This is another Chinese New Year trip to Australia, both for meeting family and for a one-day meeting at a Bible school in Brisbane. Anne would be starting her teaching duties just before this trip, so she couldn't make it. I am traveling by myself. Actually, if we had done better planning she could have come for part of the trip, but we are where we are.
Airfares were such that it would be least expensive for me to fly round-trip to Brisbane, and book an additional BNE-SYD roundtrip.
Year of the Snake display at Westfield Mall, Chatswood.
Sunday 1/26. I used Plus Points for an upgrade. The SFO-BNE upgrade cleared soon after I booked the ticket, but the EWR-SFO upgrade never cleared (I was number 22 on the list, with a couple of open seats remaining). The flight departed from Terminal A. My experience today confirmed my dislike of the Terminal. The security process took about 15 minutes with TSA precheck; versus the typical 5 minutes at Terminal C. My faith in CLEAR is so low that I didn't use it; and I don't think it would have helped.
As far as I know, United uses Terminal A only for domestic flights, so there is no Polaris lounge. When I scanned my boarding pass to access United Club, the screen suggested I could go to Terminal C to get into the Polaris lounge. The Club offers a reasonable food selection.
While not the most comfortable, my bulkhead-aisle seat provided a reasonable flight experience. The free burger wasn't heated through, but I finished it anyway. I also watched Wolfs, the premise was quite interesting, but the plot soon became predictable. The twist at the end (when they realized they had the same "handler" and were being lured to a trap) wasn't quite enough to salvage the movie, in my opinion.
The plane landed 25 minutes ahead of schedule, but it took 30 minutes to get to the gate, so we ended up being a couple of minutes late. The frustration of being so close but yet so far outweighed the pleasure of on-time arrival. Arrival at SFO Terminal G meant easy access to the Polaris lounge and the departure gate for the BNE flight. With 9 parties ahead of me, I decided not to eat at the Polaris restaurant. The food selection tonight was very limited - eventually there was a hot meat entree - and the lounge was quite crowded. Many international flights leave SFO late at night.
This was my first visit to the United Club at EWR Terminal A.
A circuitous approach to touchdown.
After arrival the plane sat still for a while. The engines were off, so I thought it needed to be towed to the gate. Eventually people began to get up. The "seat belt" signs were still lit.
All I could do for a meal at the SFO Polaris lounge. Eventually on hot dish showed up.
Dinner of short ribs.
I managed to get a few hours of sleep during the 13:30 hours flight to BNE, per my Apple Watch. The same watch told me my heart rate was higher than usual - to be expected while flying at altitude.
The EWR-SFO flight was on a 787-8, and the SFO-BNE on 777-300ER. Contrary to what I expected, the HPa APP indicated 6000 ft at cruising for both flights. To the extent the flight in the 777 was more uncomfortable, it was probably due to the duration. (And to be fair, I could put my feet up in Business Class, which helped a lot with circulation.)
Tuesday 1/28. Customs at BNE was straightforward, and the card provided by United to business class passengers allowed me to jump the queue at the end. Entry to Australia requires one to scan their passports at kiosks, I waited until just before customs control, the lines at the kiosks there were quite short. While I think waiting till the end is a good strategy, and has worked the times I flew to BNE, the arrangement at SYD may be different (HINT/TIP).
Transfer via the free bus was straightforward: I missed one, but the next one came in a couple of minutes. As Virgin Australia at best allows 14 kg of luggage in the cabin, I decided to check in my roller suitcase; it was quite straightforward. I didn't notice there was a priority bag drop line, so stood in the longer regular line. VA also offers United Gold members Premier Entry access, although today things didn't seem to move that much faster. All said and done, I had time to stop by the VA lounge for another breakfast.
It was 2 stops on the T8 line to get to Mascot, and the hotel was a short walk away. They had a room available, which was appreciated.
Even with some of these slight hiccups, my trip to Sydney was quite smooth. It still took a while: I left the house at around 3:30 pm, and arrived at the hotel at about 1:30 pm Tuesday. That would be Monday 9:30 pm in NJ. A total travel time of 30 hours.
After I settled in, I took the train to Chatswood where Ruth picked me up. We chatted for a bit, and ate an early dinner together. Afterward I headed to the Opera House to see Massenet's Cinderella (Cendrillon). It was an abridged version that lasted slightly less than two hours, so I was back in the hotel early enough for a reasonable sleep.
I remarked last time how impressed I was with their improvements to the Central Train Station. Today I found out they had recently installed a Metro line (M1), designed and operated by Hong Kong's MTR, and it was driverless. It served two cities I had never heard about before (Talliwong and Sydenham), but made commuting a lot easier for people who live along the track. I also noticed how nice the Martin Place station is. It was not busy when I was there at around 6:30 pm - perhaps the rush hour was over by then.
Breakfast Virgin Australia lounge, Brisbane Domestic Terminal.
Partnership between UA and VA gives me priority boarding (purple boarding pass) in addition to lounge access.
Meriton Mascot Central offers 1-Bedroom suites at very reasonable prices. It's less than a five minute walk from the Mascot train station.
Separate bedroom.
The Metro M1 line recently opened it's segment from Chatswood to Sydenham. It's operated by a joint venture with Hong Kong's MTR as a partner. The cars do remind one of those in the HK system, except here cloth seats (ugh) are used. I rode it multiple times from Central to Chatswood, and most of the times it was not busy, except for Friday evening.
I didn't see installed around the CBD Chinese zodiac signs common during prior years' Chinese New Years. This is Chatswood's Westfield Mall.
This is the year of the snake. Flanking the snake are two "wishing trees" when one can write on cards and hang them on the trees.
This board in the Joan Sutherland Theatre lobby displays the operas staged during the current OA season.
Curtain call Cendrillon (Cinderella). Massenet's original has been abridged, and translated into English. The set is the same we saw at the Metropolitan Opera.
Accommodations: Meriton Mascot Central (2 nights).
Wednesday 1/29. Today is Chinese New Year, although I have no plans to celebrate it. If Ruth had not called and said we could have lunch together, I would have spent it doing my usual Sydney things, such as riding on the ferries. Instead I took up Ruth's offer and went to Chatswood Zilver for lunch with her and Stephen. Their children Wilson and Susanna also showed up.
It was back to the hotel after lunch, and then I saw the second opera of the trip: Rossini's Barber of Seville. I had instant noodle before, and Burger King (Hungry Jack's) after the opera.
I had time to walk around the buildings. Obligatory shot of the Joan Sutherland Theatre.
And view of Luna Park and the Harbor bridge from the Theatre.
Curtain call, Rossini's The Barber of Seville.
Thursday 1/30. Check out at Meriton is 10 am. Ruth picked me up at the Chatswood Station and we drove to Wahroonga together. Tim was having his teeth looked at by Alfred. He joined us for lunch - although he couldn't eat as he was in between procedures - at a nearby Japanese Restaurants which offered reasonable dishes at reasonable prices.
We also bought some takeout from Chargrill Charlie's for lunch. I thought their Portuguese chicken was not as good as those from O'Porto.
I will be staying at the Ngo's for the rest of my Sydney trip. Right now the problem is no hot water, so I won't be able to shower tonight.
Accommodations: Studio Flat on Duke Street, Forestville (4 nights).
Friday 1/31. Ruth, Stephen, and I drove up to East Gosford to Tim's place. Tim, Whitney, and Chris went out on the boat. They evidently left Brisbane Water to get to the open ocean and encountered swells as high as 3 meters, in a 28' boat. It took them a while to get back, and they didn't catch any fish. They all said they didn't think they were in any danger even though the boat was swamped by waves a couple of times. I would not even try to tackle 3 ft (1 meter) waves.
The six of us went to have a late lunch at the Gosford RSL. Ruth joined the club at a cost of A$20 for five years (yes, you read that right), and her membership offered discounts on dishes from 10-20%. The food was quite good. I had a 300 gm (about 10.5 oz) "scotch fillet" (somewhat like ribeye steak) for about A$47, a nearby restaurant charges A$70.
After we got back to Forestville, it was time to eat again, this time with Susanna and Peter at a restaurant in Chatswood Exchange. The food was good, and reasonably priced.
Chatswood Exchange is right above the train station, so it was straightforward to take M1 for the Opera House, while I saw La Traviata. The Sydney Opera House is a 20-minute walk from the Martin Place station.
The storms that came through the area damaged Tim's boat and the pier he shares with his neighbor. When I took this photo, he, Chris, and Whitney were out fishing. They came back with no fish, but stories of how big the waves were in the open sea.
The renovated Gosford RSL has a large dining room.
Fish and Chips ordered by Tim.
Tonight I saw the Opera La Traviata.
Martin Place is a massive station.
After the concert I took the M1 back to Chatswood, where I caught an Uber back to Forestville. The trip took less than one hour. M1 on a Friday night was very crowded with many people standing.
Saturday 2/1. Went and have lunch at the Chatswood Chase food court with Ruth and Stephen. Alice's Makan serves rather authentic Malaysian food (well, in my opinion).
Afterwards I took public transportation to the Eastern Suburbs Memorial Garden to visit my parents' grave. On weekends the bus that goes there doesn't stop at the gate I am familiar with, so I ended up having to look for a while.
The extended family (16 people) had a New Year's dinner at Chatswood Zilver. The dinner also doubled as Stephen's birthday celebration. He will be 94 in a few days.
Stopped by Eastern Suburbs Memorial Garden, where my parents are buried.
A spiny lobster can easily weigh over 2 kg and cost over A$600.
New Year Dinner for the 16 of us. We also celebrated Stephen's upcoming birthday.
A couple of streets near the area were blocked off for the Chinese New Year Festival.
A few streets in Chatswood were blocked off for the Chinese New Year Festival. This was taken earlier in the day.
Sunday 2/2. I made my way from Duke Street to East Phoenix Restaurant in Zetland via Uber, Metro, bus, and a 10-minute walk. Meeting me for lunch were Stephen and Ruth, Wan Cheung, and Pastor and Mrs. Ding. They had just finished attending Sunday service in Matraville. After lunch the group had coffee and dessert, and chatted some more. This was my first time sitting down with the Dings.
Ruth dropped me off at Central Station, and I went on my "adventure" of taking public transportation around town. First I took the train to Circular Quay, and then the Manly Ferry to walk a bit on the beach - it was crowded today - before returning to Circular Quay. There I caught another ferry to Barangaroo (Darling Harbor). There is a Barangaroo Station on the Metro line, but it's about a 10-minute walk from the Wharf. M1 today was quite empty.
It was around 6:40 pm when I caught up with the 53 Duke Street contingent at the Hong Kong Street Food Cafe in Westfield Mall.
Very few riders today on the M1. This was from Chatswood to Central Station around noon.
Wan looked good.
I seldom see Manly Beach so crowded. In addition to people swimming and sunbathing, there were also a lot of beach volleyball going on.
The Carnival cruise ship just cleared the heads and was heading into open sea. This Manly Ferry left Manly about the same time the "regular" ferry I was on left, but pulled into CQ just a minute or so before our boat.
Tall ship with tourists.
MV Sycamore (MV for merchant vessel) is primarily used to support helicopter training, per the Australian Navy website.
It's also nice to see the Sydney skyline come to view as the ferry heads west towards CQ.
Selfie on the ferry.
Next to the Crown Hotel are two apartment buildings called Waterman's Quay.
Barangaroo.
The Barangaroo Station is another elaborate-looking station. It's quite a walk (11 minutes per Google Maps) from Wharf 1.
Group photo after dinner at Hong Kong Street Food in Westfield Mall, Chatswood.
Monday 2/3. Today was my last day in Sydney. The morning was spent doing laundry. Lunch was with those at Duke Street (except Peter) at a reasonably priced Japanese restaurant (Sushi Bar Takumi in Chatswood) where dishes cost typically A$25. Afterwards Ruth dropped me off at the Chatswood station. It took me about 45 minutes to make it through security, giving me plenty of time at the Virgin Australia lounge.
Limited selection of food at the SYD domestic Virgin Australia lounge. It was quite quiet during my 90-minute stay there, so that was good.
The plane was full, it was otherwise an uneventful flight. Alfred picked me up at the airport, we had dinner at the Jephson Hotel Restaurant (Katsuco, Japanese).
Accommodation: Jephson Hotel, Toowong (1 night).
Tuesday 2/4. Andrew P came by the hotel in the morning to have breakfast together. Even though our work doesn't have much overlap nowadays, it was good to see and old friend and catch up.
Most of the day was spent at BST for an in person meeting. What I didn't expect was how tired I felt after the meeting. In fact I went to sleep quite early this evening - for me anyway.
Wally brought me to their house. I grabbed some snacks to supplement the light dinner I had at the meeting.
Accommodations: Ling's Bellbowrie house (3 nights).
Wednesday 2/5. I will be taking easy the rest of the time in Australia. For today we drove to Chumley Warner's Traditional British Fish and Chips for lunch. It's located in Birkdale, a suburb of Brisbane. The coastline along Brisbane is mud and red mangrove. I assume they could dump sand somewhere and make a beach out of it. As it is, Gold Coast - about an hour away - is the closest "real" beach for Brisbanites.
Fried fish, fried scalloped potato, and fries at Chumley Warner's Fish and Chips.
The shoreline reminds me of the one at South Amboy. Wonder if they can create a "beach" by dumping sand somewhere.
Dinner was home-cooked meal by Ling. Alfred and Rachel joined. Rachel finished her first year at ANU, and will be returning to Canberra in a week.
Thursday 2/6. Spent most the day at Bellbowrie. Lunch was at Ling's house, much of it leftover from last night. We decided to splurge on dinner at Deer Duck with its tasting menu. Prices were reasonable as these restaurants go. It was a slow night with few customers, a nearby restaurant was also quiet.
The room we were in was dimly lit. It took us a while to get used to the lighting.
As full degustation menus go this is quite reasonably priced. Wine can (more than) double the cost of the meal. No one is a drinker.
Kangaroo Fillet. Staff would describe each of the dish, and it took less time than the narration to actually finish it.
Duck breast.
This photo was taken at 8:40 pm. Our reservation was for 6:30 pm. And the intervals between dishes were not long.
Friday 2/7. Today is a travel day. While there were a few hiccups along the way, the trip was mostly pleasant.
This time of the year sees light Australia to USA traffic. For my BNE-SFO flight, neither business nor premium economy sections were filled - that meant all upgrade requests were cleared, including mine.
Australia customs is quite streamlined nowadays. Today, however, I had to get my passport rescanned (the officer who did it couldn't tell me why), so the exit process took all of 15 minutes. I stopped by the Air New Zealand lounge. (TIP/HINT: Premium Plaza was available through Priority Pass, should always check before deciding on a lounge.)
Overall, I was very happy with the flight, even though the meal (which I preselected) was close to un-eatable (or is it "inedible"). When I mentioned that to the flight attendant, she apologized and - without any prompting from me - requested that I be compensated by United. The mileage credit came through during the flight! The staff was proactively trying to make sure customers were taken care of, as opposed to being responsive to customers' requests.
The trip took about 11:30 hours due to favorable winds (SFO-BNE, on the other hand, would take about 13:30 hours). While the plane landed at around 5:30 am (way ahead of schedule), passengers didn't deplane until customs opened at 6 am. Today MPC worked like a charm, I was through in less than 10 minutes.
My SFO-EWR flight was to take off at 8:55 am, conveniently from Terminal G (where BNE flight landed). That would mean a couple of hours wait, probably at a United Club or Polaris Lounge. An earlier flight was to take off at Terminal F at 7:15 am. When I checked during UA97 and soon after landing, a couple of aisle seats were left. I decided to rush to Gate F22 to try my luck. The clubs don't open until 7 am, so I figured I can comfortably get there, and back to Terminal G if I decided not to go for UA1900.
By the time I talked to the gate agent, only seat "acceptable" to me was 44E (middle, bulk head). She couldn't confirm the seat until she started to clear standby passengers (in about 10 minutes), so I said "never mind." Long story short, she didn't get my request and I was cleared for that seat (I suspect she took my request into account). Luckily I was still in the area, and after a moment hesitation, I took the change, and boarded. Boarding was mostly done by that time, so I was somewhat surprised that I could find overhead space for both my carryon and backpack (being in bulkhead seat I had to stow my backpack for takeoff). (LESSON/HINT/TIP: be more proactive/decisive in making these changes. To give myself an excuse, I couldn't do this during the BNE-SFO flight.)
A rather sorry looking breakfast I assembled together at the Air New Zealand lounge. I could have used Plaza Premium because of Priority Pass.
The Air NZ lounge was empty.
I flew out of BNE International last year. It was a night flight, and I didn't notice how pleasant the airport felt.
Soon after takoff from BNE, looking South. The islands in the front are Moreton and Crab. The one further away is Stradbroke. I pieced the information together from UA97's flight path (via FlightRadar) and Google Maps. The town at the southern tip of Moreton is Kooringal.
The main course for my lunch aboard UA97 was inedible. The flight attendant went and got me 7500 miles as compensation.
One could order a warm snack. This was shrimp over fried rice.
Breakfast was fine.
Wide open premium economy and economy.
After I was settled in the seat, I found out a few aisles seats opened up (probably because of no-show?), and moved to an aisle seat after the seat belt signs were off. Even though it was a regular economy seat, with an empty seat between me and the window passenger, the flight was quite comfortable. At 4:05 hours it was a short flight; I noticed tailwinds as high as 137 mph displayed on the monitor.
When I was at Gate F22 trying to get a seat on UA1900, there were no aisle seats available. Wonder what happened as there were several empty aisle seats when the plane took off. In any case, I moved to one of the "regular economy" aisle seats.
Runway 11/29 at EWR is used for commuter flights. At 6726 feet it is barely long enough for widebody planes. (Depends on the headwind, of course.) UA1900, a 787, landed on Runway 29 today.
UA1900 flight data from Flightaware. The fastest ground speed recorded was 712 mph. While the speed of sound is 761 mph at sea level, it is 660 at 40,000 feet. If the plane was at cruising speed (560 mph), that would mean the tail wind was over 150 mph! A web search returns tailwind speeds as high as 250 mph.
Both UA97 and UA1900 were day flights, so I didn't catch any sleep at all. Anne came by to pick me up.
