Gold Coast & A Second Step (Part I)

Saturday August 2, 2008 was my happiest day in Australia yet. Also one of my happiest days in my life as of now.

The day began early when i woke up about slightly past 6. We were going to Gold Coast!!!

Our morning started out anything but planned. All our plans went haywire. We were supposed to meet up with most of our group including our organizer and take a bus from our university campus to nearby Garden City (a shopping complex) to meet up with the rest of our group.

Then Andrew (our organizer) called us in the morning and told us to wait at university for them to arrive. It was a "arrggghhhh" moment for one of us who stayed on campus (introducing Jia Yao, from China). He had already cooked a bowl of instant noodles to eat (he was agitated cause me and him have our food catered for and we had paid for the catered breakfast already). I also had to quickly run down to the campus bus stop to find Ivy (a young lady from Taiwan) who was waiting for us at the bus stop.

But Jia Yao would be very thankful he had eaten breakfast (i hadn't mind you) cause after a bit of clarification and discussion, we who were on the campus had to rush back over to Garden City to meet up with Andrew and the rest of our entourage. Me, Jia Yao & Ivy then started waiting for our bus which was supposed to come at 7.34am. But no~~ The bus never came and we had already waited for more than half an hour. Mind you, i was really disappointed. I had been so impressed with Queensland's public transport system. It was overall punctual to the minute in most cases for me except this time. Grrr.....

In the end at about 8am, Andrew called and asked us to wait at the university for them to come. They had ironed out most of details of our journey and we could catch our required bus from the university.

Jia Yao's thankfulness turned into sorrow (okla, not that bad la) coz we could now eat breakfast in the hostel dining as breakfast time had started. But as we half way through our breakfast, Andrew called to say they had arrived but they were in the adjacent campus (oh shit, i just remembered, i still haven't done the post on my Uni yet). So we rushed through our breakfast and walked to the adjacent campus which was half an hour's walk away.

On arrival, we meet up at the University Busway (it's some kind of bus stop, i'll explain more in the uni post). There along with Andrew was Jessica (remember the Indon from an earlier post?), Pablo (from Columbia) and Jeff (from China). After a short intro, we hopped onto our bus.

Now before i came to Australia, i have been warned that there is a certain amount of racism towards Asians here. However since i arrived, i have not encountered a single case of such until now.

This bus drive really tak syok us Asians. Why? First of all he was being a pain in the a** in his talking. Next he also charged us daily fares. It was a Saturday, the fares on Saturday are known as Off-Peak and are thus cheaper but i suspect he deliberately charged us more. He was also being very rude to another passanger which was an Asian. But i don't want to a pain in the butt myself and continue complaining about this fellow.

Anyway, we got off at Altandi Rail Station. There we met the last member of our group, Samantha from China.

To my darlings, as usual, the start of our journey. In everyone is in this photo except me and Andrew who are holding the cameras.

Well, here are the names, from left:
Jia Yao, Ivy, Pablo, Jeff, Samantha & Jessica

Satisfied? I'm very sure people are going ask me who is who later so i might as well do the introduction now.

Then how about this photo? The one of the train tracks? Today was also one of the first field trips for my camera. I really put it to good use and got some really great shots for this trip. Later I'll show em. I'm quite proud of this except for the stupid car, which i couldn't get out of the frame. Oh well...

Well, the wait for the train was quite cold i could say. We hadn't really warmed up with each other yet. Everyone in this trip was only directly connected to Andrew, the rest of us had to do a re-introduction among each other to get each other better.

In the train, things got better. We became more chatty. Getting into and writing down details of conversation is not really my style so i won't do it. Too bad.

We disembarked next at Beenleigh Station which was the last station for the Brisbane line of the train tracks. We then got onto the Gold Coast line and went all the way down~~~

Now on this train, me and Jessica became more acquainted with a couple of Koreans we met earlier. They came to us and started talking. They were from Korea and were here for 5 weeks as a summer exchange program. Like us, they were en route to Gold Coast. There they will meet up with some of the Korea friends that were already in Australia. And here are they.....


In this photo be Hee-Eun and the 2 of us. In this next photo is Kwang-Hee. Please don't comment about my pose. I can see it myself. This is why i don't like taking photos of myself.

We kept on talking to them until we arrived in Nerang Station in Gold Coast. There Hee-Eun and Kwang-Hee met up with their own friends and we bid each other goodbye. They were a friendly bunch. It was a nice experience talking with thme.

When we walked out of Nerang Station and towards the bus stop. All i could say was ********(censored due to the fact i have young people reading this). The line for the bus was so loooooooooooooooooooong. In fact everyone in the line didn't fit into one bus. So we and everyone else behind us had to wait for the next bus.

Now, when we were waiting for the next bus, we exchanged ghost stories with Pablo. He gave us a fair share of Columbian and South American ghost stories. Whilst me and Jessica were telling him about SE-Asian ones. Dou kei-s, i got more stories adi XD

Oh, i think i haven't mentioned out weather for the day yet. Just take a look yourself ---->

We took the next bus that came along and went to Pacific Fair - one of the biggest and most famous shopping centers in Gold Coast and i mean big. Most of it is open air in streets with a lot of shops along the streets. Sorry to say i was lazy at this time to pull out my camera so i don't have any shots of here. The crowd wasn't very big, and the shops here sold a lot of clothes especially beachwear.

I will admit, after 3 weeks of western food (with the exception of my relatives' cooking) i was dying for some Asian food. ESPECIALLY MY BELOVED NASI LEMAK!!!!

By now we had broken into 2 smaller groups. One group, me along with Jessica, Pablo, Ivy and Jia Yao had gotten too hungry and we decided to go and get lunch. Andrew, Jeff and Samantha wanted to walk around before eating.

Now this photo, is a photo of the ceiling above the food court where we decided to take our lunch. This photo in my opinion truly shows the capability of my baby (Canon Powershot G9). If you looked at it in fully size, you can really see the detail and colour jump out at you. Anyway, coming back.....


My first course of action was to look for a Malaysian or Singaporean stall. Sadly, tarak T.T
I settled with eating mixed rice, Chinese style.

The mixed rice here works in funny ways. We paid $10.80 for a plate and we can take as much as we want. But too bad most of the food, despite being Chinese, was still very western in flavour and style of cooking.

Over the course of lunch, we took the pleasure of disgusting Pablo. With what? The disgusting appetite of Chinese - of what they eat and how they eat it(very gruesome, not appropriate for minors =P) also the cruel acts humans do towards the other animals of the world.

I just remembered i forgot to do something - ask Pablo about the food. Coming from Columbia, this was his first taste of Chinese food.

After lunch we went walking around Pacific Fair. As we walked we slowly dispersed. In the end it was me, Jessica and Pablo walking together. We walked and walked then i saw it.

I walked into the shop and i was "wah!". I was in a Kathmandu specialty shop. Kathmandu is a very famous company that produces thermal wear and outdoor equipment. I just browsed around and cried in my heart. The things were so good.... Their prices even prettier.... I was hoping to get an outer shell and was surveying the prices. Buying one would essentially cost me half of the money i had brought along to Australia.

Anyway, when the meeting time came . We gathered back and took a bus to.....
Just in case you can't read the sign board, it says "Surfers Paradise"

Before we go on, have a look at the picture on the right.
Can you guess?
Yep, it's the Rainbow Lorikeet i mentioned earlier. Cute eh?

Moving on, here i was, in Surfer's Paradise. One of the best beaches in the world. And i truly truly agree with that common opinion.

You know how people grade sand in a beach? It is also how they grade how good the beach is. The less the sand sticks to your feet, the better it it. And man is the sand here fine. Using your hands, you can brush your feet totally clean of sand. The only other time i had felt sand that could at least match it was in Redang Island.

Yesh, stop screaming already. I know. Feast your eyes :-D
The clear blue sea.... The water so nice and cool.... And the sound of the waves.....The beach is just so long.......... So long.... As far as the eye can see.....

Now here, i must thank my brother who first gave me the inspirations to take such photos (as the following) and one of my beloved darlings who has helped me take so many of them....
But....Now there is someone that is helping you do your job. She does a very good job of it also. This was the photo she took with the least guidance and after i slowly look through all my photos, this one turned out to be the best. I sangat bangga dekat dia.... Haha....

And more photos~~
This photo i call it "Ball in the Surf"It looks like the girl is black is running to save the lady in the sea right? A good teaser. They don't even know each other and what they are both doing are not related at all. That's why you can't believe everything you see in photos.Here are a group of Japanese. Now i know why one of my friends love these sort of photos.
Well, here is one last group pic. The guy in the far right is Andrew. Shortly after taking this photo, Andrew, Jeff and Samantha left and went back early. They had to do some shopping in the city. Oh well... Disappointed, but what could we do? The remainder of us stayed back for Part II of the journey.