To Melburnians, Sydney and their citizens Sydneysiders are the Americans of Australia. Naturally, this amuses me, as we Canadians refer to the USA as Canada’s underwear.

Michelle and I arrived a Saturday morning to rainy Sydney, where we were immediately wooed by an expensive $15 AUD train ticket from the airport to the city. By comparison, Hong Kong’s Airport express line is the same price, but includes fewer stops, goes a much longer distance, and features an airline check-in so you don’t have to lug your giant bags around. However, the Sydney Airport Link train was a modern double-decker train, which entertained us for the 20-minute train ride to the city, and only blocks away from the Radisson Plaza hotel.

After arriving to the hotel, we eventually ventured to Bondi Beach, where we signed up for some surfing lessons ($89/pp, low season)! While it was raining, the water was surprisingly warm for an autumn day. For newbies like us, the lessons were also the best way to go to pick up on the how-to. We had only four people during our group lesson, including Michelle and myself.

The lesson began with how to get a good wave and maintain your center on a surfboard. Once you catch the wave by inefficiently paddling like a madman, you must place your hands flat on the surfboard to help evenly distribute your weight. This is more difficult than it sounds, as it is human instinct to clench the surfboard side to maintain balance, but which contributes to the capsizing surfboard. But once you grasp the concept, its a lovely coast to the shoreline.

Once you’ve enjoyed bodyboarding a few times, the next challenge is to stand up on the surfboard. You have to push up with your hands flat on the board (again, gripping the side will result in a tipping over), and bring your lead foot onto the front of the board while keeping the board balanced, left-right and front-back! This is a lot harder than it sounds – if you are not centered on the board when you begin to stand up, you are quickly dunked. By the end of the two-hour lesson, both Michelle and I were standing on the board (don’t ask how long I stood though), and I also fractured my pinky! I hear both that it is and is not a common injury associated with surfing, so just allow me to say that I’m an awesome surfboarder with a surfing injury.

The next day, Michelle and I headed to Sydney Opera House to embark on an Essentials tour ($28/pp, early bird adult). All the tour participants were loaned some impressive touring technology, strapping on headsets that turned our tour guide into a portable radio station, allowing the tour guide to speak in our ears as we traversed from location to location. The tour was composed of interesting historical videos and a chance to sit inside the Concert Hall and Opera Theatre – it is an architectural nerd’s delight to be able to witness the interior concrete fins and design.

The Rocks Sunday market was a short 10 minute walk east of the Opera House and Circular Quay (pronounced “qee”). While the market had a large assortment of random wares to purchase, Michelle and I were most engrossed in, of all places, a candy store. Sticky is a candy store that specializes in the making of custom hard-candy, with designs of little fruit and words (mostly names of couples to be used as wedding favours). Lolly maker Greg invited me to step behind the counter to take closer snaps of the confectioners-in-training, which was a privilege! So we watched up close, for an hour, as Sticky made passionfruit candy from start to finish!

To summarize the long candy-making process, melted sugar is poured onto a cooling table, where citric acid and colourings are added into mix. After the candy is well mixed, the confectioners then whip the hefty slabs of candy to get air into it, giving it a beautiful, glossy look. The different parts of the candy are then stuck and rolled together to resemble a design, and are stretched thin on a hot table to be chiselled out into a massive amount of candy. While this may seem easy, it is a long and physically demanding process. The end result is always a crowd pleaser though, as nothing tastes better than delicious and artistic looking candy! In addition to names, they also do company logos and other retro designs. If I ever quit my job, I want to be a lolly maker.

Michelle and I were getting increasingly hungry as we witnessed candy growing up, and would soon turn diabetic if we continued to purchase and eat candy. So we then took the ferry to Darling Harbour ($5.30/pp), got off at the Maritime Museum, and walked to the Sydney Fish Market.

The Sydney Fish Market is not only the place to go to get your fresh fish, but also a great location to consume the seafood right there and then. For example, a delicious dozen of fresh pacific oysters was only $15.90 per dozen, complemented with lemon wedges and a small fork. Or perhaps you could indulge in some fresh sashimi, where you hand-pick the fish and then it is all sliced for you on the spot. You would have no choice but to be absolutely stuffed after eating it all in one go (tip: 200 grams per person is more than plenty of fish)!

A productive weekend of surfing, candy, and seafood. Not bad for the America of Australia!

After spending two months in Melbourne, I figure I’d get out and see the rest of Australia. Michelle and I (along with my other fellow imported workers Lindsay and Ruby) went to Cairns in Queensland.

Cairns (Australians pronounce this as “Caans”… the ‘i’ and ‘r’ is silent) is a little tropical wonder in Australia. Its amazing how Australians can go from a cold, rainy and depressing winter to a hot and humid winter with beautiful oceans and beaches, simply by taking a 3 hour flight. Cairns is home of the Great Barrier Reef, coined the “largest living organism in the world”. While I personally dispute this claim, as scattered coral across the shore shouldn’t qualify as one continuous living thing, its still amazing.

We opted for a snorkelling tour on the Ocean Freedom – as one of the more expensive tours, it came fully loaded with an enthusiastic tour group, full-on snorkelling equipment (and optional diving equipment), a generous buffet lunch and lots of little educational tidbits both on the main cruiser and a little glass-bottom-boat that tagged along. We were first ferried out to the Upolu Cay on the Great Barrier Reef, where we experienced our first snorkel ever.

Snorkelling is enjoyable, but it takes a bit of effort to make the experience comfortable and worthwhile. We first spat into our snorkelling goggles, rubbed the spit around the lenses, and rinsed out the excess. While it sounds a bit uncivilized, it actually prevents the goggles from fogging up (feel free to educate me on the science how-to). Tighten that mask up, and then attach the breathing tube to the goggles frame. Make sure that tube end sticks behind your head, and clench the mouthpiece between your teeth and lips. More amusingly, you can make a “two!” sound quickly and spit out any sea water that happens to leak into your mouth. You can choose to enter with a bodysuit, a lifejacket, or for those more adventurous and fit, nothing at all. Laziness and a lack of jellyfish contributed to my choice of a lifejacket. Don some rubber flippers and you’re ready to go.

Then, you jump in. And for those who have never done any snorkelling before, its a bit of a shock.

You’re restricted to only using your mouth to breathe, and any sort of facial expression will only result in a salty mouth. A bit of apprehensiveness sets in, where you feel like you’re not getting enough oxygen into your brain, all because of a ridiculously undersized breathing tube. The only thing that saves you from complete panic is that lifejacket.

Once you get your bearings and realize that your nose is no longer an option for basic survival, then you swim your way over to a dark patch of blue in the turquoise ocean, which is a small bit of coral. Then flatten out, stay still, and be amazed.

Shortly after staying still, the fish that you scared away when you (more specifically, me) were flapping wildly, begin to emerge from the oddly elephant-ear-shaped coral. All sorts of shapes, sizes and colour of fish start to pop out. The giant clams begin to relax, and open and close their mouths again. That black long tube on the bottom by the bright blue starfish is a sea cucumber, breathing and filtering out the nutrients in the ocean. Those fish that you scared away now venture close to you, exploring and curious to see the unexpected guest who dropped by. Some fish simply don’t care have the time pay attention – we saw two fish dancing in a circle, chasing one another, perhaps in a mating ritual. I was consistently amazed as we went from coral to coral, experiencing a different school of fish, rainbow of colours and new life every time.

Unfortunately, you will likely become exhausted before you see everything you want – the reduced oxygen flow, the frustrations of salt-coated mouths, and your lower leg muscles will all take a toll on your stamina. So you swim back, climb on deck, take off all the gear you meticulously put on, and drag yourself upstairs to dry off and sunbake, knowing you’ve just saw a coral reef that was not in a fish tank.

Some lessons learned:

• Do not get the disposable underwater cameras. Opt for some cheaper housing (DiCAPac clear plastic pouches) are perfect for snorkelling since you won’t even approach below 2 meters, and they are rated for 10 meters. If you have money to splurge, then by all means get the official waterproof housing for your camera. I advise against the disposable cameras so much that I’d recommend even renting a digital waterproof camera over the disposables – the disposables just have abysmal photo quality, and film scanning adds to the cost and pain. Two disposable cameras with development and burning to CD is the same price as a two-day rental of the camera.
• Always eat the sea sickness pills. Even if you don’t think you’ll have sea sickness. Just do it, and right away – they take a while to kick in, and its a small price to make sure that sickness won’t ruin a part of your day.
• Stay still when snorkelling! Michelle and I stayed a spot for a few minutes and fish came to nibble on my toe, and all the fish were just hanging around us.
• Try to find an area to go with the waves and current, as it will make your legs a break and you can coast right over some coral effortlessly.
• Get sunscreen – you’ll be reapplying excessively often, and coming home as a rock lobster doesn’t earn you any cool cred. Aerosol sunscreens makes reapplication easy and convenient, but they’re also prohibited on a flight!

If you saw a picture of something you’d immediately recognize as Melbourne, what would you expect the picture to be of?

If you asked this question for other cities, the responses would be fairly quick and unsurprising. When you ask Melbourians this same question, it yields a whole spectrum of answers, including:

• The skyline
• The pointy-shaped thing
• Lanes and alleyways
• Trams
• Flinders Street (Train) Station

It is unfortunate that Melbourne does not have any incredibly unique architectural or internationally recognizable landmarks. Even the downtown skyline doesn’t have any recognizable towers or structures. Options for night photography were limited to the Giant Sky Wheel, Flinders Street Station and also Victorian Arts Centre (the pointy thing). I ran into another night photographer, Ben, who even mentioned that he’d have a lot more suggestions if we were in Sydney. While Melbourne has a lot of unique food and cultural experiences, the architectural eye-candy is a bit lacking.

The Australian government also just changed its slogan to There’s nothing like Australia. What was wrong with the previous Where the Bloody Hell Are You slogan?

I arrived very jet lagged to Melbourne on Saturday, March 13th after spending 18.5 hours over four flights from Calgary! I’ve been fortunate to get an once-in-a-lifetime three month work assignment in the city, which is a mixed blessing since while I get to travel for work, I’m also going into another busy season and also away from family for three months. However, as long as I am here, I am going to enjoy one of the most livable cities in the world!

Melbourne (pronounced Mel-bun) is four-million citizens strong, and is located on the south-east tip of Victoria and also the country. The closest major city is Sydney, which is a whopping 10 hours away. By comparison, Calgary to Regina is only 7 (boring) hours away. University semesters run from February to November at 5 months each, and average highs vs lows are 26°C and 14°C in the summer, and 13°C and 6°C in July.

Melbourne, like most major cities, have some excellent restaurants. Unlike most major cities, Melbourne prides itself in keeping the best places hidden from plain view, via alleyways and lanes. Melbourne’s Tourism office even has this sick sense of humour advertising to tourists discover these local gems! For those who don’t consider themselves adventurous (or have an irrational fear of alleyways), there are more than enough visibly safe areas with great food – for example, Lygon St., north of downtown the CBD.

Australia has its own well-developed local vocabulary that most tourists don’t bother to learn until its too late – I am no exception to this rule. There is no downtown in Melbourne, just the CBD (Central Business District). Lemonade is Sprite. Footy is Australian Rules Football, which is nothing like European and American football, and has even more complex rules. Arvo is afternoon. I’m a bloke. While lattes exist, its cousin without the foam is known as a Flat White. And cafes are everywhere – literally two on every block within the CBD. Italian, Greek, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese restaurants litter the streets, and all are authentic in their execution.

You would think that having such healthy competition would drive down prices for coffee, food and generally everything. In fact, Melbourne has some of the most expensive food costs I have ever experienced! Lunch downtown in the CBD would exchange for a tenner, as long as you don’t opt for a $3 drink. Normal sized shampoo is $8. A local cafe’s small flat white is about $3.50, and a basic pair of Oakley sandals is about $80.

To be fair, I am currently drinking a delicious $3 local bottle of wine from the bottle-o. The Flat White is always fantastic, no matter what cafe I walk into. I’ve yet to have a bad meal, even considering quick-serve food court stuffs during lunch. Add the hustle, bustle and never-ending activities of the city, and I’m simply glad to be in such a beautiful place for three months.

[Melbourne 2K10 Photo Set]
Blog post cost: $2.00 = $0.013/MB x 150 MB (photos, typing, proofing and “general internet”)

For anniversaries and birthdays, I’m always hard pressed to find something I’d be proud to gift. When thinking of something to give for those big occasions, I’ve always considered an experience to be more thoughtful than a physical good (unless, of course, its an item that will provide more experiences down the road).

So for our second year anniversary, Michelle and I opted for an experience – an Omakase at El’s Japanese Fusion.

An Omakase is the Japanese equivalent for a tasting menu, except that as a patron, you essentially hand over your money and culinary life into the chef’s hands. We’ve been to El’s Japanese Fusion before to have their sashimi and rolls (which we also highly approve of), so we thought that an Omakase was one of our must-trys. El’s offers three tiers of Omakase: $50, $100 and $150 per person, where I assumed the price levels corresponded with different levels of quality, and all three needed to be reserved in advance.

Mike, the chef at El’s, greeted us after sitting down. As we were newbies at this Omakase-thing, Mike pleasantly explained to us that the Omakase was going to be presented to us one dish at a time, allowing us to enjoy each dish sequentially. At this point, we still had no idea of the dishes to come.

To start off, something warm – a seafood Chawan-mushi. Served in a small cup with a lid and a spoon, the Chawan-mushi was a hot egg custard, and set inside with fish, prawns and green onions on the top. Unlike typical custards, this egg custard was not sweet, but had all the savoury flavourings of the prawns and dashi.

Our second appetizer was a Beef Sashimi, layered with a raw egg yolk and asian pears. We’ve both had beef tataki before, so the concept of near-raw beef was not new – having purely raw slices of beef was definitely unexpected. The raw beef was tender, moist, and hardly chewy. Spreading the egg yolk added texture to the beef, and the julienned asian pears complimented with an unexpected light and fresh way to finish the dish.

Perhaps the most “tame” dishes of the Omakase were the last two appetizers, a salad with sauteed oyster mushrooms, seared scallops and roe. The other dish was an avocado halved, with spicy mayo, atlantic salmon sashimi and avocado pieces – Michelle particularly enjoyed unique presentation, and we’re both suckers for all three of those ingredients used.

After we had finished the above dish and our table was cleared, we heard Mike in the background tell the waitress that the dish was a Live Lobster Sashimi. “Excellent” I thought, I’ve never had raw lobster before! Except…

This lobster was still twitching! The lobster was cut in half, with the claws and body presented on the plate – the tail was carved out and the meat was sliced and presented on top as well. I was impressed (and shocked) with the presentation, but nothing drove the point of ultimate freshness better. And the lobster tail meat was, in a few words, amazing, smooth, firm, clean, fresh.

The lobster was soon whisked away from our table. While recovering from the shock that we actually ate something live and twitching, we were served assorted sushi and rolls including scallop sushi and tuna belly. The lobster soon returned though, cracked and boiled in a large bowl of rich and flavourful miso soup (“Hey buddy, you’re back”). The sushi and lobster miso soup effectively stuffed us.

Rounding off the night was some very un-Japanese cheesecake, which we immediately recognized as the cheesecake available in the freezer section of Costco. The cheesecake was decent, but we definitely would have looked forward to something a bit more Japanese (even green tea ice cream).

The Omakase was fantastic experience, which Michelle and I will be raving for years to come. Each dish was creatively presented and tasted just as great, so I give the chef Mike props for a wonderful meal. I just hope that next time, we don’t get cheesecake for dessert!

El’s Japanese Fusion
17-2008 33 Avenue SW
Calgary, AB T2T 1Z4
(403) 217-6796

The Tim Hortons Roll Up The Rim contest starts today! In keeping with the 5-year-old tradition, I am beginning my assignment of taking pictures and recording statistics of all my cups! Last year was a subpar record of 4-60, so hopefully this year I am lucky enough to beat it.

Having a fever and a loss isn’t a good way to start it though…

Current Statistics:
Record: 0 – 1
Spent: $1.59
Won: $0.00
Probability: 88.89%

[RUTR 2010 Progress]

Went Canoeing on Canada Day in Banff. A great way to spend the afternoon exploring the river and the mountain parks in general. Blue Canoe Rentals lets you take them out from downtown, although its bit pricey at $34 for the first hour + $20 every hour afterwards. Oh, and I’m surprised we never sank.

Well the Hong Kong trip has come and gone, and I’m over my post-vacation-depression period enough to begin writing posts on the blog again. Some quick statistics:

• Days in HK – 19
• Pictures Taken – 3824 (average of 201 a day)
• Pictures Uploaded – 520 (excludes a few family photos)
• Pictures with GPS coordinates – 362 (none are manually geotagged)
• Most pictures in one day – 668 (Tram to the Big Buddha and Tai O)
• Least pictures in one day – 42 (Peanut allergy reaction, saved by a Chiu Chow dinner)
• Number of times camera was bumped by people/objects – Once!

Helping my massive shot count was attributed to my camera setup, now using a modified R-Strap, which lets my camera hang close to me while trekking around and could be summoned whenever I needed! Never again will I use the standard camera strap! My D300 never hit any walls, and someone only bumped it once during the entire trip.

Also a wonderful change of pace was using a Nikon GP-1 to automatically geo-tag my photos (i.e. embed GPS coordinates directly into my pictures), so I could retrace my route at a future date. Check out where all my geotagged pictures were taken in Hong Kong, and I think we can agree that geotagging pictures is a fairly nifty technology!

Back to the recap. It is very hard to pick some of my favorite experiences out of the trip, so from the top…

• For tourist traps, Victoria Peak and the Big Buddha are the best not-to-miss choices. If you are going up to the Big Buddha via the 360 Tram, the Crystal Tram isn’t entirely worth it unless you like seeing the water and forest beneath your feet. A trip to the fishing village of Tai O near the airport has speed boats to take you out to the dolphins for only a few dollars. Walk Of The Stars in Tsim Sha Tsui is recommended for the view at night but not for the immortalized hands of famous stars, and the beaches are just that – beaches.
• For food, eating congee and Chinese doughnuts in the morning, Dim Sum or noodle soups in the afternoon for lunch, and briefly sampling the seemingly infinite variety of Asian and Japanese dinners is the best way to go. Just don’t forget to get a snack with the Little Egg waffles (雞蛋仔, gai dan zai) or Fish-balls-on-a-stick from the street vendors.
• Shopping is everywhere you look, so just remember to stick your head in every store and be curious. If you like big chains, look no further than Sha Tin and Ocean Centre (in Tsim Sha Tsui), and for the smaller stores, Mong Kok for clothing and random goods, and Sham Shi Po for the Golden Computer Center.

Some learned lessons that I will do on my next trip, and hopefully you will too:

• Bring a tripod! While a monopod is the best option on the top of the Victoria Peak, a tripod is the best way to get pictures of Hong Kong island at night. Yes, I did not take my own advice from my Toronto trip…
• The Hong Kong Moleskine book was the best touring guide ever. Not only did it contain MTR maps, but it also contained city maps and enough blank pages to plan out and record my travels. Be advised: it contains no recommendations, so you can plan your own journey!
• Camera equipment is marginally cheaper (up to 10% off), except for authentic batteries – authentic Nikon batteries were almost 50% off North American pricing. I bought most of my camera gear from Wing Shing Photo Supplies. Hat tip to my D700-toting uncle for the recommendation!
• Leverage VIP cards when shopping at big chains. If you’re spending almost $1000 HKD at a store, ask if they have a VIP membership. These memberships usually entitle you to 10% to 40% off your future purchases, so savings can add up fast!
• Skip Ladies Street (女人街). Goods there are extremely overpriced, even after bargaining! Everything sold there can be found cheaper elsewhere in the city.
• Most shopping malls look the same after awhile. Try to hit all the smaller shopping complexes with several tiny stores, as that is where you’ll find the most variety and less of the staple chain stores.

I promised my family and friends that I would be back in two years. I’m certainly looking forward to it!

[Flickr: Hong Kong 2009 and Map]

Given the situation of the economy, Ernst & Young had to tone down the Christmas party this year, which is a fairly agreeable solution… I think the biggest impact people noticed was changing the bar to a cash bar. Lucky for me, I’m done after one drink.

Anyways, we still had marvelous food, the entrees and desserts being the best of the bunch. While their food in their restaurants and bars leaves something a lot to be desired, I’m repeatedly impressed by the Sheraton’s level of catering for banquets. We had the following for the entree and dessert:

"Top Cured Bottom Seared Salmon Fillet with a Lemon Butter Sauce, Thyme Scented Beef Fillet with a Café au Lait Sauce, and Olive Oil Whipped Potatoes, Pearl Onion & Mushroom Sauté"

"Apple Feailletée with a Green Apple Custard & Caramelized Apple, Granny Smith Compote & Candied Apple Slices"

Yes, as delicious as it looks. After the party, David, Jeany, Mich and I proceeded upstairs for Mario Kart and Rock Band duels for hours afterwards. What a fun night!

This past weekend, I packed up and moved out (November 22), and while we’re still unloading the boxes and getting everything back to normal, it still hasn’t dawned on me that I call Calgary home now.

We got a nice timelapse of the second part of the move (1 shot per minute, 15 frames per second), and I’ll have pictures up when its all clean and shiny in here. Don’t expect pictures until after I assemble that ridiculously heavy Ikea drawer chest so I can stop living out of a suitcase!

Thanks to Michelle, David, Connie & Alex for helping me move!