Day 05: Monday, 6 March 2006: The Rocks and Sydney Tower

Dita had a school today up to 5PM, so we decided to walk on our way. This was the first time I had to go out bringing a map with me. Our first stop was The Rocks. We took a train to Wynyard, then to Circular Quay. The Rocks itself was said to be the oldest village in town. There wasn't really much to see here IMO. We ended up having lunch at the Pancake on the Rocks where we ordered Aussie Sunrise. The pancake was delicious, although IMO the one in IHOP (in US) was yummier. We then continued walking until we came beneath the harbor bridge. There was a tour here to climb and go to the topmost point of the bridge.

Our next stop would be the Sydney Tower. Since we had nothing to do, we decided to take a walk all along the George Street. It was quite a long walk, the day was really hot, so we made several stops during the way. On one interesting point, we came across a man who was selling a ballpoint to passing-by people in order to make a living. He was nicely dressed and didn't look like a beggar at all. We also stumbled upon some homeless people; some looked very young and good-looking, that if they had come to Indonesia, they might have been a famous and adored actor/celebrity.

We had to find our way to find the entrance to Sydney Tower. But looking at other high buildings around it (that seemed to block the view), we were rather skeptical to be able to really see anything when we went up there. Curiously, we found two kinds of entrance; the first one was to a 360 degree (floor revolving?) restaurant, which would be quite an awesome dining experience. The second one was to a viewing platform and OzTrek (a cinema). It was like A$23.5. There was other attraction for the adventurous, the SkyWalk, where you would go out to open-air, with proper safety of course.

While around the Sydney Tower, I found a novel book left on a seat. There was this label on the book: "I'm not lost, see www.bookcrossings.com" and some book ID. It was an interesting concept to share a book, where you released and registered a found book on the website and you could see who and where this book had traveled.

It was about 5PM when we got back to home. We then went out with Dita to had dinner. This time it was a Japanese restaurant, Koh-Ya Yakiniku. Meals were self-barbequed. We ordered a buffet and the food was really great, highly recommended. The ox tongue (my first time eating one) was so tasty that we ordered like 3 or 4 plates. This was my favorite meal during our stay in Sydney.