Stop By Sydney

Art, culture, adventure-Sydney has so much on offer. BAYAR JAIN unveils the essential stops for your next journey through this vibrant city.

- BAYAR JAIN

I’VE BINGE-WATCHED every season of MasterChef Australia. The game show taught me that Adelaide boasts delicious wines and family barbecues, while the Red Centre celebrates native ingredients; Melbourne doubles as the country’s culinary capital courtesy of the 3,500 (and counting!) restaurants while Sydney loves its caffeine shots and espressos. Yet, as a first-timer in Australia, the island country posed itself as an enigma to me.

After roughly 14 hours, including a layover in Singapore, I finally set foot in the Land Down Under. A sprawling city landscape that is equal parts green and blue beckons. Armed with layers of sunscreen and a backpack, I head out to debunk my assumptions.

Every guide to Sydney kickstarts at the Sydney Opera House (sydneyoperahouse.com). After all, it is considered the world’s busiest performing arts centre, welcoming more than 10 million visitors a year on-site and hosting more than 1,800 performances attended by more than 1.4 million people!

Surprisingly, the globally recognised World Heritage-listed masterpiece is not as uniformly white as I pictured. “People often mistake the exterior lotus structure to be white,” explains my private tour guide. “The tiles, fondly called shells, are matte cream, too,” clarifies the expert. A closer inspection reveals that the glazed ceramic shells—sourced from Sweden—date back to the 1970s, making 2023 the opera house’s 50-year anniversary.