Australia, Japan, 2023.
I enjoy traveling the world. I also live in what is arguably, the very best climate in the world, San Clemente, California. Our average high temperature ranges all year from 67 to 77°. We only get about 10 inches of rain a year. We have no humidity, no bugs. no tornadoes and no hurricanes. People think we have earthquakes, but I’ve never been involved in anything remotely serious in my 45 years in California.
People often ask me, “You live in such a great place. Why do you travel the world? Why not just stay home?” The answer to that question is simple. I won’t always be able to travel the world. When that time comes, I can enjoy San Clemente even more than I do now. Right now, I am optimizing for world travel.
People also ask me why Carol doesn’t come along on each and every trip. The answer to that question is pretty simple as well. I enjoy traveling the world just a little bit more than Carol does. In reality, she is a homebody. If she wasn’t married to me, and if she was married to some of the dimwits that she could have married, I doubt she would have ever left the neighborhood. I kid because I care!
Nevertheless, in any given year, Carol will travel away from home anywhere from 60-80 nights. How many people do you know who “don’t like to travel” travel that much? It’s just that I like to travel about twice that amount and sometimes more. Luckily, for me, Carol is fine with that.
This adventure is going to take me to Australia and Japan. I’ve been going to these places quite a bit lately. I’ve been to Australia four times in the past 15 months or so, and Japan three times in the past nine months.
The primary purpose of this trip is to see baseball games in Japan. My secondary reason for this outing is to see auto racing in the Northern Territories of Australia. I’ve never been there before.
Of course, along the way, I will enjoy whatever “pops up” in my Google searches for things to do. I suspect I will make several friends along the way and reunite with old friends. I am a big believer that the enjoyment of these trips comes from the journey and not the destination.
I’ve been planning this adventure for a couple of months. There are a lot of details that need to go just right for me to optimize for my personal enjoyment.
You will hear me use the word “optimize” from time to time. I learned this from my study of the Die with Zero book written by Bill Perkins. Die with Zero doesn’t support dying with no money. The book’s basis is using the money you’ve saved and invested, beyond what it takes to cover your survival needs (house, food, car, medical, etc.), for your own personal fulfillment. Money beyond the money set aside for your survival needs is to be enjoyed. Remember, the saying “If you don’t travel first class, your heirs will”!
I hope that as you read along and see what I’m doing my experiences might help you to make a similar trip. No, I’m not talking about going to Japan to see baseball games. I’m talking about taking a trip that might be just a little bit outside of your comfort zone. Others may have already seen and done what I am about ready to see and do. Those folks can relive their memories through what I hope to experience on my trip. In reality, at the end of our lives, all we have are our memories.
Without further ado, let me tell you how all of this came down. I had a plan. I thought I had a good plan. Mike Tyson will tell you that everyone has a plan…until they get hit in the face. If you can’t believe someone who is willing to get a face tattoo then who can you believe?
I told you my #1 objective is to see baseball games in Japan. Japan has a major league baseball system just like we do in the United States and Canada. It’s called Nippon Professional Baseball. They have 12 teams and their stadiums are spread all over the country, but with a focus on Tokyo.
I have seen a baseball game played at all 30 current major league baseball stadiums in the United States and Canada. I’ve seen a baseball game played at three venues in Japan.
For this trip, I am planning to see seven baseball games in six days. Of course, all those games will be played in stadiums I am yet to visit. If that works out, I will have just two more parks to visit. Maybe I’ll be able to knock those out in 2024.
Why would I want to travel to Japan to see baseball games in every single professional baseball stadium? What’s the reward? What’s the benefit? I simply want to do it to say that I’ve done it. Yep. I try to keep things simple.
When I was doing research on baseball games in Japan, I came across an American, who lives in Japan and helps people plan trips like this. Was that lucky or what?
That person is Michael Westbay. Michael’s company is called “Japan Ball”. For a very small fee, Michael and his team will buy the game tickets and deliver them to me as I begin my trip.
This is a very valuable service in a place like Japan. Buying tickets for events in Japan by non-Japanese speakers is beyond a hassle. I once had a Japanese tourist agent try to buy tickets for me to a Japanese professional wrestling event. It took her nearly an hour to “open an account” for me to use my credit card to get the tickets. Of course, the website was in Japanese. I’ve had similar experiences, all difficult, getting tickets in Japan for sumo wrestling and other baseball games. Having Michael help with both buying the tickets and giving me advice on my travel plan was worth his fee many times over.
From the beginning of 2023 until the middle of August, I have traveled overnight for 108 days. That’s about normal. I would add another 15 days onto that total with my stop in Australia before finishing up in Japan.
This trip began like every trip that I have taken without Carol. She and I went over to our recently opened In-N-Out burgers in San Clemente and had dinner. That’s become our tradition. By the way, Carol is resting up for a big blowout trip to France at the end of the month.
I headed up in my EECU credit union sponsored Tesla Model X to the Los Angeles International Airport. My car will be parked in the airport parking garage for 15 days. On average the range for my electric-powered Tesla will go down about one mile per day. That’s not much, is it? Secret alert. I’m considering getting a brand new Tesla but that’s still in the planning stages. Stay tuned.
My non-stop airplane ride was leaving LAX for Sydney, Australia. That’s a 15-hour plane trip.
I would be seated in first class. Do you know the price of a one-way first-class ticket from Los Angeles to Sydney? How does $5,300 strike you? You should know that I didn’t pay that much. I don’t think that surprises anyone, does it? However, it is decisions like this that have come from my reading of the book, “Die with Zero”. Folks, you can’t take it with you!
The food and drink on the plane was excellent. Of course, there were unlimited alcoholic beverages. The lie-flat seats were much better suited for a person who is 5‘3″ tall and weighs about 100 pounds. I wear size 15 Hey Dude brand shoes. I do not fit in a first-class seat nearly as well as someone with a smaller footprint. See what I did there? Nevertheless, I did get some sleep.
If you’ve ever landed in Sydney, you know that the international terminal is a long way from the domestic terminal. After I cleared Australian border control, I hopped on a transit bus that took me over to the domestic terminal.
I needed to be in the domestic terminal for my flight from Sydney to Darwin, Australia. Darwin is in the Northern Territories. Australia has six states and the Northern Territories. Why isn’t the Northern Territories a state? I have no idea. The flight from Sydney to Darwin was another five hours. That’s a lot of flying.
While I waited for my flight to Darwin. I used my Priority Pass membership to get a $36 food and beverage credit at the Bar Roma restaurant. Then I walked over to the Wok on Air Asian eatery. They serve dim sum (above) which is one of my favorites. It’s nice to be in an airport and have somebody give you $72 Australian to spend on food and drink. Inherently, that is just satisfying!
My trip was just beginning. During the 15 days that I’ll be gone, I will fly from Los Angeles to Sydney to Darwin to Sydney to the Gold Coast to Tokyo to Sapporo to Tokyo, and back to Los Angeles. These flights will cover just about 23,000 air miles.
I am doing this entire 15-day trip with one rolling piece of luggage. It’s small. The dimensions of my Costco rolling travel bag are 18” x 14” x 8”. That bag will carry everything that will allow me to enjoy the trip.
I also have a satchel. It’s small as well. My satchel is 9” x 7” x 3”. Importantly it’s a satchel, not a man purse. Are we clear on that? That’s it. I will sink or swim with these two pieces of “luggage”.
I have flown an average of three times a week, every week, since I was 23 years old. Why no checked bags? I am doing this to avoid what I consider to be draconian baggage charges employed by Jetstar Airways. I don’t like paying baggage charges. For the longest time, airlines didn’t have baggage charges. Then when they did begin charging for bags, my corporate expense account covered them. Now in retirement for 22 years I probably haven’t paid a bag charge more than 10 times in my life.
Including the clothes I am wearing, I brought four T-shirts, four pairs of underwear, four pairs of socks, and two pairs of cargo shorts, I also brought along a short-sleeve golf windbreaker. With temperatures in the 90s everywhere I will be traveling I wouldn’t need the windbreaker for warmth. I needed the windbreaker to cover some of the things I would be concealing if I were required to weigh my small bag!
How “draconian” was Jetstar Airways being with their free carry-on bag allowance? Their policy allowed me to bring along two bags that combined, could weigh 7 kg which is about 15.4 pounds. My bag by itself weighs 6 pounds! This baggage allowance was meant to include all my clothing, toiletries, and electronic gear, which includes a MacBook Pro, an iPad, a Bose noise-canceling headset, an electric converter for Australia, AirPods, and all the assorted cables that go with that. All this stuff could weigh 9.6 pounds.
Am I cheap? I don’t think so. I flew first class from Los Angeles to Tokyo. Am I principled? I think so. I just don’t think it’s “right” for airlines to make a profit center out of baggage. If they need that money, put it on the ticket price.
MONDAY-WEDNESDAY
You probably know that when you fly from the United States, and in my case Los Angeles, you leave on day one and arrive on day three when traveling to Australia. Of course, it’s all about the flight times and the time zone changes.
The flight from Los Angeles to Sydney was scheduled for 15 hours. Then the time zone in Sydney, Australia is 15 hours ahead of our time zone in Los Angeles. That’s 30 hours. This means when you leave on Monday you get there on Wednesday. There is no way around it.
I’ve been to Australia more than a dozen times. For a trip I did back in 2012 I left Los Angeles at 11 o’clock at night on Thursday. I arrived in Sydney early on Saturday morning. I saw a race in the area on Saturday night and then a V-8 supercar race on Sunday afternoon. I hopped on a flight back to Los Angeles on Monday morning and was having lunch with Carol in San Clemente at noon on Monday. That gives a new meaning to the idea of having a “long weekend”. I’m more mature now. I don’t do crazy stuff like that anymore.
As I mentioned I like to think of myself as a “optimizer”. Carol calls me an opportunist. I consider these two words to be synonyms. I think both descriptions are big positives.
It was Wednesday afternoon when I arrived in Darwin. Their airport is small. I had reserved a Budget Rental Car for three days. That was going to cost me about $300 Australian. That came to $190 American dollars. Right now, one Australian dollar is equal to about 64 cents American. That means we Americans are getting a 36% discount off Australian prices. Nevertheless, the cost of things in Australia is about what things cost in the U.S.A. despite the conversion rate.
Budget gave me a nearly new Toyota Corolla. I guess this was a custom-made Toyota. They put the steering wheel on the right side of the dash rather than the left. I wasn’t going to quibble.
The Budget agent used an iPad to show me pictures of the car. I had never seen a rental car agent do that before. Have you? He convinced me that the car wasn’t damaged in any way. As he was scrolling through the pictures, I did notice that the gas tank was less than full maybe at about 15/16. He agreed to record the “out” gas tank capacity at seven-eights.
What happened next was unexpected. He told me to return the gas tank full. Then Budget would credit me with the difference between full and 7/8 of a tank. Gas prices in Australia right now are about two dollars Australian per liter. However, the agent told me they would credit me at four dollars per liter which is the price they charge people who return their cars less than full. He smiled and told me that I would “make money” on the deal. How can I pass that up?
My rental car came with a driving limitation of 200 km per day. That meant that I had 600 km to drive for “free”. Anything more than 600 km would be charged at $.25 Australian per kilometer. That wouldn’t be a problem. I wasn’t planning to drive very far on this trip. Oh yeah, I used my Chase Sapphire Reserve credit car to pay for the car. That card provides primary insurance coverage on the car. That’s a good thing.
I made a two-night reservation in Darwin at a place called Club Tropical Resort. This property was highly rated on Expedia.com. It was also high priced for what it was. Hotels in Australia are very expensive for what you get. On the other hand, hotels in Japan, except in Tokyo’s CBD are surprisingly inexpensive.
I paid $150 a night for this room at Club Tropical Resort. This property had hotel rooms and a recreational vehicle campground.
The advantage of my hotel room was that it was very large. It also came with a full refrigerator and a microwave. The room was so large that at night if I was a few tenths short of my 4-mile daily walking goal, I could walk it out in the room. That makes for quite a word picture, doesn’t it! I was tired from all my travel. I went to bed early intent on exploring Darwin, for the first time ever, tomorrow.
THURSDAY
Because I was operating on a 16-hour time zone difference from back home I woke up at 3 a.m. No problem. I did a little more travel planning and waited for the sunrise at 6:30 a.m. Then I was out walking the campground and privy to a beautiful sunrise.
When our kids were small, we first started out with tent camping. It seemed as if it rained every weekend we used our tent back then! Then we graduated to a StarCraft pop-up camper (above top). We had fun doing that, but it was a lot of work. This morning, I was amazed at how many different camping outfits there are. There must be thousands.
With my race being set for tomorrow I had all day to tour Darwin. First, I needed lunch. I used Yelp to get a recommendation on a place called Fisherman’s Wharf Eatery. You knew you could use Yelp internationally, right? This place wasn’t exactly what I was looking for but it was good enough. Pretty much everything they served was fried.
I dined on fried scallops, fried calamari rings, and a fried corn jack. A corn jack (above) is very much like a Chinese eggroll in appearance. A corn jack is stuffed with cream corn. Tasty. The calamari rings doused in sea salt were good as well.
I had done some research on the top things to do in Darwin. This led me to the “Old Qantas Hanger.” This is a not-for-profit free-entry museum operated by the Motor Vehicle Enthusiast Club of Darwin.
They only had 10 or 20 cars in the museum. They also had enough tools to work on thousands of cars in what looked to be an old and huge Quonset building shed.
I did have a chance to talk to one of the members. He was in the building working on his car. We struck up a conversation about electric cars. I needed to remember I was talking to a gearhead who loves internal combustion engine-powered cars. That being the case I didn’t know where this discussion would go.
The man was friendly and talkative. He did allow that electric cars are the future. At the same time, he described Australians as “laggards” in the electric car business. He reminded me that Australians in the NT sometimes have extremely long distances to travel to get from one place to another. Nevertheless, our 15-minute conversation was fun and interesting. Whenever I can engage local people on any topic, I am better for it.
From there I took a few minutes to drive through an upscale suburban Darwin neighborhood. I just wanted to see what the architecture looked like. This was a subdivision of custom homes. This residential area reminded me of what things might look like in Florida. I have no idea what the value of these homes was.
Having been to Australia so many times, I have quite a few friends and contacts that help me out on things to see and do in Australia in general, and with racing in the specific.
One of those folks is Jake Masurra. Jake told me about a huge party that was being held near the water in Darwin to celebrate the “Chariots of Thunder” sprint car visit.
I made my way down there to see hundreds of fans, relaxing, drinking, and renewing acquaintances with people they probably hadn’t seen since last year’s racing in Darwin. It was a fun scene. Several of the race teams brought their winged sprint cars for the fans to admire.
Next up on my touring agenda was a visit to the Darwin festival. It was just lucky for me the Darwin festival occurs during August and runs for about three weeks.
When I travel to foreign countries, I like to go to movie theaters and live theater productions. Tonight, I selected a play called “Stunt Double” at the very modern and upscale Darwin Entertainment Center.
I’d like to give you an overview of what I saw. However, Stunt Double does not lend itself well to quick overviews. I will tell you this. I think this play might have been the most unusual production I have ever seen. Would I recommend it to you? Yes, I would. I’d like to see if Stunt Double is the most unusual play you have ever seen!
When I got back to my hotel room, I decided to do some washing. For me, on this trip, washing means taking my soap flakes and filling the bathroom sink with hot water. Then I put my clothes in the water with the soap flakes and slosh things around. I’m a rookie at this but learning.
Of course, as Carol had warned me, not all bathroom sinks hold water. That being the case I took one of the hotel’s wash rags and tried to press down on the stopper while I was moving around my clothes. That took some coordination. I don’t want to get too good at this because I don’t plan on washing my clothes in the future.
I have a beautiful dark blue T-shirt with a sharp-looking American flag image on the front. Tonight, that T-shirt “bled”. I think bled is the laundry term to be used when the color comes out of the shirt and colors the water, and then colors the washcloth. I don’t think that’s a good thing. Then I made another laundry mistake proving that I should not ever be allowed to do chores. I laid my “bleeding” t-shirt on the bed in an effort to have the shirt dry faster. Then it bled all over the bed sheets. How long will it take the hotel to bill me for that?
I’m using my AT&T international phone plan on this trip. It costs me $10 a day. After I’ve used the service for 10 days in a calendar month the service is free. We have an international trip planned toward the end of September. That combined with the first few days of traveling in Japan, will give me four or five free days.
When I talked to Carol about the T-shirt bleeding problem, I think she was pretty well convinced I had done something wrong. That probably comes with being married for 51 years. She told me that that shirt didn’t bleed at home. I wondered aloud with her about how I could do anything wrong when I simply had hot water, soap flakes, and the shirt. It’s a mystery. All I’ve learned to say in situations like this is “Yes ma’am”.
FRIDAY
Today is race day. I’ll be in trackchasing in Hidden Valley, Australia. This is my first ever trackchasing visit to the Northern Territories. Australians have a special description of the NT. It’s called the “top end”.
Australia has six states. After this evening I will have seen racing at 39 tracks in Australia. When you count the 19 I’ve seen in New Zealand I have seen racing at 57 tracks on the Australian continent.
The racing wasn’t going to begin until 5 p.m. this afternoon. That gave me time for another touring activity. I picked out something that would be a highlight of the trip. I’m sure this afternoon’s outing would go down in history as one of the most memorable Trackchasing Tourist Attractions I’ve ever had.
I’m talking about the Adelaide River Cruise – Jumping Crocodile and Wildlife Tour. They were located along the Adelaide River about an hour and a half south of Darwin in the Australian outback.
I called up and made a reservation. The one-hour tour would cost $50 Australian, which was a most reasonable $35 American roughly.
The weather in Darwin during my visit had temperatures topping out at about 95° each day with not a cloud in the sky. The low temperature gets down to about 70°. That was warm for this southern California boy.
The tour would take place on a pontoon boat. The boat was captained by a young fellow named Dylan. Dylan grew up in the Australian Outback. Dylan was a smart and funny young man just right for the situation.
Dylan took his 25 passengers down the murky and muddy and crocodile-infested Adelaide River. We weren’t off the shore by 50 feet until we could see crocodiles. Dylan told us that there were roughly 2,000 crocodiles in the Adelaide River. There isn’t a lot of swimming done in the Adelaide River!
To entice the crocodiles Dylan carried a long pole. He placed a raw chicken on a string at the end of the pole. All he had to do as we got going down the river was dangle the chicken, two or three feet above the water. The crocodiles would come and jump out of the water 4-5 feet, attempting to get the chicken which they ultimately always would.
Dylan’s commentary was entertaining and informative. Some of these crocs were either very hungry or they just liked jumping. You can see how close to the boat the crocs were. This was not a place where you wanted to stick your hand out very far to get a picture.
Please don’t miss the video that I prepared that is exclusive to our crocodile hunting tour. I don’t know what the cost of liability insurance would be…or IF they had liability insurance. These were crocs in the wild and they liked chicken! Then there was the guy who lost a finger.
Video!
Crocodile hunting in the Australian outback!
Most countries don’t do a lot of tipping when they get a service offered to them. Of course, Americans do. I couldn’t help myself. I gave Dylan a generous tip because he had done such a good job of commentary, comedy, and letting the crowd get up close and personal. I’m talking VERY up close and personal with the crocodiles.
From there I headed back into Darwin to see tonight’s Chariots of Thunder sprint car racing at the Northline Speedway. I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect. Several of my Australian friends, including Trevor Scott, said that this was one of the best tracks in Australia, and after having spent a night trackchasing there, I agree.
Over the years, I have met several Australian racing fans, Australian racing announcers, and Australian racing promoters. To a person, they’ve all been a joy to meet.
I mentioned Jake Musarra. Jake (above right) had been the one person who got me hooked up with a three-track trip way up in the northern part of Western Australia just a few months ago. That trip was a trackchaser’s dream in terms of seeing three foreign tracks on three consecutive nights with touring thrown in as well.
Tonight, I met up with Jake for the first time. I also had a chance to reunite with Josh Boyd (second from left above). Josh is the track commentator at the Lismore Speedway. He interviewed me when I visited that track. Hard to believe that was just three months ago. Finally, that’s Riley Smith (far left above) an up and coming dirt modified driver. As you can see these kinds like their Aloha shirts!
As a matter of fact, the promoters of the Lismore, Speedway, Kim (above), and Mick Sauer, have been in the United States for the last month on a racing and touring visit. They’ve seen racing at all the big summer tracks. I was able to give them a few tips which they followed up on. Based on my recommendation, they saw a St. Louis Cardinals baseball game and tried to see a tractor pull at a local Illinois County fair, but got rained out. They told me they had a wonderful time on their visit to the United States.
In the middle of the program, Jake messaged a fellow by the name of Bennie Bishop. Benny Bishop is quite a well-known racing personality in all of Australia.
I follow this guy on Facebook. Just about anything he posts gets 400 likes in the first 24 hours. Tonight, Bennie’s role was that of a roving reporter. He interviewed racing drivers, fans, and members of Australian motorsport.
I got a text from Jake telling me that Benny wanted to come to wherever I was sitting in the grandstands and do an interview. The interview would be posted on the track’s video screen and on their live stream broadcast that was going out across the world.
About 60 seconds after I got the text here comes Jake closely followed by Benny and his TV crew. They did an interview with me in the stands. I had done one other interview with Bennie Bishop all the way back on New Year’s Eve at the High-Tec Oils race track in Charlton, Queensland.
Bennie must be the most enthusiastic and interested in the interviewee guy that I’ve ever met. He makes you feel like you are the only person he has ever interviewed in his life. After his interview, you feel as if you are his best friend. Of course, when I watched Benny’s interviews all through the night with tens of people, he made them feel the same way. Benny does his job really well. I hope they are paying him millions of dollars.
Of course, when you do an interview like that the fans in the stands sort of know who you are. That being the case, a woman by the name of Ann came up and reminded me that we had met at the Druoin Speedway in Victoria back in November 2018. That was about 400 tracks ago for me. Ann introduced me to her husband, whom I had also met while he was driving at Druoin.
All this discussion got the three women sitting in front of us involved in an explanation of what my trackchasing hobby was all about. I promised them I would get their photo into my review. Everyone I met was wonderful and welcoming, which is always been my experience when visiting Australia.
Video!
Of course, I made a video with the highlights of tonight’s racing. Check it out.
The racing at the Northline Speedway was entertaining. They had three classes with the main class being winged sprint cars followed by the wingless sprint cars and a class of modifieds. They had 50 entries in each class of the sprint cars which was a huge turnout.
The racing was outstanding. I’ll refer you to my video of the racing from the Northline Speedway to confirm that.
The track offered a lot of different refreshments. The highlight for me was having a salted caramel sundae. They mixed the ingredients on the “grill”. Then they flattened the ice cream out until the entire concoction was about a quarter of an inch thick. Next, they cut everything into ribbons and rolled them up like rolled tacos. This was worth the price just to watch how the sundae was being made. It was delicious as well.
As noted this was the first time I’ve ever seen a race in the Northern Territories. I came up here for just one reason. I just wanted to say I had done it. Of course, I’d be lying. If I didn’t want to tell other people I’ve done it as well. I think others may have felt the same way. The place was packed.
Tonight, I had seen racing at my 2,914th track. The trackchasing hobby has hundreds of race fans who have recorded their tracklist. There are thousands of race fans who have never taken the time to formalize a list but have seen well over 100 race tracks.
After seeing racing at Northline Speedway, I am now 1,000 tracks ahead of my nearest trackchasing fellow competitor. I think that’s a pretty good advantage and should last through my lifetime!
The racing wrapped up at about 11 p.m. Believe it or not I had a flight from Darwin to Sydney scheduled for 1:45 a.m. This gave me just enough time to get everything organized, fill up my rental car with gas, and get back to the airport.
By the way, gasoline is selling for about two dollars Australian per liter. When you convert the exchange rate to U.S. dollars and liters to U.S. gallons that comes out to about $4.92 per gallon in U.S. funds. Currently, the average price of gasoline in the United States is $3.93. I don’t think I have traveled in any country in the past 10 years where gasoline was cheaper than it is in the United States. Surprisingly, Americans don’t seem to understand the advantage that we have.
SATURDAY
Saturday started early for me with a 1:45 a.m. flight departure from Darwin toward Sydney. There isn’t much of a time difference between Darwin and Sydney… 30 minutes. Yep. It wasn’t enough of a time zone change to go for an hour, or to keep it at zero. They had to go for 30 minutes! Can you imagine living on the border of that time zone?
The flight time from Darwin to Sydney was going to be about 4 1/2 hours. That’s about how long it takes me to fly from Los Angeles to New York. I slept most of the way.
When I landed in terminal 3 of Sydney’s domestic terminal I did some walking to get my steps in. To keep things “comparable” I need to do all my walking during a 24-hour period that is defined by the California time zone. Why? Just anal, I guess. In Sydney that meant I needed to walk 4 miles or more every day between 5 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Just as I had done three days earlier, I stopped and bought a $34 breakfast (French toast with ham, muffins, and Pepsi Max!) at the Bar Roma restaurant. Then I spent $37 more Australian dollars, of my Priority Pass money, on dim sum and Pepsi Max at the Wok on Air. The dim sum would be tonight’s lunch and dinner.
In Sydney, I will be staying for two nights while I wait for my flight to Tokyo, Japan in a place called the Value Suites Green Square Hotel. This hotel came with an 8.7 rating, which is one of the highest ratings of any hotel that I looked at. The Value Suites would cost me less than $100 a night.
Having flown all night I called the hotel up at 9 a.m. and asked if they had a room that I could check into in an hour or so. They did but the only room they had available was there a small “single” room. That room measured 129 ft.².
I grabbed an Uber ride over to the hotel from the airport at a cost of about $21 AUD or $12 US. I’ll use Uber exclusively (actually, maybe not) while I’m in Sydney. Uber’s service is quick and their prices are cheap.
As you might expect a hotel room that is roughly 10’ x 12’ isn’t very big. The room was probably the size of my college dormitory room where, during my freshman year, I lived with one other person. Of course, I lived for three months in a WWII metal Quonset hut with 17 other guys in the United States Marine Corps.
This meant that I had some experience with small living quarters. None of those previous experiences included a flat-screen TV, a refrigerator, a microwave, a private bathroom, and a view of downtown Sydney, Australia!
Once I got into my room at 11 a.m. I never left for the rest of the day. I napped. I ate dim sum. I checked out things so I would be ready for a full day of touring in Sydney tomorrow.
I made an online reservation for the play “Sweeney Todd” at the Sydney Opera House. I saw a concert in the Sydney Opera House with Martha Marlow just 90 days ago. I guess I am a frequent visitor!
SUNDAY
Sunday would be my last full day in Australia. I would spend it in Sydney.
I was in Sydney a couple of months ago and got around by using the Uber rideshare service. For this visit to Sydney, I paid $21 Australian or about $12 U.S. to get a ride from the airport to my hotel. I thought that was a pretty good price.
Today I discovered that the subway stop at the Green Square station was a two-minute walk from my hotel, the Value Suites Green Square. What a perfect location for using the subway. I didn’t know that when I made my reservation.
After getting some steps in the local neighborhood, I hopped on the subway. It’s always a challenge to buy tickets on foreign subways. Just understanding the ticket kiosk can be time-consuming and sometimes a little bit frustrating.
Today I discovered I could use the tap feature from my iPhone to ride the subway. That’s just the way it works in New York City. What a breeze that was.
One of the subway workers told me that by using the tap feature on my phone the price of the subway was decreased by about 50%. For the grand total of one dollar Australian, which is about $0.65 American I was able to ride the subway from my hotel down to the Central Quay area. That’s less than a five-minute walk to the Sydney Opera House.
I had two Trackchasing Tourist Attractions on my agenda today. They were both located next to each other. I spent about an hour walking inside the Sydney Botanic Garden. The garden borders Sydney Harbor. This is more like a botanical garden that focuses on huge trees rather than flora and fauna. It’s free and a nice place to enjoy the scenery and get some exercise.
Yesterday I made a reservation to see the play, titled Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. The performance was happening in the drama theater at the Sydney Opera House.
The area around the opera house is always packed with tourists. It’s a vibrant atmosphere. I stopped at an informal Italian eatery called “I love pasta”. Although they served their dishes in cardboard containers, the food was as good as any fine-dining, Italian restaurant I’ve ever eaten in.
I had a huge serving of rigatoni Bolognese with extra garlic and a Coke Zero. In the photo, the dish looks small. In reality, the serving was 3-4″ thick and one of the tastiest meals of the trip. Then I just walked around and enjoyed the atmosphere.
There was something sort of odd about walking around the Sydney Opera House area. Don’t get me wrong. I am not an expert on Sydney. It’s just that I’ve been to this area quite a bit. It almost seems as if visiting a famous place like this so far from home really isn’t much different that being at home. Strange.
I tried to buy a ticket to the play a few days ago, but for whatever reason I couldn’t get the credit card system to work. At that time seats were only available along the edges of the Drama Theater. Then one day before the performance somehow the credit card system was working for me. I was able to score a seat in the seventh row directly in the center of the theater. That was absolutely perfect.
The play was a little dark. The story was set in England about 100 years ago. It told the story of a barber who slits people’s throats. He and his wife then serve their victim’s ground-up body parts as beef pies! Is that dark enough for you?
It was easy to catch the subway back to my hotel. Along the way, I learned that my hotel was only two stops from the domestic terminal at the Sydney airport. I paid $21 AUD to go from the airport to my hotel. Now I was using the train for a six-minute ride at a cost just ONE Australian dollar to get from my hotel to the airport. Live and learn, right?
See you next time…on the last half of this trip? To Tokyo, Japan, and beyond.
Cheers mate, from the Top End.