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Alrightttt this is a... Tuesday! And here I am sitting in a hotel in Sydney typing out my blog post on Notepad :D simply because I have no Internet access, and I don't wanna lose all those memories either, so I'm typing them out here..

Day 3 - Of oysters, chips and sunsets
Day 3 started pretty well, when everyone decided to take a walk around the neighbourhood while my bro fetched his friend to the airport. We went to explore a little, peek around the supermarket, local mall, bicycle shops, footie shops etc etc. We bought quite a lot of things to cook for our dinner as we had a flight to catch the next day. Things in Australia seem to be much cheaper, or at least in this mall. It's like one rock melon was actually sold for a DOLLAR at the local market the other day, and in the supermarket whole chickens were going for $10++ only! But of course, for some reasons the chocolates here are more expensive. grrr.

So after doing a lil shopping we went back home and prepared to go to the beach! And this was the first time we wore short pants :D the weather seemed to be just fine ^^ so off we went in our trusty little Ford and arrived at the beach soon enough. Ordered our lunch (fish & chips :D) before walking off to explore. And they gave us this super cool RFID device (radio frequency identification device: go read upp it's really quite cool!) that flashes when our meal is ready.
And GUESS WHAT. I saw weiyang!!! Weiyang hahahahahaha. He looked so O: when I saw him. I was pretty surprised to see him there too. Then he came over to me and uhhh... made a comment about the place. Then I kind of disagreed :D yea but oh well we talked for a little while and went off in our own directions. I guess, this world is really quite small after all huh.
So our lunch came and we sat down at the beach, on nice green grass to finish it up. There were lots of sea gulls all around us and they looked REALLY hungry hahaha. Especially when we were eating fish. FISH. Like we snatched it from them or something. After lunch we went down the jetty to snap some pics... caught a few good emotive ones.By then it was around 3pm or something already I think. So we walked over to the other side of the beach (weiyang i bet you didn't know about this) which my bro called the secret place. I guess this is the good thing about having someone who knows the place to guide you around. You get to see things that normal tourists never get to see. There, we had a reallll nice time. Eating oysters at the oyster bar in front of some super posh place where all the boats moored. AHHHHH. It was so good haha. Everything was white, clean, sleek etc.

Now now. Here's the best part. I think this part's the best part of my trip so far. We drove down all the way along the coast to this jetty. The houses there were so beautiful! They aren't like very well renovated, or in extremely good condition. But there was just something special about them that made them beautiful. There were also very few people around the place, only a few friendly cyclists passing by on their bikes from time to time.

Well, I'm not going to tell you what this place is, because I want it to stay the way it is. Ask me if you really want to know :D Well basically this place was special. It didn't have any big posh buildings, cool shops, good food or anything. All it had was this looonnggggg worn wooden jetty. To be frank, I was pretty much awed by the appearance of it all when I first saw it. It seemed like a place grabbed straight out of my dreams. Beautiful.





I don't think I will forget this place for some time. A very long time ^^

Day 4 - Touchdown in Sydney

We woke up at like 4am this morning to catch a flight at the airport to Sydney. The airline was Virgin Blue. Everything was pretty well, but the flight was a little bumpy towards the end because the weather in Sydney hadn't been good for the past few days.. Many clouds all around, so whenever the plane flew into one I'll like brace myself for a bump. I think I kinda hate clouds. Hm. When I'm on a plane at least.

The Sydney airport is largely different from Adelaide's, in that it is more developed. In a very strange way, I suddenly felt disappointed. The feeling just came like that! I think I'm the type who prefers quiet places. And another thing about Sydney is that the people don't seem to be as friendly as those in Adelaide. Perhaps everyone is just so caught up with their work again, since this place's more developed. There also seem to be more Asians than Australians! Like 1 in 2 people are Asians or something.

This is where I type in some food for thought. I see the Asian people; Chinese in particular, who speak English with the Australian accent, sometimes even when they enter a Chinese restaurant. Look, I'm not saying that it's wrong or anything because I absolutely have no right to say that, but that struck me hard. Why do we abandon our own culture to embrace another? And try to be someone we can never fully become? Perhaps it's just because people find it easier to communicate in this manner or due to some other reason I am not aware of, but for now, that's just what I feel. And yea. Suddenly, I'm super proud to be a Singaporean, a Chinese ^^ I guess, your sense of belonging to your culture and country is made stronger when you travel around, because you want to belong to somewhere, you want to have an identity. Well you can write a whole essay on that, but I'm not going to do that haha.

Well we just spent a whole day in Sydney walking all over the place... Earlier in the night just now I walked around with my two bros and it was much more convenient because my parents weren't around (they went back by rail cos they were too tired). We could walk SOOOOO much faster and to more places. And eat nice stuff like... Krispy Kremes! Mr C I did it :D


Oh and when we were walking back there were a couple of police cars zooming around. Then this guy stuck his head out of his car window and shouted at the three of us, "HAHA those guys are after meeeee! HAHAHA." We kind of laughed too haha cos you don't quite get this in Singapore (people will probably just like think you are crazy or sth). When he passed us again he went like, 'F**K YOU!!!!! HAHAHAHAHA" Hahaha super retard XD
And yea! So that's a few more photos. Now... I'm gonna have to sleep cos everyone's like asleep...

Day 5 - Cold fishy weather and a warm welcome to the Opera House

First stop of the morning: the Sydney Fish Market! We made our way to the fish market early in the morning, so it was pretty much a morning walk. And it was still raining. Sigh. So we kind of spent the entire morning there, eating oysters and lobsters; basically checking out all the supersized seafood.

We made our way back at around 12 pm or so. We intended to visit the wildlife park and aquarium previously, but then we realised that the tickets were pretty expensive, and none of us were kiddies anyway, so we gave it a pass. Soon the rain got even heavier! But guess what, we braved through the cold rain and marched towards the Sydney Opera House. It was SUPER funny walking through the rain because our umbrellas kept flipping inside out (so were the umbrellas of everyone around us :P). The wind was strong, so my parents (again), were quite unhappy or sth and walked straight up to get some shelter.

My brothers and I, however, decided to do something fun: taking photos in the rain :D :D it was so humourous haha. Like I gave the pose of someone doing an opera, and my brother tried, but in the end his umbrella went like FLOP. I took the picture anyway and so yea :P memories eh XD

What a memorable welcome we had on our FIRST visit to the Sydney Opera House hahaha. Oh wells anyway we went in and realised that it was pretty much like the Esplanade in Singapore, with all the concerts and stuff. We walked around a lil and left because my parents felt tired T.T

That pretty much ended Day 5! Stupidd rainnnnn. (p.s their trains have two lvls! cool! :D)

Day 6 - Da Manly Viking Ferry

You know every morning I wake up, my lips feel darn dry! The kind of feeling that makes you want to rip them out? Grr. Anyway, the next stop was the beach in Watson Bay. We set off early so that we could revisit the Sydney Opera House with SLIGHTLY better weather. Snapped a few pictures ran for the ferry. You know this is quite special! I mean, the ferries in Sydney operate like the rail system, so they are considered normal public transportation by the Australians. Like even students take it around.

We had a pretty smooth ride from Circular Quay all the way to Watson Bay; and the boat vaguely resembles my future NS boat to Pulau Tekong, said my brothers. When we reached there we saw this really huge map of the area at the jetty, and realised not long after that we could see the other side of the 'island' just by turning our heads a little.

Watson Bay faces the Pacific Ocean, so the winds were pretty strong. And it was nice seeing the big waves crashing on the sides of the cliff. There was a tour group there too! I was secretly laughing cos they probably went off after like 1 hour allocated by their tour guide.

Alright this is where I digress a little! YOu know, I will NEVER go on a holiday with a tour group ever again! Unless it's like a school trip. Then I won't have much control.. But as long as it's within my ability, I will never go on a holiday with a tour group. First, such tour groups are RIPOFFs. They keep asking for extra money that you don't really have to give in reality, and bring you to the restaurants/shops which sell their stuff at sky high prices, while the tour guide claims it's the BEST price around with the BEST quality. And actually, there are better shops around. Secondly, you don't get to spend good time at the places you like, simply because it will disrupt the schedule. Thirdly, you don't get to see the REALLY nice places which are not tourist traps, like the place I went to on Day 3. And the reason being? BECAUSE the travel companies don't get to earn from these places at all, since there aren't any shops or forms of life around such scenic places.

OKAY. Enough. Back to where I was. Basically we were on the coast of Watson Bay and I learnt that there was this ship that got shipwrecked a long long time ago. The Dunbar. The words on the memorial sounded really sad, and there was this flower that someone put on the fence, probably in memory of the people who perished in it. I wanted to snap a pic of it, but it'll be rude to do so, and I really don't want to risk changing my views on the supernatural (if you get what I mean..), so yea I didn't take it. I took the pictures of some wild flowers instead. And we decided that the lighthouse must have really sucked or something (if there was even one at that time), so we set off for the top. This place resembled Adelaide a lot, so I developed a liking for it too... Same features: low population density, good scenery, quiet environment that somewhat serves as therapy for the soul etc etc.

Next... We went to Manly! Haha I know, the name. Manly! It's like everything at that place had a 'manly' in it. Like, Manly Wharf, Manly Street, Manly Souvenir Shop etc. Another thing: you know if you want an amusement ride that can make your heart pop into your mouth but you are broke, left with only 5 bucks, you could try this - take the ferry ride from Circular Quay to Manly.

The start was rather smooth, but when we reached the part where the waters were open to the ocean swells from the Pacific Ocean, the ride got really bumpy. And furthermore, all of us were sitting on the outside haha. So when the front tip of the ferry pushed all the way down into the water, we got soaked XD It was one hell of a ride hahahahaha. You know, there were these two China guys who were with us. They were standing up, then they realised that the waves were getting more and more choppy. And when one SUPER BIG wave came along he was like, "Woa. Woa... Woaa. WOAAAAA. WAHHHHHHH!" He ran all the way back inside the ferry where it was enclosed. I wanted to do that too, but then it was too shaky. We got stuck outside haha. Just the three of us, while all the ang mohs pressed their faces against the windows behind us and checked out how the three crazy guys faced the wind rain and waves. So yea you can imagine how uh... exhilarating it was for my brothers and I XD

We decided that if you wanted to torture someone, you could tie him to the lower deck just one level below us, put him on the same ferry, take 20 or 30 rounds of the same trip in one day. At the end of the day, he will be so shocked, he gets too emotionless and stone. So he will just be like mouth open, eyes blank, staring straight into space. Hahaha.

Manly wasn't as exciting as the brochures said it to be, except that the ferry ride was really manly. Pun intended. And the designs in the shops in Australia OWN those in Singapore cann. Just check out this Ripcurl broad shorts.

So we took the same ferry back to Circular Quay and now we managed to snap a few pics after we got across the crazy area. Well that's about it for today.. Now now we are going to the Blue Mountains tomorrow! And it's my birthday tomorrow hehe :D so I'll see what's there on Blue Mountains for me. It better be.. exhilarating again XD

Day 7 - Sexy sixteenth at Little Zig Zag

Oh kayyy I am actually at day 10 now, but i'll just type everything out anyway. Let's see. Today we went on a long trip all the way down to the Blue Mountains, a rather popular tourist site for people visiting Sydney. It sure was a long ride! The weather was GOODDDD :D after like many days of continuous rain. I guess, it's really either my birthday or the Queen's birthday that was blessed haha. Or maybe both ^^

So yea we went there and saw really beautiful scenery again! But you know what, I am not sick of it! We saw these three uh.. little rocks protruding out of a big mountain, and the locals call it the 'three sisters'. So it's like the three brothers visit the three sisters hurhur.

After visiting the three sisters, we made our way to this place, with a legendary thing called the 'Pulpit Rock'. I'm not too sure about it, I'll go read it up as soon as I get Internet tomorrow, but anyway, it was the climax of my stay here in Aussie.



It was funny how we reached there! My parents were so tired, and my brothers didn't really know what they were going to see either, and I was just like feeling blank. Then we navigated into some REALLY ulu place where only a few people lived. My parents had the okay-the-gps-got-hacked-or-is-sleeping kind of look hahaha. When we got off, I snapped a picture of the street name which I found super cute: 'little zig zag'

After that we just walked around trying to find the 'legendary' pulpit rock. Suddenly, my brother goes, "OH MY GODDDD" Runs towards somewhere and we all follow. You remember those scenes in the movies where a group of grave robbers find a huge stash of gold and just slowly walk in with their jaws dropping? Yea it was like that for us, except that it was this heavenly view that greeted us.
Basically, the Pulpit Rock is just this rock protruding out of the main landscape. And it's open with no barriers. If you look at the picture, it is a straight fall all the way down if I took a step back haha. So you can imagine how badly I was going to pee in my pants when I took those pictures.

But it was memorable. Very memorable. Haha when all three of us climbed up onto the rock one after another, my mother was screaming so badly at us :P cos she was worried we would fall over. Yea but it's really quite dangerous to stand on the rock like that because if the wind was just a little stronger, it'd have been easy to fall off.
Anyways, it was nice. Very nice :)




Went to a lake next. It wasn't as nice as the pulpit rock of course, but it was still good! The atmosphere there was one of peace and serenity.
We went back all the way to Sydney again after that, had dinner at this korean restaurant, and my birthday cake at home.
OH OH. And to all those who smsed me on the 6th of June, I'm so sorry if I didn't reply to you, because my parents didn't quite want me to because it'd cost. I hope you understand yea! But anyway,

Day 8 - Beach galore

On day 8, we took a walk on the Sydney Harbour Bridge, one of the two famous landmarks around. It wasn't that beautiful to me though, because it was man-made and stuff. I didn't quite see anything great about it, but yea it was a nice walk with a strong breeze brushing my face all the while haha.

Later in the morning we went over to Bondi beach, and even caught a couple who were getting married on that day haha :D I must say, they took a good spot for their photo!



Anyway, Bondi beach was FUN :D Although I was freezing like mad wearing my TYR pants which virtually had nothing but ONE piece of cloth covering half my legs, it was very fun! We let the water brush our legs and I think we basically just stood there for like 1 hour staring at the sea and enjoying the scenery.


And I love this photo! But damn I accidentally covered my face T.T the background's still nice anyway.

We went on to visit another beach. Actually if you think about it, they are all parts of the same coast, just that they are different portions. Yea so today was basically beach, beach and more beaches! My dad got really tired at the end, probably because the winds were too strong or something hahahahaha. Even all three of us were pretty pumped out.

Lastly, we went to Luna Park, some sort of a open amusement park with no entrance fee. It was pretty much a gathering point for youngsters of my age haha. SIXTEENNNN muhahahahah XD If only Singapore could have something like that... sigh. There was a funny clown face at the entrance so we took some photos there:
Had dinner at a Japanese restaurant this time round haha, and that ended day 8!

Day 9 - Don't worry, I ain't drunk

On this day, we went over to this place called Hunter Valley, a.k.a. the Wine Country. It was FARRRR. Even further than the Blue Mountains! We set off at around 8 in the morning and only reached the first stop (Mount Pleasant) at 10.45am. We tasted wine the entire day there!



It was quite a novel experience for me haha. Learnt quite a few things. Like how you should taste wine, and the different types of wine around. I realised, I like sweet wine better! White wine basically haha. Red wine is like so bitter ugh. But apparently it's healthier because guess what! It has resveratrol that serves somewhat like a bioshield for your body cells! Hahaha. Learnt that after doing CHAOS.

But yea it was fun tasting all the wines. Don't I just look drunk in that picture hahaha :P

On the way back we saw dirt bikes too! And earlier in the morning we saw the monster trucks. Seems like australian truck drivers take more pride in spicing up their rides hahaha.

Day 10 - Shopping spree

Today, we didn't do much except shop shop shop and shop even more because it's like the second last day we have in Sydney. We went back to the fish market in the morning to get some lobsters again haha. I saw a pelican right in front of my eyes! Like around a metre or so! It was so funny. Like I was walking and suddenly I realised that there was this unusually huge sea gull in front of me (it was much bigger than most of the sea gulls swarming the place), then once I went a lil closer it flew off...

Next up we went to this marketplace. It's this really cool market place that is a market during public holidays and weekends, and a carpark during normal days! We bought some souvenirs there and ran off to have lunch at the food court above us. Omg the prices in the foodcourts here are SKYHIGHHHH. Like one hotplate dish that would cost around $4.50 or $5 in Singapore cost me $8.50! AHHH.

Then... we visited the warehouses! First it was the Adidas warehouse, then another general factory outlet warehouse where I bought a small rugby ball costing only $5! I still can't quite figure why I bought it, but my reason for now is that I just want something to play around with haha. I'm quite sick of swinging my bottles around. After that we had a hard time trying to find the Nike warehouse, ending up in this Direct Factory Outlet place where there were lot of things being sold at duty-free prices. Stationery, clothes, sports gear, videos, games, everything. This was where I bought this really nice quiksilver polo shirt haha. It is actually the first proper polo tee I have :P Sixteen years old. I guess it's time to change from tshirts to polo tees ^^

After spending much time there, we finally realised that the Nike warehouse was just next to the Adidas warehouse T.T And we didn't do much there. This visit to the Nike warehouse added to the bad impression I already had of it initially.

Firstly, the designs are pretty minimalistic. Which isn't good for such a giant sports gear company. It's like everything was SO plain! I mean, I wouldn't mind if only some shirts were plain, but EVERYTHING was plain! And to add on to it, when I wanted to take a picture of the 'Just Do It' thing, the security guard scolded me. BLEAGH. What an idiot. So yea you know what? Adidas OWNS Nike. Boo Nike. I tell you after my Nike slingbag spoils I'm getting another one that isn't Nike anymore. Anything but Nike. NYEAH.

So yea this ends the day! Final haul: a Quiksilver shirt and a nice little rugby ball, just for kicks :D pun intended. Flyin back to Adelaide tomorrow!

7:16 PM