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

Himeji 姫路, Japan Trip (Day 7)

10th March 2017, Friday

Today was a travel-alone day for me as i had planned to head down to Himeji from Osaka. As my friends had not decided where to go, so i went ahead to prepare my day trip. I left the hotel before them and headed down to the main train station. The train staff had gave a 10 mins later train, which i hurried to buy my breakfast and rushed up to the platform in time. It was a 45 mins ride from Osaka to Himeji, so i reached there around 9.45 am. Then i went to the tourists information area to get some travel information.

From the train station, i could the super white castle, which is the Himeji castle from a distance. Then i walked to the bus terminal to get the bus tickets to Mt Shosha. From the bus terminal, i had to take a bus to the ropeway terminal and from the ropeway terminal, i had to take the ropeway up to the top of the mountain. All in all, it took 1 hour plus to reach the mountain. When i reached the ticket counter, there was one monk to ask the visitors whether to take bus or walk. It costed around 1000 yen for the bus ride up to the temple. Alternatively, it cost 500 yen to walk on your own up. So i chose to walk on my own up.

It was quite interesting to walk on the path up, there were many Guan Yin statues in different forms along the path and each of them had a donation box in front of it. When i reached halfway, there was a spot where i can see Himeji city below. It was quite a great sight and the best was it was super quiet on the mountain. There was not a single soul or car around (but it can get a little scary)...hahaaa....I could only hear sound of some birds and wind blowing. I took a long time to reach the first hall. There were many different rooms along the way, however, the rooms were not opened. There was also a hall with 33 buddha statues in it. There was a small shop selling some food and there were a small group of people around. After which, i continued walking for my exploration. I reached an area where there were 3 halls sitting side by side. One of the halls was a student hall and there were 2 students studying there. One hall had some exhibits on the 2nd floor and oh man, it was cold with my shoes off. Beside it, there was a tomb of hondas, where there were about 6 shrines in it.

After that, i tried to walk to the highest peak and i should have taken a walking stick with me. It was quite tiring hiking that mountain. Luckily, my friends didn't join me today...think they will start scolding me...hahaaa....I spent my whole morning walking around the mountain but i think there were many places i had missed it. I headed back to the ropeway station around 1 pm and there were a group of children waiting for the ropeway. So i waited for the next trip, by the time i reached back to the bus terminal, it was around 2.30 pm.

Shoro Bell Tower

Hokke-Do

View from the Peak

Only eating place

As the closing time for Himeji castle was around 5 pm, i had to walk quickly to the castle. I bought the ticket and went in for my adventure. It was grand and it was very white, with the blue sky in the background. And it was very big...even bigger than Osaka castle. It consisted of 1 big keep and 2 small keeps and a super long corridor surrounding the castle. The main keep had 6 levels and i had to take off my shoes to go up each level and carry my shoes around. It was crowded inside too and saw a drunk uncle on one of the floors. There were plenty of history on the castle and its ground. The surrounding walls had triangle, rectangle and circle shapes and it was meant that the holes are meant for weapons like bow & arrows, guns to attack the enemies. There were also stories like a grandma had donated her hand mill stone to the Castle Lord, Hashiba Hideyoshi at the time of building the castle. There was also a stone coffin whereby it was unearthed from a burial ground and used in a stone wall during the original construction of the castle. Inside the main keep, there were rooms to keep their weapons and a super small warriors hiding room.

Himeji Castle

To defend the castle

Hand Mill Stone

Stone Coffin

Weapons Shelfs

Warriors Hiding Room

After which, i headed to one part of the corridor where there were rooms showing the life of Princess Sen but there was not enough time for me to complete all as it was almost to the closing time. After the castle tour, i walked back to the train station and bought a few of souvenirs at the shops opposite the castle. Bought a lot of the gold coins there too and missed my return train. I wasn't sure the closing time of the JR office, so i was rushing back to the train station to get a return ticket to Osaka. There was a ramen shop that looked nice but was unable to try it. When i finally reached the JR office, it was still open and managed to get a return ticket.

So i ended up eating in one of the eatery in the station. I reached Osaka at around 8 plus and my friends had not returned from their day trip. I finally bought the famous Osaka gyoza to try....hohoho....They had actually traveled back to Kyoto for shopping....hahaa....Hence, i reached the hotel earlier and had my hot shower. When the two came back, they had bought a lot of goodies back...heheee

Hotel Stayed:
Yamatoya Honten