Thanks to Air Asia for flying across the Indian Ocean to Australia and been in Gold Coast on 1 May – 7 May 2009 was a wonderful travel experience for me, sister and girlfriend. We had purchased the ticket 1 year before the departure and first time in my travel diary that I had a very proper plan for my trip. So far, 2 months lead time is more than enough for me to fly with complete itinerary, visa, travel gear, places to visit, etc. Being physically in Gold Coast for my pre birthday celebration certainly was a best moment ever.
Overnight flight to Gold Coast with Air Asia wasn’t a best idea; our body not even has a chance to rest during 8 hours journey to Gold Coast on the stiff and straight seat conditions. But, we realize that we can’t expect much as it equal to a cheap flight ticket that we paid.
We reached Collonggatta International Airport at 5.20am (Australia is one 2hrs ahead us). The word ‘International’ attached to this airport not comparable to its conditions itself. I would rather prefer LCCT compared to this. The immigration procedures also seems normal for the first time traveler to Australia, nothing weird as I expected. The bus system in Gold Coast should be rated as A++ and I can see a very less private car on the road and pretty much leads to the smooth running of the transportation system in Gold Coast.
We had decided to visit Brisbane before Gold Coast and it took about 4 hours journey by train. A lot of facilities can be expected here but if you want something so called ‘tourist attractive places’ then this is not a place to go. I would say that Brisbane can be described as a big city which you can easily find 5-stars hotels, supermarket, branded shop, designer shop, clubs, etc. We reached Brisbane around 9.30am and this time in Malaysia, during weekend or PH, I definitely still on the bed. As I said, nothing else we can explored here except for 2 historical bridges which quite well known in Brisbane. We spent almost 2hours there to take pictures and breathtaking activity and waiting patiently before check-in time at 12noon.
We rented out 1 backpacker hotel room with 6 bed attached and when we entered the room, there were 2 girls in the room for almost a week. They were here under Holiday Maker Visa to Australia, meaning they can work, stay and visit Australia for up to 2 years. What a nice choices for two of them as I was planning to enter UK last year by using the same Visa… but I can’t remember what the reason was until it has been cancel off. We were talking about each others for quite a while until we finally decided to take a bath and went out for something to eat.
It wasn’t easy way to find HALAL food but we were still happy to have a delicious and fresh Mc Donald Fish Fillet in almost every day in Australia. At night in Brisbane is totally dead. All shops, supermarket and even restaurant closes up to 5pm. May be Autumn & Winter are not a favorite seasons to go to Australia as night time in Australia is longer than a day time. Imagine we can even finish our tour in about 3hours and started to sleep at 7pm… Gosh. What a waste time in Brisbane.
After reaching Gold Coast by early morning train, we took up a shuttle bus to Surfers Paradise. As given name, the attraction in this place is of course for surfing activity. The beautiful beach with big waves seems to welcoming us here. We also took up a backpacker hotel here and not only due to the $$$ but also the strategic location of the hotel. If in others country, the backpacker hotel normally will be located quite far from the centre of attraction. This is very good approach of Australia government, at least it will help to attract more tourists to Australia, I guess.
We didn’t pay much activity on the beach except for the photo session, in that temperature? Oh no… But the beach was damn nice, you can see so many people were enjoying on the surfing board and the children were so happy playing at beach side. For us, who come from the country with the natural gift e.g. beach, we don’t feel really excited on the beach, except to enjoy the scenic and the weather. On the first day in Gold Coast, we had a chance to visit a Q-Deck, the place that you can see the Gold Coast view from the bird’s eye and much more same function to the KL Tower in Malaysia. The view was tremendous beautiful with background of the blue beach and the big waves. But, the view for sure comes with the pricey package, just be ready to pay for it.
The Wax Museum in Gold Coast not as big and interesting as we thought, it just some sort of normal museum with weird human in wax and not many admired faces that familiar to us. On the first day, we spent more on site seeing to the park, beach side, the building, University and the bridge. But for the 2nd day, we manage to explore the Wildlife Currumbin Sanctuary. The big zoo which we can find many strange animals and they were very neat and healthy. Finally, we manage to hold and take a photo with the signature animal in Australia; Koala Bear and Kangaroo.
3rd day was an interesting day for us as we had so much fun at the Movie World, the world's greatest theme park inspired by blockbuster Hollywood Movies. We had the ‘wonder’ and excitement of imaginary storytelling at its best. Too bad as we didn’t have a brave to take a ride all the roller coaster and games, we heard that it’s scary and tough. But we had so much in taking photo especially with the movie characters.
We had 2 days left for shopping and it was like a heaven to shop at their Factory Outlets. I spent almost all my money to buy the branded clothes, jacket, sport shoes, heels, handbags and sun glasses. It was damn cheap and I got my Nike shoe just only for RM135 (current price in Malaysia is RM280). The balance of my money, I had spent it in the Surfer Paradise too, there are a lot of store that you can shop. From the clothes to souvenirs and all comes in reasonable price. For sure, shopping in Australia is make me realized that I had finished more than RM3, 000 just for being a chronic shopaholic.
Don’t worry about Halal food in Gold Coast as just a few blocks away from our hotel, there are 2 -3 Muslim shop and one of them is from Malaysia. But, food in Gold Coast is pretty expensive compared to its portion. If you can have a Mc Donald Fish Fillet, that will be a good choice too.
If I have chance to migrate, I will definitely chose Gold Coast. I love the way how the Government takes charge to bring the nation state being the first-class country. The transportation systems, the people, the food, the weather and the scenic makes you wonder on how nice to be there for good.
I’m sure you will certainly love Gold Coast for holiday’s destination. Believe me, its worth than you thought.
