Getting to the Land Down Under

After having dinner with my brother’s family, my brother dropped us off at LAX. Our flight was supposed to leave at 1145 pm but it was delayed because of bad weather from the inbound flight from NY. We didn’t leave until almost 2 AM. The good thing about it was we got some sleep during the 14.5 hour flight.

When we arrived, our driver from Sunbus was no where in sight. We went to the information desk and they just told us to wait. But after a while, I had them call the company. While waiting, it gave us a chance to go through all the tourist brochures and plan the next few days at Sydney. I ended up buying us a Sydney pass that gave us unlimited tickets for the bus, ferry, Sydney Explorer, Bondi Explorer and discounts to some attractions.

They sent a driver for us but we had to wait for the other passengers he was picking up. We hung out with him while we were waiting. His name was Reg and he was originally from Fiji. I don’t know why but he became totally comfortable with us and started asking us for advice on girls. Then he started telling us about his Chilean ex and told us a little too much information about their private lives. My my…..welcome to Australia Mr. & Mrs. Rios! Well, after waiting for over an hour, his passenger never showed up and we finally left the airport 2 HOURS after getting there! We could have gotten a cab since it was only a 20 minute drive but we already paid for our airport transfer.

We should have arrived in Australia by 945 am but with all the delays, we didn’t get out of our hotel room to explore until about 330pm. For Sydney, we decided to go with something more low key since we knew we’d be out and about. We stayed at the Holiday Inn at Darling Harbour. Great Location! Right smack in between the Harbour and Chinatown. We felt like we were in SF but it was much cleaner. Apparently, Sydney is our sister city because of all the similarities: Harbour/Bay, Chinatown, Bridges, gay population, etc. If it weren’t for the accents, we would have totally thought we were in the US.

Since we got off to a late start, we just headed to Darling Harbour and grabbed a quick bite to eat. First stop, the Sydney Aquarium. It’s very much like the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I think the only difference was the platypus and crocodile. That was cool to see. I think their best display was the huge shark/stingray tank where you can walk through the underwater tunnels. We spent a good couple hours there then decided to walk the rest of the Harbour and take more pictures.

We went back to our hotel to rest and change. While we were resting, we watched Australia’s version of “Dancing with the Stars.” They have 4 judges vs 3. And their top contestant is PINAY! I’m not sure what kind of entertainment she’s in. But compared to our contestants, she kicked some major ASS!

At around 9, we took the monorail to Centerpointe Tower. The top of the tower is about 800 feet high and has great 360 views of the city. We tried to get dinner there but everything closes at 10pm. So, we headed to the revolving bar for a couple of drinks. In fact, it’s called 360. By that time, we were starving and the staff recommended a Chinese restaurant called Golden Century. It was pretty good and close to the hotel. We didn’t get back to the hotel until almost midnight. We were pooped! The good news is we didn’t have any jet lag and we still got a lot in even though we had a late start.

It was a great start to our Honeymoon!

NOTE: Click the link at the bottom of each post to see our pictures for the day.

PICTURES: Sydney Day 1