Our stay in Katoomba, Blue Mountains, Australia

by - 4/15/2019


Usually when we visit a particular city, we always make sure to venture out in its suburbs or countryside. The fact is that you can never get a real feel of a region from the city. A city is always a much refined, polished and a modernized face of the region. Even if the region is the super developed New South Wales, Australia! You can't possibly imagine getting a feel of NSW from exploring Sydney! Can you judge Mathura by visiting Delhi? No! It's always the countryside that is more natural and beautiful and hence real.
 So Blue mountains which is usually a day trip from Sydney, made it to our list. We wanted to explore NSW beyond Sydney and also sake to explore the mountains there. Therefore, instead of a day trip, we decided to spend a night in the mountains. And that decision was the best, ever.
Like the rest of our Australian trip, here too we booked our accommodation through Air B n B. But we didn't expect such a beautiful home there.
We booked our stay in Katoomba, the place of Three Sisters and the most famous part of Blue mountains. We reached there in the afternoon, after our visit to the Featherdale Sanctuary. The moment we stepped out of the Katoomba railway station, we fell in love with the mountain air!
Our place was quite a walk on the hilly terrain. However the surroundings were so gorgeous and pretty that I just couldn't get enough of them. Sloping roof houses (these are really rare in India) with perfectly manicured gardens all around. The best part? No two houses were alike. Every spot provided a postcard like photo opportunity.
And then we were bowled when we reached our place. The host had left a message that the key was under the footmat. We were in love from the front yard itself. Our bedroom had a huge bush of roses clambering all over.

The interiors were even prettier. The foyer and the living room looked straight out of my favorite interior website. And the library! My oh my ....that was Serious Goals! I am sure bibliophiles like me and my mom would have gone Gaga!
I won't describe the place further as I would let the pictures do the talking. However the ending was not so good. Our host Mrs Mader was a very cold and rude person. Our inference was that she must be used to dealing with Australians only. Since very few Indians visit Katoomba, we are sure that we were her first guests from this part of the world. I usually refrain from negativity on my blog but this time I tried to give a clearer picture. The place was indeed gorgeous but it was our worst b n b experience ever. She made us feel absolutely unwelcomed and unwanted. 
We thought that her negativity would subside after repeated attempts of friendship from our side. But she straightaway refused to talk to us and slammed the door of the living room on our face. 
But the last straw was that she falsely accused us of stealing her towel. I don't want to utter this but she was purely racist. Her bad behaviour and of course the stealing accusation spoilt our mood and not only the entire journey to Sydney was gloomy but it took quite some time to get back to our original holiday flavour.
As if it wasn't enough, she wrote negative reviews of us on the B n B website. I still can't swallow the fact that there actually exists hatred for people like us by the white men even today.
This is a perfect example that you simply can't make a beautiful house 'Home Sweet Home'.

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14 comments

  1. Cool place awesome pictures doll.

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  2. Wow this looks like a great place to visit and I really loved your pics will share with my friend who is planning to visit here soon

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  3. Oh no that’s terrible! However, it’s good you’ve written about this experience on your blog because people deserve to know.
    Noor Anand Chawla

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  4. Look like a great place for staycation,will definitely share it with my extended family who are in Sydney

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  5. I always love reading your travel blogs...loved the pictures and the way you have described the place !

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  6. You are right when you that one needs to visit the countryside to get a real feel of a place. Looking at the pictures of the place you stayed at in Katoomba, I was thinking how beautiful it was and then I came to the part about the rude and racist behaviour of the host and was shocked. It is right of you to write about this as it is helps others.

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  7. place look so beautiful and love to visit the Australia. your stay is really in a beautiful place. I fell in love with it

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  8. The pictures are AMAZING and makes me wish to pack my bags and head to Australia.

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  9. It's so disheartening to see that at this age also such negative and confined mindset exist. Anyway, world is diverse I am sure you have met with good people too in your trip.

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  10. So true explore the local go beyond the known and popular to get the real taste of the things. But really sad to know about your bnb experience.

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  11. Mandira you have raised such an important issue here in your blog. if you are traveller you need to visit the countryside to get a real feel of a place . I love your pictures and your experiences is a great learning for us readers.

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  12. The place looks so beautiful. And i like the fact that no too houses were identical. This is a must visit place.

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  13. This surely looks like a place which worth visiting, loved the images you have shared above, plus its location excites me more to visit this place.

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  14. Wow.. this looks like a gorgeous place. My next trip is planned to Sydney so i may check this out too.. thanks for the insights

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