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)

bali hai

bali was great. the after-effects (well, two for now, cos my brain is still a little veggied):

(1) having to get used to the absence of strange road habits

(i) the balinese use car horns like there's no tomorrow. they honk at passing motorists to "alert them of your presence" (this was from a guidebook). yup. when a motorcycle emerges at the upcoming junction and your driver goes *honk*. in fact you would honk at virtually every junction. your driver changes lanes and while passing the guy who was in front of him, *honk* (and i don't think this was cos he knew the driver of that car). when they're stuck in a traffic jam, when it's obvious nobody's moving, *honk*. car accessory shops and mechanics must have a good life there.

(ii) they hardly use their brakes. going up a mountainous road MAY be an exception.

(iii) officially, they drive on the left side of the road. but more often than not, they seem to prefer the right side. (overtaking-lah)

(2) it's such a RELIEF now that you don't have to bargain every time you step into a shop!

i don't see why bargaining is such fun. it's an awful chore. every time you approach a shop they probably think Ooo, here come rich tourist, we must sell everything at sky-high price because tourist don't know better. for goodness' sake, do you seriously think i would purchase a pair of wraparound pants from a side stall in Bali at Suria KLCC prices when i can get the same thing at the Thai Fair near Carrefour's at RM10 without even having to bargain? and i'm sick of the i'll-have-to-say-take-it-or-leave-it-and-walk-away-but-you'll-come-after-me-anyway-yelling-the-last-price-i-wanted.. look, i just wanted to quickly grab a souvenir so i can move on to a bit more sightseeing and and you KNOW you'll sell it to me at that price anyway (and i don't look anything like a gwailo so i don't have any coffers filled with so much Rupiah equivalent the number of zeros will bust your calculators) so how bout we quit the whole charade? (i later found out that at the new Sogo store in upmarket Nusa Dua, you can get little batik-lined souvenirs at less than RM10 each. all in comfortable air-conditioning and no pesky salespersons and no bargaining necessary)

and speaking of Sogo bags, i should have left them at the hotel before venturing out into the stalls outside the Nusa Dua entrance..

"Oo, sir, ma'am, shopping?"

"Oh, So-go!"

"So-go shopping!"

"Eh, So-go!"

"So-go, ya?"

"You want shopping? Oh, So-go!"

"So-go!"

if i stepped into any of those shops then they'd probably be trying to sell me wraparound pants at the price of Benetton cos i'm bloody Japanese and i shop at Sogo (hubby does carry a bulky canggih-looking camera anyway and i lug a tripod around, so of course we're Japanese-lah). never mind that my Sogo carrier bag which attracted so much attention just contained stuff the stalls would sell me at twice the price.

the balinese are a friendly people, they really are. i wish they'd stop trying to make use of their charm to give me the "please ma'am pity me, i'm not even breaking even, i haven't sold anything today" pitch. i'm glad nobody this time round in Bali has resorted to "i've got kids to feed" thing or i'd have imploded (i'm too nice to explode, so i implode). hey, i'll do charity when i wish to, to a cause I feel like donating to. and after all i'm only a millionaire in Rupiah terms..

gallavanting

have just realised how broke i've become. that's what you get from taking a year off work (i still think i'm mad; am sure my boss thinks so too :-D) and to add to it, go gallavanting in Vegas (no, this isn't a story about misfortuntes at gambling.. in fact i gave up all hope of feeling that luck could be on my side after losing 10 bucks on the Wheel of Fortune slots. that's 10 USD, not ringgit..)

lagging..

a miscellany of post-vacation vagaries:

1. jet lag. you go to sleep at 8pm. someone happens to call you on the phone at 10.30pm and as a result your biological clock somehow goes haywire and you remain awake until past midnight in a state of limbo - while the brain wishes to do something more interesting than lying in bed staring into the darkness, the body refuses to budge from the warmth of the blankets and pillows. and the next thing you know, you're awake again and it's.. 4am. before you know it, 8pm comes soon enough, and you realize you're sleepy again..

2. a clogged ear, and it's driving me nuts. it started after i got out of the surf pool in the hotel in Vegas, and it's still clogged, about a week later. most probably a case of dislodged ear wax. it feels like i'm going around with a finger stuffed into one ear. everything except my voice is white noise. which is horrible as i don't like the sound of my voice. looks like a visit to the doctor is inevitable. meanwhile, the poor people around me will have to put up with my either too-soft or too-loud speech, incessant repetitions of 'i beg your pardon' (or, alternatively, 'hah?', which is more efficient and easier to say), or blank stares when i don't realise someone has said something to me and is awaiting a response.

3. am just so very tired..

4. i guess the knee, which recovered not too long ago, is protesting too. also, i guess that's also cos i haven't been doing the knee exercises. serves me right, ha ha.

so i need sleep, a doctor, more sleep and some exercise. that's not quite how it feels like, but at least i've managed to find some excuses for the lethargy! :-D

somebody send over some sunshine!

things we can learn (or not) - a traveller's note from the US of A

1. the toilets are clean and DRY! (you saw this coming, didn't you?) and they don't stink of an overdose of antiseptic. and why don't we provide disposable toilet seat covers here too? oh wait, that's cos our greedy-for-freebies ladies will probably stuff the whole pack into their shopping bags to keep them for future use, whatever that means. (once upon a time, an employee on my office floor allegedly nicked a roll or two of bathroom tissue from the restroom every morning to stock up her supply of tissue. because of her we ran out of tissue in the restrooms at approximately 9.30 am every day.)

2. front-line service people are generally more polite; though they may be a little, er, blur at times, like with fractions (Customer: Could you split the bill into three please? Waitress: Oh ok, so you want it split into half and half and half?)

side rambling (sorry): i realised today that i've probably been a bit too impatient with customer-service people since i got back. a customer service officer of a certain bank thought i was saying "Prudential" (the insurance company) when he heard me saying "potential" (the English word meaning, roughly, capable of being something) and for 2 whole minutes i was repeating my enquiry about the note they sent me on the fact that they suspect my card was subject to potential compromise or unauthorised usage, and he was repeating his statement about the fact that yes, my Prudential account was still on the direct debit list. i hope the bank doesn't use that phone call in their next call-centre training on how to deal with sarcastic clients.

3. you don't get street musicians or graffiti on historic sites. it's rather disheartening when you expect to admire a relic of the 17th century and some 21st century guy carves "Jojo was here, 2001" or "Dodo loves Dodol, 14th February 2004".

don't get me wrong. there's still no place like home. but home sure can do with some housekeeping. ;)

'the internet is for porn'

Avenue Q is demented, insane, wacky, hilarious and ROCKS big time!! Watched it at Wynn Las Vegas two nights ago. (and in case you're wondering - the above caption is from the musical ;-) ) haven't decided yet whether to get the t-shirt ($21.95) or the mousepad that says "the Internet is for porn" (price unknown) or a fridge magnet with attitude ($8.00). all prices quoted in US dollars. ;-) yes, i'm still in Vegas, getting blisters on my heels walking up and down mostly the southern half of the Strip*, and stocking up on the resort's soaps and shampoos so they'll stock up with more which I will keep again so they'll stock with some more ha ha ha! (yeah yeah, terrible terrible.. but really, you should smell the Exfoliating Sea Salt soaps.. they're to die for..)

back to the show.

the two people i dragged along to the show were pretty skeptical until the show started..

"avenue WHAT? never heard of it."

"there are puppets? PUPPETS? dang, i'm not paying 99 bucks to watch a puppet show!"

"this had better be good."

"know what, there's Buck Wild is showing at the Sahara..."

"maybe i'll try my hand at the Wheel of Fortune again.."

"this had better be GOOD."

anyway. for the uninitiated, the synopsis (from the website:)

What is AVENUE Q about?

AVENUE Q is the story of Princeton, a bright-eyed college grad who comes to New York City with big dreams and a tiny bank account. He soon discovers that the only neighborhood in his price range is Avenue Q; still, the neighbors seem nice. There's Brian the out-of-work comedian and his therapist fianceé Christmas Eve; Nicky the good-hearted slacker and his roommate Rod -- a Republican investment banker who seems to have some sort of secret; an Internet addict called Trekkie Monster; and a very cute kindergarten teaching assistant named Kate. And would you believe the building's superintendent is Gary Coleman?!? (Yes, that Gary Coleman.) Together, Princeton and his newfound friends struggle to find jobs, dates, and their ever-elusive purpose in life.

but don't worry, it's no Sesame Street (though you could say it's a pretty good parody of it):


Who is AVENUE Q appropriate for?

Adults love AVENUE Q, but they seem a little, er, fuzzy on whether it's appropriate for kids. We'll try to clear that up. AVENUE Q is great for teenagers because it's about real life. It may not be appropriate for young children because AVENUE Q addresses issues like sex, drinking, and surfing the web for porn. It's hard to say what exact age is right to see AVENUE Q - parents should use their discretion based on the maturity level of their children. But we promise you this - if you DO bring your teenagers to AVENUE Q, they'll think you're really cool.

fear not, it's not a Punch n Judy show... if you're near a theatre where Ave. Q is playing, go get your tickets!

* i.e. Las Vegas Boulevard. The famous stretch of road with all the glitzy resorts on it. Incidentally, before i left for Vegas, i was watching a show on Astro where a character mentioned "the Strip" (i.e. Las Vegas Boulevard) and the Malay translation appeared as "tak berpakaian" (i.e. nude). :-D shall i give our script translators the benefit of the doubt and just assume that they have bad vocabulary? :-P

air violin on the streets of LA

yes, i've got a mysterious new photo on the right above my profile. the star reads "jascha heifetz". for the uninitiated - violinist, considered by some to be the greatest in the 20th century. the sun was in the way (that's the trouble with travelling in the summer.. the sun is always in the way of your photos!) so i tried using my shadow to block the sun out so the gold words could be seen. and since i'm gonna have a shadow, might as well try and pose like a violinist. (ok, LA denizens repeat after me: "geez! the things tourists think of!") i think i should have lowered my right hand a bit tho, so it looks more like i'm holding a bow. i guess i didn't pay much attention to the details then as i wanted to get the photo taken before passers-by start to gape at The Tourist Playing Air Violin on Hollywood Boulevard! in case you have no idea what i'm talking about, here's the photo: