Singapore Expats

Featherdale is not too bad, it is nestled between homes in the west of Sydney. Probably not the most appealing of suburbs in Sydney. They only have wallabies and not kangaroos per se. You can feed them as well as touch, the same with the koalas.
The weather has been getting quite warm again back home, and a new Wet 'N' Wild has opened not far from Featherdale if that is your scene. I would suggest that you stay in Parramatta if you are planning on visiting the western suburbs and the Blue Mountains.
As for everything shutting early, that is life back home. Late night shopping is on a Thursday when the shops will stay open till 9pm. Obviously in the city, the shops will stay open a little later for the tourists, but really, don't expect much to be open late.
We aware that track work occurs most weekends on the train lines. It can add extra time to your travels when you have to get on a bus to go to the same location. May be worth looking at 131500.com.au before planning your travels on the train network.
Budget hotels I would look at are the Ibis and Novotel. And if you are only after a room, maybe the Ibis Budget (changed its name from Formule 1). Try looking at Darling Harbour.
Bars for a Saturday afternoon beer, I would suggest looking around the Rocks or Darling Harbour.
Not sure when you are planning on heading over, I know it is not too far away. Just remember that Australia Day is happening on 26 January and the 27th January will be a public holiday, so extra charges at bars and restaurants and reduced working hours i.e: the shops will close around 5pm.
Hope this is helpful

Last year when my hubby and I went for a 2-week holiday, we used Airbnb for our Sydney and Melbourne stays. We got a round-trip ticket (SG-Sydney). Stayed the first week in Sydney, then flew to Melbourne and stayed there for the 2nd week and then went back to Sydney. We stayed in a Mercure hotel in Sydney for our last night in Sydney.

What my husband and I liked most during last year's Sydney trip was the walking around Darling Harbour and the ferry rides (took the ferry to see the Opera House from that angle). We also liked the Australia National Maritime Museum. We went there twice! We also visited the Chinatown here since we had dinner there with my former colleague and his wife.

I'm in Sydney at the moment (after flying in from hot, hot Melbourne earlier) and staying in the Pullman Hyde Park hotel. I'm staying in this hotel since it's in between the 2 locations where I need to do work.

I know about the early closing of the shops here in Australia. So I always plan on getting my shopping done early. This means that now that I'm here for work, I wouldn't get to go around after office hours. It's the weekend now but there's so much to be done for work so that I end up staying in the hotel and just working during the weekends. (I work for a "startup" company so there's a lot to be done.)

Came back from our Sydney trip. It was an extremely well planned and well executed trip. We bought the MyMulti Weekly 3 tickets and although we were there only for 5 days and the ticket costs $63 per person we derived atleast $100 value out it We used it for 3 ferries Manly ferry, Darling Harbour ferry and watsons bay ferry. We used the trains and buses extensively and we didnt ever need a taxi. We even skipped the airport gate pass(and saved $12.80 per person per trip) both ways. We used the 400 bus to go to Mascot/Rockdale stations and then catch the train to our hotel in Ashfield.

We did the manly ferry and manly beach on day 1. Day 2 we did Featherdale wildlife park in the morning. My 2 1/2 year old daughter really enjoyed the encounter with Wallabees and Koalas and then in the afternoon we did pitts streets/Queen Victoria Building and the Sydney Tower Eye. Day 3 we did Blue mountains. Again my daughter really enjoyed the world's steepest railway. Day 4 we did Rocks area, Bridge climb(only until the base), Darling Harbour Ferry and Bondi beach. Day 5 we did Watsons Bay ferry in the morning and then in the evening we caught the flight back to Singapore.

For food, we were lucky enough to find an Indian restaurant in Summer Hill and Ashfield stations and also Subway restaurants in the city and the airport really saved us. The only time we experimented was with Turkish Gozleme street food in the rocks area, which was essentially a roti/prata stuffed with cheese, spinach and mushrooms It was yummy.

Our impressions about Australia compared to Singapore. People there are really friendly. Strangers will smile and talk to you and you can strike up a conversation as if you have known them for years! Another impression that I got is that in Australia, it doesnt matter what your colour of skin is. There are all kinds of people there although whites are big majority, there are lots of chinese and a few blacks and a few browns but all are treated with the same dignity. There is dignity of labour. You see whites doing lots of jobs that Singaporeans would think are too low level for them. That very thing in itself creates a lot of equality among races.

There is a lot of old world charm in Sydney. You can lots of old buildings in Sydney CBD and they have been converted to malls and their charm has been maintained. The biggest difference between Sydney and Singapore is the suburbs. In Australia the suburbs look so real, its just like in any country, including India, lots of shops on the streets. Only difference compared to India, is that the roads dont have pot holes and there is general cleanliness about them. Little India is the only place in Singapore that can compare to a suburb in Sydney for its originality.

The railway network and buses are pretty good, just that the frequency is not a good as Singapore and its really confusing because all trains and buses dont always stop at all stops and there are lots of platforms and trains going in the same direction can stop on different platforms. Also they are extremely expensive compared to Singapore. Like if you use a bus and train and bus to go somwhere, you will easily spend like $8-12 per trip But then most people use cars and trains and buses are almost never full and people always get to sit in them comfortably.

We did shopping for fruits, breakfast cereals and milk at Woolworths and Coles. Almost everything is expensive compared to Singapore. Fruits are expensive, bottled water is very expensive like 600ml costs $2.30 in woolworths! but milk and milk formula for babies is like half the price of Singapore. In Singapore there is lots of choice for canned drinks. In Sydney, very surprised that other than the general fizzy drinks the only other drink is sunkist orange and another orange drink. Not much of choice there and its very expensive.

The biggest difference we felt is that everything closes by 6PM, expecially in the suburbs. The street lights are far away compared to Singapore suburbs and it feels like a curfew in the evenings.

Another difference is the temperature. It was so cool in Sydney the last 5 days like 20 deg Celcius. Back to Singapore and 1st thing I hated is the humidity and heat here.

Wd40 wrote:Only difference compared to India, is that the roads dont have pot holes and there is general cleanliness about them.

Really? That's the *only* difference? Maybe your idea of "general cleanliness" is very encompassing!

Sounds like a good trip. You should write it up on trip advisor as an itinerary for a small family.

zzm9980 wrote:

Wd40 wrote:Only difference compared to India, is that the roads dont have pot holes and there is general cleanliness about them.

Really? That's the *only* difference? Maybe your idea of "general cleanliness" is very encompassing!

Sounds like a good trip. You should write it up on trip advisor as an itinerary for a small family.

Yeah, it was kind of all encompassing But you get the drift. We stayed in a suburb called Ashfield which was like 15 mins from CBD by train.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... l_Road.JPG