Day 1 – Sydney
Once we landed in Sydney Airport, I went straight to the Arrivals counters, filled up an arrival card, and went through the usual airport protocols for arriving folks, like customs.
My first impression of the Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport was it was like a more upscale office hallway, as I had to walk a bit from where the plane parked to the arrival hall. And I didn’t want to say this, but man, the first arrival impression was flat. Usually airports like Changi and Suvarnabhumi want to give a good first impression, so their arrivals pathways have some wow factor to it. Sydney Airport, on the other hand, was more utilitarian, like it was more driven to efficiency to get passengers in and out as smoothly as possible (with some duty-frees along the way) and less towards any eye candy for the weary arrivals. Of course some hallways looked great and clean and well-lit, but given I’ve been to many major airports already, the ones I walked on were average. I agree that the arrival process was smoothly handled and minimal fuss, but for me, first impressions matter for first-timers. For me, the airport was less “G’day mate” and more “Get in and get out, mate” kind of feeling.
Within less than an hour I was out there at the gates, breathing in my first taste of Sydney public air. And man, it’s cold. Midday noon, and cold. That was a better first impression for me though. Step outside expecting a midday blaze, nope, it’s chilly cold and it’s gonna be great.
It’s like being in Baguio but with first-world conditions, decent English and zero tourist traps. I had to pull out my thick jacket/coat from inside my bag to wear before I ventured out of the airport. Outside the airport looked nice though, a lot nicer than inside the airport.
Wasn’t long before I found the train line that took people to the Central Station. There were some constructions when I got there, and I had to really look for the signs leading to it. And here I started to make use of my newly reissued Wise card, so I used it for the first time in Sydney to tap into the train gates at the airport terminal and it worked nicely. Within 1pm I was in Central Station. Unfortunately, estimations in Google Maps can sometimes be misleading. I thought it was a short jaunt to the hotel, but once I disembarked on the train in Central Station, I had to walk a long-ass way out of the station, into a long tunnelway, up again to street level, then some more walking to 28 Hotel. I underestimated it, and that is a lesson I also learned. More research needed, Google ain’t that accurate yet.
I arrived at the hotel around 1.20pm, a decent time before the stated check-in time I saw on Agoda (which is 2pm). Fortunately, the hotel allowed me to check in early right away, so I was able to plan more things for the rest of the day. I immediately went to the room I was given (506, as I requested a high floor in the reservation) and plugged in my travel adapter to charge my phone and watch.
Weeks ago, I bought one of those expensive portable travel adapters – specifically, OKONZ. They had pin plugs for a lot of the worldwide pins, including Australia’s Type I (3 flat pins in a triangle pattern). After what I encountered in Taiwan and Malaysia, I felt it was time I invest in assurance that wherever country I go to, I won’t worry about what the f*cking kind of plug/pin they use, and I should adjust. The 66W one from OKONZ was a bit on the expensive side (S$ 30) but I’ll gladly pay for the convenience. It had two USB-C ports and one USB-A port, so I didn’t have to bring extra things to plug into.
I went back down the lobby and grabbed a cup of their free coffee (it’s one of those fancy pods with a big-ass machine to brew it with), and one empty cup with four chamomile tea bags. I planned to chill for a bit until my phone gets to 80%. The room was nice, as I booked the bigger “Max Queen Room” with a big window facing a street. Roomy too. Maybe I should’ve booked the slight smaller queen room but well, can’t complain about a max room with this much space. After the crampy Taipei room I last had, I’d rather have this.
After a quick unpacking and a sip of warm coffee, I sat on the bed to relax for a bit and assess my options. Also I opened up the TV near the window. To my complete pleasure and indifference to others’ stupidity, I found that one of the previous renters left their Netflix logged into the smart TV. Well, lucky me and stupid somebody, I got me some free use. And to be clear, I also have my own personal Netflix account. I do use it internationally, but I always make sure to log off on the device I used it on, and clear any settings. I turned the app on the TV to watch some Tour de France documentary, and chilled for a bit.
So what I pencilled in for the day was, a jaunt to University of Sydney for some souvenirs and then Sydney Tower Eye for the sunset. As I arrived at the hotel with some time to spare, I figured I could finish both of those by today. I whipped out my phone to plot the course from the hotel to the University of Sydney’s gift shop, and chose a bus stop near the hotel. I took out the Quechua backpack I packed in the luggage, put in my passport inside, and redressed myself to go outside again. New charger got my phone up to 80 fairly quick, so that helped too. Hotel was in a very convenient area, so it was a short 2-minute walk to said bus stop. My research told me that the Sydney buses operate generally the same way the Singapore and Taipei buses do, so I had no issues when I took the bus. Tap in to go in, tap out when disembarking. Soon I was in the university stop, and a few minutes later I was able to locate the gift shop. Not hard to find.
The university gift shop was full of very nice knick-knacks and branded stuff that I would very much like to get, a lot of them. Slightly closer to Korea University’s gift shop offerings than Yonsei’s (to be clear, Yonsei has the best uni gift shop I’ve seen so far). I was tempted to buy quite a lot of them but this became my first measure of restraint.
See, I budgeted my trip as well. The plane tickets were expensive. Buying winter gear was expensive. Booking various stuff across Trip, Klook and Agoda was expensive. So in my mind, I should have restraint with my budget. One thing I learned from my major trips (Taipei, Japan, South Korea) was that budget money flies by quickly if you don’t keep an eye on the small stuff you buy. First trip to Japan was a painful lesson on budgeting. So for this 7-night trip in Australia and upcoming 3-night trip to Bali, I budgeted SGD1500 total. I cashed AUD200 and put it in my physical wallet, the rest I put up in my Wise card and opened AUD and IDR currency wallets. Should save me quite a number on conversion fees.
Another concern of mine was luggage weight. I was adamant to experience snow for the first time, so I bought a lot of winter gear from Decathlon – both new and secondhand (they resell some items of decent condition at lower prices, so I did buy some). Those contributed greatly to my initial luggage weight. Of course, the new travel backpack I bought was expandable and can carry more weight, but I also wasn’t keen on carrying 11kg on my back in the airports. So when I went to Changi, my backpack was at 4kg already (I packed in my coat there) but my luggage was at 16.2kg, and I have to keep an eye on it. I plan to buy only enough in Sydney so that I won’t have to buy extra luggage weight for the flight to Melbourne.
So in the University of Sydney gift shop, I had to limit myself into just the things I think I’d like (and also one that I can gift away). I looked at the prices, and yep, I definitely need to limit. So I ended up buying a pen (branded with the uni name and logo), a t-shirt (uni color and logo), a thermal cup (also uni branded) and a silver tote bag with a very nice uni design. I really really wanted a lot of the items I saw, but like in Yonsei’s, gotta separate the wants and needs, and daddy needs new office drinkware.
I forgot to take photos there as I was also trying to stick to my remaining day hours. Man. But it was a nice small slice of a uni campus that I am familiar and unfamiliar with. Lots of European-looking old buildings mixed with newer ones, it was the afternoon so it’s quiet and it smelled of trees almost.
Once done with my meager purchases, I immediately pulled up my phone to look for the easiest bus route from there to Sydney Tower Eye. But here’s where my overeagerness kind of dulled my senses a bit. I started coughing a bit on the bus stop. I thought it might be due to the unfamiliarity of a full-on winter season and my body was trying to adjust ASAP, but I was too eager to finish the day off and I just ignored it for a bit.
After two bus rides (Google Maps has been reliable for me with public transport for years), I arrived at Westfield Sydney, where the Eye tower is. And it was getting beyond 4pm, and shit’s getting colder. I have to admit as this point that my pennypinching at Decathlon has shown some drawbacks and some ideas I never thought of yet as I haven’t had winter experience before. First, the mountain trekking synthetic jacket I bought was insufficient, it was the cheapest “MT50” one. It performed exceedingly well for the price – fit me perfectly, has good pockets, padded well – but cold still seeped in even if fully zipped up. I should’ve either bought the “MT100” one, or added one more layer inside, or worn a thicker shirt as like a double layer. I also should’ve worn the neck warmer I also bought. I thought that would’ve been for the mountain snow, but looking back, this would’ve given me more warmth on the streets.
As a result, by the time I arrived at the Westfield Sydney, my slight cough was getting more irritating in the throat, as well as I kind of felt a slight lethargic feeling. As it was a bit early for sunset, I figured I might as well get my long-overdue lunch, so I ate at the place’s fancy food court. For some reason I was seeking comfort food, so I made my way to a burger joint for burger, fries and cola. Fixed the itch right away.
With that fixed, I went up the Sydney Tower Eye. Of course there was the photo hustle at the base floor, so I wisely skipped that. No need for now.
By the time I got up the main viewing floor at 5pm, many locals and tourists were there to see the Sydney sunset. I as well, I kind of enjoyed my brief time walking around. I do like the high floor views myself. It’s a cheap attraction, I know, but it’s a great and near-unmutable preference of mine. I still have one tower I want to go up on that I’m keeping in my back pocket, hopefully in the future with a loved one. Some shots below:
A quarter to 6pm, I was ready to wrap up the day. But I also knew I might’ve fucked up. A fever was coming up, and I was feeling a lot more lethargic. I have to get back to the hotel quickly to get this to die down. So what I did was buy some things at their local Ezymart that was a few blocks from my hotel, things I knew from street experience should help – two bottles of Gatorade (no sugar), three Fisherman’s Friend Original lozenges, and a box of paracetamol. I also bought what would be a light dinner – a tub of hummus that came with 7-8 chips, and a big slice of banana bread. I got back to the hotel as soon as I could, did a warm shower, and lied down in bed after downing half a Gatorade bottle and drinking a tablet.
At the 8pm point, I was coughing hard, I got snot coming on in waves and my throat was super irritated. Fever was full-on at that, and I was not in a good mood despite the excellent packed hummus, the moist banana bread and the free Netflix I was using. The room aircon temp wasn’t making me feel good either, as it seemed to me that the chill outside was seeping through the windows, making what was a 26C room much more colder. I immediately turned up the temp to the warming setting to counteract the bad chill.
What worried me most was the fever fucking up my Day 2. If I was in terrible shape by 3am the next day, I knew I had to call off my Blue Mountain trip. I do want to see the place, but I am not going to risk myself if I am in a terrible state. And the problems kept coming up – I was coughing so much I started coughing some streaks of blood, and my snot also had some of those red spots in them.
I drank cups of chamomile tea to help calm down the throat itchiness, while sucking on lozenges to assist with it too. I got to sleeping (forced) by 9pm, and set my alarm by 3pm. Pray to God that the things I applied work, or else it’s goodbye Day 2 plans and hello online ordering foodstuff.
Briathrail // Albert 2MNG 
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