Harbourside Apartment

This time I chose to rent a one bedroom at the Harbourside Apartment, which is right next to the McMahons Point‎ Ferry Wharf. There are ferries connecting the wharf to Circular Quay, Darling Habour, and Pyrmont every 30 minutes or so (timetable), making it quite convenient.

Commuting by ferry turns out to be feasible but not cheap -- the best choice would be MyMulti 1, which costs $43 a week and allows for unlimited ferry, bus, tram, and short-distance train.

There's limited bus to this area but the North Sydney train station is just 1km away -- though it's uphills to the station so it may take a good 20 minutes of walk. After reaching the station you can easily reach Chatswood and various parts of the Sydney city by transferring at the usual hubs.

Apartment facilities are okay with good swimming pool, laundry, vending machines, and friendly reception that's open 7am-11pm.

The one bedroom apartment has an open lounge + dining + kitchen, which makes it feel quite spacious. The amenities are not great but reasonable, with all the required appliances (LCD TV, DVD player, hifi, refrigerator, stove, oven, dishwasher, kettle, toaster, hair dryer, iron, heater, etc) and kitchenware.

The dual layer curtains are very practical, but as with most apartments the noise from plumbing or neighbours are quite expected. (Note some high-end buildings in Taiwan actually do an excellent job in noise prevention.)

One of the best features of the apartment is the view of the harbour, notably the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. Here is a 300x time-lapsed video that shows the view from the kitchen window -- the video is under 3 minutes but captures 15 hours from sunrise to sunset.

 The area at McMahons Point is very quiet with few shops around. It's nice there's greens here where you can lay back, enjoy the great view/sun, and read a good book.

Although I've enjoyed the stay here, the price tag for short stays, at close to $2,000 a week, is too high.