A trip Down Under - Part II

Day 2

Setelah kegagalan semalam mencari Birkenhead Point, we wake up early determine to find the ferry to the place. So we took the train to Circular Quay. From the train platform, you can get a good view of Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House. Sibuk ambik gambar, sampai camera dah habis batery pulak. Kena bebel lagi.

We got down to the pier and found that there's only 2 Ferries going to Birkenhead Point one at 8 am which we have missed and the other at 4pm. Apakah? We're sure that the place will close around 6, if dapat pergi 1 hour aje.. mana cukup. But before that jom memposer kat depan Sydney Opera House. Aku sibuk suruh kakak aku ambik gambar aku kat ferry2 tu with the background of the bridge, tapi dia takut sebab banyak sea gulls flying around. Turn aku pulak membebel-bebel. Eh tak ni dah masuk maki hamun... ha dah sampai jauh2 nak ambik gambar pun tak nak. B*B*.. semua dah kuar. Seronok jugak cakap melayu bila maki sebab orang taj paham. Tetiba akak terstop meroyan sebab ada minah mat salleh ni pun tengah meroyan jugak. Tah kenapa gaduh yang agak hebat jugak, so kitaorang cepat2 blah dari situ.



So since batery camera dah habis, we headed back to the hotel and makan. After that, dengan semangat jitu, we thought let's forget about Birkenhead Point for a bit and try to look for the outlet at Homebush instead. Khabar angin mengatakan bahawa tempat ini dekat dengan Olympic Park. Very near. Again Tipah tertipu lagi. Here's why. The place is called Homebush. There's a stop called Homebush, there's a stop called Olympic Park. We were hoping that it's a place somewhere in between that is near distance. So first we stopped at Homebush, only to discover it's in the middle of nowhere and no one on the platform knows the place. Aik, wujud ke tak tempat ni. So we decided let's get back on the train and go to Olympic Park, which we need to change train at Licombe. Ok 3 zaman pulak nak tunggu train yang pergi Limcombe stop at that station. All the train that has been wizzing pass, are express train. Aparently only homeless people stay there so the train rarely stops. Finally we got on a train. We sat in the same carriage as this homeless guy. We were afraid of each other but just sat quietly. Nevertheless, he saw me looking at the window and keep on muttering Olympic Park. So he told us that it's at the next stop, and the platform will be on the right side. So we got to the stop, change train. Aparently the Olympic Park station was built specially for the Olympic Games in 2000. Macam Bukit Jalil la gitu.

We got out at the Park. It looks exactly like Bukit Jalil....deserted. No bus, no taxi, no one. Well no one looked friendly enough for us to ask direction. So we walked a bit in hoping to find signage to the Outlet. Bak kata aku, Haram tidak ada. We sat on a bench looking the ANZ stadium (where the games was held) silently cursing our luck. Then we notice that there's some office blocked and a Novotel nearby and some taxis waiting. aha... we went to the cab driver and ask him to take us to Homebush. He grunted and said, "This is nearby. Just 10 minutes that way", pointing to a road straight ahead.

Nak tak nak, we begin our journey. If nightmare takde Visa was bad, this was far horrible. It's bloody far ok. 10 minutes naik kuda mungkin la. Jalan kaki was like 30minutes. It's like you stopped at Bukit Jalil Station, but the place is actually Astro visitor's entrance behind McDonalds/Petronas tepi highway tu. It's like turun kat Bukit Jalil, jalan depan apartment blocks tu, lalu depan akuatic center, sampai sekolah sukan bukit jalil, keluar ke jalan besar tu.. lalu depan Astro, jalan depan lagi sampai Petronas, pastu masuk dalam sampai kat Visitor's entrance. Or if context Melaka, jauhnya macam dari MMU, jalan sampai Jaya Jusco kat luar tu!! And exactly la macam jalan2 keliling Bukit Jalil.. 6 lane, highway all the way dengan lori dengan kereta laju2 lalu. And suddenly ada la dua ekor budak ni jalan kat pavement tepi tu in the middle of the hot sun! If this is not kerja gila, i don't know what is. We only met one soul in journey and she never heard of the place either. Kakak aku dah macam paranoid.. eh betul ke ni, betul ke.. nak pergi terus ke.. nak pergi terus ke.. (that is after 2 km walk). Aku senyap aje sebab 1) nak conserve energy 2) no way in hell I'm going to walk back sebab naik bukit 3) rasa macam nak maki hamun dia semankin memuncak sebab dia yang tak research bebtul. Akhirnya setelah sekian lama berjalan, tiba-tiba dia kata, eh aku dah nampak dah.. ha kat depan tu. Yang aku pulak dah delirious sebab lama sangat dalam matahari goes like, "ha mana? mana? tak nampak pun?" Ada kat depan tu. So we picked up our pace and bagaikan pencahayaan dari syurga, aku tetiba ternampak muka Harry Kewell dari celah-celah semak and the signage DFO - Direct Factory Outlet. Halleluyah!

Apa lagi, kami pun tidak lagi menoleh kebelakang. Tiba-tiba macam ada out of body experience. My soul has floated inside that started the assault in all the shops. Shopped till we dropped sampai gelap kat luar. There's Timberland,Converse, Nine West, Ralph Lauren and tah apa lagi outlets. We bought sunglasses, shoes, t-shirts, jackets, jeans and Subway Sandwich (sebab lapar). My favorite purchase is a pair of Timberland trainers and a hoodie in a color that I like very much. Sangat cool. Akak like. Rasa macam tetiba nak jadi sangat an outdoorsy person pulak. There's this one shop selling all sorts of cool looking t-shirt with cartooon characters. Aku nyesal plak tak beli hoodie ada gambar Sponge Bob sebesar alam. Boleh pakai kat office. Senang boss nak kenal. Hahahahah. The lady at the counter told us that there's a bus stop outside which we can take bus no 545 i think and it will stop at Strathfield station. Ooooo... this station is one stop before Licombe tadi. All smiley and happy we went back and I vow to tell the world that if you want to go to the outlet (which you should...), stop at Strathfield station and take the bus to the Outlet. Ok, the bus number might be wrong (sebab dah lama, x ingat), but you can ask :) (and you don't have to walk so far) . End of day 2.

p/s: siap check diary plak, bus from Strathfield is 525 to Homebush Outlet.