In the morning, Glenn took Valerie and me on a nice scenic drive along Lake Burragorang culminating in a visit to Warragamba Dam. Glenn says that visitors used to be able to walk along the top of the dam (similar to Hoover Dam in the US), but after 9/11, new security measures disallowed it. Tomorrow, there is some sort of dam celebration during which people can once again walk on the dam, but we’ll be busy visiting the Blue Mountains.

The highlight of the day was the Fernandez family gathering. I finally got a chance to meet so many of my relatives living in Australia including several of my grandmother’s siblings, their children, and their families. We ate a feast of Indian food while discussing the family, Australia, and current events. It was great to meet and talk to everyone who came and hopefully some of them will come to visit us in the Bay Area in the future.

Our second day in Sydney, we didn’t know what to do, so we fired up TripAdvisor to look up some of the recommended attractions. Our first stop was a Thai restaurant in Woolloomooloo for lunch. Afterward, we took a long stroll through the Royal Botanic Gardens and adjacent parks toward Circular Quay. We were surprised to find many small exercise groups working out in the park. (I’ve seen groups of people exercising in parks in America, but never in quite such a high concentration.)

Eventually, we headed back to the hotel from which my uncle Glenn kindly offered to pick us up and drive us to his home. (Technically, I think Glenn is my first cousin, once removed, but I’m not an expert on such things.) He took us on a scenic drive through the city and across the Harbour Bridge. I didn’t realize how long the drive to the suburbs would take in traffic and, in retrospect, Valerie and I probably should have taken a train out of the city to avoid adding so many hours onto Glenn’s drive home from work. For the next few days, we will be staying with Glenn and his wife Fiona. Tomorrow, they will be hosting a grand get-together of the New South Wales based family members.

For dinner, we met Bluebell and Callum at a local Italian restaurant since they will be unable to make tomorrow’s gathering. It was great to see them and to share stories.

Today, we flew from Melbourne to Sydney. Compared to Male Airport, Melbourne Airport is a well-oiled machine. The queue for the Qantas counter was short and there were plenty of self check-in kiosks and automated bag check stations available to service passengers.

After arriving at Sydney, we took a taxi to our hotel in Kings Cross and dropped off our bags. After a quick break, we took a train to Circular Quay to view the famous opera house, our first tourist sight. Next, we boarded the ferry to Manly to meet my second cousin Chris. The ferry ride offered great views of the harbor. We arrived in Manly about 2 hours before Chris, so we strolled down the coastal footpath and admired the scenery. Chris picked us up and drove us to a restaurant serving “the best ramen in Sydney”. Afterward, he dropped us off at a gelato shop serving “the best ice cream in Sydney” (which is also the #1 rated restaurant in Sydney) near our hotel.

Later on, we learned that Kings Cross is known for being a red-light district in Sydney. Interspersed with the trendy restaurants were strip joints and soup kitchens. However, on the whole, the area seemed fine and not at all dangerous.

Last night, we went out looking for dinner after the bus returned around 11pm. Unfortunately, most restaurants were closed (either because it was Monday or because it was late). Luckily, we stumbled upon a Pie Face that was open until at least midnight, so we stuffed our faces with meat pies and fruit pies.

We woke up this morning around 11am and went back to yesterday’s schnitzel place for breakfast. Our plan for the day was to take the free City Circle tourist tram around the city and see the sights. After taking the tram around half the city, we got off near Flinders Street Station and walked to the trendy Federation Square. We continued in that direction for a while toward the Memorial Shrine, stopping to take a picture with a statue of Sir “Weary” Dunlop. By the time we made it to the Botanic Garden, the visitors’ centre was closed, so we just wandered around the gardens for about an hour before heading back to the Central Business District (CBD). Unfortunately, the free tram stopped running at 6pm, so we walked up the hill to find some dinner and return to our hotel.

Due to time zone changes and a short layover, we spent most of Tuesday in transit. We flew with Malaysian Airlines from Male to Kuala Lumpur and then from KL to Melbourne. Valerie was a little worried about flying with Malaysian, but the flight was uneventful and the food and service were better than our previous flights.

When we arrived in Melbourne around 10pm, we took the SkyBus to our hotel and then went to sleep. The front desk informed us that an international conference of Jehovah’s Witnesses is being held in Melbourne just as we are leaving. (We have a habit of traveling to places without knowing about major events that are happening in the city at that moment [e.g. London paralympics, Berlin marathon]).

Having not slept much on Tuesday, we woke up around 1pm on Wednesday. We quickly picked up some schnitzel and boarded a tour bus to see the parade of the little penguins on Phillip Island. Valerie really liked watching the little penguins waddle up from the beach to their burrows. We were even lucky enough to see some squabbles between penguins and other penguin mating rituals.

Our hotel transfer back to the airport was at 2pm and our flight wasn’t until 11pm, so we used the extra time to explore the capital city of the Maldives, Male. The city is easily accessible via a $1 ferry ride across the channel that separates the airport island from the city. We walked through the island for a while, checking out its limited tourist sights including the presidential residence and jetty and the tallest flagpole in the Maldives (which isn’t particularly tall). Unfortunately, the national museum closed before we arrived, which was disappointing since it is supposedly air conditioned. After about a half an hour avoiding the cars, taxis, and motorbikes that crowd the small streets, we ate dinner at a nice Thai restaurant near the center of the island (about a 10 minute walk from any other point on the island) before heading back to the airport.

The island that we are staying on is tiny. It takes about 5 minutes to walk from one end to the other. There’s not much to do here except swim, snorkel, dive, and sunbathe. On the first night, we walked around the island and oriented ourselves. We took a quick dip in the pool to practice swimming again.

Valerie had initially considered scuba diving around the island, but she’s been a bit stuffy lately and thinks she would have too much trouble equalizing to successfully dive. (She may have caught whatever I picked up on the last day of the cruise.) For the last few days, we have been snorkeling in the house reef around the island. The island is encircled by a breakwater-type concrete wall with 6 entry/exit points for snorkelers and divers. Within the wall, the water is very warm and shallow and there isn’t much to see as much of the coral is covered by sand and the fish don’t seem to like sandy coral. Just outside the wall there are between 5 and 30 meters of relatively shallow reef before a steep cliff-like drop-off to the deeper reef below. This shallow reef is where all the fish seem to hang out. We’ve seen a whole bunch of colorful fish as well as sharks and rays. I think Valerie has been very happy with the snorkeling on this island.

We have snorkeled out of all 6 of the marked exit points. The exits on the windward side of the island lead to big fish (about half human sized) and rays, but the water is choppy which makes it hard to snorkel. The water on the leeward side is less choppy and has a large reef full of smaller fish, but the exit is very shallow during low tide which can make it difficult to access. The exit near the dive shop in the middle (lengthwise) of the island is the easiest to access, but the shallow reef is smallest at this point. (This area is probably better for divers).

When we’re not in the ocean, one annoyance is that the resort only provides a 500mL bottle of water per person per day. If you want to drink more than that, you have to buy bottled water or other beverages. (The resort recommends against drinking the tap water, even if boiled.) Our kind housekeeping attendant has noticed Valerie’s voracious appetite for water and refills our mini-bar with water every night. We’re accumulating quite a collection of empty water bottles in our room.

The international airport in Male, Maldives is much smaller than most of the ones we’ve been to so far. Located on an island a short distance away from the main island, the airport appeared to have 3 airplanes on the tarmac at the time we landed. Outside of the small terminal were a collection of fast food restaurants and a harbor from which passengers can board a speedboat or ferry to the island of their choosing.

We waited about an hour for our speedboat to arrive and then took the 90 minute ride to the Chaaya Reef Ellaidhoo resort where we are staying. Valerie picked this resort because they allegedly have a very nice house reef that we can snorkel around.

Our flight from Doha to Male is very early in the morning, so we are staying the night in Doha today. After flying into Qatar, we visited the incredible business class lounge at Hamad International Airport. This is the best lounge I have ever visited, by far. It is huge, with two restaurants, tons of seating, a quiet room, storage lockers, showers, and basically anything that anyone could think to put in an airport lounge. We contemplated spending the night in the lounge, but Valerie cannot sleep in anything but a bed, so we booked an 8-hour room at the Airport Hotel (which surprisingly has a pool).

Before going to sleep, we took a free city tour of Doha offered by the Qatar Tourism Authority and Qatar Airways. About 3 hours long, the tour showed off the ongoing development projects of Doha. It also provided insight into the culture of Qatar and its economic development.

On our first day in Dubai, we saw new Dubai. On our second day, we saw old Dubai. On our third, we wanted to see tourist Dubai, so we took a taxi to the Dubai Marina / Jumeirah Beach Resort. The beach actually looked pretty nice and the Persian Gulf waters were very warm. Sadly, we didn’t bring along our swimwear.

We ate a quick lunch at a local Pakistani restaurant and then took a taxi to the Atlantis hotel on Jumeirah Palm (a set of islands shaped like a palm tree when viewed from space). The public area of Atlantis was fairly small and crowded. The water park didn’t look as good as the ones back home. To get a better view of the palm islands, we took the monorail back to the trunk of the tree. Annoyingly, the monorail doesn’t connect to the metro (and the new Dubai tram isn’t opening for another two months), so we had to get a taxi to the Metro station.

On a whim, we decided to walk around Deira, the area where our hotel is located. Valerie found a self-guided food tour online. Sadly, many of the places were closed, but we were able to buy some really delicious falafels and desserts.