We left Bali a little late, but we arrived in Sydney only a little late after our five our flight. Emerson slept through the entire flight (and well before too). In contrast, Libby and I had relatively little sleep. It seemed to take surprisingly long to get through immigration, baggage claim, and customs, which meant we left the airport around 9am.

We took a taxi into the city (about $50AUD). Fortunately, we were able to immediately check into our hotel, the Radisson Blu Plaza, which is located in the Central Business District. This enabled us to take a brief nap before heading out for lunch and to explore the immediate surroundings.

We walked down to the Circular Quay on Sydney Harbour to see the famous Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House, which are clearly the city’s most iconic structures. We then returned to the city center ad walked around for a few hours just getting a “feel” of the city. Our first impression: aside from the aforementioned structural icons, I can’t say that the city has a very distinctive vibe. It mostly just feels like a large city in the English-speaking world… neither especially foreign nor unique.

Sydney Harbour Bridge

Emerson and the Sydney Opera House

We had dinner at a take-out Mexican place – sort of Australia’s answer to Chipotle. But, it was even better: very fresh with spot on flavors. Mexican is the ideal cuisine for Emerson, as she’s most willing to eat a balanced meal there with lots veggies. I also learned another important lesson: Sydney is a surprisingly expensive city! I spent almost $40 on a meal that would have cost less than $20 at home. I mean it’s not Scandinavia, but it’s up there with London and New York. It’s also especially startling given the low-cost of even 5-star resort living in SE Asia.

Today, Libby and I reached all seven continents. That’s a major travel goal achieved. But, we’re not done yet!

Today’s box score: +1 country, +1 continent (Australia)

Sightseeing? No. Too long of a drive from Nusa Dua.

Swimming at the pool or beach? Nope. The doctor banned Libby and Emerson from water-related activities for a couple of weeks.

We spent the day doing basically nothing. And, it was surprisingly blissful. Emerson played happily with her dinosaurs in our hotel room, and Libby and I got caught up on work. Plus, I could leisurely get us repacked and organized for our return to a cooler climate (as Sydney should be in the upper 40s to upper 60s this week). That was a real bonus as I’ve been previously prepping us during the darkness of night for our early morning flights.

We checked out of the hotel around 2pm today. The bill was $800 for our pool-side room, airport transfers, a number of meals, full day private tour, and the aforementioned doctor’s bill. And this is the peak tourist season! Bali is a great value…

After checkout, we returned to the Bali Collection and wasted some time. Libby had a “fish foot spa” that she really enjoyed. Basically, you stick your feet in a fish tank, and the fish give you a pedicure. We’ve seen it malls all over the world… Stockholm, Dubai, etc. She says she’d do it again.

We then returned to the beach and explored the temples and statues on the point:

After this, we returned to our hotel, had dinner, said goodbye to Adi (the friendly waiter), collected our bags, changed into our travel clothes, and left for the airport. We had the same driver as yesterday. Check-in was painless. We had to pay 450,000IRP as a departure tax (about $15/pp USD) to leave the country. This was on top of our $25/pp entry visas. This is still better than some countries like Argentina and China.

If all goes well, my next update will be from Australia. It’s the final country of this trip (#84 overall) and completes our visits to all seven continentson Earth. Very cool!

The distance we’ve traveled so far seems to play with put sense of time. It seems like we left Tampa ages ago. London too seems in the distant past ( though it’s really been only a little more than a week since we landed in Asia). It will be fascinating to see what effect another long, overnight flight has on our perception of time/space.

We arrived in Singapore (where “cleanliness is next to godliness”) a little late, just after 1pm. It was nearing 3 o’clock by the time we’d cleared immigration, grabbed our bags, passed through customs, found a taxi, and drove to the hotel. We’re staying at the Marriott Singapore on Orchard Rd. It’s a nice hotel with impeccable service in a great location.

After our arrival, we explored the Orchard Road area (a lot of high end hotels and retail) and had Chinese dim sum for dinner (which was very good but the dishes we selected didn’t wow us like those in Macau). Well, correction, Libby and I had Chinese. Emerson thought it was a good idea, but she found it too authentic for her… so, she ended up eating a favorite of American kids traveling abroad: McDonalds.

Actually, the visit to the Mickey D’s had a silver lining to it. As it happens, they offer a “Durian McFlurry.” That’s right. Ronald and his boys cooked up an ice cream dish made from a fruit that airlines ban. This could elicit only one three-word response: Must. Try. Now. The verdict? It smelled and tasted (at least in McFlurry form) rather a bit like the amoxicillin from our childhood (you know: the sort of faux-bubblegum, slightly bitter, chalky one).

We retired early tonight (aside from me, your intrepid travel writer). As an update from yesterday: Libby’s basically back to normal. Aside from a bit of a runny nose, Emerson is her usual self too. And, thus far, I’ve managed to ward off the cold.

Tomorrow—I think—we’re going to try taking ferry to Batam in Indonesia. Why? Because it counts as a separate country (per TCC rules) from other parts of Indonesia and it’s only 45 minutes away by boat.

Today’s box score: +1 country (Singapore)