sights of sydney

my alarm rang at 7am. i got up at 8 :-D

(i did say the bed was cushy!)

registration was fortunately a simple affair - give name, get bag. (a couple of us who attended the finance conference in NZ earlier in the year were amusedly comparing how we got a 'goodie bag' from the Kiwis but didn't get many souvenirs here!)

i found out that yesterday evening's 17 degrees celsius temperature was NOT typical of Sydney climate. apparently at this time of the year it's usually a 'steam bath' of over 30. having just come from a perennial steam bath, i'm GLAD it's below 30.

plenty of walking done today. took a late morning walk from the hotel to the Visitors' Centre, and then on to the area near Campbells Cove for a view of the Harbour Bridge, and then turned around and walked along Circulay Quay to the Opera House.

and here's a photo i took of the Harbour Bridge, viewed from Circular Quay.

one of the nicest things about Sydney, i feel, is its cosmopolitan charm - in my conference (office) attire the locals thought i worked in the city and was on my lunch break. however if people did notice i wasn't Australian, they would assume I'm from China. even after hearing that I'm Malaysian, they would still ask "But you were originally from China, no?"

people should visit Malaysia more often :)

the conference has been good so far. there are no dedicated discussants allocated for the papers, so in the free-for-all Q&A time, the battles ranged from relentlessly bombarding presenters with queries to no comments or questions at all. some (i suspect) slyly dragged their presentations on so that there would be less time for questions, as each speaker is allocated an absolute 25 mins or so. i shall need to learn the art of answering questions of stuff i haven't the foggiest idea about :-D

in the evening i took a second walk to the Opera House (i'll bet no other tourist goes to the Opera House TWICE in ONE day.. unless it was to buy tickets and then watch the performance..) because i suddenly realised that the official souvenir shop was INSIDE the building, and not amongst the regular souvenir shops outside. no wonder i couldn't find it earlier. *hits head on wall*.

there's supposed to be a free wi-fi connection at The Rocks but i can't for the life of me connect to it. would be pretty cool if i could - i can then provide a live webcam of the landmarks of Sydney to envious viewers back home, buahaha.

anyway, on the way back in the evening i dropped by a McD's to see if they had any special Australian promotions on their otherwise standard fare, and decided on getting something from the Deli Sandwiches range. i (probably foolishly) chose the Thai Chicken. it seemed to have more lettuce than chicken pieces, and tasted nothing more than grilled chicken pieces with chilli sauce. should have known better than to try an Asian variation in a non-Asian country. *hits head on wall*. ah well. so again, I got hungry at 11pm (i missed lunch, as i spent a little too much time hanging around outside) so I dialled 1 for an Antipesto Plate with Grilled Breads. I must say I'm getting addicted to Room Service..

down under

taking in the view of the city as the plane touched down, i revelled in the surreal realisation that have actually been here before though i don't remember much of it - 20 years ago; my first ever trip overseas. in fact, I still have a (slightly discoloured) photo of 4-foot-something me with a cheesy grin and the Opera House in the background!

at least 4 hours of the 8-hour flight was over the desert... Australia is almost as large as the United States, and the distances between major cities is staggering, with distances of over 1,000km between, for example, Sydney and Brisbane.

names are familiar (the airport is still called Kingsford-Smith. hey, don't laugh, Hong Kong's and KL's have changed!) though don't remember much of what Sydney looked like then. As the taxi sped through the city (and I mean SPED - thought only Malaysian drivers could drive like that) at 9pm, i was reminded by the deserted pavements and building foyers that there would be no late-night shopping in this part of the world - shops close at 5pm, late night shopping is on Thursdays (now WHY did they have to schedule the conference dinner on Thursday?!)

the Shangri-La boasts a breathtaking view of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. my room, of course, happens to be on the OTHER side of the building, overlooking a highway that leads to the Harbour Bridge :-D This area, The Rocks, is the birthplace of Sydney and modern Australia itself (according to Fodor's Australia 2006, the first 11 of England's 800+ ships carrying convicts to the penal colony dropped anchor here in 1788).

when I'm through munching my wondrous late-night room-service Caesar salad (gosh, check out all that cheese and bacon!), I shall venture online (yes, I'm drafting this offline - hey, Internet access isn't free!) and post this, check out some tourist-info websites, and then hopefully head on to bed early enough for me to wake up for the conference registration at 8am tomorrow!

I love the attention to detail at this place - for example the bookmark left on a corner of the bed.

And oh, did I mention how amazingly cushy and comfortable the bed is?! (it helps, too, that i have all 4 pillows to myself! :-D)