My World Blog

Day 4 - ECM Meeting 20/05/05

Venue : Sydney Entertainment Centre
Time  : 1400-1700
            1900-2100

We got ourselves free time earlier this morning so we get some food supplies and some CD-RW to burn the pictures,cuz when u combine 5-6 digicams with full memory card within 2 days,what u get is digital snapshots worth of gigabytes.
I took responsibility in acquiring all the pix and store em.I brought all my essential equipt too..Lucky we have free access to net and pc usage.and the pc got burners too.if not for the free thingy,we have to pay like AUD5 for a CD to be burned at local Internet Cafe. Internet is about AUD2 per hour,quite expensive.

We were ready for the meeting by noon,and off we went to Sydney Entertainment Centre (SEC),which is about 5mins walk from our place. SEC can house tens of thousands ppl in the auditorium and for the ECM meeting we have like couple of thousands ppl attending.Business members comprises of locals,Kiwis,Singaporean and many Malaysians.

The two session meeting went smoothly.Great insights and information shared from the great leaders of the business.

Soon after the meeting ended,My brother’s friend, Afiq who is currently studying in uni in Syd came by and brought Yong,Nain and myself to the famous Pancakes On The Rocks.It was a far walking distance so we took the bus.AUD1.60 within 1 section.The POTR was full and it really shows that they have the best pancakes in town! The portion was very big too!! We ordered two Ultimates,and a regular three-stack pancake.Very delicious aussie pancakes indeed.

To compensate what we’ve eaten,we walked back home.

Day 3 - Paddy’s Day  19/05/05         

Well it was supposed to be the Manly beach day.Here’s the story:
As we guys prepare to go to the beach,the girls looked very reluctant and starts giving excuses this and that.We found out later that it was Thursdays and Paddy’s Market is operating that day.For your info,Paddy’s Market is petaling-street-like market which only operates from Thurs to Sundays.They’ve quite reasonable bargains for almost everything.Well.u really cant part girls with shopping cant you?

There were like 5 of us who were not interested in shopping,and we decided to take our day off to walk and enjoy the scene at Darling Harbor.That seems much better.

Entered Darling Harbor via Liverpool street and we had a relaxed time walking n snapping photos.After strolling inside Harbourside mall,we got onto the Pyrmont Bridge,which connects Darling Harbour and the city.nice view visible here.Pictured here is Novotel Darling Harbour,one of the finest hotel in Sydney

We get off the bridge n walked back towards the city.As you can see here the Sydney Tower is located in the very centre of the Sydney Central Business District(CBD) at Pitt Street.This is how the tower looked like

Next stop,the famous Queen Victoria Building better known as QVB.A  Malaysian company called IGB restored this building.(further info at www.qvb.com.au).The interior is majestic,somewhat like the early 1900 stuffs.

Later in the evening i had lil rest and doing some uploading pictures from the cameras.Cant remember what happened after that.

Day 2 - Sydney 18/05/05

Ah..the long awaited day has arrived.although some challenges met on arranging this day,it was worth it.The smartvisit card is really worthy when u can manage ur time properly.The price is AUD65 and we made a whopping AUD70+ savings on the entrance fees.

Jimi and I rushed to ATS at Harbourside shopping mall,Darling Harbour to get all eighteen SmartVisit card.If not for the info-collecting i’ve done prior the sydney trip,it would be time consuming to choose what attractions shall we go.We received a booklet with lists of all the free entry and discounted rate on items for that day.We were ready to go then.After that we checked in at the Harbour Jet counter in the shopping mall too,while waiting for the rest of the guys to come along.I met Lee,who i correspond through email on the booking and reservation for our group.Everything’s clear and we now have about an hour before our first group of Harbour Jetboat takes off.

Look what we’ve found at the Harbourside shopping centre! Yep what they claim is true.some item even cheaper than Paddy’s Market (petalingstreet version of sydney which opens on Thurs-Sundays)

We decide to make our first stop to the Sydney National Maritime Museum just beside the Harbourside.Free naval tickets for us smartvisit cardholder meaning we can go into the submarines,destroyer and an a’la captain-cook kinda ship.
Anyways,time was limited and we visited only the submarine and the destroyer

We were late for our pre-jetboat departure briefing, and the aussie fella wasnt happy with it,15 minutes late for the first group.We expected a much shorter ride but Adam,our jetboat pilot was very nice and he was excited to take us longer with more stunts coz we were the loudest group he ever driven.Yeah the girls and Shakir were screaming way from the start,purposely and it kinda irritated the one mat salleh fella who joined our boat.Unlucky for him,it was our day.The Jet Blast Ride which features a mean machine boasting a 5.8-litre turbo charged diesel running at 420hp took us went crazy with stunts like 270-degree spins, power brake stops and fishtails.We had fantastic ride with Adam as he didnt just give 2 or 3 spins but countless of them.(look at the snapshots and u can imagine how the jetboat ride was) Two thumbs up!!

The 2nd group departs at 1pm and had a fantastic 35 minutes ride too.We were then very lapar so we sat down and eat by the harbour side.Nasi lemak in a windy sydney afternoon is very yummy.
Seen here in this pic is Adam our great jetboat pilot

Next,we went to the Sydney Aquarium,the home for the famous sharks,giant stingrays and the Great Barrier Reefs habitants which of course,includes Dory and Nemo!

Pity these fellas,i’ve abused them.First i geletek this shark and then i spin the innocent fishes!

Next we get off from Darling Harbor and went to Sydney Opera House.
We managed to get the last guided tour at 4.30pm.No photographs were allowed inside altho,i managed to get few clicks.It was a building in a shell-shaped building.

We didnt get nice photos of opera house this evening as it became darker,and i hvnt mastered Low-light photo shooting.Well Sydney Opera House can wait for other day.
From Opera House we walked back into the city and stopped for the last attraction,Sydney Tower and OzTrek skytour.
The city is beautiful at nite.Witness this view from the highest point in sydney.

We reached our backpackers at around 7+ and it was very tiring as we walked all day long.I had a great sleep and i cant remember what happened after that.Some of the guys went to Darling Harbour and enjoyed nite breeze while playing guitar and having dinner by the harbour side.I missed that,but hey i need to recharge my batteries for the next day.

Day 1 - Taronga Zoo.

My bro n i touched down in Kingsford Smith Sydney Intl Airport at about 7am local time,n went thru declaring at the immigration hassle-less.got a cab into city since our travelling bag made it hard to go by the airport train..Average cab rise from airport to city usually cost AUD25 but it wasnt my day.we were caught in traffic as Sydneysiders were getting their way to work.so i paid a whopping 37AUD from the airport to George Street, which about 10 km far.

Waited about half an hour before checkin in at the backpackers.They were all ready for the day.most of my friends were in sydney for the first time.and for quite number of them it is their first flight overseas.You can imagine the excitement displayed at their face.Nice..

As travel co-ordinator, Jimi and I took charge and led the guys to our first trip for the day - Taronga Zoo.We walked all the way to Circluar Quay wharf to get our ZOOPASS-which includes return ferry ticket to Taronga Zoo + entrance fee + skycar fee.We initially got information from the net that for a group of more than 12 ppl we could get the pass for only AUD22.Unlucky we were the new rates dont apply and we have to pay for AUD 33.50 for the pass.Discussion held and we agreed to pay and go.

At the ferry wharf,waiting for the ferry taking us all to Taronga Zoo

Arrived at Taronga Zoo at around 11am.and we got into the skycar to get to the top entrance.We were greeted by the famous giant Koala bear and the koala bear itself.(Look at picture displayed in earlier blog entry to see the giant koala.)

The Zoo was huge and yet theyre having some construction to make it even more attractive.how i wish we can have all this in our viccinity, I pity you,National Zoo..Then we discovered wombat,emu,echidna,koala and wallaby (in clockwise)

and not forgetting

the rain however kinda disturbed our outing at the zoo.rain+cold weather=a good combination ey? but the rain didnt last long like in malaysia.it is more or less like 5 minutes on-off rain.

Here you can see the guys enjoying and not forgetting the girls too!
Great time together..

Well we ended the day going back to Circular Quay at the evening and spent nite walking about Darling Harbour. It was a tiring but very fun first day in Sydney together.