...such stuff as dreams are made on...: Trip to Down Under: Sydney!

I know it's been a month since I visited Australia but I haven't had the chance to blog about it!!!

On the day that we arrived at Sydney, we were greeted with rain and wind... sigh... it must be me, bringing the rain and gloominess from London! We had to cancel our initial planned itinerary of having Harry's Pie Floaters as lunch by Woollomooloo Bay... so we ended up at Marigold for boring old dim sum!

Just look at how bad the weather was... we could hardly see the Sydney Harbour Bridge!

And poor MiMi's shoes gave away to the rain... and Yuni and I had to walk all the way to Spencer Street (the shopping area) to buy her a new pair of shoes... with her new shoes, MiMi happily threw away her old pair!!

We tried to visit the Sydney Pylon Lookout but the wind was just ferocious... so we ended up not climbing up for a better view...

In the end we visited the Rock and the supposedly famous market...

And oooh... since I had at least 4 different individuals recommending the Pancake on the Rocks, we went there for dinner... The pancakes were quite good I must admit!

We also celebrate MiMi's birthday...

My MiMi's bright idea of playing mahjong cards at the hotel with the bad weather...

Thank God that the weather improved on the following days and we had a blast in Sydney... Places of interest and food that we had along the way include:

Sydney CBD (central business district) @ Circular Quay

Sydney Harbour Bridge

Sydney Opera House

Mrs Macquarie's Chair

Ferry ride to Manly Beach

Fish and Chips by the beach...

Manly Beach itself!!! (Don't let the picture deceive you... it's not that warm actually!! hahaha)

And on our way to catch the ferry back to Circular Quay, we stopped by at the famous Max Brenner chocolate cafe... don't you think the heart shape on the hot chocolate is just so lovely??? Hehehe... too bad I don't like chocolate...

Sydney Fish Market!

This was what we were supposed to have: Cheese baked lobster, grilled king prawns, fresh rock oysters, fresh sashimi...

But to our disappointment, my dad wanted to have seafood the CHINESE style... sigh....

So.... instead... we had these....

Raw lobster meat with wasabi, stir fried lobster, raw abalone and sliced steamed abalone...

Not that I'm complaining about eating lobster or abalone... but the Sydney Fish Market is famous for its WESTERN style seafood... not CHINESE style seafood... oh well...

MiMi enjoying the super huge and sweet strawberries that they were selling outside the market...

Cockle Bay Wharf...

And of course, Darling Harbour...

Ooooh... Can you spot the ugly PwC building behind me??

Queen Victoria Building... one of the shopping area... equivalent to Selfridges in London

One of the highlights of the trip! To see the wildlife animals... so off we go to the wildlife park

To see the emus, kangaroos, koalas and fairy penguins to name a few! They are absolutely adorable...

We also went for one of those Blue Mountain tours...

The serious family portrait...

And the not so serious monkeys!

The three (Lee) sisters with the three sisters rock formation behind them

And we're being so EVIL... we ate crocodile and kangaroo meat... at the Scenic World...

And it was tasty... shame on me!!!

At the Scenic World on the cable car ride (where the floor was made of glass!) and the railway ride...

Hahaha... if you think my eyes are small... just have a look at my brothers... can't beat him!

We also stopped by at the village of Leura on our way back from Blue Mountain

Sydney Olympic Stadium

And the Sydney Olympic Park... was quite impressed at how eco-friendly the whole olympic park is...

Cheers to our first stop in Australia... downing pints of Aussie beer...

The pool challenge between my brother and elder sister...

Who do you think won?? Hahahaha....

And on our final day... just before we left for Melbourne... I managed to have my pie floaters!! Didn't realise that they have a branch at the airport...