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It's our penultimate day in Sydney. Time to venture further afield. We are off to the Blue Mountains. There are a number of ways to get there mostly involving giving tour companies large wads of dosh. We decided to go on the train. A quick hop from Central Quay to Central and then a return ticket To Katoomba. It was 2 hours each way but we thought it would be a pleasant trip.
It was probably one of the worst train trips ever. A snail pace train which stopped at about 20 stations and went through some of the most depressing scenery. Before I forget I must digress a little and mention Aussie place names. We watched the news this morning and weren't sure if we had tuned into a kids show. Apparently it had been raining very hard in wanga wanga this had caused the woomalooloo river to flood. The residents of Gumli Gumli were bracing themselves. How she kept a straight face I'll never know.
Anyway 2 hours of looking at the backs of peoples houses later. Incidentally for a country with so much land why do they build houses so close to each other. Oh and not one had a swimming pool. Another myth exploded.
We arrived in Katoomba which looks like it caught the edge of a nuclear explosion. A bit of a dump. We got on the bus and headed out of town. To be fair the blue mountains are very scenic and we had some lovely walks. The bus driver had to admit they are not really mountains but a plateau with dips. They are though the most accessible bit of bush for Sydney residents. We have also been spoiled during our drive through Canada and our earlier trip to the Andes.
We arrived back late to the hotel so we ate and had an early night. Next morning was our last in Sydney. We went down to check out at 11am. The nice girl printed the bill and handed it to me to check. 'Yep, looks about right' I said. 'But, what are the 8 mini bar entries for yesterday?'
'Those are items you've had from the mini bar' she said knowingly.'I haven't had anything from the mini bar' I said. 'what are the items?'
' A bottle of cola, crisps,nuts, a bottle of red wine, a bottle of white wine and three chocolate bars…..in fact you seem to have eaten the whole mini bar'
' I think that's wrong , don't you? I don't use mini bars, they are a con' I said. Over came the manager. Nice chap. He agreed to remove it from the bill but still had that tone which says 'I think you did have it'
So we paid the bill minus the empty mini bar. Still its an ill wind as they say. While they were trying to over charge us for the mini bar they forgot to charge us for the internet access. Result.
Anyway, overall we liked Sydney.
Off to the airport we headed. It's a big airport not like some 'International airports' which are a big shed. We went to the Qantas desk to check in. 'Could we have extra leg room seats?' I enquired. 'Certainly sir, they are $80 extra each'. Oh well it is an 8 hour flight. As I reached for my wallet she said 'hold that you have been given better seats'. Result.
As we headed for airside, Jill said 'I think she said we have been upgraded.' The check in lady had a very strong Chinese accent and I hadn't quite heard. I didn't think she had said upgrade. I thought she said we had been given door seats.
Anyway it's the usual kill 2 hours before boarding. It was a 747 and when we got to our seats. Yippeeee business class seats. We were like kids with a new toy. 20 different buttons to play with. They could lay completely flat and vibrated. I can see why people fly business. It takes all the stress out of it.
8 hours later we are in Singapore. The flight was so comfy and the nice man kept pouring us wine. We wanted to go round again !!
Our hotel is nice. We even got a room upgrade here. Its late now. Tomorrow we will explore Singapore.
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