Day 47. If you’ve been reading the daily blogs, you are now familiar with the Chinese visa saga.  At our Wed appointment, the clerk said everything looked good and to pick up the visa on Friday morning.  However; after watching the TV reality series “Big Brother;” I well know the motto “expect the unexpected.”  So that is what I expect as we enter the visa application center.  I hit the button for pickup / pay for visa and the machine spits out a ticket with D26 on it.  

Tibet is high on John’s list of places to visit but our travel agent for china, Joe (again thanks to Craig & Corey for the referral), has specifically instructed us not to mention Tibet on our visa application as it will be flagged and given a lot closer scrutiny.  We are told by Joe, once we have the visa, we apply for a separate Tibet travel permit and the process is much smoother.  So I have stressed over and over with the kids, do not mention Tibet when were inside, don’t even think of the word Tibet, they could have mind reading pandas hidden in the plants.

They are only on D1 so it looks like we have a while before D26.  I decide to get out the proposed travel itinerary for China, Nepal and India that Joe sent and go it in more detail.  I’m reading part 2 of the trip when I feel a tap, tap on my arm.  “Ummm…dad, I thought we’re not supposed to talk about Tibet?”  “That’s correct.”  “Then why do you have a packet that says Tibet itinerary in big letters on the cover? They may not have mind reading pandas hidden in the plants, but that guard over there probably reads English.” Oh S**t!!! My mind starts reeling with all the ways this can go wrong.  Besides English speaking guards, there are cameras all over the room.  Is something back there monitoring the cameras?  They are only on D13, will the guards come and haul me off before D26 gets called?  By the time D26 gets called, my merino wool shirt is drenched with sweat.  

Alas, we walk out with 7 Chinese visas in hand!  Success. Leanne insists on a picture of me jumping for joy with my Chinese visa held high (see below).

When you’re on the road, you have to contemplate building in basic necessities such as haircuts.  It’s been 8 weeks since our haircuts.  This is manageable but we will soon be in Eastern Europe and so we conclude it’s safer to get haircuts in an English speaking country while we are here.  4 of us opt for haircuts (Justin, Corey, Ashley & myself).  Google maps points us to the nearest hair cutting salon which is right around the corner.  Now back in the states, Supercuts can plow through 4 haircuts in about 45 mins which is my expectation.  Alas, after 45 mins, the stylist is still on Justin’s haircut (the first one to go). I swear he’s trimming each individual hair one-by-one.  

Three hours later, we exit with stylish new haircuts but with another Sydney day threatening to vanish on us.  I’m dreading telling John that somehow, despite the odds, we managed to fritter away a second day in Sydney without him at the helm.  No Bueno.

We must go to the zoo! We power over to the zoo in an Uber. We arrive with a solid 3 hours until closing.  Although in reality, I would have settled for going to Crocodile Dundee’s house with a stuffed croc, kangaroo and kuala.  Luckily, we don’t have resort to this.

The zoo is an interesting layout.  It goes from the top of a hillside to the bottom in a pretty steep vertical descent. They have a Sky Safari cable car that we take down to the bottom and back to the top and start off on zoo adventure. The first exhibit is the koalas. Reading the plaques, we learn that the animals sleep 20 hours per day.  Sure enough, the exhibit holds three koalas that are all fast asleep. This is starting to feel like trying to spot a crocodiles that come up for air once every four hours. Kualas sleep 20 of 24 hours, so there is a 1/6 or 16% chance of seeing one awake.  Wait.  The kuala just moved.  Score. The zoo is already panning out better than the search for the elusive turtles and crocs in Port Douglas.

Overall, it was actually one of the best zoo experiences I’ve had in my life.  The animals were more active than most other zoos.  The highlight was the gorillas.  There were ~10 of them and they were moving, shaking, swinging, eating and climbing.  Leanne says “they must not keep them all doped up on tranquilizers they way they do in the US.”  Exactly my thought.  I am heartened to see that I’m not the only one in the group with a skeptical side. We wrap up the zoo with the Sumatran tigers which are majestic creatures but endangered with only 400 left.  

After the ferry, Leanne insists that we go “The Rocks.”  The kids inquire, “what are The Rocks?  We see rocks all over Sydney.”  Leanne responds, “it’s an area of significant historic importance and we simply must go there.”  The walk there around the harbor is great as it’s a Friday evening and there are people out and about and live singers dotting the harbor walkway.  This is one of my favorite things – unexpectedly finding live music in an outdoor public venue.  One of them was singing “Dust in the Wind” by Kansas.  Not sure what, if any, connection there is with Kansas and Sydney but I enjoyed it non-the-less.  

While listening to music, I happen to see a banner on a pole marketing – “The Rocks – enjoy the best shopping in Sydney with over 40 stores!”  Exposed. I tease Leanne “The Rocks are historic – you’ll have a historic shopping experience!”  She insists she knows nothing about shopping @ The Rocks.  We walk through The Rocks.  The 40 stores are closed by now so this gives Leanne’s denial more credibility.  A women takes a picture of all of us and we ask her about the significance of The Rocks. She says that it was the first place in Australia (or Sydneyto be colonized.  Turns out Leanne was right without even knowing it.

We wrap up the day with pizza at an Italian restaurant.  The hot topic comes when I ask the kids to pick their top 3 places we’ve been (out of 8). Luckily this is difficult because they tell us they’ve loved everywhere we've been.  Mission accomplished so far!