misunderstanding not lifted

In Singapore many of the lifts have that glass windows on the doors, perhaps to deter any possible mischief happening in the lift. The magic of those little windows is that you can see from outside, and also from inside.

This was what happened. We were inside the lift and the lift doors were closing. Then through the windows we could see this woman reaching right in front of the other side of the doors and desperately pressing the lift button. Most if not all kind people would try to press the door open button, but of course there are some who would similarly desperately try to press the door close button so as not to delay their lift journey. But, while I am not a lift maintenance engineer or designer, I suspect there must be some algorithm in place that tells the lift to proceed once the door has closed fully or something like that. We saw the woman outside the lift staring at us. She must have thought we pressed the door close button.

So transparency may not always be a good thing.

day 5 in sydney

Come to the last day of our Sydney trip. Was deciding if I should do a Bondi Beach or Taronga Zoo, and we went to the zoo in the end. It didn't feel right not to see a koala if you go to Australia.

We had breakfast at the Museum of Sydney. Since we didn't have much chance to eat really good stuff during this trip, so I thought maybe should at least spend some AUD on a good breakfast. Classy place, but I wish we had time to check out the Museum itself.

We next passed through the Royal Botanic Gardens. It was a pleasant walk where you could see the Government House which kind of resembles a castle. I know it may sound mad to go to another country to visit their park, but isn't that a good way to experience the local life?

From the Royal Botanic Gardens it was also a good route to check out the behind of the Sydney Opera House. Talking about the landmark of Australia, enough said I guess? When up close it seemed less majestic, so it's still better to look at it from afar.

The most common way to go to Taronga Zoo was to take the ferry from Circular Quay, which would take you to the back gate of Taronga Zoo. You can choose to take the Sky Safari (basically a cable car) if there isn't a queue, or to just walk up which isn't that difficult since there are elevators and all along the way. Just a tip, there is a Taronga Zoo coupon in the English version of the tourist guide which you might have gotten at the airport. It admits one only, though. You might consider harming the trees but saving your wallet by getting each member one English tourist guide. Back to the zoo, well I would say it kind of pales in comparison to the Singapore Zoo. Many animals were repeated in different zones of the zoo. But somehow the atmosphere was different. You see lots of kids and toddlers which kind of brings joy to yourself too.

Not much time left before our flight back, so back in Sydney CBD it was last minute shopping time. Shopping for local products at supermarkets like Woolworths or Coles won't cost a bomb and you can't get more authentically local than that. Of course if you are looking for jewellery or handicraft, it's a different story. But we got a fair bit of Australian fruits and candies.

So that's the Sydney trip. While not high on my next destination list, I won't mind going back if I have some spare cash.

day 4 in sydney (hunter valley)

Another favourite check-out when in Sydney is the nearby Hunter Valley. Australia being an important wine producing country, and Hunter Valley is one of the major wine regions of Australia, naturally you go for a wine tour when in Hunter Valley.
If you drive, you theoretically can visit the wineries on your own and have free tasting. Lindemans, Rosemount, Wyndham Estate are some of the brandnames which you most probably have seen in supermarkets back home and their wineries are in Hunter Valley. But we didn't visit any of these (kind of wish we did, though). We signed up for a local wine tour which brought us to 3 small boutique wineries.
So the tour zipped around the region in a Toyota van. Not the best of comfort, but I realized you can't possibly manoeuvre around with a big coach. To add to the unique experience, there were no more seats behind and so I had to take the front seat beside the driver/tour guide. The tour guide made me "assistant tour guide", and I kid you not I got tipped at the end of the tour! (just so happened I was able to act smart on the topic of wines)
As a wine tour, logically we talked a lot of wines along the way. Like the concept of region, cork vs screw cap, shift in culture, etc. We visited the behind the scenes (I won't go wrong visiting the factory), learned the differences in process between red wine and white wine, wine appreciation techniques, etc. We ended up tasting about 30 different wines, and bought (only) 2 bottles back.
To top up the wine tour, we spotted some wild kangaroos!

While I think it was an interesting experience nevertheless, I find the wine tour not as spectacular as say Blue Mountains or even our DIY city tour in Sydney. Unless you are a wine lover, the day and money could have been spent elsewhere.