Tour de Oz - Sydney Highlights

SYDNEY (26 ~ 29 May 2007)

We were greeted by the warmth of the sun and the cool of the wind when we arrived at the Sydney Airport. It was very lovely weather and I couldn't wait to start my 12-day tour in Australia.

Four days at Sydney. What I really like about Sydney is the beautiful harbour at its city centre. Without the pretty harbour that buzzes with life, the city will look just like any other city that I've been to.

The other greatest thing that we experienced there was the yum cha (Chinese high tea) culture. Yum cha is apparently very popular amongst the Australians, both Asians and Caucasians. My god-father's sister (god-aunt), who migrated to Australia before I was born, and whose family was our host, brought us to a fantastic restaurant for yum cha. The restaurant is owned by a Hong Konger who brought along some authentic dim sum recipes to Australia. Indeed, the dim sum was probably the best I've ever tasted. But it is unfortunate that I can't recall the name of the restaurant.. :-(

Cathy, a friend of my host family, and I at The Rocks market on a beautiful Sunday morning. She is a very jovial and easy-going gal from New Zealand who took us around Sydney's city area in our first few days there :D

We strolled down to the Sydney Harbour Bridge from The Rocks market.

Circular Quay.
This is the harbour I wish we have at Raffles Place in Singapore.

Sydney Opera House.
I went in there one evening 10 years ago with my school choir. This time, I came as a tourist, enjoying its magnificent exterior view under the bright warm sun.

I was complaining to Cathy about not seeing any Aborigines since the day I arrived and then we bumped into some at Circular Quay.

The next day, we booked ourselves a day tour to the Blue Mountains. The mini van drove us up and the first stop was at Featherdale Wildlife Park. This is a wombat - huge and round. It is quite a fierce animal, apparently.

The famous koala infamous for being lazy.
We have also been reminded repeatedly that koalas are marsupials and not bears. They are called koalas, and not koala bears. There you are, the sleeping koala...zzz.

Albino wallabies.

Penguins!
As these are quite similar to the ones we saw at Phillip Island (Melbourne) later in our tour, and we weren't allowed to take pictures at the island, I'm so glad that I took a picture of them here.

Kangaroos!

Next stop was a morning tea session midway to the Blue Mountains. The guide started demonstrating the techniques of throwing the boomerang. We all had a go and I liked how the boomerang returns to the thrower and we all began running away from it!

Hiking up the Blue Mountains.
It was winter and the air was cool. Half-way through the hike, I somehow had the illusion of my hiking at the Bukit Batok Nature Park, with air-condition...

The picturesque Blue Mountains.
Its given this name because of the release of volatile oils from the eucalyptus forests.

Very soon, night fell and it was time to head back to the city. We took a cruise back and see what I caught on my camera! The dazzling Sydney Harbour Bridge at night :-)

I had to post this picture here.
Doesn't it remind you of a famous Singaporean bread shop? :P

CommunicAsia 2007 (Part 2)

What happens after CommunicAsia was that we continued to be busy with follow-ups. Anyway, it's Sunday today so I am going to try to write something here.

I visited other booths whenever I got the chance to. It was more of browsing at new phone models and collecting freebies than anything else. It would probably do me more good to look at other cool innovations / solutions but didn't have time.

The ZTE 中兴 booth. I like the double storey concept.

The NSN booth, one of our close working partners. Business discussions and receptions are held on the 2nd storey. Our product was featured here too.

Most booths were very business-like. Some of the more interesting booths had more props like the one above. I had no idea what relationship the road and road sign had with the company's business, but it did attract visitors like me.

Sony Ericsson's booth is like a stage with changing background lights. The 2nd storey is, I suppose, for business discussions and receptions as well.

Moving on to mobile manufacturer's booths. This one above is Samsung's Ultra edition (I think). The way the phones are displayed, it's like a boutique! Tall, slim models stand around to answer your queries - definitely a plus point for the guys huh!

This is one of my favourite booths. LG's Prada. Manufacturers nowadays are teaming up with brand designers to create the phones. I first came across Prada earlier this year and was mesmerized by the sleek design. But my colleague kept reminding me that it is an iPhone copycat. Oh..whatever!!

LG's Shine. Another one of my favourite booth. Probably one of LG's latest models as they were strongly advertising it through the huge paper bags they were giving out.

... they even had models to take photos with you. I can't understand why anyone would take a picture here then queue up to collect it. Another one of those marketing tricks I guess.



Finally...(drumroll)... our booth :)



(left) Our IDA booth, (middle and right) Our A*Star booth. With my lovely colleagues.

In sum, I enjoyed the whole process of being one of the developers of our product and then being able to help introduce it to the public. Four days at the exhibition. Tiring, definitely, but truly satisfying.