Sydney: Touchdown and Back from Down Under

The Southern hemisphere beckoned after ten years and I was all set to visit the country where it all started i.e. Australia. This would be one unique two day trip, the first of its kind where the main intention was to get our passports stamped in order to activate our long term permanent Australia visa.
It all happened in the blink of an eye and on the Tuesday we decided that we would spend the weekend in Sydney. Flight tickets and hotel bookings were done in a flash and we decided to postpone our thoughts regarding the financial repercussions of this unique southern hemisphere trip. We would travel Mumbai-Bangkok-Sydney and return via Singapore. Jet Airways would take us away and into Mumbai while Qantas would connect us to Sydney.
We boarded the Jet Airways flight from Mumbai to Bangkok in the early hours on Saturday. As expected, this followed a sleepless night involving the drive from Pune to Mumbai. The aircraft provided for these so called ‘feeder’ flights are mostly used on short domestic hauls and hence is cramped for leg-space for someone of my size. But such was the effect of the sleepless night that I dozed off in no time following breakfast. The four hour flight was followed by a two hour transit halt at Bangkok after which we were all set to board the long haul Qantas Airbus A-330 flight to Sydney. We got goose-bumps at the thought that we would be in Sydney in 9 hours, something which we had no idea about till about a week back. The mood set in and we were as fresh as ever following some sleep on the previous flight. After a thoroughly enjoyable evening flight watching movies and enjoying wine, we touched down at Sydney at the scheduled time of 6:30 in the morning. We were booked at the Ibis Hotel in Darling Harbour, at the heart of the city. The airport information desk told us that a shuttle bus service would take us there at 21 AUD per head. This looked to be a good deal, just that due to blockage of some of the roads the bus dropped us on the side of the harbour which was opposite to the hotel, thus we had to cross the long foot bridge with luggage and all at the wee hours of the morning in a half-asleep state. We managed somehow, as we did not have much luggage for a two-day trip. The expected bad news was that the hotel would provide us a room only by noon. So till then we would have to kill time either at the lobby or go for a walk. We left our luggage at the store room, had some coffee and set off for a walk in the Darling Harbour. First thing we did was to have a sumptuous English breakfast. This was followed by a walk around Darling Harbour. Slowly we had killed enough time to be close to noon. Our room on the ninth floor provided a breathtaking view of the Darling Harbour and during the course of our stay we would see the harbour in various form and colours, varying with the weather. We freshened up in our room trying our best to shed off the jet lag as we had very limited time to enjoy although I couldn’t help taking a power nap. By the time we were ready to leave the hotel room it was almost 3 PM. This was winter time, hence we were aware that the daylight hours would be limited. We realized we would only have a couple of hours of it. First task was to figure out what to do as far as sight-seeing was concerned. It looked pretty straight forward. The Harbour Bridge and Opera house had to be done first and think of everything else later. We quickly booked tickets for a water taxi which would take us to the Opera house and get us back till as late as 10 PM. We were too happy at that. 

The water taxi took us through the waters in the twilight and soon enough we zoomed past below the magnificent, majestic Sydney Harbour bridge. I was here exactly a decade back and it was great to revive all those memories. Soon enough the iconic ‘lotus’ appeared, assuming a golden hue against the setting sun. As we disembarked from the water taxi we were told that we were mistakenly provided return tickets valid till 10 PM and that there would be no service post 6 PM which was just one hour away. We were promised refund of our tickets. Additionally we found out that there was nothing to worry as there was a regular ferry service till late in the night for Darling Harbour. So we had the full evening ahead of us around the Opera House. The sun was now setting, providing us a majestic silhouette of the Harbour Bridge. The Opera House was surrounded by a number of restaurants in the vicinity overlooking the sea and the Harbour Bridge. We were hungry by this time and decided to have our favourite fish n chips by the seaside. Twilight now gave way to lights as the evening set in and soon the bridge was all lit up. The beautiful Sydney skyline under lights was a sight to behold. Post our meal we hung around for a while before heading back to Darling Harbour by the ferry service. Being winter in the Southern hemisphere it was slowly getting colder. We took the opportunity to make our way to the mall in front of our hotel and do some souvenir shopping. Both of us bought Australia branded sweatshirts. It was now time for dinner and we learnt that it will not be too long when most restaurants shut down. Just like often in the past, we settled for an Indian joint in a foreign land. After a post-dinner walk around Darling Harbour, our bodies finally gave in and we retired on to our hotel room with the aim of starting early the next day after a sound sleep.

Koala Bear

Needless to say that was not to be. The lack of sleep, the jet lag, the time zone difference all caught up with our bodies and we would wake up only around noon. We realized that we did not miss much as it was murky with a constant drizzle. Going to Bondy beach was anyways ruled out so we decided to check out the indoor attractions, There was this hugely popular ‘Sea Life’, an under-water aquarium which I had visited ten years back on my previous visit. I knew this was worth a visit and in addition we clubbed the ‘Wild Life Zoo’ as the combo ticket was working well. We started off with the wild life. We viewed a variety of snakes, followed by the obvious Kangaroo but the star attraction was the cute Koala bears. Ever so cute and harmless, they looked to be constantly enjoying a nap, completely oblivious to all the attention given by paying tourists. Once Wild life was over, we moved over to the Sea Life zone. I had been been here on my previous visit and this was as expected, fascinating. The walk through the glass tunnel under water with sharks moving all around you in the water is an enriching experience. Every species of fish found in Australia seemed to be on display in aquariums of various sizes. All this kept both our phone cameras extremely busy. The mood was happy and upbeat so we got ourselves clicked some souvenir photos where the background is photo-shopped with an exotic aquatic scenery.

Shark

It was time now to move out of the Harbour area and walk around the city center. It was evening by this time and most shops were shutting down. However, we managed to walk through a couple of malls, a couple of streets where there was enough people and lastly a souvenir shop where we purchased the customary magnets for the refrigerator back home. We had planned to have dinner at the restaurant next to the Opera House so after a brief visit back to our hotel room,  we boarded the ferry to reach there. It was a calm ride through the evening with a breathtaking view of the lit up bridge. We settled for a fish n chips meal once again and post that we had waffles dessert. It was now time for the last ferry to take us back to Darling Harbour. Before winding up for the day, we made a visit to the casino which was very close to our hotel. Most things may get shut down and most streets might empty out on a winter evening but a casino will never be devoid of life. Unfortunately, we were on our last legs now and needed sleep as we had to take a morning flight back home the next day.

We used the airport shuttle bus service provided by the hotel and hence had to leave a bit early at the scheduled time. After a round of English breakfast at the airport, we boarded our Qantas flight. The highlight of the return flight was the transit via Singapore. Changi airport always gives goosebumps and it looked as grand as ever. After changing of terminals using the train, we were finally on the last leg of our journey on the cramped up Boeing 737 of Jet Airways. This was followed by the late night drive to Pune and in another 5 hours we were on our way to work ending a truly unique trip 9000+ Km away.