On the 5th of March, i finally fulfill a small little wish of mine: to have a holiday at an Ang Mo country. To experience a different environment.
Australia - Gold Coast was chosen.
Took an extreme long period, past over a year of saving up, discussing and planning. It wasn't a trip that we can
just go. Couple of times, we were at the verge of giving up the whole plan, so i'm truly over the moon when the air tickets were booked. No more turning back.
Aboard SIA Night Flight @ 5th Mar 2110 hours
Reaching Brisbane @ 6th Mar 0650 hours
Seeing the sun rise.
An illusion of good weather
Closing to destination, it was a gloomy sky that welcome us.
This was a Free & Easy trip with all 'diy' bookings and arrangements, mostly my findings and D assistance
Airport transfer was arranged with
CoachTrans.
Waiting waiting.
(looking sleep-deprived)
Here comes our bus coach pulling a trailer for the luggage.
Quite good service with short tour briefing by our bus driver.
It is about 1~2hours journey from Brisbane to Gold Coast.
Staying at
Courtyard Marriott for all 5nights.
Highly recommended and insisted by D for its location and surrounding buzzing activities.
Fairly an old hotel but still in pretty good condition. At least i never encounter problem like faulty heater, air-con, etc.
An area of improvement is their choice of receptionist. Bearing a tiresome look, not at all welcoming, doesn't 'listen' to understand our queries.
Yet, contrasting, their Concierge is very much worth commending. Although we came prepared, with various maps, knowledge and all, it couldn't beat a local's advice.
We plan to go about Gold Coast by their public transport as the cabs here are at extorting prices. Bus maps were prepared and printed out beforehand, but that only shows the bus route. We needed help for direction to the correct bus stop.
The concierge is a great help here. As after freshening up at the hotel, it was already 11am+. Our initial plan is Carrara Market > Gold Coast Turf Club. But were advised to skip Carrara as its a morning weekend market, should go at 8~9am. Luckily for him, else we wouldn't know.
On the streets waiting for the free shutter bus which forever didn't come.
(Such a 'car' is a common sight)
D busily checking the map.
Finally reaching
Gold Coast Turf Club.
If you wonder is it occupational disease, i would say maybe yes. For i'm not allow or the chance to see upclose on horse racing, even when i'm off duty. So here i am...
Drank beer. Grab Lunch.
D's tasty Bacon Burger, with my yucky tough yet more expensive Steak Burger.
(wrong conclusion about beef being better cooked at ang mo's country)
Winning horse get its moment of glory.
We actually stayed till the very last race, saving the money by taking free shutter bus back.
Malls closes around 5pm in Gold Coast. So basically, not much shopping can be done afterward. They do have night activities thou, such as Clubbing, Cinemas (maybe), Jackpotting (maybe) and Dining. We chose the latter.
Prepped up for dinner.
If you wonder how i got sunburnt, i have no idea too. I'm magically burnt when the sky is gloomy and cloudy. I just got burnt. >.<"
After some walking around, our final choice is "
Costa Doro" - acceptable pricing, seems popular.
The food was okay, not exceptional fantastic.
Loving the Bubbling Red Wine thou. Something Different and not expensive too.
2nd Day Itinerary:
Carrara Market > Pacific Fair > Surfer's Paradise Beach > Casino
Bright sunny look in line with this sunny place.
Look behind me at the huge room. I requested for a king-sized bed when making booking, but they aint able to offer. To compensate, we have TWO queen-sized beds for just 2 of us. So
I make use of the spare bed to lay out my barang barangs ;P
In the bus on the way to Carrara the weekend market.
We kept passing these houses with porches opening to waterside. They can literally fish directly at their doorsteps. Not at all surprising to find boats parking at their "garage".
It is a good place to grab brekkie.
This place l0oks good enough.
With our "accent", its easy to identify us - Singaporean. Upon knowing, the owner open his arms to us as he was a Singaporean too. Yup, note the past tense. According to him, he was the very first batch of us to shift his living and migrate to Australia.
Although we didn't get the discount i was hoping for, he did sit down telling us about his family. He also introduces his daughter and grandchild to us. Perhaps feeling abit nostalgic.
Then, was some more walking around in aid of digestion from the heavy brekkie.
Basically, this market is worth skipping as majority goods are suspected to be imported from Thailand. I would say 90% are. Yet the price are charged at
their norm. I left empty-handed.
Oh ya, strangely enough, i kept seeing Korean students over there.
A few slight interesting shops/items.
Waiting for the returning bus.
Good thing, Pacific Fair is en route. Sorry, no photo since time is tight. Was trying to rush back to enjoy some of the beach when the sun is still up.
Change into my newly bought red bikini from the Mall at only AUD$10!.
The beach is awesome! Waves are huge to me that i dun even dare to swim. I was wearing contact lens and really fear of seawater getting into my eyes. And errrr... goggle seems retarded on the beach. Soo, ya...
If you are interested to see how exactly awesome the beach is, stay tune for the very last day. heehe!
And i met a Sand-Builder Master! (I think he deserve this title from me ;))
Acting all expert and experience, he swiftly play around with sands, water, some tools to build the smoothness, edginess.
Like magic using sands, he created this....
Outstanding isn't it?!!
There are albums of his creations, and he seems to be situated in Surfer's Paradise. Maybe you will have the luck of meeting him like i do.
Dinner was takeaway pizza which suxs big time (thick flour taste with tasteless toppings - Cheat my money!!), company with beers and tv in hotel room.
More fun on next entries. I need to get my hands on the video clips.
