Vivid Sydney is over, and it won’t be on again til the next year. This may be delayed, but as promised, here’s the next instalment of photos for Vivid Sydney 2010. I will be making this post brief, so you can enjoy more of the photos from this colourful festival of lights. Make sure you try and catch next year’s Vivid Sydney event and book your next holiday to Sydney with the world’s largest travel booking website

Sydney Opera House

While the Sydney Opera House is one of Sydney’s most recognizable icons, there is more to Sydney than this distinctive landmark. Explore the beautiful harbour city of Sydney, and it will definitely leave you wanting to stay.

Have a Fabulous Journey ahead!

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Vivid Sydney – The Sydney Opera House Comes To New Light

It’s one of the annual events in Sydney, and it draws attention to its star attraction. The Sydney Opera House comes alive with vibrant colours and funky motifs as the Vivid Sydney festival begins. This year, they have more unique

motifs projected onto the sails of the Sydney Opera House, with great animation and light displays. The Vivid Sydney festival is a celebration of light, music and artwork, but has been more focused on the light projections and displays that it puts out on the numerous historical and iconic buildings around Sydney CBD.

In continuation to my post on Staycation, I decided to write something about my current home city, Sydney, particularly this very colourful and inspiring festival of light displays. I’m a keen photographer as well, and one of the

things I love to do is play around with my SLR camera and have fun creating shots using different techniques. Hence, I’m putting out this post to show you what I’ve taken with my SLR camera for Vivid Sydney 2010:

Up Close – Sydney Opera House

Opera House in Purple

Blur in colour - Vivid Sydney

Flower Power - flowers on the sails

Playing with light - my rendition of Vivid Sydney on image

Funky lights at the Sydney Opera House - Vivid Sydney 2010

Sydney Opera House Lights from a distance

More photos to come on Part 2 of Vivid Sydney 2010. I hope you enjoyed my work through the lens.

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2010 Is Here!

Happy New Year to all readers of my blog! A new decade begins in the 21st Century! 2010 will be an exciting year for me. I have more travels planned, and I get really excited thinking about where I will be going this year! But before I get carried away with talking about my travel plans for 2010, I’d like to share with you some of the photos I took of the Sydney New Year’s Eve fireworks.

This is my third consecutive year of watching the fireworks by the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and it never ceases to amaze me how beautiful the fireworks display here is during New Year’s Eve! Each year is a different theme. Last year, it was more aboriginal themed, and this year, it is more of “awakening the spirit”. I suppose this has a lot to do with the recent financial crisis which has affected the overall mood of people, especially those who have invested in the markets.

The photos I focused on was mainly the 9PM fireworks, as I had a great view of the harbour from a friend’s balcony in Milsons Point. Check out some of the images of the Sydney NYE fireworks for 2009 below:

Sydney NYE 2009 Fireworks - First shots

Sydney NYE 2009 Fireworks - more 9PM fireworks at the harbour

Sydney NYE 2009 Fireworks - Up close

Sydney NYE 2009 Fireworks - sparkles

Sydney NYE 2009 Fireworks - more 9PM fireworks

Sydney NYE 2009 Fireworks - about to finish

Sydney NYE 2009 Fireworks - to the finale of the 9PM fireworks

Sydney NYE 2009 Fireworks - the smoke after the 9PM fireworks

Happy New Year! - the Harbour Bridge comes alive

More midnight fireworks from the Sydney Harbour Bridge

Sydney Harbour Bridge is lit up!

More snippets of the Sydney NYE firework 2009

Sydney is definitely in one of the top 10 locations in the world for New Year’s Eve. The amazing fireworks by the beautiful and picturesque harbour and the numerous parties happening all over the city makes it just a cut above the rest. Even if I have spent my third year watching the fireworks in Sydney, I never grew tired of it, as it is just simply superb.

Come and see the fireworks spectacle here in the New Year in Sydney!

The Grand Pacific Drive

Many people are familiar with the Great Ocean Road along Victoria’s southern coast. It’s a fantastic stretch of road that offers dramatic scenery and has a great history around the construction of the road. One thing not many people or tourists are familiar about is the Grand Pacific Drive along the eastern shores of New South Wales. This stretch of road starts from the Royal National Park just south of Sydney and goes through small villages and towns including Wollongong, Shellharbour, Kiama, and finishes in the inland town of Nowra. The Grand Pacific Drive doesn’t have the rock formations like the Twelve Apostles of the Great Ocean Road, but having a bridge built on the side of a cliff face and passing through some gorgeous beaches is a great sight to behold.

Reason # 1: Catch The Sunrise

Watching the sunrise is one of nature’s best light displays, along with a sunset. However, I’m not an early riser, and I always find it difficult to catch the sunrise, and only do I occasionally wake up to see it. Since moving to Australia 2 years ago, I’ve never seen the sunrise, and I thought it would be awesome to coincide it with a road trip to the southern parts of New South Wales. I managed to convince 2 of my friends to come with me and drive down from Sydney to Wollongong for the day along the Grand Pacific Drive and check out the sights along the way. Catching the sunrise at Stanwell Park and Coalcliff was one of the highlights of the trip, and seriously, one of the most underrated (or unmentioned) activities along this coastline. Catching the sunrise is not a tourist activity along this coastline, and only locals know of this. Before any tour groups start descending along this stretch of magnificent road, go and witness it yourself really soon!

Reason #2: No Tour Groups Around

There are so many organised tours to the Great Ocean Road, and while this is great for those who don’t have cars or only have a short time to get around, having busloads of people fighting for the view can be annoying. The great thing with the Grand Pacific Drive is that it is not as far from Sydney as the Great Ocean Road is from Melbourne, and the drive is not that long. It generally only takes over 2 hours and you will be able to cover the entire distance. If you take some time to enjoy each spot, it might take a little bit longer. However, it is definitely more manageable on a day trip than the Great Ocean Road.

Reason #3: Great Beaches and Views

The view along the Grand Pacific Drive is awesome! It’s either totally underrated, or underpromoted by the general public. It may not offer such dramatic scenery, but the numerous beaches and the sea views from Stanwell Tops are great! The city of Wollongong and the township of Kiama are also great attractions on this stretch of road. Wollongong has a nice beach and harbour, and an old lighthouse that adds to the character of the harbour. In the city itself is the largest buddhist temple in the southern hemisphere, the Nan Tien temple. It’s architecture is distinctly Chinese, and it was built by the members of the Chinese Fo Guang Shan community who have migrated to Australia. Which leads me to the next reason..

Reason #4: Interesting attractions in the area

Sunset at Kiama Lighthouse - Grand Pacific Drive

Before reaching Wollongong, I had the impression that there is totally nothing interesting to see in the town itself apart from the usual shops on the main town centre. I thought it was just another industrial town, with totally nothing to offer. Was I completely wrong! The harbour and beach is an attraction on its own, and the lighthouse adds character to the place as well. If you drive all the way down to the town of Kiama, you can find some blowholes along its coast. It’s a natural phenomenon wherein holes are formed from the erosion of rocks on the coastline. If you do a slight detour from the Grand Pacific Drive, you can check out the Illawarra Fly Tree Top Walk, which is about a 30-minute drive from Kiama. It offers a spectacular view of the Illawarra coastline, and the structure itself is quite a unique in its design. Its edges are suspended from the cantilever, making it bouncy and quite challenging to those afraid of heights.

Reason #5 : Relaxing, Laid Back Atmosphere

The Grand Pacific Drive is only 45 minutes away from the CBD, and yet, the pace of life is totally different from the buzz of the big city. If you are ever tired of being always on the go, squeezing in with other people and the long queues, this place can soothe those angst and worry aside. The towns along the Grand Pacific Drive are quite small, and people are just totally laid-back. The beautiful beaches along the way would have been a highlight of the trip, and something that you can look forward to, if you’re never been down the Grand Pacific Drive.

Enjoy a drive down the Grand Pacific Drive, from sunrise til sunset on a nice clear sunny day, and you won’t regret it!

Have a Fabulous Journey ahead!

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The Run With A View

Sydney Harbor - after the bridge run

On 20th September 2009, I was fortunate enough to have participated in possibly one of the best running events in the world in terms of scenery of the course. I participated in the Sydney Bridge Run, which started from the suburb of Milsons Point, and then crossed over the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and finishing at the Sydney Opera House. The run covers two of Sydney’s most popular landmarks, the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House. It’s an amazing experience, to be able to run across the middle of the Sydney Harbour Bridge (possibly the only time people are allowed in the middle of the bridge itself).

I did this run for 2 reasons: one was to raise money for charity, and two, to help a friend achieve a weight loss objective by training for an event like this.

Running For A Cause

The charity I supported was the Diabetes Australia. I decided to raise money for this charity because my dad had suffered from Type 2 diabetes which caused a number of his internal organs to fail over the course of 11 years. He passed away 6 years ago, and I felt that I wanted to help raise awareness of how terrible this disease is, and how it can really kill you if you’re not careful with your health and your diet. Diabetes Australia is involved in doing research and education about diabetes, how to prevent it and how to best control it. Diabetes is one of those illnesses that once contracted, will never be healed, but can only be controlled before it starts destroying the other organs of your body. If you want to donate for this cause, it would be very much appreciated. The website is on this link.

I decided to do this run only 3 weeks before the actual event itself. I was not entirely well prepared to do this, but I have a friend at work who has been wanting to lose weight, and I wanted to help him achieve his goal. Having an event to do is something he can look forward to with his workout training/exercise, and that can help him push himself with his exercise. The run was only 9km, but at the start of the training, I was only fit to run 2km. It wasn’t an easy task to push myself to get up to the fitness level to run 9km in a matter of 3 weeks! I had no expectations of how long it will take me, but I just did as much training as I can in the limited amount of time.

Admittedly though, I’ve been into running for the past 7 years, but over the last 8 months, I have been very inconsistent about my training, and I’ve not done any running events since a year ago. It can be hard work trying to get back into the swing of things, and you really notice the difference in your fitness level. I love running, and if I can afford it, I would love to take part in the numerous running events all over the world! It seems that there is a growing trend that a lot of cities around the world are hosting their own city marathon event. London has one, New York and Boston have one, and even Queenstown in New Zealand has one!

State Of Mind

I’ve been a believer that the mind is a very powerful tool that can enable you to do anything you want from it. I really believe that as long as I focus on the task at hand, visualise my outcome that I’ve achieved it, that it will happen for me. Thus, when I started training, I had in my mind the time that I wanted to finish at. I kept on thinking about, and well, true enough, I crossed the finishline at the time that I had wanted (to the exact second!). I literally had goosebumps on the back of my neck when I saw the time on my stopwatch, as it was really what I wanted to finish at!

Photos from my run are below:

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Have a Fabulous Journey ahead!

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Welcome to another edition of Fabulous Journeys!

I just got back from admiring the awesome light displays at the Vivid Sydney event on the Sydney Opera House that it inspired me to write this post. At the Vivid Sydney exhibition, the Sydney Opera House was lit up with various artistic designs and motifs and turned the Sydney Opera House into something like an artist’s canvas. The projections are all so amazing, and it is changed every 10 minutes roughly. This event happens once a year, and would be only one of the very few occassions that the Sydney Opera House would show some different moods to the general public.

I’m very lucky to be living amongst one of the most iconic landmarks in the world, and a lot of people all over the world come to visit Sydney to see the Sydney Opera House. The Sydney Opera House has become one of the symbols of Australia. It’s not what you would expect an opera house would look like, and yet its design has become a marvel of the abstract art and architecture world. So much so, that in 2007, the Sydney Opera House was nominated as one of the finalists for the New 7 Wonders of the Modern World!

I’d like to share with you some of the photos I’ve taken of the Sydney Opera House over the years, both from a normal day and night, and also from the recent Vivid Sydney event. Note that these photos are my original photos, and none of these have been edited using any photo-editing software or tools. Totally 100% Pure, Unadulterated Sydney Opera House!

Sydney Opera House - By Day

Sydney Opera House - At Dusk

Sydney Opera House - Vivid Sydney Projections 1

Sydney Opera House - Vivid Sydney Projections 2

Sydney Opera House - Vivid Sydney Projections Green

Sydney Opera House - Vivid Sydney Projections Brown

Sydney Opera House - Vivid Sydney Projections CloseUp

Sydney Opera House - Vivid Sydney Projections Lava-like

If you are inspired by these photos to see the Sydney Opera House for yourself, you can hop on the next plane and visit Sydney. I’d recommend checking Zuji for the best deals to get into Sydney and the rest of Australia.

I hope you enjoy this photo blog post!

Til the next Fabulous Journeys!

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Welcoming 2009

2009 has finally come! But before it happened, I went to queue up to see the New Year’s Eve fireworks by the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The New Year’s Eve fireworks in Sydney are known to be one of the most spectacular in the world. People from different corners of the globe come and flock to see the magic that Sydney puts on for the New Year’s Eve celebration. Hotels have been fully booked a year in advance (in many cases) and cruises have also put up their prices due to exceptional demand.

Each year, the New Year’s Eve fireworks are said to be better than ever, and the City of Sydney definitely delivers each time. I watched the fireworks display the previous year, and I can say that this year is much more spectacular. In saying that, I managed to get a better spot this time than I did the previous year.

The Queues for the views

I was indeed very lucky to have found that spot, because my friends and I actually didn’t queue up that early. We started queuing up for Mrs. Macquarie’s Point at 3PM. Other people apparently started arriving at 8AM, and some even spent the previous night there! By that time we got to the Mrs. Macquarie’s Point queue, the area was already half-full, and the queue was extra long, that we’d have to wait for 2 hours to get inside the area. Another friend of ours were sitting in the Tarpeian precinct, which is just behind the Opera House by the gardens. My group of friends decided to try out that area, and when we got there, the area was already closed! We have to think hard, and the next best thing was to cross the Harbour Bridge and try out the Kirribilli side. It was a very fortunate decision, and all those long queues and closed areas were a blessing in disguise for us. We couldn’t have picked a better spot, as we were very close to the bridge, and we had a great view of the Harbour, the Opera House itself! It’s like having front row seats already!

The Shots

Check out some of the photos I took with my DSLR. I bought a tripod especially for this occasion, and I’m so glad I did:

9PM fireworks with a view of the Sydney Opera House

After the 9PM fireworks

Countdown

HAPPY NEW YEAR! – 1st blast off the bridge

And the magic continues…

More fantastic fireworks

And more..

Waterfall effect

After the fireworks finished… A wonderful light beaming from the bridge!

I hope you enjoyed looking at these photos… Til the next adventure!