Going Australia! : Surfers Paradise

Following yesterday's frantic ROM, me and my darling are going Australia!

Yes! A much awaited trip aboard... away from this little fishtank. Heheh this is my first time to Australia! My friends, families, colleagues had all been there so many times that they can spell it backwards, and some had gone over there to live permanently. :) But I have not been there before! :( I gotta go there and have a look.

We took the Qantas flight to Brisbane, follow by a minibus to Gold coast, Surfers Paradise. The whole place look so cool, so relaxed, as if every weekend, the locals (both native and immigrants) drove their boats down to the beach and spent the day lazing around the deck, somewhere along the coastline waters. This kind of life! So different from that back home! No wonder so many of my friends had decided to leave for Australia for good!

We spent 3 days moving around Gold Coast. Going to the artificially created Dreamworld, Movieworld. We had the chance to hike from the Harbourtown shopping arcade to the Australian Fair. Walking past numerous rows of houses, parks, traffic junctions, etc. Experiencing the community in Gold Coast. We also spend time touring around the thousands of shops and restaurants, flacking the coast.

The place struck us with unbelieved at first, as it looked so Asian! Everywhere we turned our heads, we see asians! Chinese, Hongkongers, Koreans, Japanese, Malaysians, .... So many restaurants by Hongkongers and Malaysians. Asian languages can be heard almost everywhere. I totally don't have that feeling of being in an alien land (like that feeling I had when I was in Salzburg), and feel right at home.

We went for a fanstastic night tour at the Natural Bridge nature reserves. We saw many glowworms (which were the main attraction for the tour) around that area. Unfortunately didn't get to see the Natural Bridge in the day. I'll defintely plan to come back to Gold Coast. That time, I shall opted to stay in the mountains. There are lots of beautiful sights and scenes in the mountains. I shall resume my favorite hobby of hunting waterfalls... and adding them to my new geopad. :) (errr.... its still a secret now lah.)

On the 3rd day, we decided to try something astonishing different. We shall cook our own dinner. :) Our hotel room was really well equipped and stocked! Each room comes with its own kitchen piece, complete with microwave oven, plates, utensils, and even a dishwasher! Not to put such facilities to waste, we went to the supermarket downstairs and bought fried rice and hotdogs.

Microwaving them in the oven, we prepare our very own, homemade, dinner. We ate our dinner at the balcony, overlooking the beach and much of the skyline of Surfers Paradise. So romantic...

I'll leave for Sydney tomorrow... and then Melbourne. Will continue from there again. :)