Day 2: Sydney

DAY 2: 14.03.2016

(SYDNEY)

“Of all the books in the world, the best stories are found between the pages of a passport.” – Anonymous

We arrived in Sydney at 10.45am. Disebabkan kami bersama dengan wheelchair and stroller, kami diberi keutamaan untuk terus ke “Priority Lane” / “Assistance Lane” so tak perlu queue panjang untuk melepasi kastam dan imigresen. Beg kami pun tak dibuka sebab kami declare je semua dalam Arrival card tu.

Both kids feeling fresh after they slept for a good 6 hours in flight

Next, kami cari taxi yang boleh memuatkan kami semua ke hotel and lepas dah buat perbandingan dengan pre-booked taxi under private shuttle which cost us about AUD248, kami pilih taxi bermeter airport biasa.

Perjalanan dari airport ke hotel kami; Holiday Inn Old Sydney The Rocks mengambil masa about 30 mins (15km away) and the taxi fare is AUD115 one way. See, much cheaper dari private shuttle yang kami survey kat airport tadi. The key word here is: you have to be very rajin to survey anything and buat perbandingan. Sebelum keluar airport, kami pergi ke kaunter Vodafone untuk beli simkad. Kami beli yang data 4G dengan harga AUD40 dan jadikan ia sebagai hotspot untuk semua orang :P

My father at Vodafone counter, Sydney Airport

Our taxi which can fit all 9 of us and our super banyak beg! :P

Holiday Inn Old Sydney The Rocks

Tengah booking (and nego!) for our next travel to the airport i.e. our flights to Queenstown.

So we decided untuk deal terus dengan taxi yang sama untuk ke airport semula bagi penerbangan ke Queenstown supaya senang sikit since that driver dah tahu berapa banyak beg kami dan hotel mana to pick up. Nama taxi driver tu Mohamad and a very nice man. 

Kasilah chance admin rombongan bergambar pulak depan hotel. Hehe :P

With my firstborn yang tak banyak songeh bila travel.

Masa sampai kat hotel around 12.30pm, our rooms were still not ready to check in (supposed to be at 2pm). So lepas dah check in over the counter, kami boleh tinggalkan our luggage and used their facilities kat lobby (we were given a card to swipe the private toilets and showers). Then we decided to go for lunch and lepas dah research sikit, kami bersetuju ke Malay Village about 10 minutes away and located inside the Metcentre Building. Sebenarnya dalam itinerary nak lunch dekat Curry at The Rocks tapi kedai tu tutup pukul 2pm, so rasa macam tak sempat nak jalan ke sana dan nak mencari arah lagi.

Alhamdulillah food sedap dan harga kami makan dan minum haritu dalam AUD90. Okaylah, jangan convert. Kalau convert currency memang apa pun tak boleh beli / makan. Teehee.

Malay Village located inside the Metcentre Building, Sydney

First meal in Sydney :D

Sedap, alhamdulillah :D

So lepas dah kenyang, kami balik ke hotel, washed up and solat serta rest sekejap. Plan kami ke Queen Victoria Building (QVB) by train sebab dari hotel ke Circular Quay Train Station about 10 minutes juga. Memang dari hotel boleh nampak Harbour Bridge. Kebetulan masa kami turun nak ke station, aircond bilik macam tak berapa sejuk, so I went to the lobby and informed the Receptionist about the aircond and kami terus keluar.

Waktu sampai di Circular Quay, kami perlu beli Opal Card di Information Centre sebagai kegunaan untuk naik semua public transport di Sydney. Kita perlu top up card Opal tu kalau baki kad dah nak habis and tempat top up memang ada everywhere and tak susah nak cari. We decided to top up AUD20 each for adult and AUD10 for Khayra (child 5yo and above kena beli) dan Hafiya adalah FOC (tak perlu beli Opal card). Masa kami datang tahun 2013, there was no Opal Card and masa tu kami beli MyMulti Pass untuk kegunaan seminggu di Sydney. Kat situ juga kami check dan baru tahu yang QVB closed at 6pm and at that time it was around 5.30pm. Since macam rushing and memang takkan sempat nak explore QVB dengan tenang, kami decided untuk stroll area Circular Quay sahaja. So we went a bit closer to Opera House dan makan aiskrim serta bergambar. Hehe.

Nota: Apparently Sugar Cone and Kid's Cone adalah non Halal at Baskin Robbins. To be safe, beli dalam cup. Sumber: Nutrition Catalogue BR / BR Nutrition Information.

My lil family unit at Circular Quay, Sydney

Behind the scene of every perfect family photo with kids! :P Haha. 

It was good to be back here after 3 years :D 

Santai petang. Luckily our hotel was nearby and had a perfect view :D

Love this candid shot of my firstborn and my dearest hubs :D 

Same place, same persons, different year (2013 and 2016) :D

Around 7pm, we went to the Opera House souvenir shop for a quick souvenirs shopping. Mamat tu bagi less than 10 minutes je sebab dia pun dah nak tutup kedai so kena beli yang mana sempat grab je and then kami kembali ke hotel (it was just 10 minutes walk from Circular Quay / Opera House). Sampai hotel kami singgah kejap kedai bawah hotel untuk cuci mata (most jual souvenirs) and upon returning to our room, we realized that the aircond was fully functioning. Malam tu dinner kat hotel je makan nasi dan lauk segera

Stay tuned for another entries.