Deadly Snakes, Cute Kangaroos, Bridge Climbing

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Opinions, Observations and Random Musings on a Whirlwind 3-Day Tour of Sydney, Australia:

Walking around Sydney, I sometimes felt like I was living in Zhengzhou again. The city’s Chinese population has exploded since my first visit to Australia in 1989. Today, people of Chinese ancestry make up about 10 percent of the city’s residents. Their influence is everywhere. This is the Year of the Dog in China, so banners throughout Sydney carry pictures of various canines. Even the Sydney Opera House got in the spirit with a giant dog statue alongside the iconic building in Sydney Harbour. I also saw floats, lanterns and signs that were going to be used to celebrate the Chinese New Year, which started the day after we left.

Pat and I climbed to the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, which has become one of the city’s most popular tourist activities. It takes about three hours to reach the top of the 440-foot steel arch structure via a series of catwalks and ladders. You wear a harness and are tethered to a rail the entire time, so it’s very safe. In fact, I got far more detailed instructions from our guide than I did before climbing Mount Kilimanjaro last year. Pat isn’t fond of heights, but even she felt steady and secure during the climb. One warning, however: It ain’t cheap. Prices range from $205 to $305, depending on the day of the week and time of day. It’s even more expensive if you buy the photos they take of you on the bridge (you can’t bring your own camera).

Our hotel was at Darling Harbour, a waterfront area lined with restaurants, shops and tourist meccas like the SEA LIFE Aquarium and Madame Tussauds wax museum. Sydney is a water lover’s dream with so many scenic harbors and beautiful beaches. Pat and I visited Bondi Beach, where I almost drowned during my first visit to Australia. We didn’t have time to go swimming but I did wade in the water, thinking I might have a flashback to the day 29 years ago when I had to be rescued by a lifeguard boat. The only danger I faced this time was a little kid who kept splashing me with his water bucket.

They’re building a second casino in Sydney that will cater primarily to Chinese high rollers, who are the biggest gamblers on the planet. Our guide told us the minimum bet in the VIP rooms will be $100,000. Yeah, but I bet the drinks are free.

We toured the city’s wealthy Eastern suburbs, where even a bandbox home can cost upward of $1 million. We passed a $50 million mansion and lots of houses worth $10 million or more. The average price of a home in Sydney is $800,000, which may indicate a real-estate bubble that’s about to burst.

If you’re ever in Sydney, I recommend a side trip to the Blue Mountains, which are about a two-hour drive west of the city. The area features lush forests, sandstone cliffs and spectacular canyons and waterfalls that make it a popular getaway for city dwellers. It’s also home to many of Australia’s 170 snake species, including the poisonous red-bellied black snake that slithered past me as I was walking along a path in the Megalong Valley. Pat, who is terrified of snakes, was 10 feet away from me at the time. Had she seen the slimy serpent, I think she may have jumped off the cliff.

We also saw a lyrebird, which has an uncanny ability to imitate sounds that it hears. We later saw a YouTube video of a lyrebird who hung around a construction site and learned to mimic the sound of a jackhammer. The bird was a better impressionist than Jimmy Fallon.

En route to the mountains we stopped at the Featherdale Wildlife Park to see their impressive collection of kangaroos, wallabies, koalas and tropical birds. We also saw a couple of dingoes, a crocodile and a Tasmanian devil, who didn’t appear very scary as he snoozed away the afternoon. I learned that newborn kangaroos range in size from a jellybean to a peanut, and look like a tiny pink blob when they emerge from the womb. (They can spend a year in their mother’s pouch before hopping out for good.) I was also told that female kangaroos have three vaginas and two uteruses, which frankly was more information than I bargained for.

At a place called Scenic World, we rode a cable car with a glass bottom and took what is billed as the world’s steepest funicular ride. You could adjust your bench seat to an inclined “cliffhanger’’ mode, which greatly increased your chances of vomiting.

We visited Sydney’s Olympic Park, which was built for the 2000 Summer Games. Unlike most Olympic developments, which become white elephants after the Games are over, Sydney continues to use its facilities, including the main stadium (for rugby, soccer, cricket and Australian rules football matches) and the next-door arena (for concerts, basketball games and special events.) In a park outside the stadium there’s an Olympic Cauldron Fountain surrounded by pavement inlaid with the names of every medal winner at the 2000 Games.

Pat and I saw a modernized production of “Carmen’’ at the Sydney Opera House. The Havana-like atmosphere featured a bearded Castro lookalike, brightly colored tropical suits and dresses, and an old minivan. But there were also characters using cell phones, giving it a time-travel feel. I’m no opera buff, but it was far more entertaining than your typical Hollywood movie.

The 45-year-old Opera House, which is shaped like a stack of pointed clam shells, is Sydney’s most famous building. It’s starting to show its age on the outside – the white exterior could use a wash — but it remains a unique landmark that juts into water next to the Harbour Bridge and sits adjacent to the city’s Royal Botanic Garden. With its five separate venues, grand entryway and heavenly setting, it puts New York’s Lincoln Center to shame.

We did a walking tour of The Rocks, the city’s first settlement built by the British convicts who were brought Down Under in 1788. What once was the grimy home of brutally treated prisoners is now a popular shopping district filled with fancy boutiques and restaurants. You can still see some of the original buildings and cobblestone streets, thanks to a preservation movement that saved the neighborhood in the early 1970s. The government was going to tear down the old buildings, but opposition by union leaders and neighborhood residents derailed the plan. Our guide said Queen Elizabeth also played an unwitting role in the controversy because she was coming to Sydney at the time and the authorities didn’t want her visit marred by demonstrations.

During a dinner cruise on Valentine’s Day, a young couple asked Pat to take their picture. After she snapped a few photos, the man dropped to his knees, pulled out a ring and proposed. Pat captured the moment for posterity.

Political sex scandals are a universal form of entertainment. The Australian media and public are currently reveling in the case of Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, a 50-year-old father of four whose affair with a former staffer has all the makings of a made-for-TV movie. His relationship with 33-year-old Vikki Campion, who is now pregnant with his child, has raised questions about morality, conflicts of interest and hypocrisy, given that Joyce is a vocal proponent of family values who opposed Australia’s recent legalization of same-sex marriage. Joyce and his wife are estranged, and I’m guessing they won’t be getting together anytime soon.

Next stop: Port Douglas, the Great Barrier Reef and Daintree Rainforest.