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Published: December 24th 2006
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Hey folks...
I write this whilst sitting on the beach on the Gold Coast - its around 28 degree and the beach is packed full of families, couples and bags of surfers - they dont call it surfers paradise for nothing you know! One thing we've noticed in aussie, unlike Europe, everyone lies on the sand - not a deck chair in sight and for those beach lovers like me who need some shade every now and then - you wont get any shade here on the Gold Coast - we ended up buying an umbrella - and so now we have another thing to lag around with us...! oh we've just discoverd the umbrella is a dodgy one - so Mukesh has just taken it back - took us an hour to try and close the damn thing - phew - anyway - we've got another one now!
Brisbane is the 3rd largest city in Australia, a 12 hour drive from Sydney we think, and an hour on a plane - around 450 miles from Sydney...We were lucky that our hotel West Quays is around 5 mins from the main city centre and 10 mins walk to the
harbour - and catch this - opposite the botanical gardens which gives us great views from our balcony and that is home to the scary bats - that come out to play at night (not happy about this - although it gave us some light entertainment)
We've seen so much of Brisbane and for the first time we have really chilled out - one of the highlights was visiting Mt Coot Tha which is the highest point in Brisbane with amazing views of the City. Another highlight, was getting up close and personal with the cute little Koala's at Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary about an hour on the ferry it was well worth a visit - The sanctuary had over 130 Koala's all housed in fairly big enclosures - some were old who lived in the retirement home, some were little babies - they were the cutest...so many to even mention - I got the chance to cuddle one - although it looks like he was cuddling me...We even got to see some Kangaroos with Joey's! On the ferry back to the City, our tour guide went passed an area where all the bats reside - great huh...There were
so many though, so had to take a photo...
Oh before I forget to mention - Brisbane has a city beach (on the South Bank) - can you believe that - I didnt until I saw it - How amazing - real sand (all man made of course) and just a really nice atmosphere, lots of families and some serious sun lovers...South Bank is such a great place to just chill out - visit a night market, check out some of the restaurants on the harbour, they even showed some kids movies on the greenery the other evening - which I thought was totally different from anything I've ever seen - and we went passed lots of carol singers, dance classes and every evening at 8pm they host a fireworks display (just over the xmas period)...We loved it on the South Bank and so spent lots of time here - strolling around, overlooking the city's skyline and harbour - very romantic huh...
One way of seeing the City is by bike - so we hired a bike each and firstly rode around the gardens opposite the hotel (just to get used to riding a bike again) and then
confidently rode over to South Bank round the other side of the harbour, stopped off for some lunch, passed the city beach, markets and then went round the whole city, over one of the bridges and back to the hotel - spent the whole day biking around and to top it off - cos I was soooooo tired (heheheeee) I had an hour long massage in the hotel room which was heaven! It was such a great day...
Oh it was so funny the other day - on the way back from the Gold Coast - we had to catch this transfer bus to the train station - these buses are nearly always packed as this is the only way to get from the stations to the Gold Coast and back again - anyway - we all got on and to my horror there were these two rather odd looking guys who got on with only their speedo's on...looking rather embarassed and uncomfortable - they approached the driver with a card (from the police - looked like a police report) and apparently, they're clothes and wallets etc had got stolen from the beach (ummm trying not to laugh) so
Botanical Gardens
Right opposite our hotel they had no choice to pop on the bus with practically no clothes on - on a packed bus I must add - we spent the entire journey sniggering like a couple of school kids - it was hilarious! They even had to get on the train to the City which again was rather funny cos that was an hour's journey!!!
Its our last night here - off to the Whitsunday Islands (Hamilton Island) tomorrow for Christmas for a few days (we could really do with some more sun - lol)
In summary - Brisbane has been a great stop-over to relax - not as busy as Sydney, we were really able to take things slow and chill...
Mukesh & Ash
PS: Sanjay - we couldnt find the Dingo Burger or whatever it was called in Sydney - its a wind up - right?
PPS - Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year to all...
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ketan
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xmas and new year
hi guys, from the photo's it looks like you both are having the time of your life enjoy it you both deserve it. Have a great xmas and an even better new year take care ketan kamal nisha nilesh kaka,and kaki