Sydney, Australia Trip (Day 1)

16th Feb 2019, Saturday

2019 Pigs

Finally flying out of Singapore again since my last trip to Taiwan last year. This time, i arranged to a family trip with dad, step-mum and "little" sister to Australia (with me sponsoring the air tickets and accommodation and an agreement with my dad to pay for the food and other expenses). Surprisingly they have not travel to Australia, hence this will be their first time to visit. We had booked a night flight to leave Singapore on Friday (15th Feb 2019), so we went to the airport around 8 plus by cab. Guessed my dad was very excited (he said he waited for 20 yrs for a family trip...hahaa), kept chasing us to hurry up for check-in at the airport...hohoho...After check-in, we went for dinner and waited for our boarding. The flight was about 7 to 8 hours, so we reached Sydney airport @ 9 plus in the morning. It took some time to clear the customs and we were being sniffed by the sniffing dog to ensure that we do not have any drugs on us.

Our Rental Car

After that, we went to the rental car office to collect the rental car for our trip. The paper works took us quite so time processing. Then we walked to the car park to collect the car, my dad also took some time to do a check on the car conditions. The GPS was a built-in type in the car, so mi and my sister had to type in the hotel name to activate for the route in the gps. My dad managed to drive us to the hotel without much problem (considering the fact he never use a GPS before, traditional old uncle who uses paper maps.... ^_^ !!).  However, when we reached the hotel, we were unsure where the hotel car park was located. So i went to the hotel lobby with my sister to do the check-in and inquired the location of the car park. The hotel staff was friendly and even brought us up to our mini apartment. She even told us there will be a small token from the hotel and asked us if we want it to be served now or later. After that, we went back to find my dad and step-mum and guided them to the car park. It was located behind the hotel and it was a very small car park space which was also sharing with another hotel beside. There were like 3 lots allocated to the hotel we booked and it was first-come-first-serve basis. In addition, we had to pay a car park fee of AUD$25 daily at the end of our stay.

Master bedroom

Living & Dinning Room

Common Bedroom

We carried the luggage up to the apartment after the car was parked. The apartment was very cosy, having a mini kitchen+living room, two bedrooms and a common toilet. One bedroom was having toilet inside, my dad and my step-mum stayed in that room. There was even a small balcony. Mi and my sister took the other room. Everyone was busily taking photos of the apartment to share. By the time, we settled down, it was almost 2 plus in the afternoon. So we rested for a little while and we went out for a walk. We walked to Paddington market. I did not realized the distance was so long and we actually took almost half an hour to reach the market. However, we were walking real slow and looking at every building we passed. So by the time we reached the market, we decided to go for lunch before shopping. We crossed over the street and went into a restaurant called The Paddington. As per the online reviews, everyone was commenting the best dish to try was the roasted chicken, much to my delight.

Salmon & Breads

Roasted Chicken with Fries

The restaurant was quite crowded, considering it was after lunch hour and we saw the roasted chicken dish in almost every table....lolz....We were brought a tall table and we ordered a half roasted chicken, salmon dish and a bread dish. The chicken was really tender, but we found the salmon a bit salty and bland. My dad was asking us where was the chili sauce...hahaha...After lunch, we walked around at the Paddington market. Everything was over $35 AUD as the items were locally hand-made. So we did not buy anything eventually. The market wasn't big too, we ended up covered the market in about half an hour. So we decided to walk back to the hotel to rest, think everyone was still tired from the flight. We stopped by Paddington Reservoir  to have some photos taken while walking back to the hotel. When we reached the hotel, everyone ended up napping.

Gate found in Paddington Reservoir

Paddington Reservoir

I woke up around 5 plus and was asking my sister if they want to go out for dinner. But my step-mum did not want to go out and my dad was still sleeping. So i dragged my sister out for a walk and to buy dinner. Along the way, we passed by quite a few Thai and Korean restaurants. We walked to find the nearest McD in the district and bought a box of nuggets. Then we walked around the area to see if there was any popular restaurants (those with a lot of people queuing..hahaa). We did see one korean fried chicken restaurant with a queue outside and it was having good reviews. But we decided not to go for it as the waiting time was too long. So we went for another korean restaurant which was also quite full, we bought two bbq dishes, a kimchi seafood soup and rice to take out. As it was getting dark, the wind was also blowing strong and it was getting cold.

Korean Food Street

Korean for dinner

We hurried back to the hotel, by then, my dad and step-mum were already woken from their nap. My dad was asking why we didn't go out for dinner....^_^!...We got ready for dinner and watched TV at the same time. Amazingly, my step-mum even took out a bottle of sambal chili to eat with the dishes (didn't expect them to bring after i told them there is no chili sauce in Australia). The food was quite nice and we really had our fill. The seafood was also a lot in the soup. After dinner, mi and my sister took turns to wash up and got ready for bed.

Places visited:
Paddington Market
Paddington Reservoir

Hotel Stayed:
Adge Boutique Apartment Hotel
(Car park fee applies)