The last couple of weeks I’ve been on a business trip to Australia and Singapore. The flight to Sydney was pretty grueling. Its 12 hours from Amsterdam to Singapore. I had to kill 3 hours in the Singapore airport and then another 8 hours on to Sydney. With an 8 hour time difference, it’s a recipe for serious jetlag. I arrived on Saturday night and fell asleep quickly. But on Sunday, I didn’t have any energy and my stomach was feeling rebellious.
I spent Sunday in my hotel room reading tourist brochures. The hotel was in a suburb and not really close to any of the sight anyway. And it was raining. Its fall in Australia, but the temperatures were still pretty nice (high 60’s/low 70’s).
Monday through Thursday was spent working – I was helping with an internal training course. On Friday, I played hooky from work. I changed to a hotel in the downtown area very close to the Opera House. Armed with my list of things I wanted to do, I hit the town.
I had planned to take a harbor cruise, but when I looked at the schedule, I decided that a whale watching tour would be more fun. Dennis doesn’t like boats very much so whale watching is an activity best done on my own. We actually saw quite a few whales. They were humpback whales on their annual migration. Even more fun than the whales were the dolphins that played around the boat racing and surfing in the wake. Who can resist such playful creatures?
After the tour, I went to dinner with a couple of people from work. We went to a seafood restaurant in the harbor with a view of the Opera House. There was a light show going on that involved projecting images on the building. It was really spectacular -but hard to photograph.
On Saturday, I took the hop-on / hop-off bus tour of Sydney. These kinds of tours are hokey, but if you are short on time, they are a good way to see the main sights and learn a little bit about the city. I hopped off at Darling Harbor and went to Wildlife World. This is a new exhibit right next to the famous Sydney Aquarium. I love the fishies, but I really wanted to see Koala Bears! Wildlife World is not a regular zoo because its all indoors. They have all the creepy crawly poisonous spiders and snakes as well as the typical Australian cuties. The Koala exhibit is on the roof and I arrived just in time for the presentation. As soon as the zoo-keeper entered the enclosure, one of the little koala bears climbed down from his tree and walked around the fence line. He was super-cute. I also saw the kangaroos, lots of different birds, and wombats. I don’t think I had ever seen a wombat before. They are kind of like badgers in size and shape. Funny looking critters!
My other priority in Australia was to buy opals. I’ve always liked opals and I have a pair of opal earrings that I love from the opal mine in Idaho. I have mostly given up on buying jewelry because I don’t want to finance the conflicts in Africa. Since almost all of the world’s opals come from Australia, they are pretty much conflict-free. I managed to find a nice pair of earrings that weren’t too expensive. I also found a kangaroo charm for my charm-bracelet.
On Sunday, we headed to Singapore for the next training session. Singapore is HOT and HUMID. On Monday night we went out for a group dinner. Inexplicably, it was a Spanish restaurant and we had to sit outside in the courtyard where there was no hope of a breeze. I was OK at the beginning of the meal, but by the end I was melting. The food was just as yucky as you would expect from Spanish food in Asia. The next night we went out for Chili Crab – the national dish of Singapore. Mercifully, we sat inside in the air conditioning. It was much better. And Chili Crab is one of my favorites.
By Thursday, I was ready to get home. The flight from Singapore to Amsterdam leaves at midnight. I was glad that my colleague told me that you can pay for ½ a night in the hotel and check out at 8:00 pm. I was able to walk around Singapore a little bit, have dinner, and then shower in the hotel before my flight. On the plane, I fell asleep before take-off, woke up long enough to recline the seat and slept for 8 hours straight. The jetlag coming home was not nearly so bad in part because I was so happy to be back home!
I spent Sunday in my hotel room reading tourist brochures. The hotel was in a suburb and not really close to any of the sight anyway. And it was raining. Its fall in Australia, but the temperatures were still pretty nice (high 60’s/low 70’s).
Monday through Thursday was spent working – I was helping with an internal training course. On Friday, I played hooky from work. I changed to a hotel in the downtown area very close to the Opera House. Armed with my list of things I wanted to do, I hit the town.
I had planned to take a harbor cruise, but when I looked at the schedule, I decided that a whale watching tour would be more fun. Dennis doesn’t like boats very much so whale watching is an activity best done on my own. We actually saw quite a few whales. They were humpback whales on their annual migration. Even more fun than the whales were the dolphins that played around the boat racing and surfing in the wake. Who can resist such playful creatures?
After the tour, I went to dinner with a couple of people from work. We went to a seafood restaurant in the harbor with a view of the Opera House. There was a light show going on that involved projecting images on the building. It was really spectacular -but hard to photograph.
On Saturday, I took the hop-on / hop-off bus tour of Sydney. These kinds of tours are hokey, but if you are short on time, they are a good way to see the main sights and learn a little bit about the city. I hopped off at Darling Harbor and went to Wildlife World. This is a new exhibit right next to the famous Sydney Aquarium. I love the fishies, but I really wanted to see Koala Bears! Wildlife World is not a regular zoo because its all indoors. They have all the creepy crawly poisonous spiders and snakes as well as the typical Australian cuties. The Koala exhibit is on the roof and I arrived just in time for the presentation. As soon as the zoo-keeper entered the enclosure, one of the little koala bears climbed down from his tree and walked around the fence line. He was super-cute. I also saw the kangaroos, lots of different birds, and wombats. I don’t think I had ever seen a wombat before. They are kind of like badgers in size and shape. Funny looking critters!
My other priority in Australia was to buy opals. I’ve always liked opals and I have a pair of opal earrings that I love from the opal mine in Idaho. I have mostly given up on buying jewelry because I don’t want to finance the conflicts in Africa. Since almost all of the world’s opals come from Australia, they are pretty much conflict-free. I managed to find a nice pair of earrings that weren’t too expensive. I also found a kangaroo charm for my charm-bracelet.
On Sunday, we headed to Singapore for the next training session. Singapore is HOT and HUMID. On Monday night we went out for a group dinner. Inexplicably, it was a Spanish restaurant and we had to sit outside in the courtyard where there was no hope of a breeze. I was OK at the beginning of the meal, but by the end I was melting. The food was just as yucky as you would expect from Spanish food in Asia. The next night we went out for Chili Crab – the national dish of Singapore. Mercifully, we sat inside in the air conditioning. It was much better. And Chili Crab is one of my favorites.
By Thursday, I was ready to get home. The flight from Singapore to Amsterdam leaves at midnight. I was glad that my colleague told me that you can pay for ½ a night in the hotel and check out at 8:00 pm. I was able to walk around Singapore a little bit, have dinner, and then shower in the hotel before my flight. On the plane, I fell asleep before take-off, woke up long enough to recline the seat and slept for 8 hours straight. The jetlag coming home was not nearly so bad in part because I was so happy to be back home!
