Winter in July (Part III, Days 8 & 9)

My plan for the trip
Day 1-3: pre-wedding photoshoot for Steve & Teresa
Day 4: City tour with Steve & Teresa
Day 5: Birthday! (Treetop adventures and dinner)
Day 6 & 7: City tour on my own
Day 8: Pastry & Manly
Day 9: Blue Mountains and Jenolan Caves


Originally on day 8, Tien and I were supposed to go out for whale watching but due to the swells being too high that day it was canceled. Good thing they told us ahead of time and we were able to get a refund and plan other things.

Tien and I met up for brunch on Friday and we took the bus from Central Station to an area called Newtown. The streets in Sydney as you make your way away from the city reminds me of old American towns where the main street is lined with little one-level shops tightly packed together. That's kind of like how Newtown is. The main campus of the University of Sydney is also in the area, and at the little pastry shop that we had brunch at seems like there are lots of uni students who visit.

Apparently pies are a big thing in Australia.... and I saw a Pie Face bakeshop on almost every street in the city.... but I didn't try any of them. Tien told me the one that she'll take me to is the best!

We visited the Black Star Pastry in Newtown on Australia Street (so easy to remember the name of the street!). It's a tiny shop and there are no tables, just a bench inside the shop window and one just outside.... that morning they had a couple selection of pies (a lamb one, a beef brisket....) and some quiches (a lorraine, a shirley, and one other name that I can't remember...) - we went with the beef brisket pie and a quiche shirley (that's mushroom and five herbs). Both were superb! hot and fresh! all I can say is YUMMMMMMMM!

 above left: slice of strawberry & watermelon cake; above right: quiche shirley & beef brisket pie

 below right: orange cake with fig

We also got a slice of their Strawberry & Watermelon cake! I think it's a signature cake as every person who went in to the shop came out with a slice. How cool is this cake? Who would have ever thought to put sliced watermelon in a cake!?!??! But it's sooooo good! Light and sweet, perfect to eat under the sun. After the cake we were still a little hungry so we got a piece of the orange cake with fig - YUM! All of these sweets were accompanied by a cup of tea - Tien got the Japanese Blossoms and I got a tea that was called Honey---- (I can't remember it, but I picked it cuz the name was funny sounding.... :D). Tien's Japanese Blossom tea smelled really good, mine didn't smell as sweet, but it was perfect with the sweet cakes we had.

After our fulfilling brunch we decided to walk along the main street of Newtown and check out some of the stores. There are actually a lot of independent clothing stores (some of the clothes had really nice patterned fabric! I wanted to just buy the dress/shirt cuz of the fabric!) and some had nice stationery and cards, or interesting items for the home.... Tien and I could have easily spent the whole day just going in and out of the shops.

After less than an hour, we had to start making our way to the harbour to catch the ferry to Manly. The ride out to Manly was quite pleasant, we sat outside on the ferry and got a great view of the Opera House and the cityline of Sydney. We also saw the Gap - the only way into Sydney Harbour from the sea..... and after about 45 mins we arrived in Manly.

Photo of the Gap: Before coming to Sydney, I always heard Teresa say "how can the sky be so blue here?"; once I arrived in Sydney, I heard the photographer say every day "how can the sky be so blue and perfect here?"; as I traveled though Sydney, I wondered "wow! How can the sky be so perfect everyday? even when it's gloomy in the morning the sun and blue sky always show up sometime during the day..."

Manly is really just another beach area..... nothing particularly interesting, most people just like to take the ferry - that's the highlight. We walked out to the tip of Manly with a cup of Max Brenner hot chocolate. We also got an order of fish and chips - both were quite good!

We reached Sydney near the end of the sunset and then made our way to Hog's Breath Cafe for steak and ribs. Afterwards we walked across Darling Harbour and went to Guylian for more hot chocolate and chocolate desserts!

Day 9 - I'm so excited for the last day in Sydney! We're going to Blue Mountain and Jenolan Caves for abseiling and caving!!!!!

If you have time for road trips when in Sydney, going to Blue Mountain can be an option. Lots of scenery to see and there are different things to do - like visiting a petting zoo, picking fruits in orchards, getting immersed in a bit of Aboriginal culture etc. Blue Mountain is an area of mountain ranges and canyons - looks a bit like the Grand Canyon in the States, but Blue Mountain has a lot of eucalyptus trees which give off a kind of oil and when it mixes with the air it creates a blue-ish haze that makes the mountain look blue.

We made our first stop at the most famous lookout point to see the Three Sisters rocks. Aboriginal folklore says the three sisters fell in love with three men from another tribe and to prevent them running off with these three men, the witch of the tribe turned them into stone. However, the two tribes got into a war and the witch either died or forgot about the three sisters, so they remain as rocks till now. ~ poor girls!

I love your hair in this photo Teresa! Haha, I didn't know that it was standing straight up!

Background: The Three Sisters rocks; Foreground: three sisters from UofT

 above: walking out to the three sisters rocks

Teresa told me about Blue Mountain while I was planning my Sydney trip, and so I did a bit of research.... I wanted to see the place too, but also wanted to DO something while there. There's a cable car ride and an aboriginal village close by. There are also lots of amazing waterfalls along the route to Blue Mountain. But I found that if we drove another 1.5 hours we would reach Jenolan Caves which has karst rocks and caves (similar to the ones that I saw on my trip in Hanoi and Halong Bay), what's even more cool is that you can go caving and do abseiling!

Luckily Teresa, Steve and Tien were all up for it - especially Tien she was also excited and very much looking forward to abseiling! This was our "no fears" trip as we fearlessly approach the next decade of our lives. Hehe....  I quickly booked us for the Plughole adventure which is great for beginners to caving.

above left: we passed by lots of farms and saw cows and sheep all sleeping or running on the big fields

above right: an arch showcasing the limestone features of the caves - there are bats in the caves FYI...

When we arrived at Jenolan caves we had to go through a big cave that was like the tunnel entrance, that was already jaw-dropping amazing! But we went through it so fast I couldn't take any photos! There's one hotel and restaurant there for those who want to spend a night exploring the caves that's an option! I'm sure that will be really cool too and you'll probably get to see lots of stars.

The hotel is built into the side of the caves/mountain and from above it looks like a house that you might find in Switzerland or something.... take a look at the map and the board of caves/self-guided tours and you'll see that there are LOADS of caves to explore! I think it would be really nice to go on a self-guided tour as well - compared to the caves we visited in Hanoi and Halong Bay (which were also very impressive), the good thing about Jenolan Caves is that you will never feel like it's packed full of tourists. You actually have time and space to admire the weird shapes and formations you'll see.

After a quick lunch - everyone ate lots because we're going to need energy to go caving! we went to the meeting point for our Plughole Adventure and got prepped for abseiling and caving. We couldn't take in anything with us as we'll need to use our whole body and we'll be getting very dirty slipping through cracks and crevices.

Our gear consisted of blue workmen overalls to protect our body and clothes, helmets with a head lamp, harness for abseiling and our own sturdy shoes. We didn't need our windbreakers and scarves because once we get into the caves it's about 15-17 degrees celcius (whereas outside where we gathered it's more about 7-8 degrees celcius)! We then proceeded to the entry point to abseil our way down into the cave entrance. Of the four of us, Tien went first - she was so brave and didn't hesitate at all! After going down about two meters we could no longer see her.... but heard that the whole thing wasn't that long just about seven meters.... next up was me... I was a little nervous because I was afraid that my right arm wouldn't be able to support me going down and I would dislocate my shoulder - I should have probably used my left arm instead.....

This is what we looked like.... nah! that's a photo I found on the internet cuz I didn't have a camera with me so no photos of us in our gear! :(

We really did abseil down into this hole

Teresa followed and I can understand how scary it must be for those who have not tried abseiling before, and you're not familiar with what's below and what's your next step.... plus you're thinking about so many different things - keeping your feet flat agains the rock face, sitting back into your harness, holding your arm behind you, and "what's going to happen" or "where do I step" or "what are they yelling at me to do?"

Steve was last, but he came down super fast! Maybe it's his long legs, or that he slipped a few times.... yikes! There was even one time when it looked like he was going to come down head first instead! :P

Oh how I wish I had my iPhone with me during this experience! There could have been so many cool photo opportunities! As you'll see in the hand drawn map, we made our way into the caves and came to the root chamber. We see the roots of an old pine tree in this chamber because usually cavers will plant a pine tree next to the entrance to a cave so that from far they know where the entrance is. the chamber we were in was an old entrance that is now sealed as it fell in on itself, so we had to go through the plughole entrance.

The following photos were taken by our guide while caving, thankfully they were able to do this for us! Don't we all look like the despicable me minions? So cute!

Teresa coming through "the window"

Tien looks like she easily drilled her way through "the window"

Steve, barely, squeezing through "the window"

Me, coming out of the s-bend

Not to give too much away about this tour, but we had to squeeze through cracks which most people would think "can I fit through that????", and it was almost like being a kid again and going through those playgrounds that have tunnels and slides. We went through cracks like small cottage windows, a mailbox slit (I don't know how we all managed to fit through but we did!), an s-bend (which is much more difficult to get through than a u-bend) and climb over rocks and boulders.

I found a photo of one of our guides - Geoff, he and the other guide (Stephen) were always scaring us with stories about how we won't make it out of the caves alive! They didn't fool us one bit!

At the end of it, we arrived in one part of the Imperial Caves and saw another guided tour - theirs was a lot more easy where they walk on man-made paths and didn't have to crawl through cracks, but we were all proud of the dirt all over our bodies and faces! We did it! And it was so much fun!

Wish we could have stayed overnight and gone to explore more caves! Teresa, Steve, Tien, you guys should definitely visit again when you get a chance.

There are day trips from Sydney with tour groups to Blue Mountain and Jenolan caves in case those of you who visit Sydney and don't have access to a car - don't despair!

That night we got back to Sydney and then went to for dinner at a Karaoke place - they have loads of English songs and are quite up to date, and the food there was really good! Sorry I don't have any photos but I think the place is called Lantern.

The following day, we had to wake up early as I had a 10am flight to Ho Chi Minh City..... thankfully on the 9 hour flight I had a free seat to myself, so I got to take some naps while stretching out my legs. And when I got to Ho Chi Minh City, I treated myself to a big bowl of beef noodle!

Now that I've been back in Hong Kong for a little over a week, I'm still reminiscing about my trip - it was definitely memorable and I am so glad that Steve and Teresa invited me over to help them with their photo shoot. Tien also did a fabulous job showing me around Sydney. I can't wait till the next time I visit Steve, Teresa and Tien in Australia - it's bound to be another adventure.


Special thanks to Tien for sharing some of her photos seen here in this post.

Winter in July (Part II, Days 5-7)

My plan for the trip
Day 1-3: pre-wedding photoshoot for Steve & Teresa
Day 4: City tour with Steve & Teresa
Day 5: Birthday! (Treetop adventures and dinner)
Day 6 & 7: City tour on my own
Day 8: Pastry & Manly
Day 9: Blue Mountains and Jenolan Caves

Day 5, is July 15! My birthday! I wanted to DO something for my birthday, so I found out there were ziplines and treetop obstacle courses in Sydney - and so happy that Tien was able to celebrate with me! This trip was both our last 20s birthday.... so we want to make as many unforgettable experiences as possible. And you will not believe how unforgettable it became....



We were going to Treetop Adventures, this is an outdoor obstacle course that is high up in the trees and there are also ziplines. We signed up for the adult one which includes 4 courses, each one more difficult than the previous one. We didn't have a car, so we had to take the train and bus to the park - but it's not that far from the city centre - if you have a car, I think the drive is about an hour; by train and bus it took us 2.5 hours or so to get there. This will be a good place to go to on the weekend as they also have a huge park and barbecue spots.

When we got there we saw a group of children probably around 5-6 years old on the kiddie course, which is already super exciting and cool for them!

We had training on how to use the safety grips - which thankfully are the greatest invention ever! I can't quite remember the order of the courses but they are colour coded - I think we went on Green, Blue, Red and then Black..... The first one was not too difficult, most of the obstacle course consists of some hanging wood blocks that you have to walk, or crawl, across; there are also ziplines on each course - sometimes more than one.

 above right: the safety grips, and the lime green thing is the wheels that we use for ziplining!

above & below video: Tien ziplining!!!!

But it does get physically tiring, especially as you have to climb up a ladder at the beginning of each course, mostly it's the using arms part that will tire you out. By the third course I was already quite tired and the wooden blocks and obstacles we had to get across were less and less stable. It was almost like walking across woodblocks that were not joined - these were just hanging in the air on their own....  and it was on one of these blocks that I lost my balance and reached out with my arm to grab something and my body was going in all directions possible (I don't know really how it looked cuz I couldn't see myself) but I think my legs went in opposite direction and my right arm was pulled in a weird direction because all of a sudden I felt a sharp pain and had no strength in my right arm. I hung on only with my left arm on the safety grips - thank goodness those worked.

the part of the course where I lost my balance, dislocated my shoulder and had to lowered down...

I had to get help, they had to cut me out of my harness and made a pulley thing to lower me down to the ground, and because we didn't really know what happened they had to call paramedics to come - I think I might have dislocated my shoulder? So there I lay on the ground - it was actually not so bad, I really quite enjoyed the grass around me, although I was lying with my head downhill.... but I couldn't move cuz just moving a little hurt.

looks like I'm enjoying lying on the grass.... it was really nice actually. - but I was really waiting for the paramedic

The paramedic came after a long while - it was starting to get chilly after I stopped sweating, and he couldn't really see if my shoulder was dislocated, but tried to put it back in anyways. He gave me a "whistle" to breathe in some pain killer, I don't know if it really helped but I screamed anyway when he brought my arm up - maybe I was screaming more out of fear of the pain.... :D I heard a slight pop sound and after that the pain started to fade.

Well, that was how my birthday went! Tien says I certainly made lots of unforgettable memories with her! Thank you for being with me Tien! And a special big thank you to the staff at Treetop Adventures - it was a fun day and even in this situation where I got hurt they were with me the whole time and the guy who lowered me to the ground got to cut his first harness!!!! Lots of firsts for everyone!

Thanks to the Paramedic who came to help me, he was so nice and also dropped us off close to the train station.

I would still recommend Treetop Adventures to anyone who lives in or visits Sydney, just be sure that if you are prone to dislocating a part of your body maybe speak to them first to find out what you shouldn't do. I should have probably not grabbed for anything.... They also do a zipline where you can see the Sydney cityline with a hike through the bushes and you can learn about nature conservation.

Tien and I then went to Nando's because we both have never tried it before - and I have heard so much about it in our office from the boys from the UK and Steve..... I actually didn't really know what it is.... thought it sounded Indian actually so I thought it might be Indian chicken or something. Turns out it's a Portugese chicken place, and well.... as with anything that's over-hyped and I have expectations for, this didn't blow me away as the best chicken ever!

We had to then make our way back to the city to meet up with Steve and Teresa for dinner, we were going to Korean barbecue! We didn't end up sharing with them this last part at Treetop Adventures because we didn't want them to worry (and... also cuz we were going abseiling in a few days....)


Day 6 - for the next two days I was left on my own as Steve, Teresa and Tien had work, which actually is good as I get to do stuff that maybe they would have found a bit boring... haha... mostly I went into the city and walked around looking at galleries and museums, learning my way around the streets and getting a better idea of how the city is laid out.

Walked across the Sydney Harbour Bridge

Thankfully over the weekend when Steve and Teresa had their photo shoot the weather was beautiful - clear blue skies with a few clouds scattered.... during the two days I was on my own, the mornings were a bit gray, but by noon we would see the blue skies again. The first day on my own, I walked across the Harbour Bridge. It's not a long walk and it's something nice to do when it's not so hot out. Although the protective fencing on either side of the bridge really distracts from the nice view of the harbour and the Opera House.... but you just got to look through the holes for an unobstructed view. :) It's not really so much for the view, but I enjoyed the walk just because - there's no reason.

After crossing the bridge, I stopped by the Sydney Observatory because I had seen it when we passed by onto the bridge in a car, it's actually a very nice place to lookout from as there's nothing to obstruct. Would have been good to come here for some photos during the shoot.... I found out that there would be a guided tour of the dome and some 3D movies later on in the afternoon so I decided to go to the Art Gallery of NSW first and come back later to explore further.

On my way through the city to the Art Gallery, I passed by several parks, and it's interesting to see so many people out of the office in the park during office hours! They were playing rugby, ultimate frisbee, having those group exercise sessions etc.

Art Gallery of New South Wales

The Art Gallery of NSW has free admission, you might need to pay for any special exhibition that they are hosting - but they always have their permanent exhibition which is free. The building looks like a historic building outside, but inside it's already been transformed into the typical white gallery walls. They have both classical paintings, Australian and aboriginal art as well as contemporary art.

It took me nearly 3 hours in the Art Gallery, and was time to start walking back to the Observatory. I decided to walk through The Rocks so that I could take a quick look. Not much to see there. It's more like a street that has bars/pubs and some shops.... I think these were old warehouses by the harbour. Maybe if I had more time to explore some of the other streets then I might find something interesting, but walking through it there didn't seem like much.

footprints on the wall

The Observatory is situated on Observatory Hill, which has unobstructed view as it must be seen by boats in the olden times and it must also be able to see clearly as far as it can. The building and grounds are well kept and I think it can be rented out as an events venue as well.

I quickly signed up for the tour I wanted and then took a look around the museum. The tour showed us a 3D video of how big the universe is - comparing our size with the planets in our solar system, with those in other solar system and how big the unknown is. Quite impressive - I wish they would show more of these movies for free.... The 3D-ness was actually better than those in the movies. I guess it might be cuz in the movie theatre the action is too fast for the 3D to have an impact, but here the transitions are a bit slower....? haha.....

Then we went up to the North Dome, and the guide turned on the telescope and opened up the dome. We weren't able to see the sun because there were clouds in the sky covering it. But he did try to let us find things through the telescope. And he showed us images of the Sun spitting.

The observatory has star-gazing tours in the evening - best to check on their website for times and sign up before hand. You can also pay AUD 300 to have a star named after yourself.

After this, I went to meet Steve at his office and got a tour. Said hi to a few people that I had met in Hong Kong. For dinner that night we went to a place for Korean Fried Chicken - Charim Korean Restaurant (7 Falcon Street). The smell of deep frying was so strong when you enter the restaurant, it's actually a little repulsive..... but once the fried chicken came out and you started eating then you don't notice it. It was quite good and we had so much food - side note: remember to ask for the sauce on the side (I don't like it when they slather the sauce on the chicken and makes it soggy).

Day 7 - I was going to meet up with Tien for lunch near her work place, so I decided to check out the area that she works in. It's near Central Station, and as the name suggests it's pretty central, there are lots of districts that you can walk to from there - China Town, Central Park area which is seeing a kind of revival into the artsy/marketing/graphic design community. I decided to check out the White Rabbit Gallery (just behind Queen st. and Regent st.). This is an art gallery that features Contemporary Chinese Art - it's funny how I can see contemporary Chinese art overseas, but when I visit China I don't see these as easily (maybe also I haven't really looked for them). This gallery is free admission, and they have a nice gift shop and teahouse on the ground floor.

There are some amazing works in the gallery, and some that are very weird and strange (a floating castle made of black leather, chains and nuts & bolts; robotic wheels constrained to move in only a specific area while spraying paint; photos of the marks of jewelry and clothes on the body that take 14 minutes to disappear).... but hey that's what is allowed in an art gallery! :D Below are some of my favourite works.

I particularly like this Chinese painting that looks like the traditional ink paintings, but if you look closely you'll see that it's actually made up of nails.

And this one is a very faintly painted painting - it's about the 1989 Tiananmen square incident, the reason why it's so faint is because it implies the Chinese government covering up the incident, and how over time this has faded in some people's memory. It also signifies that if we want to see and understand the real events we have to squint and scrutinize with effort.

Then I had to make a run for it to meet Tien for lunch at the Living Mall in Central Park.... which just happened to be right next to the gallery! I thought it would be somewhere far away and I would need to google it, but there was a little park/sit-out area and I saw some boards up that said Central Park..... hahaha.... but the mall is quite cool - the Living Mall is a concept that every part of the mall is alive, and the people who work and visit there are living and their pulse and heartbeat are reflected in the mall.

We had Brazilian food at a restaurant in the basement - Fogo. It was really good meat! I don't think I've every tried Brazilian food before. We got a mixed platter that had beef, pork, chorizo, lamb etc. All was good! And of course we had fries with it!


That afternoon I decided to go to Bondi beach as Tien highly recommended it and I thought it would be good to go and write my postcards by the beach. I had to take the subway to Bondi Junction station and then change to a bus. The bus system in Sydney is not the easiest as you have to buy tickets and not all buses sell tickets now! How frustrating when you have to find somewhere that sells them. The bus to Bondi beach doesn't sell tickets so be sure to buy your ticket from one of the convenience stores in the station, and make sure to get a return ticket as well....

(I also got a round trip ticket on the subway, and they only recently installed a new system called Optus card - similar to Hong Kong's Octopus card, hopefully they will make this available for visitors soon that would be so much easier!)

even though it's winter, you'll still find flowers on some of the trees...

Bondi beach was ok.... not that special it's just a beach.... Sorry! But seriously.....  I walked across the beach to some of the cliffs, but Tien said I didn't go far enough to see the super cliffs (we'll have to go back some other time then). I sat down at a cafe, had a cup of flat white (by the way I was so confused with what to order for coffee.... I couldn't just get a cup of regular coffee it had to be either a flat white, long black, latte, espresso etc.) and got writing my postcards.

Soon after I finished writing the postcards, I had to start making my way back to the city for dinner at Chat Thai as we were going to watch the Lion King that night at Capitol Theatre.

Steve and Teresa specially asked me if I wanted to watch it as they know that I know all the old Disney songs and Lion King is one of the ones that I know ALL the SONGs! (Thank you to who ever it was that gave my baby brother the Lion King video for his birthday.) The Lion King is performed by an almost all Aussie cast and it was superbly done - the costumes are AMAZING! Seriously I would say to watch it just for the costumes. All the animals of the safari (from the lions to the elephants to the birds) are all done so well - all the technicalities and mechanics of their movements are also thought through. All the actors were excellent as well - Zazu, Timon, Pumba, Scar, all sounded like they were exactly from the movie. The little girl who played Nala on the night we watched had beautiful voice when singing....

The story and songs most people will be familiar with - although the songs have been rearranged and also some new songs have been written into the story.

The Lion King is definitely worth watching - tickets are not cheap, AUD 120 per person - but I think they deserved it as I can imagine the production costs and you'll just have a great time - even those who don't usually watch musicals should enjoy it.


Special thanks to Tien for sharing some of her photos seen here in this post.