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.

Bushwalking

Being extremely free the last weekend (26 July), i took a morning and went bushwalking.

My destination??

<----- Mt Gravatt in Toohey Forest.

This post is mainly a photo post, just enjoy the green and the scenery. Bit disappointed though, cause i didn't get many good photos...

However...

There were 2 big highlights of the day :



1. I was chased by a turkey.

I'm pretty sure most of you'll are going either "Huh?" or "What?" and will most likely be laughing your butts off after reading that sentence.

Anyway, i was chased by a Bush Turkey. And if you're wondering where are it's photos, i can say i was too busy trying to get away from it. (How does a bush turkey look? Check back one of my old posts. There's a photo there)

Actually I'm not very sure if it was chasing me at all. But I'm pretty sure it was. It all started when i was walking down one of the trails when i noticed this turkey in the bushes.

Well, i see them pretty often so i just ignored. Then suddenly i charged at me. I guess it was some sort of surprise attack and yes, it did surprise me very much.

Then i did what usually works in Malaysia for scaring off animals, stomping my foot and going "shoo!" It did help a little. It would just back off for a little bit.

The scary part was, everytime i turned my back and started walking off. It would chase and follow. For every step i took, it in turn would take 2 steps (Hey, it's smaller ok?). Naturally i was spooked. I tried chasing it off a few times but it kept coming back. At one stage i just became so pissed and evil, i just wanted nothing more than to give it a good kick in the face (oh yeah~~) but I'm Lai Jian Wei la, please, i don't do such things.

After a while, i started sending out mental messages to the bird (yes it sounds stupid, but i seriously didn't feel like hurting the bird) " don't force me, or i am really going give you a good kick in the butt" In the end it did work (thankfully) and the ******* stopped following me. (*sighs in relief*)


Before i go on, the city you see in the photos? That is Brisbane city, seen from the peak of Mt Gravatt.












And this shiny area near the horizon? That's Moreton Bay. Beyond that is Moreton Island, one of my target destinations. XD










Anyway, here's the second interesting event...

For all my peers and the slightly older friends, I'm pretty sure you have read the poem "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost. For my kids, just go and find a Form 5 Literature Book then you can read the poem or just go and Google the poem.

I must say this poem has really inspired me in many ways. It also is very like me. I don't like to do what everyone does.

As i was walking around Mt Gravatt, there were many choice of trails. There was this point i reached a fork in the trail. And as the poem goes,

"Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear:
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,"


I took the path that was less travelled, had more grass, was more cramped....


And got lost.

Why? I made one of the most stupid mistakes. I can't believe i forgot to do this.

To all my kids, please please please don't forget this when you'll go jungle trekking. Always look back. Sometimes when you look in front, you think you see a trail but in reality it might not be one. The best way to check if you are really on a trail is to look back. Once you check and you cannot see a trail anymore, quickly turn back.

The reason i couldn't turn back was i forged a trail on my own for more than 5mins. When i finally discovered something wrong and look back, i had already lost my bearings and certainly the trail. As i was climbing, i became overly engrossed in my surroundings and forgot to check.

I will admit that i was EXTREMELY scared. Why? Not because i was lost, but because of the landscape. That day was a nice hot sunny day. The landscape had a lot of fallen logs and thick shrub. And do you know why these factors made me scared?

Snakes.

Australia has 9 of 10 most deadly snakes in the world. And i was stuck in the middle of bushland - prime snake territory. I tread very very lightly. The terrain certainly didn't help. It was full of good snake hiding places. Not to mention spiders. If i was bitten you certainly wouldn't be reading this entry now.

Anyway, since you are reading this i did make it out alive. How did i get out? Well, it wasn't that hard actually. Since i was on the slope of the mountain, i decided a forge a trail straight up. After all there was a lookout point on the peak. After about 15mins of pushing through dead fallen branches and shrubs, i reached a trail just below the mountain's peak.

It was fun all in all. Getting lost and being chased. But i can't stop stressing my friends and kids, please always go out prepared bring water and anything you might need etc. Also inform somebody where you are going and what time you should expect to get back.

Stick to clear well cut trails. I was lucky in a sense that the forest was small, so if i just kept of walking i would sooner or later find a way out. But please don't be like me and go do silly things. Silly things should be left to crazy people like me.

=D

Yes, yes. I know, here they are.

What do i know?
I know you want photos. =P
There are not many. I only picked the better ones. Another reason is because all the times i saw good stuff, i didn't have the camera with me T.T and the phone's camera ain't good enough quality to capture the photos... This is something you hear every evening. It goes "eeee ooooohhhh aaaahhhhhh" and it is LOUD. The bird is no where in the vicinity but you can still hear it's cry. Very creepy to hear it's cry, it sounds something like a cross between a madman and a monkey. It's a kookaburra. I don't know why, but i have a liking for this bird.

Well these i don't know what their names are. They are actually a resident flock of ducks living in the lake on campus. (Yes, we have a lake on campus, how cool is that??) There's a photo of the lake later. This particular flock, because i have been going to the lake every evening, have seem to get rather used to me. I took this photo pretty up close.
Here's another bird. It spends it's time eating all those cute little fishies in the lake =(
Now this, is just... This is a turkey ( i think) and guess what? It just walks around campus like it owns it =.= This was taken by my phone and uh, the bird was right smack in front of my face.
This is a "jagung" like plant found around the campus. Haven't researched the name yet either. But they look extremely beautiful. This was one of the few that those little purple ends on the hairs.
Ooo... And this is a photo of the lake at the campus. I have a panorama shot of the lake but i don't know how to upload it, haih.... Of all the single shots of the lake i have, this is the best i suppose. I'll get a better one and upload it in the future.
Deng deng~~ Sunset from the top of my residential college... I purposely underexposed the photo a bit to bring out the energy in the shot.
This is a shot of the Brisbane skyline, taken from the top of the hill of the University campus (I'll do a post on the university later. I'll explain and tell more about the university then.)
Nothing to say, I just like this photo la....

Lastly, a shot of the area of the residential colleges in this particular campus. Also where I'm temporary putting up until i move into my permanent residence.

Before i get more photos. I'll tell you'll a bit more on the surroundings and the bird life in this area.

Well, one of the more delightful birds in this area are know as the Rainbow Lorikeets (why do i know the name? Because i got a brochure about the surrounding forest reserve). They are well, like a name states, rainbow in colour (very colourful actually). The look like a parakeet and about the same size.

Next are the crows in this area. Of cause there are your standard black in colour ones. FYI they are about the size or maybe bigger than those kampung chicken you see. Then there are the black and white variety. Not as common as their black counterparts and also about a quarter the size smaller. I'm not sure about the black-white types, but the standard black ones have a caw that is ear piercing. I was talking to my mother over the phone and she could hear it caw clearly.

Very common also are the yellow-faced honeyeaters. They fly around in pairs and are the hardest to photograph. All the birds are plentiful here, it's just that my camera can't zoom enough to catch good photos of them T.T These are the times i wish i had a DSLR instead....

My university campus itself is in the heart of a forest reserve. The forest reserve is a good representation of how the forest that once covered Brisbane looks like. The grass trees here (damn, i forgot to take photos of it) are quite an interesting sight.

Oh, and the other day (last Friday to be exact). I saw a koala bear!!! Where? In the heart of the campus. I was EXTREMELY lucky as they are supposedly very very rare in this area. I couldn't a photo of cause i was in the bus at that time. Thanks a lot to the bus driver, as he stopped by the road side for a moment for us catch a glimpse of the animal. The one i saw was brownish and sleeping (-.-").... Oh well, better than not seeing one at all.

That's all for now. Enjoy the photos, I'll upload more once I've shot more. =P