Aussieland

Hi guys!  For those who are anticipating my adventure, here it is!  Knock yourselves out.

I made sure I weighed myself before the trip, as a week's worth of good food may disagree with my body.  And thus begun my week-long trip to Australia.  I must admit I was psyched, since I was only a toddler when I last went there.  My family of five, with my grandmother had to endure an 8-hour flight from Kuala Lumpur to Gold Coast.  Since it was nighttime, sleep wasn't much of an issue; restlessness was though.  Day one was mediocre, since we didn’t do much that stood out.  We got on the plane, ate on the plane (twice), got off the plane, and into some stuck up tourist.  Same same.  

The airport officers were super nice, as they apologized thoroughly when they didn’t grant us a “fast pass” for immigration, since my grandmother was using a wheelchair.  And it was really sunny, with no clouds, so even though the ground temperature was 21 degrees, it was more like 31 degrees.  The time difference was 2 hours ahead of Malaysia's, meaning to say 8 am Malaysian time would be 10 am Gold Coast time (Sydney is an hour earlier so it would be 11 am).  My parents rented a car for this trip so that we can be more mobile and drove from the airport to the hotel.  Unlike Malaysia however, Wi-Fi is pretty scarce here and the hotel only offers a day worth of free Wi-Fi.  Otherwise, it’s a whopping 15 dollars for a day’s worth of usage.

I realized that there’s a large difference in Australian roads (and traffic for that mention) as compared to the Malaysian one.  For one, they place dotted markers on the road wherever you can make a turning, so that you stay in your lane and others stay in theirs. They have a multitude of roundabouts instead of crossroads with traffic lights, and proper signs to mention exits and even merging lanes!  But I guess since they have large spaces, they can afford to give autonomy to the drivers.  Not to mention the locals have what I personally deem to be 90% of the perfect gene as I- umm...   enjoyed the view.  But nevermind that!

After checking in, we went to Carrara Market, something like a Petaling Street of Malaysia.  The food was good!  We had mini pancakes with ice cream and maple syrup as well as Doner kebab, which is a burrito-like meal with the meat being a mixture of lamb and beef.

 So much yum...

Later we headed to Pacific Fair (a shopping complex) and bought groceries for the week.  Liang got his shades, which officially makes him the doppleganger of Muscle Glasses from Epic Meal Time (refer to Youtube).   Then some quiches for tea, and we were stuffed.  We visited the beach for a while, to get an idea of what it looks like, and it got dark at 6 pm.  So we retreated and relaxed for the night.

Yes, this guy

For the second day, we had a breakfast buffet at the hotel, of which I happily stuffed myself with beef sausages, sauteed mushrooms and bacon with scrambled eggs.  For the second day straight however, I forgot to put sunblock.  Not to mention an Aussie advertisement on skin cancer was aired that day.  Digging the irony...  

Anyway, we went for Sea World cruise that afternoon.  The cruise took us through multiple islands, some inhabited by the ridiculously rich and some left untouched as animal habitats.  The cruise stopped at Sanctuary Cove for our lunch.  We had some rump steaks and bruchettas, of pictures I should not upload because it makes me feel really hungry. 

We came back later in the evening and traveled to Yellowfin at Surfers Paradise for dinner.  They had 40% discount for dinners ordered by 6.30 pm so we submitted our order with no seconds to spare, no joke.  We had the daily specials, swordfish and wild barramundis, and some yellowfin tuna plus lamb.  Although the coconut and mango pannacotta alongside the chocolate mud cake were quite nice, they couldn’t best the deserts back in Malaysia.  Our complimentary Wi-Fi just expired when we returned to the room.  So it's sad to say that I couldn’t check the football results.

Day three saw us visiting the Sea World theme park.  We had quite a fun time, witnessing some performances by dolphins and sea lions, but grandma wasn’t as mobile so we didn't make it for all the shows.  The park was huge!  But a combination of packed monorail and maintenance check along with a non-existent cable car, we had trouble covering the entire park.  By 5 something we had left the place and ate at Omeros Bros, which was located at Marina Mirage, near the park.

Me and Liang, outside the restaurant.  Ignore the awkward posing

When we were leaving, my dad whipped out his phone to check whether there was Wi-Fi, and there was! We were filled with minor elation as the McDonald's outlets here offer free Wi-Fi as well.  Needless to say I Facebook-ed a little to reclaim my social life. Later that night I watched the EPL highlights with a snoring both my brother and dad snoring away.  I didn't have the best of sleeps that day.

We had to wake up super early the next day (about 4 ish in the morning) to catch our hot air balloon ride.  The reason for going there early was to avoid the strong winds, as hot air balloons do not navigate on their own.  The trip was crazy fun.  We reached as high as 2000 feet in the air.  And I learned that you can still smell cow dung from 200 feet up as the balloon floated through broad farms and pastures.  We later crash landed and had to turn over the basket. 

We were done by 10 am and proceeded for our buffet breakfast at O'Reilly's Grand Homestead & Vineyard, with complimentary champagne.  It was tradition that champagne be drunk after a safe hot air balloon landing.  I tried the champagne out but didn’t like the taste, although my parents said that it was good quality champagne.  Later in the evening we went for the Outback Australia show.  It showcased many livestock performances in a rodeo-like Wild Wild West setting, only instead of Texas it is set in Australia.  Later that night went back to McD for Wi-Fi.  I think it’s gonna be a routine from now on.

Went to Robina, situated next to Surfers Paradise.  I had a fun time shopping at Kmart there.  Plus I got myself a beanie!!  We then headed to Coolangata to check out the waves, while stopping from parking lot to parking lot to get nice views of the beach as well as the surfers.  For dinner we ate at Hog’s Breath Café but only had 3 main dishes as we were still full from lunch.

The second last day saw us visiting the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary.  The first stop was a bee honey center.  There was about 14 different types of bee honey available for tasting.  And we had second helpings…  At the park entrance, my dad spotted Segway rides, but we didn’t take them.  Three of us guys had a great workout pushing my grandmother uphill on her wheelchair.  The day passed by quickly as we explored another huge park, filled with pep talks on birds, crocodiles, echidnas and so on.  At night we went back to Robina for dinner at Groove Train.  We had seafood risotto and Moroccan Lamb with a lamb pizza.  Pictures of these immensely tasty dishes are not available because...  well we whacked them before the thought of taking a picture came across our minds.  We then struggled to chow down a lot of snacks for supper as it was our last night there.

And that sums up what I've been through for a week.  My sister spammed a boatload of photos, but they're spam so I won't post a link here.  The link below showcases the few photos of which I took during the trip

Gold Coast pictures

Broken Bones - Birds of Tokyo