08 November 2005

OZ Trip - the WOW factors


Lets start with the points in favour of Oz.


The Wheelchair friendly buses are a boon to parents using the pram. There is a place allocated for the wheelchairs and prams and can be secured tightly using a belt, so that you don’t have to worry about it moving when sudden brakes are applied. Also there is a place to store large baggage and strollers if not in use. Saves a lot of space and makes it easy for the other commuters to move around.

You can find vegetarian food almost everywhere. Its a pleasant surprise, since in Singapore, you have to search high and low for a veggie burger!!! And the best surprise was that the veggie food (burgers, pizzas and some Mexican items) tasted really good. We found a very good Indian restaurant at Glebe Point Road in Sydney. It was a north Indian restaurant named "Flavour of India" and the sabji was fantastic...I have not found such a good one even in Singapore. The only gripe was that it was open only from 6pm to 11pm.

There are lots of passes available and some good maps and guides. So it shouldn't be a problem to get around the city. We had got the Orange pass, which covered the city and the beaches like Bondi and Manly. It included bus and ferry rides for a whole week. This comes at the same price as a one-day trip on the Explorer Bus, which covers only the city.

Another one is the See Sydney & Beyond Smart Card. You can save a few dollars if you plan well and this card is pretty useful. You can get it for 1,2,3 and 7 days. I feel a 1 or 2 day card would be sufficient. We had taken the card for a single day and were able to save around 20 to 30 dollars each.

Having a kid around is in some ways a blessing...you get preference in most places and you can cut queues :) It also helps in breaking the ice...and gets you friends easily.

The people are friendly and go out of their way to help you. One incident was when a lady asked the bus driver for change for 100 dollars. He didn't have and so asked the other commuters. At least three people stood up and went to the driver immediately with the change. It was like they were waiting for it!!! There were incidents when we just had to look at our maps and people came to us and offered help. There was this old lady, who gave us directions to a place and then went and requested the bus driver to stop for us a bit further down the bus stop as we had a kid!

6 comments:

AF said...

Great to know your experiences and your enjoyed the trip. Good Break for you...
Take CAre
AF

Cogito said...

Oz is an awesome place.Good to hear about your experiences ..

Narayanan Venkitu said...

Experiences apart...where are those photos.?? Would have been nice.!

The 100$ incident is funny.!!.

Flavor of INdia...better than restaurants in Singapore..that was a bbbbbbbiiig compliment isn't it.!! I thought Singapore had great restaurats.!!

I agree about having kids..It definitely helps.

Me said...

wow i never knew Aussies were so friendly....what was that subji??

Ram C said...

I go with Mr.Narayanan on the restaurant part... Probably, you would have loved the Indian restrts, since there were less in numbers. I too enjoyed the food everywhere (during my trip to S.M.G) since we visit the place with a different expectation (That we won't get suitable food).

That doesn't mean that you don't get to see such a restrnt in SG. I hope we have a lot more here, which may not be visible for us who stay here for a long time.

Ram C said...

Was it only Sydney or any other place as well? I also felt that the people are warm there.. compared to French. (my personal experience)