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| The stuff before my trip .... |
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| At Papa John's in Alpha Angle Wangsa Maju the day before my trip ... I like what the thank you sign says, if you can read it ... |
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| My lunch at Papa John's ... |
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| You know Murphy's Law, right? Or Sod's Law as I prefer to call it ... Well, on the morning of my flight to Brisbane, I wanted to take the LRT to KL Sentral, but when I arrived at about 6.05pm, the station was still closed ... It turned out that they were having some sort of maintenance work, which I only found out from the small sign posted at the side entrance after waiting for about 15 minutes at the station ... I mean, can't you put up a bigger sign at the MAIN entrance?! Luckily I managed to reach KL Sentral just before 7.00am, and LCCT by 8.00am, two hours before my flight ... Of all days, the stupid maintenance work had to happen on a Sunday, the day of my flight ... Murphy's Law at work actually .... |
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| Brisbane City Backpackers, Upper Roma St, Brisbane ... I stayed here for four nights, and nary a wink I had ... Not because I joined the hostel's predominantly young residents on their parties and drinking sojourns, but simply because I'm just the type of person who cannot sleep in strange places, or rather it would take a while for me to adjust ...Anyway, I did have some sleep, but still ended up with a headache every morning ... I shared a room with two blokes from Ireland, who were friendly and well-behaved, thank God ... |
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| The view from the Coles supermarket near the hostel ... |
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| To get to Coles, you have to turn left at the very end ... The reason I took this photo is because I noted that almost everyone walked under the shade ... And I thought Australians love the sun ... |
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| At Queen St Mall ... Wasn't there for the shopping, so didn't go into many stores, except to compare prices ... I tried my fave drink at Boost, but of course it tasted differently than the KL-made one ... |
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| Came all the way to Australia just to visit an American store ... But, as it turned out, that is the Australian Target, owned by Wesfarmers ... Didn't go in Starbucks, which is definitely American ... I'm not a coffee drinker anyway ... |
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| The view of the city from the veranda of the hostel ... See the bridge with the arches? Walked across that to go to the South Bank on Tuesday ... |
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| Brisbane from the highest point in the vicinity, Mt Cootha ... My good friend P, his partner L and their friend S took me here to see the sun set ... Then we went for a pizza at P's alma mater, the University of Queensland ... We had four pizzas actually, all vegetarian .... While we were having our pizza, a strong chilly wind started to blow which continued in varied strength for the next few days ... Brisbane in this photo reminds me of Los Angeles, with the concentration of high-rise buildings located in one area, as opposed to the haphazard spread of skyscrapers in KL ... |
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| Brisbane at night from Kangaroo Point Cliffs |
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| Wanted to take a pix of the jacarandas, but you can't really see the flowers for the pair of evil eyes staring through them ... |
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| Aaah, my favourite time of the day, at least in Brisbane ... At 7.00am, the sun shines brightly, but the air is cool and refreshing, in other words, perfect! .. I just love this sort of weather, when it's bright and cool at the same time ... Therefore, I just had to have breakfast on the veranda ... Try having breakfast in KL at this hour under the hot sun ... The longest you can survive is, maybe 30 minutes? .... |
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| The jacaranda in the small park next to the Roma St Transit Centre... My digicam doesn't capture the beauty of the flowers, but up close in real life, the purple hue of the flowers have an almost bright neon feel to it ... Well, that's what I think anyway ... I just love that shade of purple ... |
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| On the way to the South Bank from the opposite direction of the hostel ... I think I was coming back from the 7-11 near the Roma St Transit Centre ... |
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| The Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) is on the right ... |
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| The view of the city from the South Bank ... |
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| More jacarandas on the South Bank ... |
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| At first I thought these are poinsettias, but after Googling the flower, I discovered that they were not ... Should have asked P ... |
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| The fake beach on the South Bank ... |
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| L said this establishment is expensive, but on hindsight, maybe I should have tried the hot chocolate ... I mean, there's no Max Brenner Chocolate Bar in KL, well, not that I know of ... Too late for that ... |
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| Watching people on the South Bank .... |
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| I didn't expect to see seagulls so far inland, but maybe Brisbane isn't so far from the sea ... Anyway, there's the fake beach, maybe they're attracted to it ... But then again, I saw seagulls along the river when we were riding on the CityCat later in the week ... |
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| One of the exhibits at GOMA .... It is one of the coolest exhibits I've seen and it reminds me of the movie Prometheus ... The magnetic fluid at the bottom of the glass vessels move around when exposed to a magnetic field ... The better description would be GOMA's own explanation below, if you could read it ... You know the strange black liquid they discover on the alien moon in Prometheus, right? ... Well, when I saw the liquid in the exhibit move around, it immediately reminded me of the movie ... Of course, my still photo doesn't capture the movement ... Wish I had taken a video instead ... Aaah, again, lost opportunity ... |
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| Carwash brushes as an exhibit ... I think the explanation said something about the absurdity of a utilitarian tool in a public place ... Oh, well, some artsy fartsy explanation at least ... |
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| This exhibit reminds me of a pair of kangaroo's dingdongs, well, that is only after I've seen them up close at the animal sanctuary ... If you can read the explanation below, it says something about vague obscene suggestions ... At the time when I saw the exhibit, I didn't think of it as obscene ... The long furry obtrusion does look like a whale's dork ... |
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| Can somebody explain to me why this is considered Art? Sure, the explanation below says something fancy schmancy, but for the love of all that is pure and sane, HOW IS THIS CONSIDERED ART? For goodness' sake, even I could replicate it ... All it takes is a shower curtain and a flannel blanket ... I just don't understand it! ... Try reading the explanation below and understand it yourself ... |
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| The view of Brisbane from the rooftop of the hostel ... |
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| At the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary ... This is supposed to be a photo of a platypus, but of course my camera doesn't work in darkened places ... |
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| A sleeping koala ... We arrived at about 9.00am ... Guess it's too early for them ... |
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| Aaawww, they're so cute! |
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| The dingo is also sleeping ... Aaaww ... |
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| The Tasmanian Devil looks very docile actually, not at all depicted by the Looney Toon character ... Or maybe its the effect of being kept in captivity for so long ... Most of the animals here looked that way to me, like they juts couldn't be bothered ... |
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| When P and L remarked about a "joey", I wondered what in hell's name were they talking about .. It turns out that "joey" is a baby kangaroo, and there's one sticking out from the pouch ... |
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| The wombat ... |
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| Wow, all I have to do is just walk 6000km plus back to KL ... |
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| At the University of Queensland |
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| On the CityCat along the river ... |
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| People getting off the CityCat ... |
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| The Story Bridge ... You can check Wikipedia what it's about .... |
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| P and L's home ... I feel I owe a great deal to them ... They made me feel so welcome, and I guess words just fail me here ... They certainly showed me the Australian hospitality ...And their home is so beautiful ... Even though they said they didn't mind that I take photos of their home's interior, I decided not to put up most of those photos here as I want to respect their privacy ... One experience I will share though is the time I took a shower at their place since I stayed there on my last day because the flight was really early the next day (and to think they got up at such an ungodly hour to send me to the airport!) ... Anyway, I had problems with the shower ... The water came out too hot or too cold ... I didn't know how to adjust it so in the end I just ended my shower quickly ... Well, maybe not quick enough 'coz P ended up not getting a shower, so I felt kinda bad about that ... |
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| Their backyard for the dogs to roam free, and do their business of course ... They are also chickens, but last I heard, they were putting up those chickens for sale ... |
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| I think my favourite part of the house would be the outdoor eating area ... I guess I just like a lot of sun, except I don't want to be exposed to it ... At least, not in Malaysia ... |
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| The Gold Coast ... The waves were just so beautiful ... Again, my camera couldn't really capture the zest, the freshness, the sharp salty air ... But I didn't catch much salt on my tongue 'coz we didn't walk on the beach since I had the wonderful foresight to wear shoes instead of flip flops ... Great, when we were at the animal sanctuary, I had my flip flops on instead of my shoes ... Don't know what I was thinking anyway .... It was a great shame that I didn't walk on the beach and feel the waves hit my legs .... If there is one regret about this trip, it would be that ... |
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| On the way to Q1, apparently the world's tallest residential building ... We wanted to look at the Gold Coast from the observation deck ... |
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| Meter Maids ... Apparently they've been around since the surf community was established here back in, ooh, the 30s? ... Dang it, I watched this short documentary on the Gold Coast's history at the Q1's observation deck, but typical, can't remember much of it |
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| The view from Q1's observation deck ... Apparently, Miami is not so far from here ... Seriously, there is a place called Miami on the Gold Coast ... |
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| Our lunch ... The Arabbiata penne I had was quite hot actually ... I didn't expect it to be that hot, even though the chef asked whether I wanted it hot or not ... Well, correction, I didn't expect Mat Sallehs here would be able to eat hot food ... Boy, was I wrong, 'coz the next moment, P offered to eat the chillies in my pasta ... I took a photo if him holding up a chilli on a fork just to show that he could eat the fiery stuff, but of course I'm not putting it up here ... P, however, has put up that photo as his FB profile pix ... |
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| You can almost see the sea spray ... It sort of wrapped the Gold Coast in this ethereal quality ... |
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| And the very next day, at Coolangatta airport ... I had AUD 10 in schillings, which I should have spent here 'coz couldn't get them changed back to ringgit ... Aah, another regret ... Well, who knows, I might go back to Australia, perhaps another city ... But that would be some time yet ... |
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| The guy at the counter asked whether I wanted a window seat, or an aisle seat ... The flight in, I had a window seat, so I thought why don't I sit next to the aisle this time ... Turned out to be a good thing 'coz I had all three seats to myself ... So, what else, but lied there trying to catch on some badly needed sleep ... But, being me, I couldn't sleep anywhere open, regardless of how comfortable it is ... At least, I got the Air Asia pillow ... No, I paid for it, of course ... |
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