Sydney
Somewhere along all the date line changes, somewhere around Kirbati, Carl hit his actual 3,000,000th mile on United. Not too long after, most of the group was awake and ready to celebrate. The purser, Christophe, was nice enough to let us commandeer the midships galley to celebrate for a bit, at least til other passengers started complaining...
Fortunately it wasn't too much longer to our arrival in Sydney (a nap in-between may have helped to pass the time?), we were able to swiftly find rides to our hotels, and even better, probably because it is low season in Australia, everyone was able to get checked in. Carl and Bruce ran off to do their thing, while Scott and Fazal did the Sydney Harbour Bridge climb with me. BridgeClimb Sydney is not cheap, but preparation is through, safety is paramount and security is tight. Was well worth the experience, and was happy a few other crazies from the group were willing to go as well.
Caught up with more of the group back in the Marriott's executive lounge before dinner; just like breakfast, the food is ordinary yet sufficiently high in quality to impress. We only nibbled before running off to Mr. Wong for dinner-- a cross between historic and stylish, mostly-Chinese-ish food that somehow manages to be damned good without doing anything too awkward or insulting in their Asian-Western fusion. Their crowds proved it; we had a 5:30pm reservation and by 6:15pm every table was full with a well-heeled crowd, the massively high-ceiling basement and ground floors both packed. Of our meal, we started with some very fancy dumplings (both shu mai and har gow), a pretty good and meaty Beijing duck, and a deep fried calamari that were all excellent. Veggie fried rice was not traditional but had a nice crunch, and the gai lan/snow pea mix was simple yet well executed.
Finished the night at Door Knock, a speakeasy a short walk away. Lots of character here, a bit less than Mr. Wong's stone/brick basement-- the vibe here was more solid concrete mixed in with the heavy wood and lower ceilings, yet with a subtle nod to their international guests with a tasteful map pinned up by visitors. The drink menu was extensive, particularly with mid-range spirits; the wine list was modest but quality, and they clearly emphasized the house cocktails. Went with a decidedly affordable Morris Signature Single Malt, which was as expected: a decent nose, not too much complexity, more smooth. Australian whisky tends to aim towards fruit profiles on the nose and palate, probably due to the abundance of red wine casks, and this leads to a bit too much homogeneity in their flavor profiles for me.
Most of the group stayed out late, but given about half of us had an early flight the next morning, I headed back after one drink to run some last minute errands and to get some shuteye.