The Balik Kampung Trip: Roadtripping Part 2

Day 6: We had breakfast at our accommodation and made our way to Port Stephens. The journey was about 1.5 hours and our first stop there was Anna Bay for sand boarding. This is one of the tourist attractions at Port Stephens. We parked our car at the car park area and took a shuttle van from the car park area to the sand dunes area. This activity costs AUD20 for unlimited time. You can stay here as long as you want.

The sand dune area. It's steeper than meets the eye

When we reached the sand dunes area, it was nearly 11 in the morning and the sun started to give out its heat. At first, I was quite scared as the dunes looked so high but after a few tries I was enjoying myself. We had to climb up the hill, which was a bit tiring, and come down using the board that they provided us with. We stayed here until 1pm and by that time; we were the only ones at the dune area because it was so hot. We got sun burnt due to this activity.

All set to sand board. The red van at the back is the shuttle bus from the parking area to the sand dune area.

Weeeeeee...lookout, coming through

We then head to Nelson Bay for lunch and made our way down to Sydney which took about 3 hours.

Our view for lunch at Nelson Bay

Once we reached Sydney, we checked in at Malaysia Hall. After putting our stuffs in our room, we head out to Sydney CBD as this was our only chance to explore Sydney. We took the bus from the street across Malaysia Hall, which cost AUD3.60. We stopped at George Street and tried looking for the Mongolian Restaurant that Ciktie and I will visit every time we come to Sydney. However, the shop was no longer where it used to be; so we tried looking for other places to eat dinner as we were so hungry. We then settled for Halal Noodle Bar on George Street where I had dumpling for dinner as I was craving for it.

My yummylicious dumpling

After dinner, we walked along George Street heading towards Circular Quay and we bumped into the newlyweds here. They were bringing their family members who came to their wedding around. After that we head to Circular Quay to see the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge. We took photos around Sydney Opera House and took the last bus back to Randwick (Malaysia Hall) at 11.45pm. We were so tired by the time we reached Malaysia Hall and only managed to go to bed at 1.30am. It had been a long day.

Us with the new bride

Sydney Opera House. A must take photo in Sydney

Harbour Bridge. Another must take photo in Sydney

Day 7: We woke up for Subuh prayer and did laundry as we were running out of clean clothes. Despite sleeping late last night, we managed to check out from Malaysia Hall at 9.30am and head to Blue Mountains National Park. We first stopped at Wentworth Fall and did the Princes Rock-Undercliff-Wentworth Falls Circuit, which took us about 1.5 hours, return. This was the medium level walking track.

A photo before we start our walk

The route that we took

The view along the walking track

At the top of Wentworth Fall

After that, we drove to Echo Point to the rock formation called Three Sisters, which is a famous attraction at Blue Mountain. We wanted to go down the giant stairs and look at the Three Sisters up close, but we didn’t have much time as we didn’t book any accommodation at Newcastle where we will be staying for the night. If we reached Newcastle late at night the accommodation might be close like the one in Forster.

The Three Sisters. The icon of Blue Mountain

The entrance to The Giant Stairway. Putting it on my list for my next visit.

On the way to Newcastle, we stopped at a service center to have late lunch at Oporto before making our way to Newcastle. We managed to reach Newcastle as the sun was about to set. The first accommodation that we tried was a hostel called Backpacker on Beach; however, they were fully booked for the night. Luck was on our side as the next one that we went to have vacancy for the 4 of us. The place that we found shelter for the night was YHA Hostel Newcastle, which cost us AUD32 per person per night, and we managed to get a family room of four.

Beautiful sunset at Newcastle

Newcastle Beach

After putting our stuff in the room, we walked around the hostel. There was nothing much as the shops were already close at that time except for a convenience shop that was still open. The things that I liked about this place are they provide free Wi-Fi around the town area (A big yes as we don’t have to purchase the internet quota from the hostel) and free bus service to certain tourist attractions (but we didn’t have a chance to experience it as we were only here for the night).

A building in Newcastle. It looks like a city hall.

Yup, free Wifi.

Don't know what to do in Newcastle? Here's a list for you by Newcastle Beach YHA. We only ticked the second and fourth item on this list

We head back to the hostel to have dinner and on our way back to our room we bumped into a German guy who thought we were from Turkey. Maybe it was due to our headscarf, he knew a bit of Turkish, and he thought he could practise his Turkish with us. Sadly, none of us knew Turkish (even though Hana and I went to Turkey a few months back) and we told him that we’re from Malaysia. He is actually a student on uni break and decided to travel the world. He’s currently working part time while travelling around Australia. He also shared his working experiences and said it was tough trying to find a job that paid well to cover his living expenses and traveling needs. He was a friendly guy but I think he was a bit drunk.