Blue Mountains, Australia Trip (Day 2)

17th Feb 2019, Sunday

Wrap

Today, we planned to drive up to Blue Mountains National Park. So we woke up early to get ready and went to a small cafe behind the hotel where we had our breakfast. It was not crowded, basically like no customers around except us. Once a while, there were some customers coming in to take away some breads. The sandwiches we had were slightly hard too and the wraps and hot chocolate drink was ok. After that, we drove out to Blue Mountains. At first, it was okay following the car's built-in GPS. However, i noticed the GPS kept pointing us in another route which was different from Google's maps (from the phone).

Blue Mountain Visitor Centre

Blue Mountain

It really took us almost 3 hours to reach the Blue Mountains Heritage Centre (with all the re-routing and wrong turns).  By then, it was almost past noon. So we took the shortest walking trail to George Philips Lookout just to explore the mountains. There was nothing much to see on the trail except the trees and the quietness of the forest. We walked until a picnic area where my dad and my step-mum stopped for a rest. Mi and my sister continued walking further down the trail until the road become rough and it requires more time to complete. So we walked back the same trail to meet up with my dad and then we walked back to our car.

Ducks in the lake

WentWorth Falls Lake

After that, we drove to WentWorth Falls Lake. It was inside a small park with picnic areas where we took a 10 minutes break to enjoy the scenery and ducks. Then we drove off to WentWorth Falls and walked down to Jamison lookout to see the falls. However, we did not managed to see the falls from the lookout and it required long hiking on the trails, which my step-mum was not able to hike long distances. So we just stayed at the lookout to see the scenery with blue sky and mountains.

Scenic World Ticket Counter

Then we drove down to Blue Mountain Scenic World where you can take cable car, skyway and railway to see the scenery of Blue Mountain. We queued to buy the tickets for the 3 rides (AUD$43 each pax) and the staff recommended us to take the cable car first, followed by the ropeway and lastly the train. We went to skyway but the queue was very long. So we headed to the railway instead. This was not the normal railway ride as we approached the queuing area. There was signs indicating that you can adjust the seats to certain angles while riding and it was indicated as the world's steepest passenger train at 52 degrees angle. We waited for the train to approach and we boarded it without knowing what to expect from the ride. So when the train started to move, it was going downwards (train was just going up and down the stations). And, the carriage was with open views and the angle of the seats was quite steep. You can feel that you are going to fall downwards due to the gravity pull. You can see the full views of outside and feel like you are going to fall off a mountain if you are sitting right in front of the first row..As i was afraid of heights, my palm were also sweating...(Words cannot express the feelings, have to experience yourself....hahaa)

Railway Train Carriage

Different Seat Angles

Railway Ride

Three Sisters

Overall, it was a very interesting & fun short ride, which lasted about 3 or 4 mins to reach the lower station. And once we got off the train, we were greeted with the view of the "Three Sisters" stones on top of the mountain opposite the station. We stayed around the station to have some memory photos taken. After that, we went to queue for the next train to go back up again. My dad and step-mum went off first as there were not enough seats for all of us. So mi and my sister waited for the next train up. When the next train came, we boarded and my sister was trying to adjust the seat's angle. However, there were 2 more white guys boarded and shared with the row we were seated. The feeling of going up was also scary as you were being pulled up. Probably it was the feeling of able to see outside that made you feel like you are going to fall off (no seat belts, just railings to hold). After the train stopped at the station, one of the white guy commented he was also scared from the ride. But we had a great laugh out of it...Really one experience to remember...hahaa...

See Through Glass in Skyway

Katalomar Falls

After that, we went back to queue for the skyway. Luckily the queue was shorter this time, so we went ahead for it. The skyway carriage had a glass platform in the middle which you can see the view below. There was a guide in the carriage and the guide explained all the views when the skyway passed. There was a waterfall named Katalomar Falls (introduced by the guide) and this was the 2nd largest waterfalls in Blue Mountains National Park. When the skyway reached the top, we just stayed and waited for it to go back down to the centre. After the ride completed, we went for toilet break and shopping in the souvenir shop. We shopped for some time, my dad started to chase us to leave the shop. We had to forgo the cable car ride as it was near to their closing hour.

Sydney Harbour Bridge

Sydney Opera House

We drove back to Sydney and was trying to locate a restaurant called Sydney Cove Oyster Bar near Sydney Opera House. However, the GPS was pointing us the long way and my dad kept turning at the wrong turns, we ended up opposite of Sydney Opera House. By then it was almost 6 plus, my sister was getting cranky after waking from her nap and my step-mum was getting worried of driving in the night. But we still got off to have some photos taken since we were there. We left about half an hour later and tried to get the car's GPS to route us to the restaurant. However, it was guiding round and round the same spot, which got us kind of frustrated. So mi and my sister tried to navigate using our phone's maps. My sister was trying to give the directions to my dad but she did not highlight early. So after some time, my dad exploded and started shouting at her to pass him her phone for directions. My step-mum also don't want to go there anymore but my dad commented it was still okay to drive. After all the yelling and shouting, my dad finally figured the way to Sydney Opera House and we tried to walk to the restaurant. Luckily it was just a 2 mins walk from the Opera House. Pity the shops were all closed.

Dinner

Garlic Breads

Roasted Chat Potatoes

Finally everyone calmed down and we ordered 8 oysters, garlic breads, salt & pepper calamari (quite salty), roasted chat potatoes and Tiger prawn linguine for our dinner. However, the space was quite cramp though it was open space. I picked both grilled and raw oysters and got my sister to try too. It was quite expensive (charging per piece) and it was small as compared to the ones i had in Tasmania. I wasn't impressive with the grilled oysters but the raw ones were not bad. We saw other diners ordered a very big seafood platter which included crabs, lobsters, oysters, prawns and others. The meal cost us $150 though. After that, we walked towards the Opera House and took night photos. There were a few bars there where everyone was drinking happily through the night. After that, we drove back to the hotel which my dad still took wrong turns and we were finding the hotel at the side of the roads.  Eventually we did managed to find the hotel car park and parked the car, where we were able to rest finally.

What a day.... @_@!

Places visited:
Blue Mountain

Hotel Stayed:
Adge Boutique Apartment Hotel

Sun Moon Lake 日月潭, Taiwan Trip (Day 8)

24th November 2014, Monday

Tickets Package

Today, we were going to Sun Moon Lake. Had people saying it is nice place to go, so wanted to go see for myself and i also want to show my friend the tribal village of Taiwan. As it will be a long ride to the lake, we forced ourselves to wake up around 6 am to get ready. We went down to the hotel canteen to peek at the breakfast...hmmm...simple dishes, doesn't look so bad...but we skipped it anyway. So i went to confirm with the hotel staff on the direction to take tour bus (from Nantou Bus Company) to Sun Moon Lake. It was super near to our hotel, a few mins walk down the street. Once there, i bought the sun moon lake tickets package, which included the return bus tickets, the cable car (both way), the ferry ticket, the around the lake bus. It costs NT$680 each and the bus was to be leaving at 8.30 am. So we just waited there, as it was only 7 plus, my friend went to walk around by herself.....we didn't even have breakfast yet...

Ah Ma Herbal Tea Egg (Must Try!)

As the buses will just stop along the road, so the buses will come and passengers board and then leave. There wasn't much waiting time there, and you need to listen to the staff to shout for your places and they will tell you to start queuing at which spot. Finally, our bus came and it was full. We left Taichung exactly at 8.30 am and it was a 1 and half hour ride. We reached Sun Moon Lake Visitors Information Center at 10.00 am. Some of the passengers went for the around the lake tour bus, some went for the ferry. We just took our time to walk on the streets....hahahaa...We didn't go for the ferry or the cable car too (which was a mistake)...We went to walk a walking trail called Hanbei Trail. It was pretty much nobody walking that tail, but as we walked, we were about to enjoy the overview of the mountains and water....We passed by Chiang Kai-Shek's leisure fishing boat and his own use jetty, sun moon lake spillway, saw a distant view of LongFeng Temple. The last stop would be  Apricot Platform, where the grand teacher, Confucius had used to give lessons to his students. The whole trail was about 1 km distance, until we came out to the other side of the lake. There, we saw Ah Ma Herbal Tea Egg (only in Sun Moon Lake). It's abit different from our normal herbal tea egg, here they had boiled with mushroom or LingZhi (looked mushroom-like).....and this smelled better....

Main Gate of Longfeng Temple

And it only cost NT$10, so i bought 2 and let my friend try one. Anyway, we were both hungry and after the long walk....think dying already...hahaha..My friend likes it...said want to buy again....hehee...But we continued our way first to Longfeng Temple, which was like very very far away. And still need to walk a very steep road up to the entrance, by the time we reached the entrance, soooo tired already....There was a phoenix statue on the left side and a dragon statue on the right side and this temple was also the matchmarker god (the god who is in charge of pulling red threads for singles....so if you want to find a husband or wife, pray to this god..heheee) temple. A lady just slept in front of the matchmaker shrine, like very nice to sleep...hahahaa....We just walked around the temple and catch our breath...After this, we walked back down the same road and bought ah ma herbal tea eggs again...there were about 2 or 3 stalls selling Ah Ma herbal tea eggs, so we didn't really know which one was the real one, but it tasted nice to whichever stall we bought from....this time my friend ate 2 eggs and we got a red tea milk too....

Shueishe's Wharf

After eating, we walked back to the Shueishe's Wharf (there are actually 3 piers in the whole of sun moon lake) to catch our ferry because walking was not possible to cover the whole lake. So i went to exchange for the ferry tickets and got a stamp on our hands....As there were different ferry companies, so they will see the stamp on your hand to identify their passengers. Queued for the wrong ferry as i wasn't aware of it until the staff of the different ferry company came and checked and told us, we were waiting at the wrong place..... :P....Luckily our ferry came and we boarded. It was the biggest ferry of their company...and still there was a lot of people on board. There was a guide who gave some introduction on Sun Moon Lake as why was it being named as sun moon lake and some attractions that we passed by. It was in Mandarin, so i had to translate to my friend. The guide said one side of the lake looks like a cresent moon and one side of the lake looks like a sun (forget which side), so it was named as Sun Moon Lake...and he asked us whether we are able to see it, the people all answered no. Then he replied, all his years of growing there, he was also not able to see it...hohohooo....

玄光寺

Before reaching the 2nd pier, the guide told us at this pier, we can see 2 long queues, 1 was for Ah Ma Herbal Tea Egg (which i later learned that it costs NT$30 here), and another long queue was for toilet. And the guide told us not to queue on the wrong side if want to buy the herbal tea egg....hohoho...We alighted at the 2nd pier when Xuanguang Temple was located (Shouldn't alight at this pier, as it wasn't for the cable car)...There were more people here than on Shueushe's Wharf, faintz...Anyhow, we went up to Xuanguang Temple, which we need to climb stairs up too....tiring....
This small temple was built to honor a great Buddhist monk called Xuan Zhang, who had traveled from China to India to bring back Buddhist scriptures. Then outside the temple, you will see a queue, people lining up to take a photo with a big stone with "玄光寺" written on it. We didn't bother to line up for it and we walked down to another walking trail, which will lead us up to Xuanzang Temple. There was another stone display with words on the other side of the temple, people were also trying to take a photo with it. As we walked by, there was a figure craved out from the stone behind it....but nobody was even looking at the back of the stone. And when i was standing there, there was this stupid uncle just shooing me very loudly and rudely to go away so they can take photo of the stone....~_~....

Xuanzuan Temple

We ignored him (can't be bothered with him too) and began our Qinglong walking trail. It was a 0.8km trail but the road wasn't straight. It was uphill and downhill and stairs and more stairs....It was really very tiring to complete the trail and i think the difficulty of this trail was medium. Can't image on those hard trails... will faintz....I was so happy to reach to the top to see Xuanzhan Temple...need to catch my breath...There were 2 white giant elephants statues at the foot of the temple, on the center, there was a whole map indicating the places that Xuan Zhang had went during his great journey. Still need to climb a short stairs up to the entrance...haiz...but from there, we could see the whole of sun moon lake and the mountains...it was quite a nice view there....at near the entrance, there was these 2 machines, where you can put in a NT$10 coin and make a wish..and this little monk will go in to the small temple inside to get your divine lot..i think SG also has it before....I tried to get mine but my lot dropped when the monk was moving out...no luck in seeing my lot...haiz...Then we went to explore the temple. It was 3-storey high, on the 2nd floor, was the introduction on the different folds on the robes (5, 7, 15, 25 folds) which was being worn for different occasions and some of the Buddhist equipment. Luckily, all had English description, so i don't really have to do the translation. And on the 3rd floor, lies the tooth relic of Xuan Zhang. There was security alarms to protect it, so can't really walk near to it. Have to see the relic from the 2 TVs on the side of the walls. Photography was not allowed on the 2nd and 3rd floor, so wasn't able to take any photos there.

Divine Lot Machine

Then we went outside of the temple, there were 2 giant bells on each side. One will be sound in the morning which indicated the start of work and another will be sound at around 5.30 pm, which mark the end of work. Then we saw a group trying with the divine lot machine and the lady was able to get hers out. My friend said she will try...so we went and try....Aiyo...hers was still on the holding plate which the little monk was holding...no luck too.....i told her god's will....not meant for us to read.....After this, we walked back the same trail to go back the same pier for the ferry. So it was another 0.8km to xuanguang temple and stairs down the the pier. There were really a lot of people at the pier..all crowded there....Then the ferry came and this time we alighted at Ita Thao Pier, which was where the cable car station is. But it was already 3.30 pm, when we asked the staff in the visitors information center, we were told the tickets counter closed at 3.30 pm and the cable cars will stop at 4.00 pm. As i see there was still a distance away to the cable car station, so i thought just forget it....not point already....So we went walking on the streets to look for food....Managed to buy some souvenirs there and had nice yummy sausages. Had a rice stuffed in chicken wing snack too, came across a veggie bun where the auntie let people to take their own change. A lot of people were buying from her. It was yummy....

Sunset View

We walked until 4 plus, then we went back to the pier to take the ferry back to Shueishe's Wharf. There was a ferry there which we didn't managed to board, so we were just standing there, shooing away tiny flies which kept flying on top of our heads. From there, we still saw cable cars going up and down, we were thinking we should have went to the cable car station earlier on. It only came to a stop like around 5.00 pm. Then the ferry came and we all boarded it, luckily we sat on the outside because we managed to catch the sunset while we were on it.....it was very nice view...The guide was giving us an introduction on Ci En Pagoda which was built in memory of Chiang Kai-Shek's mother. And the guide also told us the cable car station was built using NT$10 millions and the government earned back in within a year time. After alighting, we walked back the Shueishe Visitors Information Center, where we checked on the return bus timing. There was already a queue for it, so my friend queued while i ran up to Mos Burger to buy drink for her. When i came back down, i don't see my friend anywhere. Apparently she just boarded the bus and was waving inside the bus to get my attention. The bus was also full at this time and there was 3 extra people standing. And the whole journey, one of the guy who was standing was leaning over my friend. My friend was soo pissed off...hehehee...The bus had to go to Puli, which was another bus terminal first before going back to Taichung. It was around an hour ride to Puli, when we arrived there, some people alighted and some stayed on and some new passengers boarded. The driver was like super pek chey, when talking to the bus terminal staff, he was like so angry that the 3 people who was standing didn't pay for their tickets. Later he went on the bus to check everyone's tickets. One of our tickets was showing Puli -> Sun Moon Lake, i thought the bus was going back to the lake again but those who had boarded with us from the lake didn't alight..so i thought it should be ok....

Mountain Pork Meat

When we reached our bus terminal, it was already 7 plus and we were both very tired. Saw a stall selling food, so we just bought our dinner from there and went back to our hotel to rest. The drumstick bento i bought wasn't nice...sad dinner...luckily bought a mountain pork earlier in the lake...wasn't too bad...at least still got something nice...My friend was complaining that the nearest we going to reach Taipei, the food wasn't so nice anymore...hahaha...After eating, it was shower and sleeping time...Zzzzz...


Hotel Stayed: VIP Hotel

Places Visited:
Sun Moon Lake