A weekend in Barangaroo – Sydney – New South Wales – Australia – March 2017

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Australia, Barangaroo, Friends, New South Wales, Sydney, weekend away

Airbnb on the water in Sydney – what a weekend!

(source: http://www.barangaroo/sydney.com.au)

A few weeks ago, along with my colleague/friend, I travelled to Sydney for work and as there was a huge event on in the city, accommodation was scarce so I booked an Airbnb at a new waterfront inner-city suburb called Barangaroo.  I really had not heard much of this part of Sydney apart from knowing that Australia’s third richest person was in the process of building a huge casino there. After a bit of research I now know that Barangaroo was the second wife of Bennelong who was the interlocutor between the Aboriginal people and the early British colonist in New South Wales and for those of you that don’t know Bennelong Point is the site of the Opera House which is beautiful both during the day and evening.

It was my first time using Airbnb and must admit it was so easy to use and the apartment was exactly as stated on the site.  We were on the first floor of a huge apartment block with a range of restaurants and bars underneath and about fifteen or so floor above. The apartment was really stunning with water views and even with the cold and rainy weather it was lovely to have the huge doors open and enjoy the sea breeze.

On our first afternoon we went for an hour long walk along the boardwalk [in the rain] to Darling Harbour which is one of Sydney’s popular waterfront areas comprising cafes, restaurants, IMAX cinema, maritime museum and lovely Chinese gardens.

(source: http://www.google.com.au)

And on the way back to the apartment we enjoyed great views out to the harbour albeit again in miserable weather but I think water views are great in any weather.

Saturday night was work and then the next morning we went for another walk and found a fabulous combined shop/bar/restaurant/cafe across the road from the apartment.  It’s called Bel & Brio and was just the most amazing place I had been to in a long time.

As you walk into the store, which by the way is ‘huge’, there is a very large area that stocks all sorts of stuff – cheeses/fresh breads/jams/biscuits/fresh pasta sauces/meats/drinks – you name it this great shop has it.

Then we saw the cafe area so thought we would have breakfast but not before stopping by the easter eggs and chocolates…

And then the cakes and doughnuts – wow…they all looked so delicious!!

Finally we made our way to our table and ordered breakfast.  We started off with a lovely cup of peppermint tea and English breakfast tea which arrived in a nice little pots with a delicious little butter biscuit on the side.

The cafe was actually located in the bar area along with the many [many] bottles of alcohol displayed so orderly along the back of the wall of the bar.

Our breakfast consisted of scrambled eggs on toast (me) and smoked trout and poached eggs with sourdough (Jane).  Delicious and very filling meals!!

And after relaxing with another cup of tea, it was time to take a taxi to the airport and return to our homes….a quick but good weekend away!

 

Siem Reap – Cambodia -2008

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Cambodia, Siem Reap, weekend away

Three days visiting the Angkor temples

When I worked in Hong Kong, I made a decision to travel to neighbouring countries as much as I could on the weekends.  One of my friends was living in HK at the same time and we discussed visiting Siem Reap.  I had been to Phnom Penh at that stage so was eager to travel again to Cambodia.  So I met my friend and her daughter at the airport one Friday for a long weekend away to see the temples.

Seim Reap is a really popular resort town and this is because it’s the gateway to the Angkor region and in particular the Angkor temples.  My friend did the research and booked us into a wonderful resort.  We knew, because the weather was so hot, that we would only do sightseeing in the morning then after lunch return to our hotel and just relax.  So we definitely needed somewhere with a pool, spa and area to sit and read in the shade.   Our resort was perfect for just these things.

Over the weekend, we engaged a tour guide through the hotel and were firstly taken to the most famous sights in Siem Reap, Angkor Wat being one, which is truly spectacular especially its reflection on the lake.  One thing I do remember about this temple is the one on the national flag of Cambodia.  Bit of worthless information really!!

Unfortunately we did not make it to see the sunset over Angkor Wat (think this was due to us finding extremely cheap cocktails in the restaurant/bar street of Siem Reap) where we also enjoyed incredibly delicious and inexpensive Cambodian food.

We visited many temples and each was different and amazing.  It truly is a mind-blowing experience to see these temples and structures and hear about their history and restoration.

We visited Angkor Thom, Angkor Prohm and the Bayon Temple. Really so much to see in such a short time.

And I think most people know that Angkor Prohm is where the movie Tomb Raider was made with trees growing in and out of the ruins; a spectacular sight.

One of the parts I loved was walking into one of the Wats (temples) but I can’t recall which one, there were statues on the side as you walk up to the entrance.  (for me it reminded me of the walk to the Ming Tombs in Beijing with the statues lining the pathway for the Emperor).  We also posed for some fun photos whilst still trying to be respectful.

On our last day we took a boat ride along the river and saw some amazing sights; people living along the river in little huts or on boats – it was something I am really glad I did as it showed me how some of the Cambodians live in Siem Reap.

And the locals going about their daily duties…

Another friend of mine is going to be working in Phnom Penh in 2017 and I have promised I shall visit as I would love to re-visit Siem Reap – it’s so incredible!!

One final and [I think] humorous photo is of a local monkey eating an ice-cream – I guess you need that if you have just drunk four bottles of beer (ha ha)…

A weekend in Sydney – NSW – Australia – June 2016

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Australia, NSW, Sydney, Sydney Harbour, weekend away

Leasing an apartment overlooking Sydney Harbour

A few weekends ago, for the Queen’s birthday long weekend, I drove up to Sydney; met two of my friends and stayed in a fabulous apartment in Elizabeth Bay which is a harbour side suburb about three kilometres from the centre of Sydney.  This apartment overlooks the beautiful Sydney Harbour and we enjoyed spectacular views from the two lounge room windows and from the balcony and every morning I woke up to a stunning sunrise over the Harbour.

Our first evening we decided to stay in to catch up so first we went out and bought some lovely food from a local organic store.  We bought prawns/fresh bread stick/cheeses and biscuits and dips.  These we arranged on the table and sat down over a couple of hours, ate lots and chatted.  One of my friends had flown down from Queensland for the weekend and I hadn’t seen her for some time so it was good to catch up.  My other friend lives in Sydney and she arranged the apartment for us but as it only had two bedrooms she graciously gave us the apartment and caught a taxi home each evening to sleep, then returned the next morning.

The next day we took a walk up to some local markets to an area called Kings Cross colloquially known as ‘The Cross’ and is Sydney’s red-light district.  It used to be home to organised crime groups but now it’s really just a street with mixed services (railway, gyms, supermarket, bakeries) for nearby residents and entertainment venues including bars, restaurants, nightclubs, brothels and strip clubs for visitors.

(source: two photos from Google images)

My Sydney friend and I ate corn cakes with avocado (she also had bacon); delicious (forgot to take my phone so no photos), then we went for a walk around the harbour and stopped off for a glass of wine at the Yacht Club – as it was such a lovely day we were able to sit outside looking at the water and the extremely expensive boats.  I don’t think I will be buying one with a price tag of hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars!!!!

One of the special things we did whilst in Sydney was to go out to a ‘posh’ lunch  at Otto Ristorante along the Wharf at Woolloomooloo Bay which  serves modern Italian.  This post is a little bit longer than usual as there are more photos of our food.

Woolloomooloo Bay Wharf is the longest timbered-piled wharf in the world,and was completed in 1915. During its working life it mainly handled the export of wool, but also acted as a staging point for soldiers deploying to the World Wars as well as a disembarking point for new migrants arriving in Australia.  Now it’s been redeveloped as a a very expensive area comprising residential apartments [with fabulous water views], a hotel and restaurants; one being Otto which is favoured by many including movie stars..’Cam’ [Eric Stonestreet] from Modern Family lunched here when he was in Australia.!

I also invited another friend and three of us started off with champagne and my friend Tracey ordered a cocktail.  The usual bottles of sparkling and still mineral water were also ordered.

The service at this restaurant is excellent and I had read recently that there was an extensive vegetarian and vegan menu.  My friends all decided to  order the degustation and I was ready just to order from the vegetarian/vegan menu when our waiter advised me that there was a vegan degustation menu – excellent as this allowed me to eat the same amount of dishes as my friends and at the same time.

Firstly we were served some delicious rye bread with butter and my friends enjoyed an amuse bouche of goats cheese and jam sandwiched between a papadum type crisp bread.  I had something similar i.e. vegan cheese, but I can’t remember what it was as I didn’t take a photograph of it.  A bowl of salad leaves were also provided for the table.

 

We drank our drinks and enjoyed the sun as we were seated outside and also enjoyed ‘people watching’ including a couple who clearly had discussed wearing the same outfit out to lunch that day.

This is the menu for the vegan degustation which I loved the look of and every one of my  dishes were beautifully presented and I have photographed each in order of arrival.

 

 

Sensational menu – I enjoyed each dish and if I had to choose one I didn’t really ‘love’ it would have to be the cannelloni beans – the dish was nice but I enjoyed others more.

After our first dish arrived, we had finished our champagne and cocktail so another round was ordered but this time, with different drinks.

Now for my friends non-vegan menu:

The afternoon was long and wonderful and by the time we finished our last drink and dessert, it was dusk…

We left the restaurant and walked back along the wharf to my friends car to get a lift home…such an enjoyable afternoon and a restaurant I will definitely return to when I go back to Sydney.

The next day I departed the apartment to visit my family then drive back to Canberra.  All in all a great four-day weekend in Sydney with special friends and the opportunity to visit my family.

 

 

Phnom Penh – Cambodia – 2008

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Cambodia, Phnom Penh, weekend away

A weekend in Phnom Penh

In 2008, whilst I was working in Hong Kong, I arranged to visit some friends in Phnom Penh for a weekend.  I caught a flight from HK on a Friday afternoon and was picked up by my friends from the airport.  I didn’t really know what to expect but my friends lived in a fabulous [huge] house in Cambodia’s capital and it was interesting to see that the streets around where they lived were all really wide and tree lined…again not knowing what to expect this was a pleasant surprise.

My friends had asked me before I arrived if I was interested in a boat trip along the Mekong River.  This is something I had always wanted to do so said a huge ‘yes’.  We caught our boat and for about two hours did a tour of the river and being the only people on the boat (apart from the staff) we had a nice time just sitting and relaxing and watching the world go by.

The river was pretty dirty and rather sad to see the poverty alongside with families living in tents or small boats alongside the river.  But it was an incredible experience to be on the Mekong!!!

Phnom Penh really is a wonderful city and one I am so glad to have experienced especially with my friends who had lived there for some time and knew the city really well.

During the weekend, my friends took me to some markets to buy the usual cheap bags/wallets/t-shirts/ornaments and other things which I bought in abundance!!

We also went and had dinner at this fabulous little local restaurant which had geckos on the walls…they were on all the walls all around the city inside rooms and restaurants…very cute actually…I liked them.

One place we went to which I found really interesting was the Foreign Correspondents Club which was a favourite haunt of foreign journalists when reporting news on Cambodia and located along the Tongle Sap River.  It’s a three storey colonial building and is now a bar/restaurant and hotel.

(photo from http://www.tripadvisor.com.au)

We sat upstairs and had views of the river and the local area…so enjoyable!!  Inside there are wooden seats and wooden bar tops and the walls are covered with nostalgic posters.  You can imagine foreign correspondents interviewing politicians and others before writing up their stories many years ago.  We also had views of the cluttered power lines that are generally seen all throughout the majority of Asia.

And my final stop on the Sunday before I returned to the airport to go to Hong Kong was to see Wat Phnom, a buddhist temple built in 1373 and is the tallest religious structure in the city.  It was so hot walking around the city [so hot] but it was lovely to see the places I did see.  I know I didn’t see everything Phnom Penh has to offer but what I did see was lovely and I really enjoyed spending time with my friends Mike and Jude.