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)