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Click on each photo below for a larger image,
or
CLICK HERE
for a slideshow of all the above photos.
Manta Sydney Central,
438 Sussex Street
The above are photos of our room at the hotel on the 8th floor. Our reservation lists a check-in time of 2 PM, but since our flight arrived into Sydney Airport before 8 AM, we were already at the hotel a bit after 9 AM. They didn't have our room ready but they did have a handicapped room available. That was fine with us. The only thing different about it was that it had a shower big enough for a wheelchair, had handrails around the toilet, and had a bathroom sink lower than normal. The room was a very nice size as you can see from the above photos. I don't know if all the rooms are this size, or if this was a larger room to accommodate a wheelchair.
I was suprised to find the room had everything needed for cooking and eating in the room. Not only does it have a refrigerator, microwave and coffee pot, but it also has a toaster and a 2 burner cooktop! It even has dishes, bowls, silverware, cups, glasses and even 2 wine glasses!
The room has a very large desk as you can see above. I moved the chair from the right to the left side of the desk so my head wouldn't be blocking Barbara's view of the TV and also to have my computer closer to the electrical outlet. Fortunately I brought along a few electric outlet adapters that convert an Australia type outlet to an American style outlet. My adapters don't convert the voltagle from 240 vac to 110 vac, but everything electric that I travel with can operate on any voltage from 100 to 240 VAC and on either 50 or 60 Hz. Either that, or it charges just off a USB port. Even our waterpik just charges off a USB port!
The above is a view out our hotel room window. The Haymarket with dozens of vendor stalls is just a couple blocks walk in one direction from the hotel and Chinatown is just a couple of blocks walk in the other direction from the hotel. The city tram is also just a couple of blocks from the hotel. The city tram goes direct from the hotel to the cruise port, but we'll have to see how hard it might be with the suitcases to get to the tram. Otherwise we'll just take an Uber or a DiDi to the cruise port.
At about 5 PM local time in Sydney, Australia, we decided to go out and get some diner. We were wondering if our hotel had a back way out to get to George Street rather than going out the way we came in on Sussex Street as Chinatown, the local tram, and most of the bars and restaurants are on George Street. We were also giving some thought to just taking the tram from the hotel to the cruise port like we did on our prior cruise in Australia. The tram goes right to the cruise port. But if we had to go out the hotel's Sussex Street entrance and drag our luggage all the way around the block to get to the tram, it would not be worth it.
After we took the elevator down to the ground floor, there was a sign right in front of us pointing to the "George Street Exit." So that answered that question! As we stepped out the door to George Street, the Tram tacks were right in front of us and a Picacho was right on the other side of the Tram tracks!
We had picked Charlie Chans Bar to go to for dinner. That seemed like a totally appropriate place to eat in Chinatown, but it turned out they serve Thai food! Chinatown actually has a mix of many different Asian businesses, bars and restaurants in Sydney. Charlie Chans Bar was right next to our hotel and had good ratings for food and atmosphere. It turned out that Charlie Chan is ONLY a bar and only serves drinks. But, there was a short corridor that led to Mrs Chans Kitchen. That restaurant was set up more like a take-out with just a few tables. However, you are allowed to take your food into Charlie Chans Bar and eat it there which is what we did. We ordered a bottle of wine from the bar.
I forgot what we ordered, but you can see a photo of it above. The food was very good and was plenty for the two of us to share for dinner. We only finished about half the bottle of wine and wanted to take the rest back to our room, but that is not allowed in Sydney. The last time I encountered this restriction was at a restaurant in Massachusetts many years ago. Every restaurant on the west coast, California, Oregon and Washington State, allows you to take your unfinished bottle of wine. But in Sydney and Massachusetts, if you don't want to waste your wine and leave your unfinished bottle behind, you have to finish it in the restaurant and drive home drunk. Fortunately we didn't rent a car in Sydney.
Charlie Chan also has a "Bottle Shop." We went in there to take a look at their wine selection and also buy a bottle of water. They appear to have a good collection of wines for sale at reasonable prices. We may stop back in here tomorrow and pick up a couple of bottles of wine to bring onto our cruise.
On our way back to our hotel we stopped into a variety shop and I spotted the above unusual pack of jerkey: Emu, Kangaroo and Crocodile Jerky, YUM!
Above are photos of the trams that seem to run every 5 minutes or so. Some of these go all the way from in front of our hotel to the cruise port. Also in the photos you can see how busy it is in Chinatown on a Saturday evening. The street is filled with one after another shop, bar or restaruant.
As we returned to our hotel, we noticed that Piccacho had been replaced by a street saxophone player. In Britain and Australia, "street performers" are known as "buskers." I first learned of this term when I was in front of the Shakespear Theatre in London and saw a "No Busking" sign. I had no idea what that meant at the time. Since the theatre is open air, they didn't want the sound of street musicians to interfere with the plays.
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Australian to Amercian Translations (which I think are also pretty close to British to American Translations):
"Buskers" => "Street Performers"
"Chips" => Can mean either "Potato Chips" or "French Fries"
"Fries" => "French Fries"
"Give Way" => "Yield"
"Hot Chips" => "French Fries"
"Lift" => "Elevator"
"Take Away" => "Carry Out" (Restaurants)
"Way Out" => "Exit"
"What's On" => "Events & Specials"
(I'll add more here as I encounter them)
Also, the main floor of a building is either the "0 Floor" (i.e., Zero Floor) or "G" (Ground Floor). It is NOT "1" (The First Floor)! We discovered this the hard way many years ago when we booked a room on the First Floor so we would not have to carry our suitcases up a flight of stairs. Some hotels do not have elevators. Unfortuately, that is when we discovered that the Zero Floor is the first level and the First Floor was up a flight of stairs to the second level!
Click on each photo above for a larger image,
or
CLICK HERE
for a slideshow of all the above photos.
If in this report you see any typos, misspellings, factual errors or other types of errors, please let me know.
Please include the web address (URL) of the report in which you found the error. Thank you! Send your email to:
