Australia Trip - Day 7

The jellyfish is back! This post is about Day 7 out of my 8 days in Australia. :D
Please enjoy reading! Or alternatively, click on the following links to navigate!

Day 6: https://jellyunderthesea.blogspot.com/2019/11/australia-trip-day-6.html
Day 8: https://jellyunderthesea.blogspot.com/2019/11/australia-trip-day-8.html

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Day 7: Escape Day

The 2nd attraction is actually an interesting one, because that was labelled as a "PH mystery attraction" in the timetable as PH was deciding between the Sydney Tower Eye (STE) or the wax museum~ The final decision was to go to the STE, leading to us moving in the subgroup level all the way up to lunch. =P



Not before a morning walk along the quieter streets and a trip to the fish market. :D Sydney Fish Market is an area that sells the fresh catches of the day to locals on a daily basis. 

The external area where delivery trucks transport the seafood over. Each shop is situated in a short building. Anybody can visit the shops and purchase seafood of their liking. :)



Seafood in one of the shops. The shopkeepers made an effort to reduce the stench such that it was a pleasant looking experience. =P All the staff are usually busy working but will attend to you if their assistance is required. Some will even recommend some of their special catches.



The Fish Market has a dedicated area for people to have a good seafood or meal or shop for supplies. This is the "tourist-area" and things are really more expensive there, but wow the food looks really good! There are shops with displays of hot seafood (clams, prawns, fish, lobsters with cheese) and the cooling showcases of fresh sashimi and other seafood.



Omg looks so nice <3



Probably you can ask one of the staff to help you cook the items you ordered~  Ah there's also a supermarket nearby with fresh fruits and vegetables. The items indeed look really fresh, but comes at a more expensive price than the local prices. What amazed me and PH (ok la maybe not really to him) was a really expensive watermelon slice in a dessert kiosk located in front of the supermarket.



The watermelon slices look really pretty! But at $3.50 per piece ($3.33 at the offer price), nah. Didn't give it a try, but I would guess that the chocolate is really good! Watermelons are somehow really expensive not only in Australia, but also in Korea. Not sure if that is because they have to import those due to their seasonal changes, or it is considered a premium fruit.

We thought of going someone near STE to have breakfast, but simply couldn't resist some nice looking restaurant with a warm ambience and nice looking seafood items. I bought a Baramudi burger (fish) and that looks simply delicious. =P



$11.90 for the burger, 2 BIG fried fish slices, cheese, lettuce and a serving of a slightly spicy sauce. Very crispy fish batter, and it is juicy inside. Compared to the previous day's fish and chips (which WL and PH had), the fish tastes fresher and nice to bite~ The serving was so big until I gave PH half a slice of it. It is slightly thicker than the breaded fish we have in the coffeeshop western food stalls.

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After a hearty breakfast, we proceeded to the Sydney Tower Eye for the 2nd attraction. The STE entrance is located in the 5th floor of a shopping centre, and has a pre-tower walk that introduces the history of Sydney and the STE.



Visitors to the Tower were treated to a 4D experience of the high grounds of Sydney. Though it may not be as nice as the Lotte Tower's clip, it is a really nice video that featured the attractions of Sydney from mostly a cockatoo eye's view. :) Didn't take a video though~ The 4D glasses they gave a disposable strip and visitors can even keep them after the feature, damn nice. :)

The STE consists of 1 level where visitors can look at the city from a 360-degree view. Not too many visitors that day~ Light music, beautiful scenery, small gift shops and coin machines --- A pleasure viewing experience. :D







Although there is no glass floor in the STE, they have a close enough version of allowing people to climb a short flight of stairs and attach themselves against the full-height glass window. The person with a hat is standing on that small flight of steps, and wow that could be scary experience too. =P

STE offers a 30 min-tour to introduce visitors to some of the nice places in Sydney and what can be seen from the tower. We were led by a tour guide Kaitlin who was really friendly and told us about the nice places to shop / go for walks / must-see in Sydney. She also shared some interesting facts such as Sydney's early closure of the airport such that residents would not be disturbed. Wow!

The tour ended at about 11.50am, and we left the STE to meet War and WL, not before giving a feedback to Kaitlin and saying that she deserves a raise. XD I must be half-drunk at that time as I almost entered the female toilet, thankfully PH reminded me that the male toilet is at the other side. >.<



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We had lunch in a Korean restaurant as one of us was craving fried chicken (was it PH?), and that was near our accommodation facility. A slightly dark and cool place that looked like it was more suitable for drinking. Other than the usual collection of Korean stars, the shop also had quite a number of superhero figures (Marvel/DC) on the walls.






Ah, probably it's WL who wants the fried chicken as even his shirt is support the chicken campaign. =P



We had soy chicken, snow cheese chicken and some side dishes (crispy kimbap, fishcakes). Delicious! A short walk at the Paddy's haymarket after lunch, where we got some nice souvenirs and a portion of the nuts. Not bad, wonder if Garden Picks has any stock from Australia. =P



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We still had a few hours before setting off for the Escape room. While War and WL opted for a small rest in the accommodation facility, me and PH killed some time by taking a walk and visiting a quieter area. It's a rather long journey (30+ mins walk) that took us out of the crowded area and into the quieter neighbourhood.





The Korean War memorial that honoured the Australians that helped in the war. Very quiet in that area, and super peaceful. A lot of small stones on the ground. There is a short guided path for people to walk into the area and observe the carved names.

With a bit of time remaining, we proceeded to visit the University of NSW (UNSW) that was located quite near to the memorial. For those who forgot, many of us actually tried the competition when we were in school, esp. for the English / Maths / Science subjects. =P Aiya, always get a participation for English and Science, like no affinity LOL. It is a rather small but beautiful campus. More for the arts, and have a number of discussion rooms and workshop areas.






Just outside this beautiful campus lies a very cosy neighbourhood of residential houses. <3

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At 7pm, we set off to the escape room location that is located a few stops away from our accommodation facility. The town is quieter, and much colder >.< For some reason we felt the town was less safe, and it gave a vibe of LA at night~



Camped in an old bookstore until about 8.35pm, and entered "The Cipher Room".



We were told to sit in groups (there were 2 others) and wait for the game to start at 8.45pm. There was a briefing at the lobby (dimly lit) right in front of the dark corridor. Sibei mysterious feel. =P No belongings nor electronic devices were allowed into the game rooms, and thus we left our belongings in the cabinet. The host then requested everyone to self-blindfold, and follow him into the gameroom (train shoulder formation). He read the instructions, closed the door, and boom the 60 minutes begin. >.<

Shall not spoil the game content here, but it is really a series of challenges that lead up to a final question and unlocking the door. Everything started off dark, and the puzzles require visuals, logic, basic math, sensing, and of course teamwork. With 4 people, how is the workload being split?

WL - Smartest and is the leader. Lead with directions on what to do and what to find.
War and PH - Help out WL with anyway possible.
Jeff - Have no idea what he is doing and just anyhow look at stuff. XD

Ok luh I did have 2 contributions [cannot be do nothing haha].

C1: Mysterious lock
In the 1st room, the three of them were kinda lost as they had some locks but with no keys nor do know where to find new ones. So I thought that since the lock was a 000-999 lock, aiya just brute force. =P

C2: The exit
20+ mins into the game (and before C1), I was looking at the locks and for some reason managed to open the door that we entered from at the start. Everyone just looked at me and concluded that the door was the entrance, and probably shouldn't be the exit. So I just closed the door. XD

And just like all other escape rooms, the entrance door is actually the same as the exit door... At the very last part when we are left with the mystery and the exit door, no one really knew what to do (and it was 3 mins past the time limit), and in desperation I just opened the door and BOOM. The host was there!

"Congrats! You made it!"

WL / War / PH: Yay awesome!
Jeff: Wtf is going on. -_-

So alamak, we could have finished the whole thing in 20+ mins. =P



As you can see from my half-smile and half-shagness, the whole thing is still mindblowing. =P The host was nice and gave us a badge even though the timing is slightly off. We left the place at 10pm, and yup it was really a lot of fun!

WL: Do you think calculators are needed?
War / PH: Yup.
Jeff: No!

WL: Wapiang play with math major is like that. No need calculator and just anyhow break locks. =P

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11pm: Nobody was really hungry even though we didn't have a proper dinner, so we got some night snacks and went back to the accommodation facility.

"Dear foolscap paper, although the final evening dinner is usually good, this is one of the exceptions." WL judged after I said out the sentence. >.<



The carrot cake is actually a fruit cake, which tasted delicious. :D

Perhaps it was the final night, but everyone was kinda emo / quiet. And then War played this on his speaker.



Dunno why, but I felt kinda sad after hearing that. On a happier note though WL's friend said that he had spare some time to meet WL the following morning. :)

With that everyone got some rest, ending an enjoyable Day 7. :D

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If you would like to read more, please click on the links below. :)

Day 6: https://jellyunderthesea.blogspot.com/2019/11/australia-trip-day-6.html
Day 8: https://jellyunderthesea.blogspot.com/2019/11/australia-trip-day-8.html