Australia Diaries - Day 11 to 14 - Melbourne

Day 11 - Uluru to Melbourne
- Woke up at 6 am and relaxed in our room for an hour
- Went down for breakfast around 8:30 am
- Checked out and took the resort shuttle at 10:20 am to the airport
- Flight was on time and took off at 12:25 pm
- After a flying time of about 2.5 hours, we landed in Melbourne at 3:30 pm local time (factoring in the 30 minute time zone change)
- Took a taxi to our hotel but due to rush hour, took almost an hour and we reached our room around 5 pm
- It's a skyscraper hotel in the heart of Melbourne downtown that has shops and offices on the lower floors and hotel rooms above the 35th floor. Our room was at the 40th floor which meant we had great views of the city from our room's windows
- Freshened up and got ready to meet up my friend Bilal Tanvir
- Bilal came to our hotel around 7 pm but then we had to spend almost half an hour figuring out how to install the baby car seat that he had borrowed from his brother for Sereen
- Drove to an Indian restaurant where food was exceptional and we had a great time catching up with him
- Bilal drove us around and showed us some good views of the Melbourne skyline
- Reached back our hotel around 10:30 pm and then went to bed

Day 12 - Cricket History at MCG
- Woke up around 6 am and relaxed in our room
- We didn't opt for the breakfast option when booking this hotel so had in-room coffee with cereal bars
- Booked a tour of the Melbourne Cricket Ground for later that day
- Left hotel around 11:45 am and walked to one of the city's highly rated restaurants Chin Chin for lunch. The restaurant serves Asian Fusion cuisine and we had pad sew noodles, beef Masaman curry and wagyu beef stir fry
- Walked to the nearby Hosier Street that is famous for its graffiti
- Emerged from Hosier Street into the Federation Square which is a great meeting point in the center of the city and close to the historic district
- Walked along the Yarra river to the Melbourne Cricket Ground
- Did a tour of the stadium where we saw the playing field up close, the dressing rooms, the honours boards with names of Pakistani cricket stars on them, indoor practice pitches, corporate boxes and an interesting tapestry which had famous cricketers and events depicted on it to commemorate the 150th anniversary of MCG
- After the tour, we made our way to the National Museum of Sports that's under the MCG
- We focused mainly on the cricket section since we didn't have too much time left. Highlights were 3 actual World Cup trophies won by Australia in 1987, 1999 and 2003 on display alongside the actual ball used in the 1992 World Cup final that was held at the MCG and won by Pakistan
- We also played some interactive games (cricket run out and net ball) but sadly there wasn't too much time left and we had to leave once the museum closed at 5 pm
- We relaxed in the park adjacent to the MCG for about half an hour which was thoroughly enjoyable since Sereen constantly babbled and played with us
- Walked back to the main road and then got a taxi back to our hotel
- Samia's father's cousin Jamal Chacha picked us up around 7:30 pm and we drove to his house where we had dinner and chatted. He dropped us back at our hotel and then we went to bed around 11:30 pm

Day 13 - Yarra River Walk
- Decided to sleep in after having woken up early for almost 6 days in a row and got up around 7 am
- Went downstairs and had avocado toast, scrambled eggs and lattes from two different cafes
- Played with Sereen after breakfast and then relaxed for a bit
- Took a nap around 11:15 am and woke up around 12:45 pm
- Sereen fell asleep and since she had been missing daytime naps and napping on the go for a few days, we wanted to let her nap peacefully in bed and so chilled in the room
- Left our room around 3 pm and went to a pizza place next to our hotel for lunch where we shared a pizza
- Sereen needed a diaper change and there was no change room at the pizza place so we came back to our room to change her diaper
- By the time we left our room for some sightseeing, it was almost 4:30 pm! It had been a very laid back and relaxing day
- We walked from Flinders Lane (where all the nice restaurants are) to Hosier Street to Federation Square and then emerged on the other side of river (as opposed to the side where we had walked when going to the MCG on the previous day)
- Walked through a park and then along the Yarra River waterfront. There was still light when we started walking but we kept walking till the sun had gone down and then turned back
- When we reached the bridge which could have taken us back to Federation Square towards our hotel, we decided to not go back and instead continued walking on the South bank Promenade. This walk turned out to be one of the most pleasant strolls along the water that we've had in any big metro city. The other ones that come to mind are the walk in Singapore earlier this year and then two such walks in Canada - one in Halifax and one in Vancouver. I would even dare say say that this is the best of all of them! Melbourne is an excellent city to live in and we were beginning to realize why it rates as the #1 most livable city in the world
- We took a break at a bookstore where we bought some books for Sereen and then walked back to Flinders Lane to dine at Chin Chin, again! This time we had the egg fried rice with beef rendang and the food was again delightful
- We walked back to our hotel and then went to bed around 10:30 pm on what was a very relaxing day but where we still ended up walking over 10 km

Day 14 - Good Friday with Friends
- Woke up at 6 am and played with Sereen
- Samia stayed in the room while I went down to get breakfast around 7:45 am and got avocado toast for her, plain croissant for myself and lattes for both of us
- Relaxed in our room and then got ready for 10 am which is when my friend Bilal Tanvir picked us up to show us around the city
- We drove to Williamstown for some excellent views of the Melbourne skyline and then walked along the beachfront for about half an hour. It started drizzling slightly so we decided to head back to our car and by that time the rain had stopped
- Our next stop was the Eureka Tower Sky Deck which is the second tallest building in Australia and the sky deck offers unmatched bird's eye views of the city. Finding parking was a challenge and after we were unable to find street parking, we decided to park within the Eureka Tower building
- Spent a good 45 minutes on the 88th floor observatory and identified all major landmarks of the city
- Drove to McDonald's for a quick lunch and then Bilal drove us through the Port Melbourne suburb of the city
- Sereen had been very patient all this time but finally her patience was running out so we decided to head back and Bilal dropped us off back at our hotel and we were back in our room around 3:30 pm
- Sereen took a nap while we relaxed in the room
- Around 6:30 pm, we went downstairs since the plan was to have dinner with Samia's friends from LUMS, Sumayya and Mahwish who now live in Melbourne with their husbands and kids. We accidentally walked much farther than we needed to but once we realized that, we turned back and reached the restaurant around 7 pm. The restaurant was right next to our hotel and served Mexican cuisine
- Samia was meeting them after a long time and had a good time catching up while I chatted with their husbands and got introduced to their kids
- Sereen started crying around 9 pm so we had to say goodbye and came back to our hotel and went to bed around 10 pm

Didn't get a chance to write updates after day 14 but the last 2 days were just travel days to get back home. Australia is a vast and amazing country with different climates and friendly people. We thoroughly enjoyed our trip and would love to visit again someday!

Day 15 - Melbourne to Sydney

Day 16 - Sydney to Calgary

Australia Diaries - Day 9 and 10 - Uluru

Day 9 - Cairns to Uluru
- Woke up at 4:30 am for early morning flight
- Finished packing and left hotel at 6 am
- Reached airport in 15 minutes and after checking in and dropping off our bags, we had a quick breakfast comprising lattes, blueberry danish and yogurt
- Flight took off on time at 7:30 am and we reached Ayers Rock airport after two and a half hours but due to a different time zone, the local landing time was 9:30 am
- Ayers Rock is an extremely remote town in the state of Northern Territory and there are only 5 things in about a 200 km radius: the small airport (which is more like an airstrip), the Ayers Rock resort which is a collection of hotels with a small market, the Uluru rock, the Kata Tjuta rocks and the Aboriginal town where about 300 people live
- It's desert terrain with healthy vegetation of patchy grass and trees which is surprising because it's quite dry
- Temperatures can go above 50 degrees Celsius in summer which is why we didn't go in December when it's summer in Australia but chose the month of April which is fall in Australia. Fall temperatures can still hit early to mid 30s
- The resort has shuttle buses at the airport that pick up resort guests arriving on one of only 5 daily flights that come into Ayers Rock and transport them to the resort. There are no taxis or any other form of public transportation
- Our hotel room wasn't ready so we read brochures for guided tours of the area to pass time
- We booked three tours: one night tour departing at 8:20 pm later that day and two tours for the next day
- After checking in to our room, we relaxed for a little while and then spotted a big spider on the spare bed. I sprayed bug spray on it which killed it but we got scared about the animals in the desert, also because the room had a booklet warning about different dangerous animals that are found in the region
- We called housekeeping to change the sheets of the spare bed and went out for lunch
- We went to the so-called town center market of the resort that has a handful of shops and three restaurants
- We had fish and chips, peri peri chicken pizza and lime cheesecake for lunch at one of the restaurants
- Then we bought some insect repellent sprays and some snacks from the supermarket which is so fully stocked that it can fool you into thinking you're in a major city
- After that we walked back to our room and took a nap
- Then we walked to our hotel lobby where we were picked up for the night tour of the desert called "Field of Lights"
- We were driven to a field in the desert which has a multi million dollar art installation of softly lit lights that are powered by stored solar energy and each light looks like a medium sized stem with a colored bulb on top. The bulbs change color between green, blue, red, yellow, orange, white and purple and cause the field to appear as a field of lit-up crop
- We walked through the field for about half an hour and I wore Sereen in her baby carrier. We enjoyed the peace and quiet of the cool night desert with the moon shining in the clear sky and the thousands of lights changing color
- We took the return bus at 9:20 pm and had dinner in the lobby restaurant of our hotel. Samia had chicken qorma with basmati rice whereas I had a beef burger
- We came to our room after dinner and went to bed around 11 pm

Day 10 - Uluru
- Woke up very early at 4:15 am despite sleeping late the night before at 11 pm since we had a sunrise tour booked
- We didn't have time for breakfast so our hotel packed some continental breakfast for us to have in the tour bus
- The bus picked us up at 5:30 am and we drove to the national park that houses the Uluru rock. After parking, we were served some coffee and snacks before heading up to the elevated sand dune which has a viewing platform of wood constructed on it for best views of the rock
- We had arrived here in complete darkness and the silhouette of the magnificent rock had been visible from a distance
- Around sunrise time, within minutes, the desert started coming to life as the sun's first rays appeared and the outline of the trees and shrubs became visible with a pink hued background. The rock started to change colors as the sun rose, making the ridges on the rock obvious as the shadows emerged. The pink hues turned to orange and then blue, and then we could see Uluru standing alone in the desert, in all its splendor, towering over the flat land all around it for as far as one could see
- It's a sandstone monolith that is thought to have started forming some 550 million years ago! The local Aboriginal Australian people regard the rock as sacred and it plays a big part in their religion and lives
- The Uluru rock which is also called Ayers Rock is almost 350 meters high and is a massive 10 km in circumference!
- It was hard to take your eyes off the gigantic rock that has been standing in almost exactly the middle of the Australian continent for millions of years, virtually unchanged
- After viewing the sunrise at Uluru, we drove 40 km for our next stop: Kata Tjuta (pronounced Kata Juta)
- Kata Tjuta, also known as the Olgas, lay West of Uluru and the highest peak is 546 meters high (approximately 200 meters higher than Uluru). After viewing the Kata Tjuta from a distance, we went closer and hiked through Walpa Gorge. It was very windy so Sereen loved it!
- Then we headed back to our resort around 11:30 am and had reached back around noon
- We had two and a half hours before our next tour so we quickly ate at the lobby restaurant. We shared chicken pasta and lamb roghan josh on basmati rice while Sereen had her rice cereal
- Then we headed back to our room to quickly take showers to freshen up and then walked to the hotel lobby
- Our tour bus picked us up at 2:30 pm and then we drove to the Uluru-Kata Tjuta Cultural Centre where we spent about an hour to learn about the unique spiritual culture and the dreamtime/creation stories of the Anangu (pronounced Ana-noo), the traditional custodians of Uluru
- Next we drove around the base of Uluru to see all its sides, including the culturally sensitive side that is still used for Anangu customs and is not allowed to be photographed
- Then we went on a guided walk that took us really close to the rock and we were able to touch some parts of it too
- The walk led to a famous waterhole that has been a source of water for Aboriginal Australians for thousands of years
- Our guide also told us about different plants and trees that grow in this area and how they are used by the Anangu
- After the walk, we got back on the bus and drove past a controlled fire that was being lit up to get rid of certain trees and plants so that it wouldn't result in bigger forest fires. When to burn which trees and plants is knowledge that is supplied by the local Aboriginal park rangers
- Then we parked at a viewing point of Uluru so that we could see the rock during sunset and had some snacks while waiting for the sun to go down
- Uluru was again beautiful in the dimming light of the setting sun but it wasn't as splendid as the sunrise
- After watching the sunset, we drove back to our resort and headed back to our room around 7:30 pm
- The hotel had accidentally left two packed breakfasts in our room as well, in addition to the ones we had picked up from reception in the morning so we decided to have those as dinner so as not to waste them
- It was a very long and tiring day but we decided to finish packing before going to bed so that we could sleep in the next day and went to bed around 10 pm

Australia Diaries - Day 6 to 8 - Great Barrier Reef and Cairns

Day 6 - Sydney to Cairns
- Woke up at 4 am and realized that not having dinner the night before was a mistake since we were famished
- Packed our suitcases and got ready to checkout at 6:25 am but bellboy took a while to come to our room so Samia and Sereen went downstairs for breakfast while I waited in the room
- I only had 10 minutes for breakfast so quickly gulped down some scrambled eggs with toast and a latte that Samia had ordered for me
- We had checked-in for the flight the night before and had the boarding passes on our phone
- Took a taxi to the airport, left hotel at 7 am. Thankfully, morning work traffic hadn't started yet so we reached the airport in about 25 minutes and had ample time to drop off our check-in bags and pass through security
- Flight to Cairns was delayed by about 10 minutes. It was a comfortable 3 hour flight where a complimentary snack comprising yogurt and a muffin was served, in addition to the typical coffee/juice/water
- Virgin Australia is a very impressive airline and even had full entertainment system, albeit through a mobile app but it was surprising since usually that amenity is only found on long haul flights. Samia watched half a movie during the flight
- Sereen had her own seat but we weren't allowed to take our car seat so she slept in it for a little while after we lay down her blanket on it
- After landing in Cairns at about 12:10 pm, we got our bags and took a taxi
- All large taxis in Sydney offer a car seat for babies, perhaps because the legislation in the province of New South Wales requires that. On the other hand, the taxi in Cairns let us hold Sereen in our lap. She loved the freedom and had a great time chattering away during the entire ride
- Our hotel Hilton is located right next to the pier where all cruise ships depart for the Great Barrier Reef
- Cairns is a tropical city which gets a lot of rain and is very humid. It's located in the Queensland province whereas Sydney was located in the New South Wales province
- On our current trip, we'll be visiting 4 cities which are all coincidentally in different provinces with different climate patterns
- Cairns is the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef, the largest Reef system on earth which is also the largest living organism on earth and can be seen from the moon
- We reached our hotel at 1 pm and checked-in but our room wasn't going to be ready till 3 pm so we decided to book our tours for the following 2 days with the tour booking desk next to the reception
- By the time we changed Sereen's diaper and waited for the tour booking lady to become available to book our tours, it was 3 pm so Sereen and Samia went up to the room while I walked to McDonald's to grab a quick lunch
- After having lunch, video chatting with Sarim and relaxing for a little while, we decided to take a nap around 6 pm thinking that we'll get up for dinner but that was a bad idea since the next time I woke up, the time was 11:40 pm. I went back to sleep till 1:30 am
- Samia woke up at 11 pm and then Sereen woke up at 1:30 am and needed a diaper change so we changed her
- Sereen played for a couple of hours before going back to sleep at 3 am which is when we went back to sleep too after scheduling an alarm for 5:30 am in the morning

Day 7 - Great Barrier Reef
- Woke up at 5:30 am with our alarm and got ready for the day
- Went down at 7 am to have complimentary breakfast in the hotel restaurant
- Walked along the waterfront on the boardwalk next to our hotel for a few minutes and reached the pier where our ship for the day was to depart
- We were supposed to leave at 9 am but owning to some issue with the onboard toilets, everyone had to switch to a different ship
- Purchased sea sickness tablets for me since the crew advised that we'll be facing choppy waters. The tablets weren't safe for nursing mothers so unfortunately Samia couldn't take them
- We finally left at around 9:45 am and had an extremely rough journey, owing to the strong winds at the ocean. I felt sick and had to go outside for fresh air but that only helped marginally: I vomited twice and felt nauseous throughout the 90 minute ride and had to stay outside. Samia felt sick too but she had no choice but to stay inside with Sereen since I had already left for the lower deck
- Once the rough journey was over, at around 11:15 am, we reached a platform erected in the middle of the ocean that offered numerous activities to see the reefs of the Great Barrier Reef. Platforms like this are called pontoons
- Our platform was at Moore reef which is located on the outer reef. Reef systems that are closer to land are called inner reef but owing to global warming and rising ocean water temperatures, the coral in the inner reef systems have become bleached and started losing color. Reef systems farther away from land are said to be in the outer reef
- At noon, Samia went for a helmet dive in which she was wearing a helmet that had oxygen being pumped into it through a pipe. She walked on the ocean floor and saw the reefs, corals and marine life up close. She also saw a giant resident Maori Wrasse fish and got some very cool photos with it. The fish has an interesting characteristic: all newborns are female but as they reach maturity, the dominant ones turn into males!
- Samia and I had both planned to take turns doing the helmet dive but since I didn't have a great time on the ship, I didn't want to take a chance with the dive
- At the same time when Samia went for her helmet dive, Sereen and I went on a boat that had a glass bottom so we could see the reef below us. If Samia's view was HD, ours was probably the TV quality that existed back in the 1990s 😂
- Around 12:30 pm, all of us were back on the platform and had buffet lunch that was included in the day tour package. For a touristy buffet, the spread and quality of the buffet were very good
- At 1:30 pm, we all went for a third type of activity, the semi-submersible boat. The view was much clearer than the glass bottom boat
- The ocean floor views are spectacular and on all our activities, we got guided tours and got to learn about the different types of corals, reefs and marine life that exists in this ecosystem. The coral close to the Cairns area is blue and green in color whereas the coral near Port Douglas has red colors too
- After getting back on the platform, we spent some leisurely time enjoying the cool ocean breeze on a humid and hot day. Sereen absolutely loved the breeze and had a great time. It has become a theme on this trip: anytime the weather is warm with a cool breeze, Sereen starts giggling and chattering
- We also saw a fish feeding activity and also got another view of a coral garden from an underwater observatory located on the platform
- At 3:30 pm, we got back on the ship and started our return journey. We changed our seats so that we were under an air conditioning vent. We suspected that the lack of air circulation at our previous seats might've contributed to the sickness
- The return journey was smooth and we didn't feel any motion or sea sickness. We reached back Cairns around 5 pm and went back to our hotel room
- Around 7 pm, we walked down to a restaurant located adjacent to our hotel and had Thai curry noodles and fried rice for dinner
- After dinner, we walked along the Esplanade waterfront on the boardwalk for about half an hour and then came back and went to bed around 10 pm

Day 8 - Kuranda Rainforest Village
- Woke up around 6:30 am and had breakfast from the hotel's complimentary buffet
- Went back to our room to get ready for an all day trip of the Australian rainforest
- Tour bus picked us up at around 10 am
- Drive to the sky view cablecar took a little under an hour and we boarded it around 11 am
- First stop of the cable car was after 15 minutes where we got off and did a walking tour with a ranger who walked us through the rainforest and talked about the different types of trees and the nocturnal animals that inhabit the rainforest
- The main theme was that due to the tiny amount of sunlight that is able to filter through to the rainforest floor, plants compete for the sunlight and adapt to get survival advantage
- Some memorable ones included a giant tree that sheds its trunk to get rid of other plants trying to grow on it to get access to sunlight, a plant that grows on the trunk of a host tree and uses it for structural support and plants that grow on trees all the way up to the top to get sunlight
- The ranger told us that in the past, venomous snakes had been spotted on the boardwalk so we became extremely careful. He told us that the specie of snake found in the area is so poisonous that once it bit a man who was agitating the snake and the man died in 10 minutes!
- It rained on and off during the walking tour so Sereen's stroller's rain cover once again saved her from the rain while we used umbrellas provided by the cablecar company (its called Skyrail)
- Then we got back on the cablecar and rode it for another 15 minutes before getting off at the second station
- This one had views of the Barron Gorge and waterfall from viewing points nestled in the rainforest
- There was also an interpretive center where we found out the reason why animals in Australia are so different from animals found everywhere else on the planet. Thousands of years ago, when Australia broke off from the supercontinent that included all continents that are now in the Southern Hemisphere, it remained isolated from contact from the rest of the world for a very long time during which the terrain changed from primarily rainforest to primarily barren desert. Animals found in the rainforest like the platypus have remained virtually unchanged for thousands of years ago while others like the kangaroo have evolved to cope with the desert terrain of the Australian outback
- After getting back on the cablecar and riding for another 15 minutes, we reached the final station and saw an interesting variety of magnum ice cream at the station souvenir shop and tried red velvet and strawberry
- Then we started walking towards the town center of the village of Kuranda which is a village only in name but is otherwise quite developed and touristy
- We stopped at a cafe and had beef burger and chicken burger for lunch, accompanied by fresh juice that was a combination of mango, pineapple and passion fruit
- Then we checked out a butterfly sanctuary which has a facility to breed various species of butterflies. The guided tour was very informative about the breeding process and the characteristics of butterflies
- We saw the largest butterfly who can sometimes stay in the cocoon for up to two years but when it comes out, it only lives for about 3-4 days and then dies after mating
- We also found out that the butterfly uses its feet to taste flowers and that it sedates its male counterpart during the mating process
- In the main section which is essentially a small covered park, there were hundreds of colorful butterflies of all sizes flying around
- During the tour, Samia had been told that butterflies can see very few colors but her white shirt is very prominent to them. The guide took Samia under a special light to show her how butterflies perceive light and under that special light, Samia looked like a beacon of light in a dark sky! The guide told her that the butterflies would be attracted to the color of her shirt and would come and land on her. After getting that information, she would start getting stressed as soon as any butterfly would come close to her, so we quickly made our way out of the sanctuary
- It was time to head back to catch our return ride on a scenic train so we hurried back, despite the fact that it was raining quite substantially
- We boarded the 3:30 pm train back to the Cairns area and were going to get off at a station just outside of the city
- The train passed through the thick and green rainforest, making its way through numerous tunnels and over several bridges. Sereen loved the fresh air but it was hot and humid so we had to take off her onesie and she enjoyed the ride in just her diaper!
- We took some incredible pictures of some curving bridges and listened to the commentary about the construction of the track from Cairns to Kuranda in the early 1900s
- Sereen had been extremely popular the day before at the Great Barrier Reef tour and several people had interacted with her and said that she is a cute baby. We saw an Indian family again on this day and not only did they say goodbye to her but even requested to pinch her cheek. Some other girls who had been on the Great Barrier Reef tour also waved at her, despite the fact that they we had never talked to them but they recognized Sereen!
- After getting off at our station, our tour bus picked us up and drove us back to our hotel and we were in our room at 6 pm
- Sereen was extremely tired and went to sleep soon afterwards. We didn't want to disturb her so instead of going out for dinner, I walked to the nearby McDonald's around 7 pm and grabbed burgers for dinner
- After dinner, we went to bed around 9:30 pm after setting an alarm for 4:30 am for the next morning to be able to catch our early morning flight to Uluru

Australia Diaries - Day 1 to 5 - Sydney

With Sereen, it's tough to find time to write detailed accounts of each day so I'll shorten the updates to bullet point highlights.

Day 1 - Calgary to Sydney
- Sarim dropped us off to the airport
- Almost missed flight to Vancouver due to Electronic Travel Authorization that's required for Australia (similar to visa but can be applied at airport) so getting that caused delay
- Two hour layover in Vancouver
- 15.5 hour flight to Sydney - Sereen slept for first few hours in her own car seat, were able to watch couple of movies
- Passed immigration, bought local phone SIMs
- Took taxi to InterContinental hotel
- Took showers and got ready
- Walked to Circular Quay next to hotel
- View of Sydney Harbour Bridge while having burger and steak for lunch
- Walked to Sydney Opera House
- Hot day so had ice cream on our way back to the hotel
- Went to sleep early around 6 pm

Day 2 - Australian Animals
- Woke up at 1:30 am due to jet lag
- Played with Sereen and made plans for later travel days
- Had complimentary hotel breakfast at 6:30 am, Sereen had a banana
- Walked to Circular Quay to board ferry to Taronga Zoo
- Started raining when we were walking from ferry station to zoo
- Took the cable car to zoo entrance, saw elephants during the ride
- Saw kangaroos, Koala bears, emus, platypus, little penguins, elephants
- Had peri peri chicken and steak for lunch at zoo cafe, Sereen had rice cereal
- Close encounter with a Koala bear named Darwin
- Bought kangaroo and Koala bear stuffed toys and animal themed tableware for Sereen
- Walked back to ferry station
- Ferry cruise of Sydney Harbour for almost 45 minutes
- Dropped off back at Circular Quay and walked back to our hotel
- Midhet picked us up for dinner, met after 15 years and met his Japanese wife Minami for the first time
- Had dinner at Thai restaurant
- Had chocolate fondue for dessert at Max Brenner's
- Reached back hotel around 11 pm

Day 3 - Australia's Convict Roots
- Woke up at 7 am, had breakfast, Sereen had banana
- Came back to our room for a nap
- Got ready and left hotel around 1 pm
- Started walking to the museum, passed NSW Parliament House and Library
- Had chicken salad and chicken sandwich for lunch at a roadside cafe
- Walked to Hyde Park Barracks Museum and reached there at 2 pm
- Australia's convict roots, 160,000 convicts were transported to Australia, most of them to Sydney and they helped build the city
- Sereen fell asleep so we took turns going through the museum, also because the upper two floors were not stroller/wheelchair accessible
- Left the museum at 5 pm and it was raining so we found cover and then walked back to our hotel
- Left hotel around 8 pm to go out for dinner
- Walked along Circular Quay to Ribs & Burgers and had half rack of beef ribs and a small burger with fries
- Walked back to our hotel and went to bed around 10 pm

Day 4 - Opera House and Manly Beach
- Woke up at 4 am since Sereen was up
- Entertained her and gave her a bath
- Went down to have breakfast around 7 am, Sereen had her usual banana for breakfast
- Walked across the road from our hotel to the Royal Botanic Gardens since it was a beautiful day for a walk
- Walked along the water towards the Sydney Opera House
- Bought tickets for a guided tour of the iconic Opera House
- Had beef burger and chicken chipotle burger for lunch and got an avocado packed for Sereen for later
- The one hour tour started at 12:15 pm and we got an overview of the history, design and construction of the Sydney Opera House, along with stories about its primary architect
- After the tour, we walked along Circular Quay and stopped for dessert at Guylian Chocolate Cafe where Sereen had her avocado while we shared a chocolate mousse with almond panna cotta and a banana chocolate milkshake
- Then we boarded a high speed ferry to Manly Beach
- Manly Beach was exceptional and Sereen loved the cool breeze and smiled a lot
- It started raining so we sought shelter in a restaurant with a view of the beach and shared two tapas (goat cheese filled peppers and fried zucchini flowers)
- After it stopped raining, we walked back to the wharf and took the return ferry to Circular Quay and then walked back to our hotel
- Samia's relatives picked us up from our hotel for dinner around 7:30 pm
- Dinner at a Lebanese restaurant
- Reached back hotel at 10 pm

Day 5 - Downtown Sydney and Darling Harbour
- Woke up at 8 am, had our usual breakfast at this hotel comprising scrambled eggs, cereal, crumpets and lattes while Sereen had her rice cereal
- Came back to the room to take a nap
- Got ready and left the hotel around 1 pm
- Walked to Queen Victoria Building, a historic building that now houses a shopping mall
- Walked through Pitt street (similar to Stephen Ave in Calgary) where a few street performers were in action
- Entered the shopping mall and went to its food court for lunch
- Had Turkish Kabab and Indian chicken tikka masala for lunch from the excellent food court that had incredible variety of cuisines, Sereen had a banana that we had bought on our walk
- Got cafe lattes from a coffee shop inside the Queen Victoria Building
- Australia is famous for its splendid coffee and so far everywhere we've had coffee including our hotel, it has been great
- Walked to Darling Harbour, had to get help since elevator wasn't working so we were directed to take a different route
- Entered through Cockle Bay wharf and walked along the Harbour on the boardwalk
- Sereen loved the cool breeze and kept chattering when we stopped for a break and took her out of her stroller
- Continued walking around the Harbour and finally took the Pyrmont bridge back to Sydney Downtown and then walked back to our hotel, observing flocks of people walking back from work
- Did a lot of walking but the nice weather made it easy
- Reached back our hotel around 8 pm and were really tired so went to sleep, without having dinner

Malaysia Diaries - Day 13 - Back to Calgary

We woke up early on Friday, in Singapore, to finish packing for our flight to Kuala Lumpur. Then we had a leisurely breakfast, checked out of our hotel and took a taxi to the airport. After going through exit immigration, we waited at the gate for a little while. The flight took off late by half an hour but the flying time was only 30 minutes so we landed in Kuala Lumpur a few minutes before 1 pm. As on most flights during this trip, our little queen needed a diaper change so the half an hour passed very quickly. We didn't even have time to eat our hot chicken pocket so the flight attendants packed it for us. The immigration line in Kuala Lumpur was insanely long and it took us almost two hours to get from our plane to a taxi. The hot pockets were a life saver!

After the efficiency and organization of Singapore, the Malaysian taxi system didn't feel as impressive as it had been earlier during the trip. The taxi driver was on his phone the whole time which was off-putting. It was a long taxi ride to Kuala Lumpur City Center (KLCC) where we were staying for one night at the InterContinental. The hotels in Malaysia are definitely superior though. For slightly less money, you get much larger rooms in much more advanced and luxurious hotels. We gave Sereen a bath and helped ourselves to hot showers too. Standing in the immigration line had tired us out. We ordered in-room dining and had Malaysian fried rice with shrimp (Nasi Goreng Kampang) and Chinese fried rice with chicken and beef satay skewers. Then we worked on repacking our suitcases so that on our stay in Seattle, we wouldn't need all suitcases. The packing took almost 3 hours so any sightseeing was out of question. We headed downstairs to have dinner. We shared a chicken tikka pita wrap and chicken satay skewers. Then we came back to our room and went to bed for a few hours.

We woke up at 4:30 am and headed down. After checking out and loading our luggage in the hotel taxi, we were on our way back to the airport at 5:15 am. In retrospect, we should've booked a hotel next to the airport since the taxi ride to and from the city center wasn't worth it for just one night. I didn't realize it at that time but the taxi driver didn't take any toll roads so the ride took almost an hour. This was despite having paid a premium for a limousine taxi so tantamount to cheating. We checked in our bags and then waited for our flight that was scheduled for an 8 am departure. The first flight was from Kuala Lumpur to Tokyo's Narita Airport. It was an All Nippon Airways (ANA) flight. The flight attendants were super nice and we were impressed by the fact that the washroom with the diaper changing station was extra spacious and had a curve in the table so that the baby doesn't fall out. The Japanese do know how to design things in the best possible way! For the first time on a flight, we were able to get a bassinet for Sereen. She slept in it for a couple of hours on the 6 hour flight.

Our transit in Tokyo was less than two hours and the long line for security made it even tighter. We hurried to the gate as quickly as we could since we had to check in and get our boarding passes. The plane was full so we didn't get a bulkhead seat. The flight was delayed by an hour so we had time to buy some Japanese chocolates. The 9 hour flight to Seattle went as smooth as it could without a car seat and a bassinet. We improvised to create a makeshift bed for Sereen by joining the seat tray tables of both our seats by covering the gap between them with a sturdy magazine and covering the surface with the blanket provided by the airlines. For the dinner and breakfast service, Samia would hold Sereen in her arms while I fed Samia. Since it was night time in Seattle, the lights were off during most of the flight which helped Sereen think it was her night time so she slept through most of the flight. It was the toughest flight with Sereen because it was long in duration and we didn't have the respite of a car seat or bassinet that we had on long flights earlier in the trip. To fix our sleep schedule and to make sure we kept Sereen safe, I stayed awake on the flight and had coffee twice.

We landed in Seattle at 9:45 am local time on Saturday, almost a day after leaving our hotel in Kuala Lumpur. After going through a smooth immigration and collecting our bags, we were out around 10:30 am. Samia's cousin Mariam's husband Sameem was there to pick us up. We loaded our luggage in their car and drove to their place in the University District of Seattle. Mariam and Sameem are excellent hosts and took great care of us. We had lunch and chatted with Sameem and played with their daughter Undaleeb who was born two days after Sereen. She is super cute and smiles a lot. She was recovering from a cold but the sweet baby was still very responsive and playful. Mariam was at a conference and got back by 2 pm. After chatting, catching up, playing with each other's daughters and sharing notes as parents for a few hours, we decided to freshen up by taking showers and get ready for dinner. Then Mariam's brother Taha came over so we had a good time catching up with him. We walked to a Persian restaurant in the neighborhood for dinner and the food was really good. After dinner, we came back and went to bed.

Next morning (Sunday), we had extremely delicious omelettes for breakfast made by our generous hosts. Then Samia, Sereen and I met up with my friend Omair, his wife Urooj and their daughter Zahra for coffee at a nearby cafe. It was good catching up with them and seeing their daughter all grown up and talking. After catching up with them, we walked back to Mariam and Sameem's place. For lunch, we ordered in burgers. We had our flight back to Calgary at 7 pm so we left their place around 4:30 pm. Sameem was nice enough to stay with us to give us company at the airport until we were ready to go for security checking. The flight took off on time and after a flying time of a little over an hour, we landed in Calgary at 9:30 pm local time.

Sarim was at the airport to pick us up. He had gone to our place, shoveled our driveway, started our cars, done grocery for breakfast, brought over food lovingly cooked by Samia's mummy and had then come to pick us up. Such a gentleman! It's so great to have family living close to you! After reaching home, we unpacked our essentials while Sarim played with Sereen and then we went to bed. It was a memorable trip and I love the fact that I was able to spend time with Samia and Sereen without having to worry about work or household chores. Hope you enjoyed the updates! Till our next trip to Australia in April, take care and goodbye!

Malaysia Diaries - Day 12 - Singapore Part Three

On our last full day in Singapore and our last touristy day of the trip, we woke up around 8:30 am and went down to have breakfast. The specialty item of the day was pooris with aloo. It was delicious but so filling that we skipped our customary omelette. However, to balance the oily richness of the pooris, we had cereal with milk. After breakfast, we went back to our room to relax and Sereen took a nap. Around 11 am, we had the chocolate mousse cake from the previous night which turned out to be quite good. After getting ready, we headed out around 2 pm.

We took a taxi to Chinatown and were dropped off near the entrance to the main touristy street. At the entrance is the Sri Mariamman Temple, the oldest Hindu temple of Singapore and was built in early 19th century. Similar to mosques and Chinese temples earlier in the trip, we had to take off our shoes to go inside. The temple also serves as a community center so lining the central prayer hall are rooms for community events. The outer facade of the main prayer hall building is decorated with hundreds of colorful statues of Hindu gods and goddesses displaying their special powers. Tourists cannot go inside the prayer hall so after making a quick round around the building, we headed out.

We turned left from the temple and were on the Main Street of Chinatown. We walked along the road, passing by souvenir and merchandise shops on both sides that were extending on to the street, making the walkable area narrower than the actual width of the street. We bought a few things and then reached the Chinatown Heritage Center. The Singaporean government has taken steps in the last few years to showcase the heritage of its people and the Chinatown Heritage Center is a result of that, similar to the Malay Heritage Center that we visited a couple of days earlier.

The Chinatown Heritage Center walks visitors through life in Chinatown as it was for the early immigrants from China. The ground floor used to be a tailor shop so the audio guide explains the day to day business of the shop, complete with audio effects to make it sound like you've been transported back in time. We walked through the front of the shop where measurements and new orders were taken and then explored the back of the shop where workers and apprentices not only worked but also lived. The master tailor who was the owner of the business and the house lived on the same in a small room and solid wood furniture was the only indication that the occupant was more affluent than the apprentices. In the back of the building was the kitchen and toilet. The life of these hard working immigrants was quite tough and the living conditions very humble.

The second floor has rooms that were rented to other Chinese immigrants. The rooms are small and the kitchen and toilet were shared by 40 people. The Heritage Center showcases lives and challenges of people who lived in each of the 8 rooms including a Chinese herbal medicine physician who used his room as his clinic and a family of 8 that lived in one small room. The audio guide is quite detailed so we spent almost almost an hour exploring the tailor shop and the residential quarters of the second floor. Then the audio guided portion of the Heritage Center ended and we were in a regular museum style section that chronicled other aspects of the lives of Chinese immigrants with displays and charts. There were displays about the differences in customs and traditions of immigrants who came from different parts of China and the widespread opium addiction among immigrants who had tough lives. Another section was dedicated to the funeral customs of Chinatown inhabitants of Singapore. The Heritage Center gives an excellent account of the Chinese community and its roots.

When we were done with our tour, Sereen needed a diaper change but there were no change tables in the restrooms of the Heritage Center and it was raining outside. We walked under the covered area in front of the shops and made our way to the main road where we flagged down a taxi and headed back to our hotel. We relaxed in our room for a couple of hours and then headed out for dinner. We took a taxi to Clarke Quay (pronounced 'key') which is a pier along the Singapore River lined with restaurants and cafes. It was rush hour so the taxi ride took almost half an hour.

We had chicken and lamb shawarma at a food stall. The quality of food was great, as it has been on the entire trip. Then we walked along the river for almost an hour, taking a break in the middle to sit on a bench to admire the scene in front of us - skyscrapers with their neon signs and lights lining the skyline and cruise boats transporting tourists in the calm Singapore river. The weather was perfect so we could have walked more but it was getting late. We walked to the Fullerton Hotel and took a taxi from there back to our hotel. We ended up getting a limousine with a chatty driver so the ride back was interesting. After getting back to our room, we went to bed since we had to start our journey back the next day. Singapore is a great place to live and we wouldn't mind moving there - it's one of the main financial hubs of Asia with English as their official language, food and weather is great, amenities are top notch, it's very child friendly and not too far from Pakistan. For now though, we are glad to be going back to our home, Canada. Till the final update that will combine a couple of days into a single update, take care!

Malaysia Diaries - Day 11 - Samia's birthday and Singapore Part Two

We slept in and woke up around 9 am. Sereen and I wished Samia a very happy birthday, her first as the mother of our cute chunky monkey by cuddling with Samia. We went down for breakfast around 9:30 am and had cereal, omelettes, choley bhaturay and fruits. After breakfast, we came back to the room to relax. Samia and Sereen took a nap while I caught up on previous updates. With Sereen as a new member of our travel party, writing updates daily is a challenge so I have been a couple of days behind on the entire trip. We gave Sereen a bath and were getting ready when Saim called to wish Samia. Our doll Sereen reached the 5 month milestone and dressed up in a new chambray outfit to celebrate her mom's birthday. Then we left our room around 1:45 pm. We had a dinner reservation for Samia's birthday at 7 pm which was a few hours away so we decided to grab something to eat before sightseeing.

Our hotel is connected to a mall with its back entrance opening into the mall. We had a little difficulty in finding the food court at the mall but eventually found it. It had a lot of variety but we decided to stick to familiar items and had Nasi Goreng (fried rice with chicken) and Nasi Biryani. We also tried the special coffee variant of this region called the Kopi. It's sweeter than regular coffee and was a bit too sweet for our taste buds. We also had iced Milo. Yes, it's the same chocolate mix Milo that we have in Pakistan too. By the time we got back to our hotel lobby, it was almost 3 pm since maneuvering the stroller at the mall through handicap accessible ramps (and a short flight of stairs) took a bit of time. On that note, to get to our hotel room from the lobby, we also have to take the stroller up and down a short flight of stairs every time. On our first day, we initially thought about requesting for a different room but when we were checking in, the hotel representative had told us that this was one of the biggest rooms that they have and with Sereen's stuff, we need the extra space so we decided to just brave the short flight of stairs for a few days. Every time we have to go past those stairs, Samia holds Sereen and I take the stroller up/down the stairs.

It had started raining quite heavily so we had to change our plan. We had originally thought about going to Chinatown to walk around and explore the area but our hotel concierge told us that it won't be a great idea with a baby in a stroller. We had short listed a couple of museums and asked the hotel concierge for a recommendation between them. Without hesitation, he recommended the National Museum of Singapore. The heavy rain meant that taxis were in great demand so we had to wait for 15 minutes before we got one. The National Museum of Singapore was less than a kilometer away and if the weather had been better, we could have walked. The taxi ride took about 15 minutes because of rain and rush hour induced traffic congestion. We reached the museum a little after 3:30 pm. After changing Sereen's diaper and buying our tickets, we started exploring the museum around 4 pm.

Sereen was sleepy but the first exhibit was a colorful educational display of the natural ecology of Singapore so I held her in my arms so that she could see it. She was mesmerized by the screens displaying trees, animals, rain and falling leaves. By the time we got to the next exhibit, she was really sleepy so we rocked her to sleep in her stroller and continued exploring the museum. The history section was very extensive and extremely well done. It chronicled the history of Singapore from the time it was named Singapura in the 14th Century to all the way to the present day. The colonial influence, the Japanese invasion, union with Malaysia for a couple of years and eventually the formation of an independent nation in 1965, it was all covered with concise and apt displays. The ascent of Singapore as a technologically advanced city-state since 1965 powered by industrial manufacturing was also documented. Focus on family planning, urban housing development projects and green spaces was emphasized.

It was such an engrossing display that we were only able to see one level of the museum by 6 pm and then it was time for us to leave. It was still raining heavily and everyone leaving the museum was getting a taxi so they were in high demand. Our hotel has provided a smartphone device called Handy with data and local calling to aid our touristy ventures in the city. A security guard at the museum used the Handy device to help us call a taxi. While chatting with her, Samia found out that she was a law school student and had previously worked in the hotel industry. She pointed out a few buildings of the Singapore Management University and a few top hotels in the city skyline. She also mentioned that if our hotel check-in person was paying attention, there might be a small cake waiting for Samia when we get back.

The restaurant where we had made a reservation for dinner to celebrate Samia's birthday is called Colony and located inside the Ritz-Carlton hotel. It's a very nice hotel and after reaching there, we first attended to Sereen and then headed to the restaurant for our 7 pm reservation. It was a dinner buffet with 7 different varieties available - Chinese, Indian, Indonesian, Malaysian, Western, local Singaporean and desserts. We tried Asian salads, English lamb chops, Indian tikkas, Malaysian satay skewers, sushi and a few different types of desserts. The winner were the succulent lamb chops. In retrospect though, instead of a buffet, a sit-down dinner with table service would have been better since choosing from a buffet is tough plus we've been spoiled by the world's best buffet in Las Vegas which is hard to match. When we asked for the bill, the servers brought a small piece of cake out for Samia with a candle and a piece of chocolate that read "Happy Birthday". That was a nice gesture to cap off the birthday dinner, Samia's first with Sereen.

After dinner, we took a taxi back to our hotel. When we entered the room, a small chocolate cake was waiting for Samia. It wished her Happy Birthday but got the gender wrong and read "Happy Birthday, Mr Siddiqui". Nonetheless it was still nice of the hotel to pay attention and try to lend a personal touch to our stay. We were too full from dinner so decided to save the cake as a brunch treat for the next day. We relaxed for a couple of hours and then went to bed. Till the next update, take care!