Australia Trip - Part12

Chinese Garden @ Sydney

Need pay entrance fee, so no thanks...








Birds everywhere...








& they sh!t everywhere too!!








Measuring noise pollution @ every corner of the city...







We have 1-week unlimited bus+train+ferry ticket







A good shot of Sydney Harbour Bridge & you-know-what-it-is on a fast moving ferry

Google Maps: Sydney Harbour Bridge





Visited some bank's museum...










Lunch time:



Very local calamari ring + fries combo for approx S$9







6,300km away from home...







Another round of ferry...







The slower & older type of ferry...







Nothing except some crazy half-naked ang moh drinking beer & fishing at the jetty in this cold weather...







Yet another beautiful purple sunset...







It's complete darkness @ 5, 6pm here in Sydney...







Subway + some leftover lunch for dinner...








Over S$3 for 45min internet usage @ hostel, msn-ing, blogging & checking out the POSB exchange rate

The interesting thing about using debit card is that you have 2 options upon payment:

1) merchant's bank exchange rate which will be disclosed (eg. A$1 = S$1.4)

2) my bank's exchange rate (POSB) which they/you won't know unless you check it out online


I tried both options in 2 separate payments & it turned out to be less than $0.40 different for a A$70 transaction each.






Doing laundry while having some tea...







In-room steam bath...



Who did it??










That's S$13.30 for a "cheap" ticket

Australia Trip - Part11

still at Hunters Valley...



Rosemount Estate is the name







a barrel full of discarded bottles..







Rosemount O 2007 is good, sadly I didn't have enough local currencies..








Another stopover for pictures of the beautiful countryside...








Coin-operated BBQ pit just like the one we have in school...







Surprisingly, lunch wasn't included in the very expensive day tour! The last time I came, we had a

wonderful beef steak lunch @ a local winery.

Eventually, we found ourselves at some expensive tourist-cafeteria with a so-call 25% discount for

YHA members. This piece of overcooked chicken + fries above cost ~A$12.50 (S$17.50).







An archaeologist would appreciate this because the meat is tough as fossil







probably the biggest bottle in the world!









3rd winery. I was here 6-years ago, it was harvest season back then. The foreground you see in the

photo was filled with tanks of freshly plugged grapes & busy forklifts.







4,500 litres barrel.

I read that celebrities would purchase the whole barrel in advance. When they need a drink, the

winery would bottle some & ship it to them.







Our guide call this winery HOPE-less








cheese tasting @ the Smelly Cheese Shop







Very mouth watering but no thanks, it's cold here...








Despite the tourist-price, I really wanted to buy the cheese. Unfortunately, they have to be kept

refrigerated. =(






In the end I picked a very tasty mild blue cheese for Bao as gift...







Here's our last yet haunted winery... not!








The abandoned house reminds me of the fully destructible physics in
href="http://www.ea.com/crysis/">Crysis









Family run winery, this is what people refer to as "boutique

wines", small & limited quantities, not exported.








It is like we are entering somebody's home...







We had wines (which are pretty bad in my opinion) while the

owner talks about horse psychology & stuff...







I was "trapped" in this living room & had no choice but

to swallow this generous yet horrible vintage...








With my hands empty, we were sent back to the Hunters Valley YHA...







Vegetable garden @ the back of the hostel.







The sky turns purple as the sun sets, you don't see it in Singapore...
I know it doesn't looks purple in the

pic, damn N80






Dinner @ a small Japanese restaurants run by Japanese & local Jap students