Saturday, May 07, 2005

Sydney, Australia - The Plan

Sydney, Australia May 7 to may 14, 2005

Sometime in February 2005, we read an advertisement that there will be a travel fair by Malaysian Airlines on 19th. February. Oh oh, that was the day we were to fly out into Bintulu. However, going on-line on arrival in Bintulu, I found that I can make bookings on-line all the same. I did, and this time Sydney was my targeted destination. I have always wanted to go there but never had the opportunity. Furthermore, a former colleague and a close family friend, who is now resident in Sydney, had several times invited us to visit Sydney. I thought it is now a good time to visit Sydney. I managed to get a much reduced fare for Ram and I through the travel fair. Apparently MAS only accepts cash bookings on-line and that was very convenient.

For accommodation I went on line again and browsed for a reasonably priced accommodation. There were quite a few to choose from and I chose the one that was close, walking distance if possible to the train station, to shopping malls, to the main attractions, etc. I picked an Apartment Hotel that was offering a fully furnished one-room apartment at a weekly rate of AU$ 935.00. “That is a very good deal”, many who are familiar with Sydney said. The apartment offers a fully furnished kitchen including a microwave oven, a dishwasher, a washing machine and dryer, iron and ironing board. Very convenient indeed for us.

I then went into the chat-rooms and travel forums, to get tips on Sydney, to gather information from other travelers who have had experiences, good or bad, traveling in Sydney. There were many useful tips gathered through this chat-rooms and forums. With these I started making plans of what to do and see when I do arrive in Sydney later.

I also checked the websites of the train service, the bus service and so on. I found them to be very informative and were indeed very traveler friendly. There was something that keeps cropping up on this transportation thingy. Even the advice given in chat-rooms and forums are often repeated on them. That is, there are offer tickets that one can purchase and save on transport costs. There is the day tripper ticket where one can use any of the rail transportation (limited stations), ferry service, and bus service at a discounted rate. Another offer is the Sydney Pass, for 3, 5 or 7 days ticket that one can use on any of the train services (limited stations), the bus services, the ferry services, the hop on hop off Sydney Explorer tourist bus, the hop on hop off Bondi explorer tourist bus, the river cruises, morning cruise and or afternoon cruise and or night cruise. The combined cost of these tickets would be at about a 50% discount of the individual tickets added together.

I checked out where the markets are, the malls, parks, museums, convenient stores and so on and formed some sort of plan for my stay in Sydney. It may just be a hit and miss plan, but a plan nevertheless. I would know what to expect and what to look forward to. I would know where to go to and be prepared. Or am I ???.............

MKI Ramblings Unlimited
Petaling Jaya

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