Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Sydney and the Chinese Gardens

By the time I got off the plane and caught a bus ( the right bus that is, I got some bad info from one of the drivers and it took my alomso 2 1/2 hours to get to my hostel) I was dead tired. I checked into my hostel , ran out to grab something to eat then crashed for the remainder of the night.

The next morning the woman at the desk told me about some of the closest things to see which were the Haymarket ( a large flea market / fruit market on the ground floor with a large shopping mall and food court on the upper floors ) which is the place to go to buy designer knock offs for cheap LOL.. also great for souveniers to pass out to family and friends.

Then there was Chinatown ( although I wouldn't limit it to just Chinese, there are tons of Thai, Koreans and Japanese in this asian section of town.) I passed through and kept going to Darling Harbor and on the way discovered the Chinese Freindship Garden, a massive enclosed garden in the middle of the city that was so incredibly quiet and peaceful you never would have known you were in the midst of a bustling metropolis.


Here is the Bonsai section of the Gardens, a large open roofed room filled with beautiful bonsai trees.

There are many building throughout the gardens all built in the same ornate chinese style and scattered among hills and waterfalls and bamboo forests.



The moon gate opened from the path into a serene little peninsula along the giant pond.


Me next to the rock formations that make up one of the many waterfalls in the gardens. After spending a few hours wandering through this maze of walkways I headed out and up to Darling Harbour , it's all pretty tourist but there ia the Sydney Aquarium there and an amazing naval museum with actual ship docked that you can go on board like a Schooner, Submarine, Battle ship, etc.
I also made it a point to stop for a reflexology massage on my way through China Town.. I hig;ly reccomend them when you're doing a hell of a lot of walking.



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