Chippendale, New South Wales

It's been a record 3 weeks living in a hotel room in Sydney.  The streak ends this weekend when we move into an Airbnb in Manly.  Our apartment actually won't be ready until mid October.

Although living in a hotel for this long is not ideal, there will be a few things I'll miss in this suburb they call Chippendale.  Chippendale is right in the middle of Sydney.  In fact, the closest train station is Central Station.  Because of that, it's easy to get anywhere from here.  We can walk to Darling Harbor, China Town, or the Haymarket.  Today's going to be sunny, so I'm walking out to Hyde Park to do some jogging.  Chippendale is the perfect location for us to explore the different neighborhoods we wanted to learn more about.

It is definitely a big city, hustle and bustle feel here.  So, I'll be glad to leave this for the suburbs.  Our hotel is right across the street from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and  the University of Notre Dame.  The University of Sydney and Charles Darwin University are close by as well.  It's  a very busy area.  I compare the walk to Central Station like walking in NYC, except with British Commonwealth rules which means we walk on the left and pass on the right.  This is also important to remember this when you're on the escalator.

This area has seen some revitalization after the completion of the Central Park project which boasts a beautiful park and eco-sustainable buildings fueled by it's own power generator housed in the old brewery.  I have a view of the brewery from my window.

If you look behind the smokestack on the left, you'll see one of the mixed-use buildings practically covered in plants.  The building is a vertical garden.  The story of it can be found here.  When it's time to water the plants, you do get a few sprinkles as you're walking by the buildings on your way to Central Station.

Another cool thing about this neighborhood is the restaurants.  This is a definite plus if you're living in a hotel without a kitchen.  Central Park Mall takes up the first few stories of the vertical garden buildings.  The Mall has many restaurants outside in a beautiful courtyard, or you can grab something from the food court and enjoy eating on the balcony overlooking the park.  Also, on the East side of the mall is Kensington Street with even more eateries.  Every Saturday this month, they had the Kensington Street Festival which featured artists, DJs and bands.

Also within Kensington Street is Spice Alley.  If you blink you'll miss the entrance.  Within that alley are more than a dozen Asian restaurants including food from Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, even Hainanese, which sounds like my kind of food! It's like a Singaporean Hawkers Market with every possible variety of curry, dumpling, noodle and satay skewer you can think of.

Knowing I won't be here much longer, I splurged on dessert yesterday and picked up an Ice Kacang.

I only read about the Ice Kacang from Crazy Rich Asians.  As described in the book, it reminded me of the Filipino dessert Halo-Halo with the ice, gelatin and sweet red beans.  However, I have to say, it didn't hit the mark.  The crispy rice, ube and jack fruit were missing from the Ice Kacang.  So Halo-Halo is still my all time favorite.

Yes, the restaurant is called Happy Endings (insert eye-roll here).  This weekend marks the happy ending of my life in the big city.  Next week, we'll see what beach suburb life has in store.