What I remember most about this trip was the tour leader, Alex. Until now whenever I joined a tour, when the tour leader reminded the participants to check their passports, handphones etc etc.. I will always remember Alex and his stories of his experience as a tour guide. They were so funny!
Another thing that stand out of this tour was the fact that our tour bus actually broke down on our way back from the Blue Mountain! Unbelievable right? I mean this is Australia, the first world country.. where everything should be tip-top. Even the third world countries that I visited thereafter.. so far so good. No break downs. We were stuck for 1.5 hours before the replacement bus came. To err is human huh?
We also managed to squeeze a visit to our friend's house who migrated to Australia. She lives at a lovely suburb in Sydney. During the visit, she introduced me to a "sweet" grapefruit. Grapefruit and sweet somehow doesn't jive in my book. But now whenever I'm lucky enough to eat a relatively sweet grapefruit, I will remember her :)
This tour was organised by Reliance Travel. From 3-9 June 2005. The tour price was RM5.3k per person. It covers three cities: Brisbane, Gold Coast and Sydney. This was my second visit to Sydney. The first time was before my "digital camera" era in early 2002. We went to Sydney and Melbourne then.
Sydney during my first visit was much more exciting. Most probably due to the weather. We went there in early March. Early autumn, where the daylight hours were longer. Bondi and Manning beaches were still a happening place. This time round it was a bit surreal that at 5pm.. it was already dark! And nobody is crazy enough to take a dip in the water ;p
I've uploaded 157 photos for your viewing pleasure. You can access them at my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/mkhasha.n.travels/. Go to the photo albums.
Njoy!!
