THE RACE IS ON!

So long Potts Point... thanks for the memories!

It's official folks!

We are now homeless once again. Giving up the apartment has been one of the hardest things we've had to do here in Australia. We've had great times at the place and we want to thank everyone who had a chance to come and visit or stay with us as you are now a part of history! Never again will we ever have a view such as this but the time we spent enjoying it will be engrained into our memories forever....

Top 5 apartment moments:

1. New Years Eve Party overlooking the bridge fireworks
2. Dinner on the rooftop watching the sunset and the bats fly over us
3. Sitting in the pool on a hot summer day, having a beer, looking at the opera house
4. Watching random fireworks on evenings without having a clue what it was for
5. Our final send off on the roof celebrating it with all the people that made our lives in Australia a memorable one

- the lone asian

Anzac Day

Today commemorates Australia’s equivalent to Remembrance Day back home (ANZAC Day). It signifies when the Australians and Kiwi’s joined forces for the first time to go into battle with what was once known as Constantinople (or otherwise known as Turkey). Though many died in the battlefield that day, their memory lives on through the people they left behind and Australian’s treat it as a day of mourning and pride.


Now that you’ve been familiarized with the history behind the holiday, let me enlighten you on the a most unique game we took part in. It’s called “Two Up”. A game that was created to pass the time during the war and since then has been banned 364 days a year. That’s right, this game is considered illegal everyday except today.

It starts off with two coins (hence the name) placed on a paddle. The coins are tossed in the air and the goal is to get both coins to equal each other in suit(as heads or tails). How the betting works is that each person must find another person to equal them in dollar value of the bet as well as agree to the opposite of heads or tails (depending on which you chose to begin with). The game really takes no skill. Your odds are essentially 50/50, yet the attention it grabs is phenomenal! Everyone plays to have a good time, yet the intensity builds as each bet is placed and the suspense of having the coins drop in your favor is nail biting.

In the end, some of us won, some of us lost but we all ended up coming out as winners as it was an experience long to be forgotten.

As the Sun Sets - One Final Party

The time has come to bid adieu to our life in Sydney. Almost one year has past in a city we fell in love with at first site, we still can’t believe it’s about to end. The good news is that our adventures will not stop here as we are planning to add a few more adventures to our collection before making the journey back home.

That being said, it was another reason to have one last celebration with all the friends that have provided us with memories, support and good times during our stay here. What better way to do this than by hosting “one last party” at the ultimate venue, on our rooftop overlooking the Opera House, Harbor Bridge and City Skyline.

We decided to add a theme of “Any and Everything Australian” to commemorate our time here.

The last thing left to sort was the music. Some of you may or may not recall that when Australians have parties here, they seem to go all out. That being said, we thought it would be fun if we got ourselves a DJ to really set the mood (we’ve come along way from when music was powered by our laptop at our first party). Luckily for us Island Rice had a local hook up (which included the full system and lights), and our buddy Spooner made the atmosphere complete with his bongo drums.

In the end, everything came together and the party was the perfect send off. (We also accomplished our goal of finishing the rest of our alcohol which had been accumulating from the several visitors we had). It was our last chance to thank everyone for making our time in Oz a special one and that is who we dedicate this entry to.


A special thanks to James and Spooner for providing the beats on the streets.

Easter Weekend Adventure

As we wind down our time in Australia, we thought we’d spend our last official long weekend in Sydney away from the city life and by the beach (ironic isn’t it?). Searching high and low for a reasonable activity to take advantage of the 4 day weekend, we end up discovering a surf trip that took us 4 hours north to a beach house called Tiona.

The house itself was situated with the beach in its backyard, while on the other side there was a gorgeous lake. What a weekend it turned out to be:

- 30 people from around the world also wanting to get away.
- Sand boarding on the Stockton Dunes one last time
- Evening party’s on the beach by the fire pit.
- Breakfast on the beach watching the dolphins pass us by
- In three days, over 6 surf sessions for everyone!
- My ultimate favorite, our first surf session in the water as the sunset, we were greeted by a full moon rising behind us
- If that wasn’t enough, throw in a windsurfing lesson and you have the perfect weekend

I don’t usually like advertising but a big thank you to the Bondi Adventure Desk Company for putting on a great time for us all…

- the lone asian

Crab Racing

It has come to our attention that Australians are very much into their horse races (that’s right, “horse races”). They have a national holiday (unofficial of course) for an event called the Melbourne Cup. Think of it as the annual Superbowl except this involves a 2 min. horse race. Everyone gets dressed up in their finest outfits, television stations are out judging what people are wearing (much like Oscar night) and everyone has a few drinks while placing some bets.

Anyways, I digress as I’ve veered off topic. The past evening we decide to take part in another form of racing as we aren’t as prim and proper and couldn’t really be bothered to make the trek to the stables (didn’t have any feathers to put in our hats/hair). Our race consisted of hermit crabs, a bowl, water hose and a whole lot of beer (I know… pretty classy). How this event works is you place a bet on any random crab, name it and hope that its not dead when the bowl is lifted. There are three heats and the winner is awarded a t-shirt. In the end, none of us won anything but we did have this lovely picture to share with all of you…and an adopted crab which had 3 minutes of glorious hope and momentum which will echo in our lives forever...

Aussie Rules Football – AFL at its finest

This past weekend we finally were able to watch our first AFL match. It was situated in the Sydney Cricket Ground where we were fortunate enough to get some tickets from a friend of ours for FREE! One interesting note to mention is our tickets put us at the “Noble” section away from the “Commoners” that also attended. Yeeeah, what happened to the days of Section’s A-Z or perhaps lower bowl vs upper bowl?

So to give you a bit more background, the Sydney Swans (name of the team we were watching) was the team that won the championship last year (first time in history). We thought this would be a great game to watch as it was their first home game of this season.

The game started off as a great battle. The crowd got into it and the beer was flowing nicely. Half time came around and our entertainment was a bunch of 10 year olds battling it out. The second half was a bit more disappointing as the game started to get out of hand as the visiting team spoiled the season opener by dominating the Swans and ended up winning by over 20 points.

The best part of this experience definitely had to be after the game as everyone was allowed to enter the field where the players were and kick their rugby balls and run all over. Probably meant for kids but hey, we are all kids at heart right?

- the lone asian