Our dream visit to Australia finally came when Matt was asked to attend a conference in Adelaide, Australia. Lily and I were able to accompany him so we were super excited to go to the land down under.
The cheapest way for us to get to Australia from Hanoi was to fly to Singapore and then Singapore to Adelaide. This worked out great because we had business to do in Singapore as well, so we stayed there for a few nights before heading to Adelaide.
We departed Singapore late in the evening and arrived in the early morning of the next day in Adelaide. We took a taxi to our hotel, the Intercontinental, which was located conveniently next door to the convention center where Matt’s conference took place.
After check-in, we were starved and tired so we decided to eat breakfast at the hotel, which as you can imagine was super expensive, and the variety was not that good for such a high-end hotel that we have used for other trips. After breakfast, we decided to nap since we were tired from not sleeping red-eye flight. Once we were refreshed, Matt had to attend to some portions of the convention while Lily and I hung out in the hotel room re cooperating from the flight.
That night for dinner we ate dinner at New India Restaurant. It had the best reviews online and we were looking forward to some good Indian food, which is hard to find in Hanoi. It was also a short walk to the restaurant which was nice to feel the cool weather since it was Spring in Australia.
Adelaide Zoo
The next day, Matt didn’t have to attend the convention until later so we ventured out to find some quick breakfast at a cafe near the train station. We then took a taxi to the Adelaide Zoo right as it was opening. I have to say we’ve been to a good amount of zoos and I think this one was my favorite. It was small and not crowded. It felt like walking through a park, but still had a good amount of animals to see.
Since we were in Australia, we got to see a lot of native animals to include wombats, kangaroos, emus, echidnas, and wallabys.
They also had the typical giraffe and large cats (which were all sleeping and hiding). Lily enjoyed seeing all the animals, and in one section of the zoo, they allowed guests to interact with Winnie, a kangaroo. I was in awe that she was so friendly and gentle as I fed her some food and pet her soft fur. This was the best animal experience ever! Lily did not find it so fun and did not want to touch or feed any of the animals!
Another great thing about this zoo was it had a pretty large playground for little kids, which Lily loved! They also had a small Wiggles themed merry-go-round so Lily took a spin in the Big Red Boat.
After a quick stop at the gift shop, we tried to catch an Uber to our hotel, but we totally didn’t realize was that we were back in a first world country that requires car seats for children in private cars, so the Uber driver couldn’t take us. After living and traveling around Asia, we have become accustomed to the (lack of) standards of not using a car seat for a toddler and it didn’t even cross our minds–Oops! Instead, we took a taxi to the hotel and then walked around downtown to find a restaurant for lunch. We settled at the Jamie’s Italian restaurant, which is housed in an old bank and was decorated beautifully. At this point Lily fell asleep in her stroller so Matt and I were able to indulge in a nice Italian lunch with some yummy wine, in peace and quiet!
When we finished lunch, we returned to the hotel to let Lily finish napping and Matt went off to the convention for the rest of the afternoon. When he returned, we had dinner down near Rundle Mall. We settled for a quick bite, Guzman Y Gomez, a Mexican chain restaurant, sort of like Chipotle in the U.S. We then went back to the hotel and had a drink in the lobby bar while Lily played with her toys.
Shopping
For our last day in Adelaide, we started the day by eating breakfast at the Original Pancake Kitchen, where they served pancakes with ice cream! Then we headed back toward Rundle Mall (similar to a walking street with shops) for our Target “fix.” Now, if you are American, you know how much Targets are awesome, so I have been a little deprived. Australian Targets were the cure to my shopping happiness. It’s true, they are not the same as American Targets, but the familiarity of the shopping experience was just what I needed.
Since this target was located downtown, near the Central Business District, it was a bit on the small side, but I was able to fill a few shopping bags to bring home some goodies to Hanoi. One good thing about that shopping trip was that since summer was approaching in Australia, all their winter clothes were on sale so we were able to snag a few items for Lily and I since winter was coming (GoT anyone?) and we could wear them soon.
Once we finished shopping at Target, we made our way through the Rundle Mall area where Lily found some bronze pig statues that she played on for a good 15 minutes while we rested.
Then, at the end of the walking area, there is an Opal Mine shop we stopped in to look at jewelry. Since Opal is mined in Australia and Opal is my birthstone, we thought this would be a special souvenir for me to take home. After checking out the mine in the basement and purchasing some pretty earrings, we headed back to the hotel to relax and pack up before leaving the next morning for Canberra.
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Traveling Houses
soldierandspouse, thanks! And thanks for sharing your great posts every week!