Travelogue – Sydney–Australia–Part 2/2

Travelogue – Sydney, Australia – Part 1 here

Weekend 2:

This was the weekend of Mardi Gras, a carnival that happens during March 1st week every year in Sydney. As this Wiki link details,

The Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras is an annual gay pride parade and festival for the LGBT community in Sydney, Australia, and is the largest such event in the world. The parade features individual entrants in colourful costumes, gatherings of local and inter-state community group members, and elaborate floats representating a topical theme or political message.

Putting aside the politically oriented theme for a moment, I observed that the Mardi Gras day this year was celebrated as a festival by the the whole of Sydney, irrespective of their orientation. Thousands of people lined up on either side of Oxford street, jostling for space and view of the main event. The main event started at about 1930, but you could see crowds building up from 1500 hrs. At the start of the parade, each side of the street was lined with people about 10 person deep. It was nuts.

The event by itself was majestic. Different Gay and Lesbian people dressed up in some of the most outrageous attires that I’ve ever seen paraded along the street in gay abandon (ha!). This is one event which should be experienced, rather than communicated through a newspaper article or a video. The music, the dances, the attires, pesky security agents, meddling media, jostling photographers and the happiest atmosphere in general made for a great time, inspite of standing for long hours. It was a field day for photographers – budding, amateur or professional.

You can peruse some of my Mardi Gras photographs in this link -https://picasaweb.google.com/105375483626318518949/SydneyAustralia?authkey=Gv1sRgCL-g5u-_spTeywE#

Important tip: If you are planning to travel to Sydney on a holiday, do so during February-March period. The summer would have ended, the evenings are very pleasant and Mardi Gras event during first week of March is not to be missed for anything. Easily one of the highlights of Sydney and unfortunately, its only once a year.

This was the same weekend that I traveled to Mrs. Macquarie’s Chair. From St. Mary’s Cathedral (as explained in Part 1), another road goes towards Royal Botanical Gardens. Royal Botanical Gardens almost feels like an extension of the Hyde Park, but is much more extensive in flora and fauna. It is as big as Hyde Park and offering many jogging trails that Sydneysiders use frequently. Walking along Royal Botanical Gardens for a good 1.5 mile, you’d arrive at Mrs. Macquarie’s Chair. The first thing you notice about Mrs. Macquarie’s Chair is that there is no chair. Sydneysiders are funny that way, I think. What is so special about Mrs. Macquarie’s Chair? Well, to me, its one of the best spots in Sydney. Standing at this point, you can see the entire skyline of Sydney, along with the Opera House and the Sydney Harbor Bridge. The pic below should give you a good view what I mean -

I walked down to this point a couple of times after this weekend. Every sunset during a clear day (or even a slightly cloudy day, to add color) at this point is a sight worth dying for. Outstanding, Stellar, Magnificient would all be inferior adjectives to describe the scene. A must visit, and do it only during Sunset. During the day, the view is ok and you’d probably be better off spending time somewhere else.

Weekend 3:

This weekend was a weekend of beaches. Sydney being right on the edge of the ocean has a lot of beaches. However, two of the prominent beaches are Bondi beach and Manly beach.

Bondi beach is one of the most famous beaches (and probably one of the most beautiful) in the world. It owes its popularity to three things – topless (not nude!), easy surfing, lovely view of the Pacific ocean to the distance where you can actually see the curve of the earth. No wonder that it’s the most crowded beach in the whole of Australia. I went to Bondi beach on the day after the Japanese earthquake (and tsunami) assuming that the media scare would allow me to have a peaceful time on the beach. I was grossly mistaken. There was a huge crowd. Absolutely unbelievable, even after discounting for the fact that some people would have been actually scared to go anywhere near the ocean after the tsunami in Japan.

You can reach Bondi beach by taking the train from Town Hall station to Bondi junction. From Bondi junction, there are multiple buses to Bondi beach.

This was my first visit to any topless beach, much less one of the best topless beaches in the world. I had made an outrageous assumption that almost everybody would be topless, which proved hopelessly wrong. Later, I read that due to some Australian govt. regulations, a large percentage of people would not be topless. Moving on, there were tons of people surfing on the beach. I saw kids, who were not even 6 years old surfing like they have surfed all their life. I saw 70 year olds surf like..well…they have surfed all their life. I think its an Australian way of living (and more Sydneysider way of living). Surfing is a basic necessity and not a niche sport that we Indians perceive it to be. Bondi beach is probably the only beach I’ve been to where a part of it is a Sand beach where surfers thrive and a part of it is a rocky beach where people stand on a rock, stare into infinity and try to look intelligent and poignant. Last but not the least, ‘Pacific’ ocean is a misnomer. Nothing about the ocean pacifies you nor is it calm. It is probably more violent than the Atlantic. A couple of pics below would give you an idea of the Bondi beach and the violent Pacific ocean.

Manly beach was the one surfers thrived on. It was one of their favorite beaches, simply because of the size of their waves and velocity which made them great for surfing. I quickly learnt surfing here and nearly drowned, but that’s another blogpost.

Manly beach by itself was not as beautiful as Bondi beach. However, the route to Manly beach and back to the city in a ferry was spectacular. From Circular Quay (mentioned in Part 1), you take a ferry to Manly beach. While going past the Opera house and then Mrs. Macquarie’s chair, there’s a stunning view of entire Sydney and the ocean. While traveling back in the evening (Tip: Try to time your trip back during sunset time), the sun setting against the background of Sydney and the ocean is unbelievable. A natural painting, if there is one is right here – the skyline to the right of the sunset is dark already and it progressively gets brighter as the Opera house approaches; the harbor bridge is the brightest and it gets progressively darker from thereon. Picasso would have given an arm and a leg to paint that sight. Simply terrific. Here’s a pic to depict that -

Weekend 4:

My good friend Pavani flew down from Alice Springs to Sydney to meet me. Unfortunately, since it was my last weekend, I had a ton of work and some presentations to complete. And it was raining quite heavily. Our initial plan was to go to the Blue Mountains, a 2 hr train journey from Sydney. However, due to heavy rains, we dropped the plan and visited Darling Harbor (the only place in Sydney that I didn’t visit till this weekend) and also got to participate in an Indian event for Holi. We shopped for a while at The Rocks and in general whiled away time discussing everything under the sun..er..rain. It was a good, relaxing weekend to round off the trip.

P.S:

General tips to travel in Sydney:

1) If you are a single traveler, there are a ton of youth accomodations in the center of the city. If you want to rent a hotel room, it would cost you anywhere upwards of $100 a night. If you want to rent a hotel room near Bondi beach, it would cost you upwards of $230 a night.

2) Take a ticket called My Multi 2 or My Multi 3 (if you are planning to travel to Manly). This is a weekly pass that gives you access to trains, buses and ferries. Incredible value if you are traveling throughout the week.

3) Vegetarians – you are screwed. I couldn’t help myself and hence I can’t help you. However, if you do want to have good Indian vegetarian food, you can have it at Jaipur Maharaja hotel. There are, I think, 3 branches in Sydney itself.

4) Shopping freaks – Visit ‘The Rocks’ during Saturday and Sunday for decent stuff at a reasonable price. Else, visit ‘Paddy’s market’ for some cheap Chinese goods at throwaway prices.

5) Incredible Opals are available in various shops. Opals are stones, much like rubies, emeralds and diamonds. But Opals are Australian specialty. Do buy one for your girlfriend/wife/significant other. Aboriginal art and music is also not a bad idea. Some of the prints and music are difficult to replicate and really good.

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