Tag: sui Lin

Melbourne & Sydney, December 2012 – Sydney – Part 2

A day before we left Sydney, Sui Lin took leave and brought us around Sydney. She rented a car from Green Share Car.

Green Share Car has cars parked around Sydney and you can rent the car using your credit card. The cars are parked at public areas without anyone guarding them. Green Share Car charge per hour. I wonder if such concept would work in Malaysia.

Our first stop was Four ate Five – supposedly to be one of the best cafes in Sydney.


I had the free range eggs with mushrooms. It was okay. Nothing to shout about.

After lunch, we headed Bondi Beach. It’s my second time to Bondi Beach. Timothy Tan brought me here once back in 2004.


It was packed. Many were showing off their beach bods. Some even went topless. Spot the topless chick in this photo.


RIP


Rock climbing!


Jump here to get to the next stage


We walked to Marks Park to have a little picnic. It was hot but breezy. I roamed around the park while the girls catch-up and enjoy the view.

After our picnic, we tried the famous fried Mars Bar at Bondi Surf Seafood. It’s my second time trying it.

Covered with batter, the Mars Bar will ooze out once you take a bite. It’s rather sweet but worth a try.


But it looks like a piece of turd.

Sui Lin dropped us at the city. I had to meet one of my hengtais who migrated to Sydney. Jin Han and his family bought a place at Castlehill, Sydney. We took a train to his place and he made us awesome lamb ribs for dinner. His daughter Olivia speaks with an Australian accent now. His son Xavier was born last year.


Grilled lamb..mmm


The dinner

My wife and I headed back to the city around 8 plus because Jin Han and family normally sleep by 830PM.

We were in Sydney for 4 days. We headed back to Melbourne after that.

This marks the end of my Melbourne and Sydney trip postings. It was great seeing my old buddies living in Melbourne and Sydney. Till next time!

Melbourne & Sydney, December 2012 – Sydney – Part I

After Gavin and Christina’s wedding, my wife and I made our way to Sydney via Tiger Airways. Stupid airline doesn’t have web check in so we had to go to the airport extremely early.

We stayed at Sui Lin’s place at the city. It was spacious and Sui Lin vacated her room for us while she slept in the living room. Thanks SuiSui!

The last time I was in Sydney was in 2002. I don’t remember much of it but somehow memories of the place kept coming back when we were roaming around Sydney. It’s a nice place. Everything seems clean and efficient but the retailers were not very friendly. One incident we had at an unnamed coffee joint:

Sui Lin: What’s the name of this place?
Barista: You can check it on the receipt.


Bloody Bugger

After I took a picture of the place.

Barista: It’s 5 dollars per picture.

Bloody Bugger didn’t even give us a receipt!

The coffee was just okay. But I still prefer Mecca coffee which is just opposite that unnamed coffee joint.

We took a cruise around Sydney Harbour. We had a great view of the Sydney Bridge, Opera House and many other parts.


Smallest wedding ever. This couple needs more friends.

Sui Lin brought us to Hurricanes to have ribs. Sui Lin, my wife and I shared one rack of ribs whereas Sui Lin’s boyfriend had one rack for himself.

Other than the cruise, we also managed to check out Sydney from the Sydney Eye Tower. Somehow my wife and I like going to all these observatory decks. Last one we went was Top of the Rock at New York City.

The queue to the observation deck was pretty short and it wasn’t crowded.

We also got to see Sydney at night.


Sydney Opera House on close up. Now you know how it looks like.

Melbourne & Sydney, December 2012 – Overview

Gavin Tan aka Gayvin Tan invited me to his wedding in December. He came back to Malaysia for mine. I definitely had to go for his.

We took Air Asia to Melbourne. It rained when we left the house and we were stuck in a 2 hours jam to LCCT, Sepang.

No trip is complete is complete without any oddity. While in the boarding room, we had a strange person kneeling with face down for a long time. We couldn’t make out whether she was a bag or a person. Suddenly, she woke up thinking that the plane has left and tried to run to the tarmac.

Melbourne city is not the city I used to know. It changed quite a lot. Artisan cafes have popped up in the city. The good ones usually have long queues. My favourite A1 Chinese restaurant is gone. No more egg chiffon duck rice.

My wife and I stayed at Wei Chen and Sui San’s place at Albert Street. It was formerly an old brewery and now converted into an apartment. Wei Chen had kindly vacated him room for us while he slept in the living room.

I also took the opportunity to meet two of my business associates in Melbourne. One of them was nice enough to invite me to their office. The use colour coded system for their files. Each category has a different colour. It made their office pretty colourful.

We spent a lot of our time at artisan coffee joints trying what the Hipsters call “soul food”. To me, it’s basically food with plenty of bacon, potatoes or butter.

And it’s all awesome but I came back few KGs heavier.

After Gavin and Christina’s wedding, my wife and I made our way to Sydney via Tiger Airways. We stayed at Sui Lin’s place at the city. We did the usual touristy things.


We visited one of my buddies in Castlehill, Sydney. He cooked us dinner.

After Sydney, we went back to Melbourne and plonked at Sui San and Wei Chen’s place again. Lynnzter and Mid Sized Ben (both got married this year too) organised a dim sum lunch with the Melbourne gang at Tai Pan at Doncaster East.

They even serve battered durian. Gavin Tan is not a fan of durian so I made sure his hands smell of durian before leaving the place. I rubbed some durian on his hands while he wasn’t looking. WAHAHA.

Wei Chen sent us to the airport on the last day. The flight back was rather uneventful except that the lanolin cream that I bought for my mother got confiscated (6 bottles!). It seems that I cannot bring in any liquid exceeding 250g into the departure lounge. Strangely, the same lanolin was sold in the departure lounge!


Other than lanolin, I bought my stash of coffee beans!

Anyway, the trip was awesome. Many thanks to friends who gave their time and space to comfort and entertain us.