Australia trip pt 4: Sydney

Day 12: Aug 4th
Depart for Sydney
Explore the town

Dinner at 3 Mama Chefs

St. Andrew's Cathedral

Darling Harbor

"I'm at a paayphone!" ... drizzunk at Darling Harbor

Day 13: Aug 5th
Sydney city tour

Sydney Opera House

I don't have too many pictures from the tour, mostly because I slept for a good bit of it, but also because the rest of the pictures are on Giang's camera. Anyhow, afterwards, we got dropped off at Paddy's Market where we ate possibly the best ice cream in the world and bought souvenirs. 

Indoor ice cream truck

Ginormous food market in Paddy's

Day 14: Aug 6th
Coastal walk from Bondi Beach to Coogee (actually Clovelly) Beach
It goes: Bondi > Tamarama > Bronte > Clovelly > Coogee Beach

Bondi Beach

One of Sydney's rock pools. It's the neatest thing, they built several pools along the coast and waves will spill into them. Apparently it can get dangerous in high tide and swimmers have to hold on or they'll get swept away.

Waverley Cemetery on the cliffs of Bronte Beach

By the time we got to Clovelly we were EXHAUSTED, so we stopped for food and then found the closest bus stop and headed home.

And that concludes our trip in Australia! 

Bollywood

Last night I went to Keerthi's parents' Bollywood-themed 25th anniversary party. It was really cute, they rolled out a red carpet at this big clubhouse and everyone dressed up as their favorite Bollywood actor/actress. Check it!

Aw, look at K all dressed up. So pretty!

There was a ton of awesome food, I didn't get take too many pics though bc I didn't want to hold up the food line.

Chocolate fondue fountain, yeah!

K being a good lil host presenting a slideshow of her parents' 25  years of marriage

  

I got a henna tattoo. It was done by K's frenemy, so I washed it off pretty soon after, bc we don't like her, do we Keerthi? lol It stained quickly though, as you can see. 

Also, that ring is my souvenir from India! It's supposed to be a toe ring. Oh well. It's too cute.

Australia trip pt 3: Adelaide and Kangaroo Island

Day 9: Aug 1st
Depart for Adelaide from Melbourne
Check out the town

Effing around Rundle Mall Plaza

Day 10: Aug 2nd
Depart for Kangaroo Island on a tiny, 30-min, shitty-ass plane ride
See a koala crawl in the middle of the road on the way to the lodge
Get dinner with Amanda and Dave, eat Kangaroo!

We made some friends on the trip, Amanda and Dave were the only other people on the tour who were not old-ass retirees. 

Kangaroo, yum

Day 11: Aug 3rd
One Day Kangaroo Island Highlights Tour which took us to Emu Ridge, Remarkable Rocks, Admiral Arch, and Seal Beach.
Take a fuckin awful ferry back to Adelaide, then a 2-hr bus ride to the hotel in Adelaide

First stop: Emu Ridge Eucalyptus Distillery gift shop. They had a creepy emu in the yard

Remarkable Rocks

Not as high up as it looks

Admiral's Arch 

Seal Beach

Jet-lagged and sick

Ah! I'm jet-lagged! I couldn't sleep until almost 7am this morning. So retarded. I hope I'll get over it soon. Aaand, I'm sick with a horrible sore throat. I sound like Lindsay Lohan but way nastier.

Trying some home remedies. No lemons on deck, so lil oranges will have to do. Doesn't work to cure my hoarse voice, but it feels good! 

What do I do now that I'm NOT vacationing and jet-lagged? Clean shit! Sounds silly, but it's kinda fun and therapeutic for me. 

Re-organizing the purse closet. Imagine this all jammed like crazy in a small hallway closet. Also, Ricky likes to micromanage.

Arranging our purses by size from totes to clutches

ahh much better

p.s. Just look at that silly face :)

Australia trip pt 2: Melbourne

Next, we stayed in Melbourne. What a great city, if I had to pick a favorite, it'd be this one. Apparently, it's everyone else's favorite too; Melbourne was named the world's most livable city. There was so much going on, lots of beautiful parks and gardens, street art, wide, clean roads, and interesting architecture. Take a look!

Day 6: July 29th
Depart for Melbourne from Cairns

Dinner at Spaghetti Tree

Hired. Tired and Hungry. Or is it Tungry?

Day 7: July 30th
Half Day Marvellous Melbourne City Sights Tour
Ditch the bus and walk around town

First stop: Fitzroy Gardens

View from Bolte Bridge

View from the other side of Bolte Bridge

Australia's only observation wheel, The Southern Star (394 ft tall), there are only three in the world. Sorry, this was the best picture I could get. The tour was mostly just us riding around the city in a charter bus quickly passing by a bunch of monuments, historical buildings, and shopping/business centers. This is why we ended up ditching the tour later on. 

See? Bored to sleep.

Last stop before we ditched: Shrine of Remembrance

First stop on our own personal tour: street eats of Melbourne!

Munching on a spinach and cheese triangle in front of the giant vase of gladioli

N for Nguyen, nikka! 

Yarra River

Chinatown

There are two sweets that Giang and I cannot resist whenever we hit up a chinatown: sweet buns and egg tarts. mmm

Graffiti alley down Hosier Lane

Neeeat

Day 8: July 31st
12 Apostles Tour

The tour took us along the Great Ocean Road where we passed through Bells Beach, Memorial Arch, Lorne & Anglesea, Otway rainforest, Wildlife viewing, the 12 Apostles, Loch and Gorge, and London Bridge.

One of the beaches, can't remember which

Otway Rainforest

At the Wildlife viewing spot there was a guy passing out seeds so tourists could play with the birds

They were everywhere!

Highlight of the trip, the 12 Apostles!

I forgot what this is called... but it's pretty

London Bridge really did fall! 

Ending the tour with us watching the sunset at London Bridge