Last day in Sydney: final note

I'm flying back to KL in 7 hours. I will have to wake up in about 4 hours, and here I am, wide awake.

I blame the weather. We arrive Tuesday morning and it was nice & cozy. However, last few days it's been a wee bit too warm for my liking.

Sydney has stayed pretty much the same since 1999, albeit some minor changes. I managed to to catch up with a few friends, two of whom got married in 2003 and are now blessed with 2 beautiful girls.

I also managed to go around Sydney as a tourist since I first came here in 1996. Wifey was right to point out that I hardly travelled around Sydney- guess I'm not that adventurous. I just like to stick around my uni, have my north indian butter chicken, pizza & ice cream, and occasionally visit Chinatown for Penang Sar Hor Fun.  Incidentally, the pizza joint in Newtown I used to patron for pizzas & chocolate ice cream and the Malaysian Chinese restaurant in Chinatown are no longer there. Even Sydney Christian Life Centre, my home church in Sydney, is now a part of Hillsongs Church.

I still love the busses & trains, and how friendly most Aussies are to tourists. If only we can have a bit of sensible infrastructure planning & courtesy.

Sydney is still my favourite place to migrate to, if given the opportunity. Funny thing is, I would have stayed back after my graduation if not for my rebound GF then. Imagine what kind of life it would have been; I reckon there would be no GX or performing arts for me here. Defintely I would not have met Wifey.

Still not sure what the point of this entry is. Perhaps I just want to put my thoughts down in words before I get lazy to write. 

I've had my fair bit of good & bad memories during my 2 1/2 year stay in Sydney. I'm glad that this time I'm bringing back just good memories shared with wifey.

Maybe I'll come back again one day:)

Back from the beach!

And so the missus & I took a break from work/performance/cats/KL and went to Patong beach in Phuket.

I shall not blog much about it, since most of the time was spent eating the oh-so-expensive food there. Instead I shall just share some photos I took. For more pics you can head on to the missus' blog, by the way.


First, I really don't understand how one can give such a discount:

We went for Thai massage twice at this nice little place which was conveniently situated directly across the road from our hotel. The place is called Sweet Lemongrass Massage.

This is where we stayed for  4 days- Seeka Boutique Resort. Quite convenient since they provide free transportation to the beach or the main shopping mall Jungceylon Shopping Mall.

The reception desk.

Another shot of Sweet Lemongrass Massage, at night. I do recommend this if you stay nearby. It's got great ambiance.

The beach in the evening...

Traffic is quite heavy most of the time.

This is the famous Bangla Road, where all the pubs are located. The road is closed to vehicles daily from 6pm.

Jungceylon Shopping Mall. I wonder why bother shopping there...

If anyone wants to buy some genuine imitation clothes in Patong, this is the place to go.

Interestingly, there is a bar on wheels.

We had our last dinner in Patong at Hard Rock Cafe. IMHO, the place is just overpriced.

In case you couldn't see it in the earlier picture, the place to go shopping in Patong is the OTOP Shopping Paradise.

Note: If you go to this restaurant, they will "paksa" to eat.

The pool at our hotel.

Yes, you can rent motorcycles & even big vehicles!

The beautiful beach: no sign of the damages made by the tsunami in 2004.

What language is this? Saw a lot of signs in this language over there.

We took the bus from Patong to Phuket Town bus terminal for 35 baht each. Then we hopped on the Airport bus for 90 baht each to the airport. The expensive alternative would be taking a taxi from Patong to the airport for 700 baht.

Anyhow, it allowed us to spend a few hours walking around Phuket town. To be honest, Phuket town is SO QUIET. Good thing, though, that the food is so much cheaper.

The Phad Thai is only 40 baht. Good luck finding food that cheap in Patong. Even the sweet coconuts there cost 50-60 baht.

We also chanced upon this fashion expo near the bus terminal. With more options & better pricing, I reckon tourists should just forget about shopping in Patong & come to Phuket town instead.

We spent about 2 hours in town before we took the bus to the airport.

Next holiday destination: SYDNEY 2013!!!!

The best pizzas....

... can be found on the island of Bali.

Man, I think I wanna go to Bali again!

Hard Rock Hotel Penang

In case you haven't heard, Hard Rock Hotel is in Penang!

I was back home for 2 friends' wedding(they married each other) and took the opportunity to see the place since it was their soft opening(19 Sept 2009).

The Beatles at the entrance

As typical Penangites would do, we all decided to storm into the place see how it is. The Hotel used be Casuarina Hotel.

Hotel Lounge
Display at the lobby

Wife with the Beatles

Can't really say much about the place, coz there are just too many walking around.

The Hard Rock Cafe is on the left side of the building. If I'm not mistaken, that place used to be a disco back in the 90's. Think it was my first visit to the disco:)

Hard Rock Cafe Penang

some dude with the King Of Pop right outside the Cafe

At the hotel entrance
Hopefully business here would last. Maybe I can go back for the dining experience in Dec:)

The Bali experience

Bali is definitely one of the best destination for a good time. One of the things we did was of course surfing.

Catching the wave

The theory session conducted right before we hit the waves was quite helpful, but when I made my first few attempts, the results have been far from ideal.

Falling on my butt

Yes, collision can happen while surfing too


Wife also fell face first a couple of times


After numerous attempts, eventually we did get to surf successfully.


"Look ma... NO HANDS!"

Come to think of it, the fun was actually tumbling in our attempts.


Besides surfing, we also did some touristy stuff and visited a couple of places.

at the temple

Waterfall

The temple at Tanah Lot

Dinner at Tanah Lot

Sunset at Tanah Lot

We also did our own free and easy holidays on the motorbike. From this experience, I've learnt that I should always bring my driving license while going on holidays in a foreign country so I could feel at ease riding a rent bike without worrying about the police.

Even though by law we must wear helmets, we just followed the locals


At the hotel pool side

Taking a leak

The Bali Bombing Memorial Monument


The main street of Kuta

Overall, I find Balinese among the friendliest people I've ever met.

The orginal natives were so not so friendly, unfortunately

I enjoyed myself there and I wouldn't mind going for a second trip.



Thank you Bali for a wonderful honeymoon!