Diary of an Internet Addict

Another one of the countries that I had never expected to visit. Yet there I was, recently, peering into the Sydney Opera House wrapped in the noon sun across the bay, white-washed against the graying sky as the forecasted thunderstorm grew exponentially.

I swore that I would cross that bay and climb the steps for sure, and say “I have visited one of the man-made wonders in the world (circa 1980s)”.

This story began 20-30 years ago, in the heart of a child looking at a kiddy computer – The type that runs on 8 D batteries and can only be played a few times a year because the household can’t afford more. This computer comes with a 2 bit screen and a bar-code reader cum card slot (I assume. Since my primary school self could only ascertain that there is nothing else but paper with serial number barcode printed on it). The scanner scans the barcode off cards that come with computer and starts the program based on it (I tried my own barcode, it obviously didn’t work).

One of the cards were on the 7 wonders of the world. I can’t quite remember how it went but it was probably a matching game. I was supposed to guess which wonder was called what. I thought to myelf “Wow, I’d like to see all the wonders one day.”

And given today’s general climate, I was adamant not to visit Australia. I did not think I would be safe from discrimination and hate crimes. Indeed, such irony that I would dare to go to a militarised zone but not a well-developed city.

But it wasn’t like that at all.

An opportunity came up to visit Sydney and Canberra and I took it.

Maybe it was the city scene, or maybe the media blew everything out of proportion. I did not feel as out of place as I thought I’d be. Yes, I tried the buses, the trains, the ferry, walking, uber…

I was also, to much amusement, mistaken for Bangladeshi twice. Previously, whilst I was in India, I was mistaken for once as well…

TL;DR

I was astonished that I enjoyed my visit to Australia, and I managed to see the Sydney Opera House.

Quest List

The quest list for this trip was pretty short, and I managed to hit them. If I should come and visit again, it’ll definitely be longer.

1. Visit Sydney Opera House
2. Eat fresh oyster
3. See koalas live

Itinerary

As this was a mixed work visit, we only had a couple of days to ourselves.

1. Shopping at supermarket / hyper market / pharmacies – some of the things are cheaper here than in Singapore eg. OGX shampoo, cloths certain oils and of course, any Australian brand.
2. Blue Mountains day trip
3. Visit Sydney Opera House

Tips

1. Invest in an Opal card if you intend to take public transport. It’s much cheaper. If you go for day tours that end in ferry trips, they might include the card in.
   
2. It’s actually quite easy to find halal food if you don’t mind kebabs.
3. Try the local cheese, lamb and freshly shucked oysters. They’re wonderful.
4. Mondo nougat, listed under my food that are crack, can be found in very limited quantities at Blue mountains souvenir shop and Sydney airport’s duty free. If you like soft nougat, go for this brand.
   

The Internet

Of late, I have been favouring prepaid card from home for the convenience of not needing to switch out cards. We can call using data anyway, right?

For this trip, I used Starhub prepaid roaming, which covers Australia for the Happy Prepaid roaming. It allows me to use data at local (Singapore) rates. For more information – http://www.starhub.com/personal/mobile/mobile-phones-plans/prepaid-cards/happy-roam.html

I topped up around $20 and activated 2.4gb data plan, which was quite sufficient for my week long trip.

Coverage was quite decent, even on the mountains.