Australiaaaa

So 7 days and lots of rain later, I'm back to blog about the Australia trip!Sorry it took so long, but I always think of what to put on my blog but I'm too lazy to type it out...i should get a "instant blog thought typer" or something like that...:P

There are alot of things about Australia that I learned and experienced. Among the first few things that I learned as soon as I arrived there (I reached there about 7.30pm) are:

1. sitting in the back seat? Strap up!
2. It gets dark by 5pm and there's no nightlife (what?! no way!)
3. Petrol prices are not fixed, so everyday there's a new price, and different stations have different prices.
4. Queensland state is experiencing severe drought. It's been 2 years and the dam levels are around 18% left only! So...no need to bathe!
5. The people are really friendly at counters: they greet you with "Hi, how are you".


And not forgetting what I missed while being abroad for 2 weeks:

1. Our PM getting married (really?? no hint also man!!...or maybe i din read the papers :P)
2. It's been raining alot!

We stayed at my mom's cousin's place in The Gap, Brisbane (The Gap is the suburb, which is almost like a taman but not a taman...) for the first few days we explored Brisbane (we went to the city center, museum, shopping mall..etc), and then we went to Toowoomba where my mom's friend whom she hasn't seen for 30 odd years resides. Australia, or rather Queensland is a really nice place. Their houses are one of a kind and they have loads of space! And then we went back to Brisbane, and then went off to the Gold Coast(one week)! Surfer's Paradise, that is. We rented a car for one week (me n sis couldn't drive cause insurance is more expensive for drivers under 25) and drove to:
1. Australian Outback Spectacular - awesome show! With a 3 course dinner samo! A must go to see life in the outback.
2. Movieworld - Cool place, with all the rides and cute buildings and movie characters and shows!
3. SeaWorld - Oh so many animals and great dolphin shows, fun rides and many more shows!
4. Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary - It rained the day we went there (hasn't rained for a long time if im not mistaken), and all the kangaroos n koalas were wet. It's a really big place, but we saw alot of kangaroos only, I think the other animals were hiding from the rain.

After the Gold Coast, we went back to Brisbane, then the uncle we stayed with drove us to Mount Coot-tha. We got to see a whole lot of Brisbane from up there. The next day we went to the Australia Zoo. Yeah, that place The Crocodile Hunter comes from. After visiting the zoo I really admire their efforts to preserve the animal kingdom, but I still think he shouldn't have bullied animals when he made the tv series. There was a section under the crocoseum that was dedicated to Steve Irwin, displaying the stuff people sent after his death, condolence messages n stuff.

The next day (Sunday) we hung around in Brisbane, explored the area, especially Queen Street Mall. It's basically rows of shops and where i think it used to be a road, its now a road for people! With plants n chairs and info kiosks. I really love their bus service. They're organized and people actually line up over there! Their buses look like our RapidKL buses, but are powered by natural gas! So bye-bye to black smoke and hello to clean air! Oh and their city is so clean! Really! So clean and developed and organized! I would definitely move there if I had the chance. Although things there are a little expensive (branded clothes are super expensive but they have sales of up to 70%!!), I think if you're earning in Australian dollars it shouldn't be too bad. I think most of the items are more expensive now because of the drought. On the last day (Monday 11th June) we went to DFO, which stands for Direct Factory Outlet. It's near the Brisbane Airport and as the name says, is where they have almost all the brands you can think of. And when we went it was the mid season sale so alot of things were on sale, and we just shopped till we dropped! :P

On Monday night it was goodbye Brisbane and we headed home. It was a night flight and I didn't get much sleep (in between they serve snacks n breakfast and I ate em all :P) reached home around 2pm on Tuesday and that was the day I slept at 4pm until 5am the next morning!

It was a really good vacation, and if anyone plans to go to Australia do let me know, cause I absolutely wanna go there again! (To Sydney?)

Will post up pictures later, took more than 1GB of pics and I haven't sorted em out yet!

Toodles!