[Edit: After almost a month, the report is finally complete =)]
Our money-saving route was SIN-JHB-KUL-OOL-BNE-SYD-KUL-SIN/JHB (for those of you who don’t speak IATA, its Singapore -> JB -> KL -> Gold Coast -> Brisbane -> KL -> Singapore) Our budget was AUD$1000 for everything including air tickets which I managed to achieve with change to spare! 
Well, here goes…
Day 0 : Singapore-JB-KL
Summary : We met up at Woodlands bus interchange, where our adventure would soon begin. Yihui and JC were late (by 45mins!) When all were accounted for, we took bus 950 to JB. On arrival at JB, we walked to City Square to rest before heading to the KTM station to board the train to KL.
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Day 1 : KL Sentral-Batu Caves-KLCC-KLIA
Summary : We arrived early (6+am) in the morning at KL Sentral (yes its spelled that way) and had breakfast at MacDonald’s (it was the only thing that was open). Then we proceeded to take the monorail and the bus to the Batu Caves! We climbed up the 272 steps to the entrance of the caves, where we had a spectacular view of KL City (and accumulated a litre or sweat as well). We stopped for drinks at the entrance before proceeding in to look at some divine statues and unruly monkeys! We then took 2 buses to go to KLCC (the twin towers), where we had lunch and some lite (window) shopping. We then took the LRT back to Sentral and a bus from there to LCCT (airport). There, we boarded our (delayed!) flight to gold coast.
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Day 2: Australian Landing! Viva La Gold Coast~
Summary: We touched down at in Gold Coast, Australia at 9.15am*…. (1hr 45mins late!!!) We then took the public bus to our hostel (the bus took an eternity to arrive!) but we overshot by a few kms and had to turn around and walk back. On the way, we saw a bistro and had brunch. By the time we reached the hostel, it was way to late to stick to our original plan, so we changed it. We took a SHOWER (our first in almost 2 days!), rested and dozed off for awhile. We later decided to walk around Gold Coast’s CBD and later went to the wax museum! It wasn’t exactly what we had in mind but its something new. We then had dinner and took a stroll along the highly coveted Gold Coast Beach, before heading back to the hostel for a good nights rest.
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Day 3 : Gold Coast -> Dream World -> Brisbane
Summary: We woke up at 5am to see the sun rise (the sun rises and sets almost 2 hrs earlier then in SG) at the beach (damm nice!) then we went back to freshen up and set out for breakfast. After which, we took a bus to Dream World! where we spent the day =) In the evening (after the theme park closed), we took a bus and train to Brisbane City! We took a (long) walk to our hostel (which we had alot of trouble finding) only to be told on arrival that it was full, so we headed for a hostel we saw on the way (not as good… but it was late and we were tired) so we settled for that. After dropping our bags, we had dinner at a pizzeria before heading back.
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Day 4: Brisbane – Sydney
Summary: We checked out early in the morning and headed out for breakfast at an eatery nearby. Following which, we had originally intended to head out to Mt. Coota, but missed the bus (by a few seconds) (and the next one was 1hr+ later!!!) As we had an early afternoon flight to catch, we ditched that plan and walked around the Brisbane CBD to City Hall, MarketPlace and the very disappointing flower-less Botanical Gardens. At about noon, we were supposed to go back to the hostel to get our bags and take the train to the airport, but we lost track of time and were almost 45mins late! We ran to the train station and later to the terminal and hurriedly tried to check in, lest we forfeit our tickets, only to be told that our flight was canceled (not delayed, not re-timed, CANCELED!)and went to Customer Service for ‘compensation’. They rebooked us on a Qantas flight departing 4hrs later then our original. (Great considering we paid a mere $58 and everyone else, upwards of $200. But bad since we were stuck in a tiny domestic airport lacking sorely in transit facilities.) We took off at 6.45pm (instead of the original 2.15pm) and arrived at Sydney at around 9pm where we hailed a cab to our hostel.
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Day 5: Bondi Beach -> Coogee -> DFO -> Sydney Harbour
Summary: We left for Bondi Beach early in the morning and took a (LONG) stroll to Coogee beach where we took in the breathtaking views. After lunch, we took a long bus and train and bus again ride to DFO Homebush (Factory Outlet Store). In the evening, we went to the famous harbour and saw the Oprah house and Bay Bridge.
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Day 6: Central + Chinatown + Blue Mountains!!!
Summary: We slept in late(r) and went to the CBD and Chinatown in the late morning. We had lunch at Chinatown mall before heading to Central Station and taking the train to Katoomba, Blue Mountains. We missed the Katoomba train by 30 seconds!! (and would have to wait an hour for the next) The ride to Katoomba was 2 hours long and you have to keep your ears wide open to listen out for the stop name which is announced manually by the driver when the train departs from the previous station (no announcement is made on arrival). We took a long walk to Katoomba Falls to see the 3 sisters and trekked around for abit. We took a long train ride back to Central and tried to walk back to our hostel. (instead of taking the 15min bus ride)
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Day 7: Sydney -> KL -> Seremban
Summary: We woke up, packed up had breakfast and walked out to the ‘main road’ to hail a cab to the airport, but couldnt find one that would take us as there were 5 of us. So we had to call a cab from the public phone… We checked in and ate lunch before going into the restricted area for Duty Free shopping. We boarded our jetstar flight to KL. The seats were SO comfortable that we fell asleep shortly after take off, when we woke up, we watched Juno and an Australian Comedy (something like Friends or Little Britain, just aussie style). After landing in KL, Rachel called her aunt, who picked us up from the airport and took us to dinner near her grandmothers place. After dinner, her aunt drove us to Seremban train station where we took our KTM train.
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Day 8: Seremban -> (JB -> ) Singapore
Summary: (In the middle of the night, Rachel got robbed. details on her blog) Yihui and I alighted at JB station and went tried to take a bus across the causeway to no avail.. the queue is not followed and people just ran and surrounded the buses when they are approaching the bus bay. We waited for 3 buses and gave up as we was unable to push our way through the determined M’sians desperate to shove their way onto the buses by pushing people out of it. In all cases, the bus doors couldnt close, so the bus officers had to ask those hanging on the doors to alight (took quite awhile, since they pleaed and argued like their lives depended on it). So we ended up walking across the causeway with a load on our backs. After getting through Singapore Customs, we managed to hop onto bus 950 to the MRT station and took the train home.
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-The End-
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Alighting at Woodlands Checkpoint
Timer shot on the way to City Square…
We went to city square to buy water, grab some food and use the toilet, before crossing the bridge to the train station
The JB train station
Timer at the station
the train on the opposite track, heading to Singapore
The JB station Sign Board.
Yihui taking photos of my taking photos
posing on the train
rach, jc n me
px n yihui
self explanatory
the train
some no-name station that was outside my window when i woke up
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