Sunny in Sydney

This is part five of a five part round the world trip.

• Cruising to the Old World
• Istanbul not Constantinople
• Better in Bangkok
• Killing Time in Kuantan
• Sunny in Sydney

When we left off in part four, I'd spent the past three weeks "trapped" in Malaysia waiting for the right award availability to open up across the Pacific for the journey home. After weeks of waiting, I found a route home through Sydney and Hawaii.

Only, after I got to Sydney, I quickly decided to throw it all away for a few more days in Australia.

My journey started from KUL/KLIA in Kuala Lumpur. I covered the Sama Sama airport hotel in the previous post, but it's a great place to stay before a morning flight out of KUL.

The flight itself was very nice. Although I couldn't quite pinpoint it, I enjoyed looking out my window, looking for Ulhuru as we flew almost directly over it. Wifi on the flight was often non-existent so figuring out our exact position was a little difficult.

Sydney is a pretty easy airport to navigate. There is a cheap train, tap on, tap off, leading directly into the heart of the city. The airport also has very good signage showing you how to navigate it. 

My time in Sydney was split across three hotels, but they were all close enough that the sight seeing overlapped significantly. So I think it makes sense to talk about all the hotels first and then cover each area later.

I booked Kimpton Margot first. It's two blocks from the train station in Hyde Park and a great hotel for your first or last nights in Sydney as the train goes direct to the airport.

My stay cost $510 booked through Chase's travel portal but... it qualified for both the $250 "The Edit" credit and the $250 "Select Hotels" credit that come with the Sapphire Reserve. So my direct out of pocket was only $10 and that included free breakfast and $100 in property credit which I split between the bar and the restaurant.

Interestingly, IHG marked the stay ineligible for points and elite nights despite me entering my number at booking and it showing in my account. Three months later, I used IHG chat to report the missing points and as a result of that 5-10 minute chat conversation I received over 20k points.

This really surprised me as I was expecting maybe 8-9k including my Diamond bonus. However, there were apparently two eligible promotions running at the same time. 

The Regency was actually my first international points booking back in 2023 and my first taste of Globalist benefits. I remember being absolutely amazed by an early 9am checkin and their still very impressive club lounge overlooking Darling Harbor. It was honestly one of the experiences that made me realize one could really travel in style if you just learned all the tricks.

This time, I booked two nights through Amex Travel for $422 and used a $300 credit that comes with the platinum card. This also came with a $100 property credit. A third night was booked using a free night certificate.

This visit was a little less impressive. There seemed to be some repeated confusion as to whether or not the stay was loyalty eligible (it was), though they gave me access to the lounge. I'm not sure I ever received points for the amount paid to book it though I does look like I received points for the food I ordered which should have been credited. 

Overall, they were very, very busy when I was there and it seemed a little confused. Checkin times were long. Breakfast was so busy I didn't even try to eat in the main restaurant, instead opting for the lounge.

The lounge remained a bright spot. In addition to having good foods, and lots of yummy cheeses, I enjoyed talking with a french chef about immigration to Australia. He had been working on his residency for some time, sponsored from Hyatt.

My original flight back to America had me leaving right after my stay at the Hyatt Regency. The plan was to fly to Honolulu, spend three nights there and then fly on to the continent and home. However, at this point I'd only spent 5 nights in Sydney and there were still places I wanted to see. 

Also, I was a little reluctant to go through with the Honolulu plan. It's an expensive place to stay and optimizing it would have required spending each night in a different hotel... which seemed... tiring. There was another option leaving 8 days later, direct all the way to Dallas, but that meant I'd need to find 8 more nights... and so I did... moving slightly further out from the city's core.

I stayed here eight nights on 172k points using the 4th night free benefit that comes with most IHG cards. In effect, this gave me eight nights for the price of six.

This hotel was fun and quirky in all the right ways. It's really just a short walk or a metro stop from the heart of downtown, and the neighborhood is much more interesting. No sky scrapers or tourist traps, more like the place all the young adults go for a night out. It's right on the border between Kings Cross, a once infamous spot for night life, and Darlinghurst, the main LGBT district. I think this is a great place for a longer stay in Sydney.

Hyde Park is a big park in the middle of the city. The airport train station is right next to it, and the Anzac memorial is in the center. Look carefully at the first picture in the series below and see if you can spot the swamp wallaby. 

Anzac day is a bit like our Memorial day. I stopped by the parade and Anzac memorial to see what it was like. The differences were interesting.

Ostensibly Anzac day commemorates a WWI battle at Gallipoli on April 25, 1915, but it is also a catch all salute to veterans and armed services. To me, it feels a lot more somber than Memorial day in the US. This could be projection, but it feels like it has some of that WWI "war to end all wars" energy that we lost by getting into war after war after war. 

The parade was also 100% focused on the soldiers... no corporate sponsors... no politicians or beauty queens... no boy scouts... no floats... no military hardware... just the people... active duty and vets... sometimes with a cadet band or similar accompaniment. Every time a group of veterans would walk by, they would get applause.

I didn't stay for it all but the parade went on for hours and hours shutting down the whole city, with every regimen / squad / conflict / regional post / etc having their own section.

The Anzac memorial is at the center of the park. These pictures are from a few days before Anzac day.

I stopped at the barracks on a whim. It's actually just outside of Hyde Park. This is a somewhat notorious building where many inmates lived during the penal colony days. It's completely free and probably has the best audio guide I've ever experienced. 

In my experience, audio guides rarely work well. You're constantly having to scan things or trying to keep pace and getting out of sync. Sometimes they try to detect your position, room by room and sometimes it... kinda works... until it doesn't... then it can be hard to resume.

The accuracy and precision on this was remarkable, within a few feet, and truly seamless.  You could step into a zone and it would begin playing almost immediately. If you stepped out it would continue until you entered a different zone... and then if you came back... it resumed the previous zone... repeating just the last sentence and continuing without restarting. 

And this worked, flawlessly, throughout the whole museum, no matter how many zones were in a room. It also provided excellent way finding. Many of the accounts were first person narrations which made them all the more poignant.

After the visiting Hyde Park, I walked over to the botanical gardens. The name botanical gardens really refers both to the Royal Botanical Gardens (which closes around dusk) and the larger park lands surrounding them.

This first time I visited Sydney, I arrived too late to see the royal gardens, so I made sure to arrive earlier this time. The succulent garden was probably the highlight.

After moving on, toward the point, I stumbled across the stage for Handa Opera on Syndey Harbour's production of Phantom of the Opera. I came back later in the evening and was able to listen, though not see, the entire production.

The rest of these photos round the point from Mrs. Macquarie's chair along the waterfront to the Sydney Opera House. So much of Sydney is beautiful, but I think this is one of nicer city views in the world.

In this section, I'm covering the harbor bridge and the neighborhoods around it include: McMahons Point, Circular Quay and The Rocks. I visited all these spots in a day, walking across the Sydney Harbour Bridge and exploring the surrounding neighborhood.

One of the best views of the bridge and the city is supposed to be from Wendy Whiteley's Secret Garden. There are some pretty nice views, but most of the garden is down near the railway and under the trees. Then a path leads out to the waterfront.

As you walk along the waterfront back to the bridge from Wendy's garden, you'll walk through Luna Park. There's no admission fee. All the rides and carnival games seem to work of tokens or tickets. It's just a nice little amusement park, like a permanent carnival.

The Bondi to Coogee Walk, which I did in reverse, is actually one of my favorite spots in the world.

To get out to Coogee, you take a train to Bondi Central, which is about half way between Sydney and Bondi. Bondi Central is a major transit hub that's arranged almost like a mini airport served by busses. There are around 15 stations all around a main hall each served by one or two buses. Outside, it's a fairly lively neighborhood with dining and a mall.

Waverly Cemetery near Coogee, is probably the prettiest cemetery in the world. It overlooks a bluff and the pacific ocean.

The rest of the walk winds all along the coast passed public parks and beaches. Sydney is known for beautiful sunsets and the sun often becomes bright orange in the evening.

I had dinner at a place a block or so away from Bondi Beach, Chuck Trailer. The drink is a Hoochie Coochie which is a Jack Daniels, fresh apple juice and cinnamon, probably also known as a Whiskey Apple Highball