Travel: Australia - Sydney
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We visited Hay’s Mkt (opens on Wed to Sun only). The 1st level is like our make shift night mkts- many stalls selling the same things (clothes, bags, wigs, hair extensions, miscellaneous small electronics gadgets, toys), some selling sweet confectionary like Turkish delights, soft nougats, assorted nuts in assorted flavours, massage services. The other section is the wet mkt (vegs, fruits, fish, meat).
Many stalls are operated by Chinese speaking Canto. I find the Chinese stalls operators more friendly. The rock melon is only $2 each.
There are factory outlets (apparels, shoes), coffee houses, restaurants, yoghurt n ice cream kiosks in the upper floors.
Think we spent at least 2 hours walking around looking at stuff. -
Near Town Hall Rail Stn is a more up mkt shopping mall QVB. The inside of the mall has a nostalgic feeling- stained glass, old floral iron railings along the sides and staircases, two beautiful old clockworks hanging from the ceiling.
Another shopping mall is The Galeries. We visited the Kinoku… bookstore. Very good selection of books.
Opposite The Galeries is Woolworth where we did our groceries. There are many small convenience shops around, but the prices are slightly higher than Woolworth. For example, on our 1st night, we bou a 200g of can Milo at $4.95 from a convenience shop. Woolworth was having a promo for 450g at $4.60
Town Hall Rail Stn also has its own shopping mall. -
foreverj:
We did not rent a car, but chose to take the train to go to Blue Mountain. We walked to Darling Harbour (abt 3 to 4 traffic junctions, the distance between each junction is relatively short), took a train to Blue Mountain on our own (did not join any day tour). We relied mostly on public transport to explore the place.hi jennifer, thanks for the detailed description. did u take any day tours for the sydney trip? seems like everything was free n easy n u navigated around the area yourself?
in your opinion, which r the must-go places? tks!
Parking in Sydney is expensive and peak hour traffic is not sth we want to grapple with
The city centre is like our housing estate, very easier to navigate around. Just need to remember the street names and some bldg. The bldgs are not very tall, we can see our serviced apt (a taller one) from afar. -
I think must-go places depend on who u are travelling with.
For my family, we split up into 2 groups - #2 with me, elder boy with hubby.
I took #2 to the Sydney Aquarium and we spent at least 3 hours looking at marine animals. Onboard the Captain Cook's ship was fun too. There is another ship that offers dining cum seeing sailors setting sails, but we did not go for this one.
National Maritime Museum is free entry since we bou the tickets to Captain Cook's ship. There is a Shark exhibition on now, so my boy got to see 2 exhibits of the sharks' jaws with the rows of pointy teeth. There is also an exhibit of sharks teeth from the diff ages. We learnt that some sharks shed 10 thousand teeth in their lifetime. We saw the original maps & transcripts, sea voyage equipments, china recovered from sunken ships. -
tks jennifer! thats the thing abt the city. if staying in city, shld not drive. expensive n stressful to navigate. possible to share on hw much u spent in total? airtic, accomodation plus expenses there. if not convenient to share publicly, can pm me. many tks!
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While researching on places to visit with children, I did not see any mention on Luna Park. http://www.lunaparksydney.com
It is located opposite Sydney Opera House, the other end of the Harbour Bridge. To go there, can take the train (Milsons Pt stn) or take the ferry from Circular Quay or take the water taxi from Darling Harbour.
We did not hv time for this free entry to park, pay for rides only amusement park. -
foreverj:
possible to share on hw much u spent in total? airtic, accomodation plus expenses there
Thinking back on how much we spent and how much activities we covered, I think we did not get our money worthwhile :lol:
SIA flights already costed us slightly more than $4 (elder boy has to pay for adult fare).
Accommodation was around A$1.6k with 3 days internet access and late checkout.
I took about A$400 cash with me, left A$100 (Aquarium A$53, Captain Cook A$50+, water taxi A$50). Hubby paid with his credit card for the dinners at Circular Quay, Chinatown and Darling Harbour. Think the most expensive dinner was at Circular Quay, ard A$180 for 4 main courses.
Blue Mountain was return train cum Red Explorer bus @ Blue Mountain, ard A$190 (family 2 A, 2 C). -
If planning to go bush walking at Blue Mountain, it is better to bring along a change of clothes (plus lotsa kitchen towels for cleaning up) for the children. My #2 slid and landed on his bottom. Dun know if it had rained the day before we arrived or the terrain is supposed to be like that (wet and muddy in some places).
If the children are too young, must choose the more suitable bush walking route (there are at least 3 of them). Or try the Scenic World Walkway (2 choices of walk) which is made up of wooden planks, no muddy grounds. Do take note phone signal is out in this area and there is no toilet facility until u get back to the Scenic World top stn.
The Scenic Cableway n Skywalk are like our cable car, just higher above, can see the rocks closer.
The Scenic Railway is not a railway ride around the place. It's like the tram at HongKong the Peak, goes one way up or one way down. The exciting part is it passes through a very short tunnel (aka dark enclosed area) and it is at a steep incline. Very safe as it has a metal railing around the tram. The catch is to experience the olden days of mining workers travelling in the tunnels.
I came across some day tour brochures that go to Blue Mountain with some attractions (like the Featherdale Park and Penrith white water rafting) along the way there. I think these other attractions shld be visited after going to Blue Mountain as the Scenic World last rides is at 4.50pm and the Red Explorer bus ends by 5pm, the Trolley Bus ard 5.30pm. -
For the more adventureous traveller, can try out http://www.penrithwhitewater.com.au/html_05/home/index_real.htm
More on Penrith http://www.penrithaustralia.com.au/ -
Jennifer:
Hi Jennifer, when did you get back to spore? my family just got back from there last night.For the more adventureous traveller, can try out http://www.penrithwhitewater.com.au/html_05/home/index_real.htm
More on Penrith http://www.penrithaustralia.com.au/
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