Jetstar No-Frills Experience - My Jetstar Review (Part 2)

If you’re just joining this program you’ve missed out on my excruciating booking experience, Amazing Race dash and my encounter with some special needs passengers. I highly suggest you go check out Part 1 to get the full story on my Jetstar Experience.

Long-Haul Experience:

Well, short flight done, time for the big one! For some reason I had to go through security again which is fine and then just my luck I got “randomly” selected for an explosives test. After a basic rubdown and pat down, which was NOWHERE as intimate as the Canadians do back home, I got through to Sydney’s International Terminal. Having gone through immigration and customs in Melbourne, I technically couldn’t leave the airport without officially re-entering the country. Now I had 7 hours to kill inside the airport... Thankfully the airport in Sydney is pretty much like a shopping centre loaded with shops, cafes, different food outlets. Sat at Mc’D’s for breakfast and lunch while talking with folks online, and reading the newspaper. Explored the shops but unfortunately Coach, Burberry, and Armani weren’t on my shopping list. I also couldn’t help but notice the abundance of condom selection in the airport men’s rooms. Seriously... ribbed, glow in the dark, flavoured! Can't help but wonder why they're there. Anyways I spent a lot of my time reading and wandering but then realized that my phone’s battery was dying and as my sole source of entertainment for my long-haul flight this CANNOT happen.

**Where to find power outlets**:
There are little to no power outlets to charge your toys in the international terminal. Look for the massage chairs as the few available can usually be found there. I found mine by the massage chairs near gates 8 and 9. There are only 2 so be prepared to wait for them.

Anyways my flight was approaching and I knew that I had to go grab a meal for my flight. I found a sandwich shop and then ducked into a newsstand for a couple of bags of chips and a bottle of coke. Here I thought I’d be saving money but food is actually cheaper on the plane... $17

$17 something for all of this, what a deal...

The flight was fine for the most part. What you would expect out of any long haul flight. While it’s nice to have a leather seat for the flight, there was little to no padding in the lower back area so I constantly had some guy’s knees jabbing into my back. There are no screens on the backs of the chairs so Jetstar offers you the option to pre-book an Ipad loaded with movies, TV shows and games for your flight for $12. I know that next time I will go for this as I saw a guy playing GTA on the Ipad in contrast to my Angry Birds... I was damn envious. Oh and if you didn’t pre-book one you’re screwed, as unless there’s some spare ones you’re not getting one. Thankfully there’s always sleep right? For this overnight flight unfortunately sleep was not an option as I was serenaded by a symphony of screaming and crying children. It was agonizing as at any point where my body would go into sleep mode I’d be jolted awake by a shriek from the seat behind me. I’d take pizza-face and her boyfriend any day as they can be tuned out with earphones...

We got to Hawaii on time and breezed through customs and immigration. No complaints.

Coming back was a breeze. Arrived at the airport 2hrs before my flight, breezed through security and had the chance to do all my duty-free shopping and enjoy an amazing BK Breakfast. I also had the chance to grab myself a meal for my long-haul flight back which was so much better than the one coming here but just as outrageously priced...

The flight coming back was pleasant. After noticing that I was completely surrounded by small children I was expecting the worst. Thankfully these parents were in control of their kids and the screaming and crying was kept to a bare minimum of takeoff and landing. I enjoyed many episodes of GI Joe, read my newspapers and enjoyed my CPK sandwich.

A truly awesome sandwich - people were envious. Too bad the sandwich itself was $11.50

Overall, I can’t necessarily complain too much about Jetstar. Both my baggage and I made it to and from our destination in one piece. Being a no-frills airline they certainly lived up to it offering nothing. Would I fly them again? Well if I had the choice - no. But if the price was right, or there was no other option then the answer is not yes but - fine I’ll do it.

Sydney NYE

Just as this year was my first Christmas away from home, it was also my first New Year’s Eve. Having taken up my buddy Rob’s offer of a place to crash I decided to spend NYE in Sydney. Everyone has seen what the Sydney NYE fireworks look like on TV, they’re mighty spectacular. Turns out that Sydney’s NYE is actually the world’s biggest New Year’s party attracting crowds of 1.5 million people. To put things in perspective, Times Square in NYC attracts approximately 1 million people. So obviously it is a BIG deal! Normally I end up in a club on NYE, but I didn’t come half way across the world to do exactly what I do back home, I came here to see the big show.

View Larger Map

The day started off with me and Rob plotting our journey, which park to go to etc. See, being NYE obviously we want to have some drinks. For NYE there are alcohol-permitted parks and dry parks, and anywhere with a good view is obviously dry. The only alcohol permitted park we could find that was remotely close to the Harbour Bridge was Bicentennial Park. Before we set off, we mixed a bottle of champagne with some OJ, and put it in a backpack. And so our journey started... We got to Bicentennial park and realized that the view was shit, there was another bridge blocking the view of the Harbour Bridge. Thankfully with our smartphones we plotted a course to the Balmain East Wharf which was not listed as a vantage point in the Sydney NYE website, so it should be alcohol permitted right? So after our 6.8 Km trek ON FOOT we got to Balmain East Wharf to discover that it’s a dry zone and cop central. F@#$!!

So at the park it was really busy, and unfortunately dry. We were able to get primo seats for the fireworks, but unfortunately there was at least 5 hours until they started. A lot of the evening was spent watching the cat and mouse game going on between the cops and the kids next to us drinking goon and smoking weed. We also witnessed a couple enter a port-o-potty together, and a guy get arrested which erupted in the crowd cheering (must’ve really been a dick). As the evening passed, police presence increased and they started searching bags. Thankfully being well dressed and minding our own business, we were left alone (and didn’t have our mimosa bottle confiscated/poured out). 

AWESOME!!

There are two fireworks shows over the course of the evening. The first one is around 10:00pm and is the family show. This is catered to those with small children who might not last the wait till midnight. It was nice as it was starting to get long waiting till midnight. When the countdown finally began, sadly we got it wrong a few times. Since our vantage point was behind the Harbour Bridge, the numbers on the screen were backward. Also what threw us off was that the countdown started at 90 seconds. Finally the new year came and I saw what was one of the best fireworks shows ever! Overall the trek was well worth it! Both me and Rob were completely drained when we got home, especially as it was 2:30am by the time we walked back. We walked almost 14k, and I was wearing my dress shoes... Me feet were thoroughly blistered! If you’re in this part of the world during the holiday season, you’d be a fool to miss out!

My Trip To Sydney

I just came to the realization this week that I’ve been here in Oz for over two months and I’ve barely written anything about Sydney. You may have read about my spending Christmas in Sydney, but I barely touched on what I did or saw. I had a great time in Sydney, and I reckon it reminds me a lot of a big city in North America. The city itself is very easy to get around. Just a tip to get a weekly pass if you intend on using the ferries and public transport more than 2 days in a row as a day pass with ferries is over $20! The city itself is also very safe as long as you’re streetsmart. I’ll start off by going over some of the tourist sites in the city, then go a little bit in detail on two sites that touch both extremes of good and bad. Lastly I can’t have an article on Sydney without touching on its beaches.

Be jealous of this shot, it'll be a tough one to match!

So lets start off with the site of all sites here in Australia, The Opera House. This is THE site that all the tourists want to get a picture with, next to the Harbour Bridge. I probably picked the best day of all to go there which was Christmas Day as there were almost NO tourists and I was able to get an amazing shot at the Opera House with no tourists in the background (also thanks to my buddy Rob’s photo skills!). I didn’t do the Harbour Bridge walk as it was >$200 which is a little hard on the unemployed man’s budget. There’s also a group of sites where you can get a discount if you purchase admission to all of them at once (you get like 30 days to go to all the sites). These include the Sydney Tower (ok but so not worth the wait!), Wild Life Sydney (as my friend Tor called it: pure rubbish!), Oceanworld Manly (never been), and the Sydney Aquarium which was totally worth it! (Thanks Rob!).

Lazy, lazy roos

I’ll elaborate a little more on Wildlife Sydney and the Sydney Aquarium as some of you may be curious on the extremely polar views on these two tourist sites. Lets start off with Wildlife Sydney... This is where you go if you’re ONLY going to Sydney and you’re dying to see a koala or a kangaroo. It’s pretty much a miniature zoo with a few kangaroos lying there, crocs, and some koalas you can take a picture with. While it’s cool to see the animals, if you’re visiting more than Sydney then you’re wasting your time (and money). The Aquarium on the other hand is full of exhibits ranging from crabs, jellyfish, to sharks! There are two massive tanks that are built with glass tunnels underneath which allow you to see all the action. The views from those tunnels were really cool, especially for the sharks exhibit.

A cool sight at the Aquarium

Now Sydney’s advantage over Melbourne is it’s stunning beaches. Sydney has Bondi and Manly while Melbourne has St. Kilda beach... While I love St. Kilda, the beach is a dump... Only beach ever that you’ll have trash blowing in the wind (a burger wrapper or two have rolled up my way while I was tanning). Manly and Bondi are both incredible beaches, big, clean and inviting. Be sure to always swim between the flags or you could end up on Bondi rescue. Seriously folks, I just went waist deep and could feel the water sucking me in. While Bondi is really nice, the area surrounding it is really posh and personally I find it has a sort of snobby feel to it. Manly was much nicer, with more of a mix of affordable (but not dodgy) restaurants and bars surrounding it. The only thing about Manly is that you have to take the ferry to get to it, so be sure to plan your trip ahead of time and possibly go for the weekly pass rather than the $21 day pass...

Me at Bondi

So there you have it folks, my first article on Sydney! It’s taken a long time for me to write about it, as I was there over the Christmas and New Years holidays. Don’t be intimidated by the fact that it’s a big city as it’s safe and easy to get around. My best advice is to plan your holiday ahead of time so you can save some money on public transit as well as maybe get one of those combo packs. No matter what people from Melbourne say, it’s not THAT bad! (Yeah I said it!)