Hello Sydneysiders (Part II)

You may read my first post about this trip.

After we redeemed the I-Venture Card, it was time to find Central Station for  train to Katoomba, entry point to Blue Mountains.

Little did we know that Central Station was quite a distance from Darling Harbour which the cab fare was AUD12.50, but we had no choice as time was running fast. It was almost 3 p.m and by 5 p.m,  it was already dark.

After we reached the station, I managed to top up another AUD7.40 for my fare (The multipass thingy only allows me to reach Seven Hills Station only). Yeah the train ticket people was very helpful. 

It was about time when the train would leave the station. Before that let me explain, the system for this train thingy in Sydney.

For my Katoomba (Blue Mountains Lines, going to Lithgow) , it is considered as Intercity Lines . Beside Intercity, they have Countrylink Train and Suburban Lines.. Countrylink works if you are travelling, for example from Melbourne to Sydney or vice versa. Intercity works if you wanna go beyond certain out of Sydney Suburb but within  New South Wales like Litgow and Newcastle, and Suburban Train is for when you wanna travel from one place to one place within suburb of Sydney city (as the name suggest). Besides that, do not forget they also have Monorail and Light Rail. Later i found that that Light Rail is another name for Tram service, which cover places in the city.  Eventhough you may found these lines kind of complex, if you have experience Seoul Subway, I think there will be no problem to master the system, as long as you know which station you intend to stop, that matters.

The train may have similar feature like our KTM Commuter, kan?

Upon reaching Blacktown, famous for Asian settlers, yeah we encoutered the masjid... terasa begitu sayu gitu!

Dotter, thinking about what to do next.....

Blaxland Station, one of the stations before reaching Seven Hills....

Ok enough of Central Station. As we made it to Katoomba, it was already dark and I decided to use cab again for safety reason. The backpacker place that we intend to overnight was actually a walking distance, deng.... cab fare? AUD5.70... erks, kinda expensive but i had no choice. As we reached the place, paid only for a night, got our double room and settled down. I forgot to take my tooth brush from another bag before leaving to Blue Mountains. Guess what?

Yeah, I had to walk couples of blocks, about 1.5 km in distance , at night in cold 3 degrees just to get a toothbrush from Coles. Yeah what an experience.

Out of many interesting thing in Katoomba was the time when it was third Syawal night and the kebab store owner generously offered me unlimited salad topping for my kebab, with his wish of Eidul Fitr. Terasa betul macam beraya di perantauan, serious, tak tipu. Rindu pada Malaysia pun ada. I think he has this sense knowing that we were like running away from this raya celebration, but of course being Muslims, the feelings to make other people feel welcomed and happy, especially in this festive mood, comes first. Janji layan, muahahhahah

So the next day was even more interesting, we needed to find Blue Mountain Explorer Bus, the first attraction to redeem for I-Venture Card.

As we got into the red double deck bus, we bumped into a Malaysian Malayalese couple, who hail  all the way from Jalan Gasing, PJ. Instantly we clicked well and the journey became so pleasant (dotter tagged along very well too).

Let the pictures tell the rest of the story.

Katoomba Station, during daylight

 Our hostel during daylight...

Explorer Bus Shop is just at Katoomba Station, very convenient...

Before we headed to Katoomba Station, we bought some fruit ration, just in case for hunger management, ehehhehehheh

The bus we boarded, double deck.... I love the fact the driver cum tourist guide is a witty type, rasa terhibur..... 

The first place to go is Scenic World, a must! First ride is Skyway!

The view is so majestic!

Superb Rainfall... gila dalam!

The famous Three Sisters... notice yang tiga di sebelah kanan itu....

Then we boarded to Cascading Train... serious, this is even better than Battlestar Gallactica in Universal Studios Singapore, ehehhehehheheh

These people long time ago already had the way to go down, wuhuu, even before Penang Hill thingy

Scenic World lead us to the place where the coalminers resided in the area...tabik la diorang ni boleh survive.......

As we go "bushwalking" the easiest way ahhahah, we stumbled upon this coal miner's place... serious, i feel like this walking trip is like being in FRIM forest (the fact that this wood is sub tropicale type with fern plants all around,rasa macam kat Fraser pun ada!)

After we finished Scenic World, we stopped at Echo Point... feeling lazy coz we needed to get another bus... amik jer gambar!

Katoomba Town from Leura....the hilly area makes the view breathtaking! Leura and Katoomba  are like Genting and Cameron escape from KL 's hot weather.

Silia, our Malaysian friend that we tagged along so well, memang best dia ni!

The little cute houses along the road in Katoomba, haish, you can enjoy the cherry blossom trees planted along the street, how nice... last time we had them in Incheon and now it was getting spring in Down Under.... 

So after stopping by at Leura town, and a round of sightseeing, we decided to go back to Sydney before it gets dark.. .already promised with Sherry to meet him at his workplace in Market Street sharp at 5.00 pm (punyala fobia bila gelap_).. We could not make it to Jenolan Cave this time (one hour from Katoomba) due to logistic problem, perhaps in the future, we might come here again, tapi tak tahu bila, just keep it in mind.... so if you guys wanna give Blue Mountains a shot, just spend two days exploring ... for me, it is like naik Fraser or Genting (short day trip, naik kejap cukupla), not to say it does not have many attractions but more to be like an escape from summer's heat, and we went there during winter (day time is 10 deg and night is around 2-3 deg) so u get the picture?

Till then......