One day in Sydney

Our somewhat circuitous route to Singapore takes us to Sydney for a day, first. Leaving California, we were pleasantly surprised when the ticketing agent waved our visa application fee for Australia ($70 savings right there!), and handed us boarding passes for seats 56 j and 56 k. Neither Jen or I had ever seen seat numbers or letters so large before!

And indeed, our plane was huge (including what appeared to be a second-story). It boasted individual monitors on every seat with a selection from 80 different movies (that we actually wanted to see (!)), many music cds, audio books, and video games. My seat mate on the other side turned out to be a Peruvian man who owns Inca Runners, and we talked for a long time about what we saw and did in Peru. He was on his way to a skiing vacation in Australia.

We arrived at Australia in the morning but it took us quite awhile to get out of the airport. First we had to negotiate a little bit with the customs agent who was concerned that we'd been in Peru in the last 6 days, but didn't have yellow fever inoculations (even though, as we explained, we hadn't been in any jungle areas). Then, a different agent in quarentine spotted Jen's new juggling balls, and needed to cut one open (a little) to make sure there weren't any seeds or shells inside; which, of course, there were. He was on the verge of confiscating them, while I was asking whether we couldn't just keep them in the airport for a day, or maybe stay in the airport the night ourselves, because we were flying out the very next day. Finally he relented and cautioned us not to take them out of our bags during our night in Sydney.

We took a quick shuttle ride from the airport to Backpacker Headquarter hostel (past Harry's Singapore Chili Crab, which I'd read about on the internet!), where we checked into our dormitory-style bunks. Paying $40 for bunk-beds in dorms with shared facilities was certainly a shocking change from what we were used to in Peru. As it turned out, while they weren't exactly tidy, they were quiet during the night, which we thought was a great success for a Friday night. It was our first experience this trip in true "backpacker" hostels, and we definitely felt out of our element among a crowd that seemed focused primarily on partying. Is a party in Sydney really that different from a party in California or Singapore? We didn't really see the point.

We spent the afternoon wandering around Sydney which is probably the most beautiful big city we've ever been in. We expected cars to drive on the left, but didn't think that pedestrian traffic would, of course, also be on the left. This proved difficult for us to remember, since we naturally tend to step right in the micro-negotiations with oncoming walkers. All of the crosswalks had reminders stenciled on the ground to "Look right!" for traffic. We were told later that, even with the precautions, Sydney has over 300 pedestrian traffic accidents a year.

We found an excellent book shop with an extremely friendly clerk in the travel section, who gave us advice about Vietnam, detailed his selection (at length), talked with us about California, and generally shared our excitement for things. Jen thought he could tell that we probably weren't in the market for his books, so he encouraged us to stop back past his shop after we return from Asia if 4 months to tell him how it went.

We walked down to see the Sydney opera house, and were about to walk over the bridge when the wind picked up, clouds came in, and a light drizzle started. I was ecstatic, if somewhat cold in a t-shirt and sandals.

The light in the evening was the most beautiful, amazing light I've ever seen. The cloud cover dimmed the ambient light to a soft dusk, while a breath-taking golden yellow suffused the entire atmosphere. We walked home, past sky scrapers, parks, squares and fountains through this ambrosia, finally arriving back home with the darkness. For Dinner, we enjoyed the delicious fare of the neighborhood restaurant "Mum's Thai Takeaway".

In the morning it was back to the airport, for our flight to Singapore (which also served an excellent curry meal--the best I've had on an airplane) to meet Khir and Terry at the airport. But that story will be for next time.