing to Sydney on 7th March 2014 @ 1.45am....

Day 1

Check in was uneventful and the seats in the airplane is spacious even though we didn't upgrade to bigger seats... or bigger legspace. Thumbs up for scoot airline!

Xin xin and mummy :)
Because the flight is at midnight, the kids sleeping time kinda got disturbed. Qin qin is ok cause she is almost 3 years old and she knows that she is going on holiday and excited about it. She slept only after we board the airplane and only wakes up when we are about the reach...

Meanwhile, my little xin xin is only 15 months old, he slept for about an hour before we carry him and took a taxi to the airport which he wakes up on the way to the airport. Then couldn't get him to sleep back until when we board the airplane.. even then, he only sleeps at a very short interval or 30 mins or so and then wake up and make a fuss....I even try to breastfeed in the plane to see if i could get him to sleep but after a while, he wakes up again.... so in the end, i didn't manage to get a lot of sleep in the plane...

After about 7 hours plus, we reached sydney at 12.40pm local time. We waited for quite sometime to collect our stroller because stroller collection at Sydney airport is at a designated area and not via the normal luggage belt collection....

After that, we went to the taxi stand and took a 11 seater taxi to our hotel. Do note that Australia has a very strict policy about car seat and that all children below 2 years old must be using a car seat. Also, if your child is older than 2 years old and doesn't need a car seat, he/she still needs to occupy one seat in the cab/car, he/she is not allowed to sit on parent's lap....

Xin xin and me in the cab
Finally reach our hotel, Waldorf Woolloomooloo Waters Apartments, checked in and rest for a while... Kids having some homemade butter cookies that I make for the trip.


Yum yum.. enjoying the cookies..
Time to explore the room. We booked this apartment hotel cause they have very good facilities in the room. For the room that we booked, it has 2 double bed, a living room with sofa, tv, dining table, very well equipped kitchen with stove, microwave, cooking utensils, cutlery, plates, bowl, and the toilet comes with a washing machine and dryer.

But not all their rooms have the same facilities, we booked 2 rooms for the trip and the other room doesn't comes with washing machine and dryer and their dining table also significantly smaller. So, if you do want to do your own washing, please request for the rooms with washing machine. The apartment hotel also has a washing machine room at ground floor for everyone to use but i find it easier if we have them in our room, we practically wash 1-2 times a day...so it is very convenient! 

very well equipped kitchen
cutlery and knifes
After a refreshing shower, we went for a super late lunch at 3 plus local time (but actually according to spore time it is only 12 plus in the afternoon, no wonder we were not hungry). The staff at the hotel recommend us this nearby restaurant with good food and reasonable price. It is within walking distance from the hotel...

Sienna Marina... where we went for lunch
Some photo taking while waiting for lunch
Qin hugging her brother
who wants lunch? and en xin raise his hand
Finally, time for some food! I had a risotto with steak... yum yum! Didn't manage to take picture with all the food.... overall, the food at this restaurant is good, and the price is not overly steep.

Risotto with steak
After lunch, we went for a walk.... Initially, we were deciding if we wanted to go for a walk or go back hotel to rest and come out later for dinner... but everyone seems so energetic despite not having a good night rest.. so we decided to explore the surroundings and then get something back to cook for dinner and not come out for the rest of the night!

Walked to the Botanic Garden....and saw this weird looking bird...


And also a very interesting signboard...Usually, the signboard will warn visitor not to step on the grass to protect the grass.... but this signboard says otherwise...

" Please walk on the grass!!!" what??? this is the first time i saw this kind of signboard.... and also asked us to hug the trees and picnic on the grass and TALK to the birds?? 

This is really one of a kind...

Please walk on the grass!!!
After crossing the Botanic Garden, we reached the Cathedral Square.. with a nice fountain.


St Mary's Cathedral
We walk around (we really can walk) and then reached King's Street, BIL bought a few pair of shorts, hubby bought a cup of coffee at a convenient store... and then we walk to Haymarket area but it is late already and the HayMarket is closed already... munch a bit of food at the Chinatown area and then went to Woolsworth to buy some food to cook for dinner. The fruits, vegetables, chocolate and cereal bar are relatively cheap there so everyone had a good time choosing the food that they like...

For dinner, we had some bacon, stir fry asparagus with capsicum and broccoli and eat them with wraps... then after dinner we also ate the fruits we bought- strawberry, raspberry and kiwi berry ....

Tomorrow our plan is to visit the Sydney Opera House and have lunch at Sydney Fish Market!

Day 2 in Sydney and its surroundings:
http://eatplaycook22.blogspot.sg/2014/06/play-10-days-sydney-and-its_19.html

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