I had heard a lot about people going on vacation all by themselves. The idea of it though never really excited me. What’s a vacation if you have no one to share it with? But then one day, due to sheer determination (and largely lack of company), it happened to me – my maiden solo trip to Australia.
I have always wanted to visit Australia – especially after I realised how hard it was to get my Kiwi classmates to shut up about Sydney. Moreover, for a die-hard cricket fan, which is more or less every Indian, Australia is like heaven.
Fair warning: for an international student, studying on loan in New Zealand, taking a trip to Australia can be a daunting task, for pecuniary reasons of course. After a month of long, hard persuasion and some amount of browbeating (practised on every friend I knew), I finally threw up my hands and announced, “Fine, I’ll go on my own.” Fortunately, I got dirt cheap tickets and off I went to the land of the kangaroos.
Three and a half hours after boarding the Air New Zealand flight, I was in Sydney.
Cheap Accommodation and a Beach View
First things first – if you are on a budget trip, leave out lodging in a fancy hotel and check out Noah’s Backpackers on Bondi Beach. It’s barely a 25-minute drive from the airport and about 30 minutes from Sydney Harbour. A single room will cost you not more than 70 Australian dollars (Rs 3,200 per night approximately) and you get your own beach view room too.
Also, most of the guests at this backpacker outfit are student travellers, so if you are travelling solo, this is a good place to meet new people and tag along with them. Much like Kangana Ranaut’s solo ‘honeymoon’ trip to Amsterdam, where she met those three guys, I befriended three pretty interesting people too – an Aussie guy, a Latvian girl and a Samoan girl, and yes all four of us were travelling solo.
Cruising Across Sydney
After the customary getting-to-know-each-other bit had played out, the four of us, freshly minted friends, hit the streets of Sydney together. We looked like we’d walked out of a Benetton ad.
We first headed to the Sydney Tower – an obvious choice – the highest point in town measuring in at 250 m high. I was expecting Sydney to be bigger, but I was surprised to find that I could see all the interesting landmarks from the harbour bridge north to the Opera House.
We took the one-day harbour cruise from the docks near the Contemporary Art Museum and cruised through Sydney Harbour Bridge, Opera House, and the fish market among other sights. If you’re a romantic, you will have gasped at some point at the sight of the Sydney skyline in many a sappy romcom. The real sight doesn’t disappoint.
Wildlife World and the Best Thin Crust Pizza
Having had our fill of inanimate sceneries, we were now set to look at some unique species of Australian animals and birds. So, the next day we headed to Sydney Wildlife World located near the Darling harbour.
Visitors are not allowed near the animals – but here’s where years of muscling through Delhi metros and DTC buses pays off, ladies and gentlemen. The shameless brazenness meant I was as close to the baby kangaroos and koala bears as one could get, and slipped out like a Houdini before I could be evicted on foreign land.
Right next to the Wildlife World is a restaurant called Hugo’s, famous for its pizza. It was certainly one of the best thin crust pizzas I had ever had.
Biking and Pub Crawling
Admiration of the Sydney countryside and copious amounts of beer dominated the third day of my ‘solo’ trip.
We biked all the way from Sydney National Park to Manly Beach, passing hills and other sights on the way. Manly Beach offers some spectacular views for whale watching and we were lucky enough to spot a pod of them, breaching off the coast.
Later, we also went pub crawling at The Rocks which has some excellent bars with self-brewed beers.
Seafood Hogging
If you are like me and have an active inclination for seafood, you must visit George Street. There is an array of restauarants here that serve fresh-out-of-water seafood, and Waterfront restaurant easily leads the pack.
Musings of a Solo Traveller
Here’s what I learnt from my first solo trip. You are answerable to no one. No one drags you places and you don’t feel like you’re dragging people places either. There’s also the opportunity of making some wonderfully unexpected friends (wonderful because unexpected). The sheer sense of independence and newfound comradeship can make your solo trip one of the best ideas you ever had.
I know mine was.
(Shibaji Roychoudhury was named after someone who wanted to conquer and inspire. Unfortunately, he is far too ambitious for that. Based out of Delhi, he has travelled across the globe and has some pretty funny tales to tell. Watch out for his next one.)
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