My Gold Coast Trip...

I can't remember the last time I had a real break from work. Well, maybe it was way back in 2002. My sister was still working in New York so my other sister, her husband and I decided to pay her a visit before she came back to Malaysia for good. We had a real nice time there despite the cold weather of winter. We even experienced snow when we were there. Imagine waking up the next morning and seeing the whole ground covered with snow. Such a splendid view! But brrrrr on certain days, the temperature even went down to almost 0 degree! Apart from my experience when I was studying in Scotland, that was the next coldest place!

Let's see...how did Gold Coast come about? Again, the same sister who I went to New York with, decided her daughter needed a break from her work too. My niece is an accountant with Amanah Raya Berhad and she needed a roommate for the trip . Knowing that I have a knack for travelling, she invited me to come along. Well, why not? I couldn't find a better time to go for a holiday and this would be a good opportunity. Moreover, I've never been to 'Down Under'. It would be fun, I'm sure.

It would be winter in Australia at this time of the year. Right, the next question would be what proper clothings to bring? hehe, after all it was winter! On the contrary, later I was told by many people who had been there at just about this time of the year that the weather would not be that cold, especially at Gold Coast. In the end I only brought some clothes which I figured would suit a 'mild winter'. Anyway, I managed to borrow most of the clothes from my sister because she travels abroad extensively and she has a large collection of clothes for whatever season! One problem out of the way...(hehe, the implication is I could use the money for shopping instead!)

The flight to Brisbane (pronounced 'Brizburn') took about 9 hours or so. We were in transit at Sydney for one hour before we headed to Brisbane. By the time we arrived at Brisbane it was quite late at night. We were taken by the hotel transport to Gold Coast which took us approximately 1 hour 15 mins. It was night time so we could not see Brisbane clearly as we could during day time. Moreover, we were so exhausted by the long hours on the plane so we sort of dozed off occasionally during the drive. The driver spoke in the Australian accent which to me was interesting. I like conversing with native speakers of English because I could at least pick up some of the conversational skills in English. It is important to someone like me because I teach English Language. It is not every day that I can get the opportunity to communicate with a native speaker of English....

Finally we arrived at the hotel and it was well past midnight. We were welcomed by the hotel staff and once we got into our rooms we straight away went to bed as we needed a proper sleep to make up for the much discomfort on the plane.

Not knowing what time Subuh would be, I put my handphone alarm at 6.30 a.m. But alas! When I woke up , I could see that the sun was shining brightly. Oh yes, how could I forget? It's winter and so the days are shorter. This is something I discovered when I was studying in the UK...So hurriedly, I took my ablution (which by the way, the water was quite cold in the morning) and performed my Subuh prayer. Doing all this reminded me very much of Scotland in winter but of course it was much colder than this. So coming back to the 'shorter days' thing, by 6.30 am the sun was already shining and at 5.00 pm it was already maghrib.

On the first day, we decided to go to the SeaWorld, which by the way, is a theme park. It was a bit away from town and we were taken there by the travel agency driver. There were many people at the SeaWorld and the weather was in fact quite mild. There was sunshine but it was chilly too. Unlike, Scotland whereby winter would mean quite gloomy days, much less to see sunshine. Indeed, winter in Gold Coast gave me a different definition to the word. The Australians were going around in T-shirts and pants that made me wonder if it was winter at all! Interesting indeed and that was something I learnt when I was there.

At the Seaworld theme park you can see roller coasters, trains and one can even go on a helicopter ride to get a view of gold coast. There are certain 'stations' or shows that you can view and the tickets are already included as you pay at the entrance. Anyway, we decided to follow the biggest crowd and it was a show everyone was waiting for...the dolphin show. It was indeed a good performance by the dolphins and their trainers. It made me wonder how such animals could be trained to such perfection...

Our next station was the seal performance. Imagine the seals acting in an investigation 'drama' entitled 'The Fish Detectives' with human beings! It was simply impressive and so entertaining.

...there is still a lot I want to write but time does not permit me now. So I will continue with the rest of my journal at some other time, insyaAllah.