my place of thoughts: Sydney/Melbourne 11-21 June: Part 8

The disastrous part of the trip. Can't blame anyone for sure. We are at fault too. Maybe not that literally disastrous. But was one of the worst hiccups you can find.

Day 9/10: Melbourne to Sydney - Blue Mountain

Blue Mountain

Flight
Somehow we didn't get on the designated plane because we missed the check-in time. Due to many reasons, I think it was too early in the morning and we were all not alert enough. First, we should have gone out earlier. Then, we should have told the taxi clearer which terminal we wanted to go because the taxi took us right to the end of the airport where the domestic flights are, but not TigerAirways. So we got to walk about 10min to get to the correct terminal - the one we came out from. Last, we should have reacted faster when we got to the terminal. Well, the counter person was definitely not that helpful. I mean we are kind of at fault, but they could have serviced us better. And it wasn't entirely our fault. But whatevers, even if the argument had gone through, I don't think we will be able to make it for the flight either - inefficiency I say. So we got to pay extra to get on the next flight. Totally messed up our plan, and wasted our time. And I say, a big lesson learnt.

The Mess-ups continues
And so we still got back to Sydney in the end, a few hours late. So we rushed back to Horng's house. We quickly repacked our bags for Blue Mountain. While waiting for Horng to tie some loose ends on her work, Ling and Via went to get Mac - our lunch. Wanted to get a bus to the train station, but we were running late for the train which comes in one-hour interval, so we cabbed in the end. Luckily, we got onto that train.

Then, we were all happily playing cards in the train and counting stops occasionally. And in the end, we alighted at the wrong station! -.- Totally! We alighted 1 stop before our designated one. And like I said, the train comes in one-hour interval. So if we want to take the train we got to wait for about an hour for the train to come. Another way was to take their day tour bus. But we saw the last session drove away anyway. That was sad.

Anyhows we walked down one side of Leura Town Mall and bought some snacks for the night. And then went back just in time for the train. By the time we got to Katoomba Station, it was already 4+pm(GMT+10). And we still got to walk to find our hotel.

Hotel
It was quite a long walk, at least a good 15min from the station. But we were so satisfied with the room anyway. :) It looked very luxurious, very spacious and has interesting bed set-up, topped up with a little round table with 4 chairs in front of the TV.

Rest of the night
Time was precious and it's turning dark very soon. We only have until the next day noon to explore the place. So we got to grab all the opportunity. We left the hotel room after a while so that we can still walk around. There wasn't any buses operating anymore so we got to walk to see The Three Sisters. We reckon that's the only thing we would be able to see at night. The walk was long too. About 20-30min walk - up and down hill. By the time we were walking back, Via was almost gone with energy, had to have some snickers. Haha! But it was really quite tiring. Well, I say the view at The Three Sisters was good! But it really turned dark too early.

The Three Sisters
(Taken from Echopoint)

So we walked back after taking some photos. Partly also because it was really cold, we think we want to head back for dinner. We settled with Domino's Pizza. Ordered 2 pizzas and 1 cheese garlic bread and 1 bottle of 1.5l Coke. Then they decided to add on another pasta after we started eating. But that meal was really cheap! Totaling up to 30+AUD only! After that, we went to the liquor land to get ourselves some booze for the night since there's nothing else to do.

Everyone simply bathed, planned our route for the next day, and started playing Monopoly Deal 2 hours later, while eating our supper and having the drinks. We tried to have an early night so that we can leave early the next morning and get to the places we want to go.

The bed was extremely comfy I think no one wants to wake up in the morning. Haha!

The next morning, we had our breakfast in the Hotel. I think it's prepared by the owner. It was really good. Buffet style country breakfast - Breads, Toasts, bacons, eggs, sausages, cereals. Take your pick. :)

Then we set off with our luggage to wait for the trolley bus - just in case we missed the timing. But it was super cold. The weather itself, plus the wind and the altitude. Colder than Philips Island I feel. So we got one the first session of bus available for the day. :) The bus captain was really nice! Very cheerful, very helpful, very informative as well. He gave us the best route we could take. Which was the one we decided as well. We felt very welcomed. :)

So we were only bound to go to 1 whole tourist spot before we left - The Scenic World. We purchased the ticket as a package with the bus ride, which came up to 58AUD. We went to the SkyWay first. It will bring us across the peaks and we can see the Katoomba Fall and The Three Sisters during the ride. The view is really nice. The crew is quite helpful in getting us to the correct places to see what we are supposed to see too. Just that there were a lot of kids in the cable car for our ride.

Skyway - coming to pick up up

Katoomba Fall from inside the Skyway
(Got the glass reflection though)

Then we went on to the Railway. Before we stepped into the ride, or rather, before the car moved off, we totally didn't know what we were in for. The gradient of the car started changing while it progressed down. Shock of our lives, because we were not prepared for it. My bag slipped off the seat while we became in the position of almost standing up in the car, I had to pull it back and hug it. That's how steep it went. And a little commotion going on behind us (me and Horng) during the steepest route, Ling and Via were telling each other how to stay in position without slipping off the seat. Apparently Ling a bit fail because she couldn't fill the space. Haha. Later we realised that if you have taken the ride from the bottom up, you would be going up on your back. More scary as you see yourself lifting off from the ground? The speed was quite fast anyway. Fun ride anyhows. Please try if you are there.

the 'going-down' moment

The whole railway, it will be going backwards on its next trip.

Then we took a walk down the WalkWay. There were many routes, but just chose a not-too-long-nor-too-short one, so that we wouldn't be late to catch the bus later on to catch the train at Leura. Many interesting sights along the way too. All the miner's stuff.

Miner's hut

Lastly, the CableWay. The best was to hold on or stand against the railings in the cable car. Quite steep too. But again, nice scenery. It's really worth the trip although our stay there was really short.

View from top down in the Cableway

So we caught the bus again to bring us to Leura Town, so that we could shop on the other side of the road and grab some lunch before leaving the place. Lunch at this cafe, which was good but expensive.