Balkans (2018): A Day Trip to Blagaj Tekija, Počitelj, Kravice Falls & War Tour

On the second day in Mostar, I decided to sign up for a full day Herzegovina tour from the local. At least this is one ideal way to support the local economic development. I booked the Miran Tour, which is highly recommended not just by Wikitravel but as well on the Lonely Planet book too. This is the most popular tour that offer great-value classic sights driving to a selection of key rural sites around Mostar.   

Earlier, I sent an email to Hostel Miran (this hostel just few steps away from where I stayed) to enquiry about this tour but they said it's best to come and check at least a day earlier to see whether is there any sufficient number of people sign up for this tour. I almost gave up cause they were still unsure until almost 5pm, they confirmed that they had gather enough number of people for this tour. Or else, I might ended taking the tour which I spotted in Mostar Old Town. 

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Balkans (2018): Sarajevo to Mostar By Train & Stari Most

There are few things I would like to share about Bosnia and Herzegovina (usually shortened to BiH) to which I didn't manage to share in my previous post:

1) Visa - As for Malaysian citizens, visa is not required to travel to BiH for visits up to 90 days. 

2) National currency is known as Bosnian Convertible Marks (KM/BAM). However, in certain places you can pay with Euros as long as you agree to their decent own conversation rate (€1 = 2KM/BAM)

3) The most populated and visited cities of BiH which are Sarajevo and Mostar. Since I done with my post on Sarajevo, so now I'm going to blog about Mostar.

FROM SARAJEVO TO MOSTAR

In order to get to Mostar from Sarajevo, there are two options available; either travel via bus or train. Initially I plan to take bus but when I realised the sun rose as early as 5am, at the end I decided ride on the earliest train. The reason behind it's because this train journey claimed to offer the best river scenery ever by most of the travellers who experienced it.

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Balkans (2018): 48 Hours in Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina

Quite a number of my friends and blog readers requested me to blog about this trip first instead of the rest. I guess most of them are more interested with my Europe trips compare to the other of trips of mine.

Before I proceed any further, let me share my actual flight route first: 

Kota Kinabalu → Singapore → Istanbul with Singapore Airlines

I will blog more about my trip around Istanbul once I done with Bosnia & Herzegovina and Croatia travelogues first.

FROM ISTANBUL TO SARAJEVO 

After staying for a night in Istanbul, I moved on to Sarajevo, the capital city of Bosnia & Herzegovina. The only mode of transportation to travel between these two cities are by flying. My friend advised me to search from Pegasus Airlines and I did, so at the end I got my ticket for 275 Turkish lira which including 20kg of baggage allowance. Bear in mind there are two different airports in Istanbul; Ataturk Airport and Sabiha Gokcen Airport. Make sure to check your airport cause these two airports are situated quite far away from each other. As for my case, my flight depart from Sabiha Gokcen Airport and I took Havabus from Taksim (one of notable Istanbul spots). You can check out for more here. 

Because Pegasus Airlines is a Turkish low-cost airlines, which is similar to AirAsia, there is no complimentary meal being served unless you are willing to pay extra. After almost 2 hours on board, finally I landed in another new country again. Frankly speaking, I was quite anxious and nervous cause I didn't know much about Bosnia, except for the heartbreaking civil war of the 1990s but deep in my heart, I told myself, "Hey, this is not your first solo trip to Europe. You did it last year!". That's how I comfort myself. 

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Summary of My 9D8N Australia Melbourne & Sydney (2017) Travel Expenses & Travelogues

At last, I managed to complete another of my backlog travelogue - Australia (2017): Melbourne & Sydney.  I know it took me more than a year to blog about this but then, it's better late than nothing, right. 

MY TRAVEL EXPENSES

For this round, I began with sharing my travel expenses breakdown first. For your information, this is my favourite part to share. Once an accountant, always an accountant. I can conclude that almost everything within our budget; like I budget our stay for RM150 and below per night, food allocation RM100 per day but however, there's one thing for sure which it's hard for me to control is spending for shopping. I tend to buy more supplements and vitamins compare to my previous trips to Australia.

PARTICULARS	AMOUNT
	AU$	RM
Airfares KUL – Melbourne via AirAsia Sydney – KUL via AirAsia Add: Luggage Melbourne – Sydney via Jetstar Accommodation Arrow on Swanston (Melbourne) – 3 nights Carisbrook Cottage  – 1 night Lido Suites Hotel (Sydney) – 4 nights Melbourne Car Rental Apex Car Rental Fuel & parking Searoad Ferries Transportation Within City Taxi & Uber around Melbourne Myki Melbourne Taxi around Sydney Opal Card Sydney Admission Fees Puffing Billy Scenic World Featherdale Wildlife Park Koala Encounter Food & Beverages Melbourne Sydney Others Australia ETA Visa Optus Sim Card 3S - Souvenirs, supplements & snacks	- - - - - - - - - - 24.25 - 16.00 - 40.00 54.00 39.00 31.00 20.00 170.00 100.00 - 20.00 354.00	301 523 192 347 410 132 528 78 68 80 130 52 102 130 176 128 102 65 555 327 25 65 1,155
TOTAL (RM)		5,671

Exchange Rate:
AUD1 = RM3.26 as at September 2017

MY TRAVEL HAUL
As for the things I bought throughout my trip:


#1: Chocolates, biscuits, coffee, tea and more food


#2: Perfumes, supplements and vitamins

#3: Caps and tissue holder from Paddy's Market of Sydney and as for hoodie, it bought from Queen Victoria Market of Melbourne. 

#4: Sweater and body lotion from Big Q department store

SUMMARY OF MY TRAVELOGUE 

Day 1: 20th May 2017
Touched down Melbourne Tullmarine Airport and wandered around Melbourne city

Day 2: 21st May 2017
Puffing Billy

Day 3: 22nd May 2017
Road trip to Great Ocean Road

Day 4: 23rd May 2017
Continue to Mornington Peninsula

Day 5: 24th May 2017
Leaving Melbourne to Sydney 

Day 6: 25th May 2017
Blue Mountains - The Three Sisters & Scenic World

Day 7: 26th May 2017

• Sydney City Tour
• Vivid Sydney Festival

Day 8: 27th May 2017
Featherdale Wildlife Park

Day 9: 28th May 2017
Leaving Australia

Extra Post:

• Desserts & Cafes in Melbourne 

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2017 Australia: Vivid Sydney Festival

What's the main reason behind causing me to visit Sydney for the third time? 

Simple - it's all because of Vivid Sydney Festival. It's Australia's largest event held annually which involving lights, music, colours and ideas. As the sun sets beyond the horizon, the whole city of Sydney gets drenched in colourful light installations and projections for more than three weeks between end of May to early of June. 

That's explain why I purposely booked my ticket to visit Australia end of May last year solely to witness myself of this creative and most-awaited lighting festivals. Finally another thing checked off from my bucket list. 

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2017 Australia: Featherdale Wildlife Park, Sydney

If you are planning to visit Sydney and intending to get up close and personal with Australian wildlife, there are few choices to cater your need and preference such as Taronga Zoo, Wild Life Sydney and Featherdale Wildlife Park. After read through all the comments and feedbacks, I decided to go ahead with my choice - visit Featherdale Wildlike Park. 

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2017 Australia: From Melbourne to Sydney & Places of Interest in Sydney

Day 1: Landed Melbourne and wandered around Melbourne CBD

Day 2: Riding on the Puffing Billy train 

Day 3: Road-tripping to Great Ocean Road

Day 4: Continue road trip to Mornington Peninsula and return to Melbourne CBD

As for the day 5, right after we had our breakfast in Naughty Boy Cafe, we went back to our apartment in order to pack and get ready to the airport. It's time to hit Sydney, again! Yes, again for the third time. They said the third time is the charm and I'm absolutely agreed on this. Why? I will share more on the next few blog post. 

FROM MELBOURNE TO SYDNEY 
Once again, we hired taxi straight to the airport from our apartment since each of us was carrying huge luggage with us. In case you are not pressed by time, you can consider to travel from Melbourne to Sydney via road by self-drive which takes about 8 to 9 hours, or even by train where the travelling time is around 12 hours. Due to limited of time, my friends and I can only opted to travel via plane. There are four airlines provide services from Melbourne to Sydney directly; Jetstar, Tigerair, Virgin Australia and Qantas. So far, I found Jetstar offers the cheaper deal and we got AU$97 for one way trip from Melbourne to Sydney, including 20kg of baggage allowance.

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