Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge

Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge is the landmark of Australia, if you have not visited this place, you are not consider been to Australia. In 2007, Sydney Opera House was nominated as part of UNESCO's world heritage list for its creativity and innovation in both architectural and structural design.

Sydney Opera House was designed by Jorn Utzon, the winner of the ‘International competition for a national opera house at Bennelong Point, Sydney’. The original estimated budget to build Sydney Opera House was $7 millions, but it end up the final cost was $102 millions.

Sydney Opera House is located near the Harbour Bridge and sits on the Bennelong Point. The opera house served as one of the most famous performing art centers in the world. The building has five theatres and rehearsal studios, two main halls, four restaurants, six bars and souvenir shops. The largest concert hall can seat through 2,679 persons and the "Concert Hall Grand Organ is the largest mechanical organ in the world, with 10,154 pipes".

How you can enjoy the panoramic view of  Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge

1. Make a stop at Mrs Macquarie's Chair for a superb bird's eye  of the building and bridge.

2. Enjoy your drink in the bar.

3. Board the Sydney Highlight Cruise sail around the beautiful Sydney harbour and enjoy a cup of coffee or tea.

4. Sydney Harbour Bridge climb - an experience you will never forget!

5. Walk around the building...

 

What we can learn from Australia...

Discover why "There's Nothing Like Australia"... This is the new tourism tagline for Australia, I think the main marketing idea is to bring out the unique experiences you will get when you travel in Australia.

So, what is so unique travel in Australia compared to the rest of the countries? Some people even told me that Australia is the miniature of Europe, but if I would like to see Europe, I wouldn't come here purposely. I didn't really plan this trip in the beginning, but my mum insisted that she would like to discover the beauty of Australia, of course, the first westerner trip.

All the while, I have been travel in most of the countries in Asia, one reason is because the exchange rate is affordable but also I like to discover the mystery culture in Asia. It was not a bad experience travel in Australia, although it was quite rushed, but it gave me some insights...  

Quote a phrase from Samuel Johnson, “all travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own. And if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it.”

One thing surprised me is that the toilet in the Victoria market is very clean. Told by the tour guide, usually the family will teach the child from young to clean the toilet bowl for the usage of the next person. In Malaysia, there are no such concept implant to us, we only learn how to take care of ourselves. May be this is why our public toilets are always dirty. This is something difference in the education system, if we claimed ourselves as civilized person, this is something we can improve.

Second, they take care of their environment and valued their natural resource. A good quality control of the water can been seen in the oyster farming business when we met Uncle Jim in Jim Wild's Oyster Farm. It is a home business, but I can noticed that the river besides the farm are clean and clarity.  Not only that, Koala Conservation Centre and Penguin Reserve Centre in Philips Island also demonstrated to us the important of wild animal for them.

Third, enjoy is the part of their life. I think this is what we mean work hard and play hard. Therefore, most of the shops do closed at night. And the last one, urban planning. Malaysia authorities often changed the road structure and make the traffic terrible jam. In Australia and China, the urban planning is for 50 years.

The above is solely my opinion, if any offended make, I wish to make apology in the first place. 

Dolphin Wacthing in Jervis Bay

It took around 3 hours drive from Sydney to Jervis Bay and along the way you will have the chance to see the beautiful coastal rainforest scenery and spectacular coastline of South Pacific Ocean.

The end of winter was gently chill, the sky is cloudless, the water is clear and the air crisp. Apart from its pristine natural beauty, Jervis Bay does offer the ideal viewing experiences for dolphin, whale and seal in Australia. This trip around we are going for the cruise of seeing dolphin in wild. There are no guarantee you will see dolphin in live, therefore pray hard on it.

Australia abundance's of natural resources are the key sources of its economy. I can see that Australian really take a good care of their environment and protect the wild animal. I think we as a Malaysian should learn from them.

We are so luckily that we were able to witness dolphin with close proximity. At last, we took the famous fish and chip at the nearby restaurant after the cruise.