Let’s talk more about what I planned for Sydney, Melbourne and Bali(?)

Trip Plans

SYDNEY

First day – SG-SYD

My day will start at Changi. Flight’s at 2am, and it might be another test of patience. It’s nearly 8 hours in a plane, longer than my trips from Singapore to Japan and South Korea. So I am planning for it by ensuring I can actually sleep. See, in all the flights I had with 3+ hours, I have never managed to sleep for more than 2 hours. Either the flight’s populated with crying children, or the time wasn’t conducive to sleeping, or I ordered in-flight meals and the cart came in while I was nearly asleep. But this time, my flight will be at the wee hours of the morning.

I started with ensuring my plane seat is reserved. Window seats are the priority. So I paid extra while booking the flights at Trip to ensure I get a window seat at the left side of the plane. This guarantees I can lean onto the left window side and not worry about somebody on that part. I also plan to have a bottle of water plus some granola and energy gels in my carry-on to help any hunger pang during the flight – I didn’t book in-flight meals for the trip. I will be bringing my neck pillow, should be a decent cushion. I also bought earplugs and an eye mask. I’ll also wear a facemask, except with the nose sticking out, just covering the mouth. This should ensure any possibility of snoring and/or errant drooling will be mitigated. I am really determined to sleep on the plane, as the activities I planned for the second day are vital and I do not want to oversleep. Any good sleep I can get the day before, I’ll get – even if it’s in a plane.

I am still mighty undecided if I’ll bring my Nintendo Switch to the trip. On the plus side, I have an instant entertainment option in case of a short time lull, on the negative side it’s a kilo-and-a-half of bulk plus an extra-long USB-C cable to charge it with. This might be a call I have to make on the night before. On a side note, I already paid for my preorder of the Switch 2 with the local Toy or Game store, so I’ll pick it up on the 30th before I head home. Man… I am drooling to play BOTW again.

By the time I arrive, I assume around 11am Sydney time, plus whatever extra hour I spend in the airport for passing through the immigration line, I’ll take the train to Central Station. I gave generous estimates for it as I also want to have my lunch, so I assume I can arrive at my hotel by 2pm. I estimate check-in and stuff for one hour tops.

I only have one activity booked for the day. But before that, if time serves me very well, I plan to squeeze in one small detour – a jaunt to the University of Sydney’s gift shop. Penchant has kind of started with the South Korea trip – I dropped by two of their top universities (Korea University and Yonsei) to buy pens, notebooks and other items like t-shirts, mugs and tote bags. Basically I went for the intelligent and classy kind of souvenirs. Same here that I plan to do in Sydney – buy stuff at a university gift shop.

Once I do clear those, I booked myself for the Sydney Tower Eye by the afternoon. Around 5-6pm would be ideal to see the sunset, at least. I can skip the university stuff if time gets a little dodgy anyway. I can do it by the other days. But at least I could squeeze in Sydney Tower Eye to make the day more useful.

After that, I estimate I’m done with it by 6-7pm. Dinner might be a bit iffy, so I might either do a walk down Darling Harbour to look for anything that suits my fancy, or drop by any of their big supermarket chains to get ready-made meals I can eat in a few minutes. Preferably light fare like potato salad or a couscous mixed salad. I need quick options, for the next day is a doozy and a half and I need the energy and time for it. And maybe some additional sleep. Targeting a 9pm sleep time.

Second day

This time, I plan to wake up by 3am. Extra early for an extra fun day, I hope. I plan to be at the Central Station before 4am to ensure I’ll be in Katoomba by around 7am-8am. Originally there was a direct BMT train line from Central Station to Katoomba, however a day ago I read that there was maintenance activities to be done in certain early day hours at the weekend time I planned to go that route. Google says there’s a viable pathway via Penrith, so I still have choices but now I have to account for the extra stop. I plan to have breakfast there in Katoomba – maybe a quick bite of bread or a decent meal, but I can either skip it or opt for light stuff like a convenience store protein drink. This is something I learned in my trip to Ayutthaya where I deliberately did not eat that much in the morning so I can avoid Number 2s during the better parts of the trip. Once done, I am to get my bus and Scenic World passes from this tourist bus company booth near the train station by 8-9am. Then, I can ride the bus to Echo Point. I assume I will be among the very first passengers of the day.

I did have a look at the bus schedule, and they run a loop at Katoomba and Leura, stopping at each station around 30-1hr intervals. The HOHO bus ride might’ve been a bit expensive given the relative affordability of the local transport system there, but I did have a look at the local bus options at Katoomba as well, and they were good but unpredictable in availability times or routes. In my mind, I basically paid for a guaranteed bus option that has only one looped route and will certainly take me to my planned destinations in certain time, but the local bus transport will still be there as a fallback. I lumped it in as transport insurance expense. I’m in a new country and I have only a Googler’s familiarity with the transport, so I would rather be overprepared than underprepared. Overprepared hurts a bit in the wallet, but underprepared hurts your entire trip or your entire day.

Once I had my fill of Echo Point’s main views (and maybe a quick look at the souvenir shop), I’ll take a bus to Scenic World. This one I intend to enjoy with minimal rushing. I had numerous looks at all the Blue Mountains tours in Agoda, Klook and Trip that involved Scenic World, and a majority of them pegged the whole SW experience at 90 minutes tops. But I watched a lot of vloggers that did the Scenic World through a touring company and a large lot of them was hurrying from one spot to another lest they miss a ride. One blogger even recounted that their tour details got shaved of time because some elderlies overestimated their sweet-ass time. The 90 minute limit sure flies fast. For me, I’d take the rides in a liberally brisk fashion. No panicked rushing, I plan to do all the attractions there as fast but as leisurely as possible, plus my free time at their souvenir shop. I’m targeting a full 2 hours there, maybe earlier if things get smooth – can’t brush off the queues, those can either eat or save time.

After that, here’s where things get optional. Leura’s nice but for me it’s just a “nice to see but doesn’t kill me inside if I didn’t” stop, thus I designed it as my cross-off. The HOHO bus’ route tailend includes Leura Station, so for me, if time gets a bit dicey – for example, I lose track of time at Scenic World – I can just ride a local bus straight to Katoomba Station and go to the train. Else, if I have 30-40 minutes or so to spare, I’d definitely take a few snaps of Leura Village, then take the train instead at Leura.

Once at the train, my final stop of the day is at Parramatta Wharf, I plan to ride a ferry from there to Circular Quay. I’ll make a stop at the Parramatta Station and take a walk to the wharf. But in the grand scheme, I also pegged this as an “optional” time-dependent ride, as I had a look at the most recent timetable for the wharf ride route to Circular Quay, and it’s set at around 3.30-4pm, so if I would potentially miss that target by the time I finish the Scenic World part, I’d rather just do Leura Village for a bit and then from Leura, go back to Sydney CBD’s Central Station. Again, ferry is nice to do but it won’t pain me to miss it. The other option is at 6pm, but heck, that ferry also ends nearly 8pm.

I could just make it easy for myself with money, just surrender and pay for the 150+ SGD custom-itinerary Blue Mountains tour companies that do it by car, but that’s definitely a rush job. They likely crammed in itineraries to make the package look great but they could also conveniently shave off time from those whenever necessary. One vlogger recounted that they were so strapped for time, by the hour they got to Sydney Zoo, they just lined up to feed some animals, take for-IG photos, and they got shuffled off quick to Parramatta for the ferry ride. Another blogger noted that their tour had a “varies” itinerary – the tour could’ve done either Featherdale Wildlife Park or Sydney Zoo depending on time, and they ended up with Featherdale. For me, I’d rather just do mainly Echo Point and Scenic World, everything else in my plans would be a happy accident if they just fall in place for me to do. I am eyeing another zoo anyway, zero interest in doing two zoos in Sydney.

I couldn’t compare it that much to the tours I had in Ayutthaya and Beitou, as both the tour guides there did some sly management with time – they told us things like, “we start now at 2pm, be back at the car point by 2.40pm” but their tolerance point is actually until 3pm, they just made it so that we the foreigners would have a sense of urgency with time and they have ample time to eye us and signal the time to go. And just saying – the tours were very affordable for what they provided. We didn’t miss any stops, and each stop was given decent time. That’s the big difference. The penny-pincher in me winced when I saw the cost of those Blue Mountains tours and kind of gotten more wary the more I researched about it. Echo Point and Scenic World should suffice.

After CBD, I have no concrete plans in mind, as I assume it’ll be 5-6pm by the time I disembark the ferry or get to the Central Station, and most attractions have either closed shop or closed for entry (technically open but not allowing entry anymore). Maybe if sunset’s nice I might look for a late spot to have a quick dinner.

Plan is to be back at the hotel by 8pm, and asleep by 9pm.