Australia : Day 2

Day-1, Day-2, Day-3, Day-4, Day-5, Day-6, Day-7, Day-8

Day-2

Finally touched down in Coolangatta, Gold Coast International Airport. The weather was not too cold. Hubby had slight problem at the custom counter. He didn't know where is the place we're going to stay and he stupidly told the officer, "I dunno." So both of us were stopped by the custom and i had to expl

It was a small airport with nothing much to blog about. The moment we grabbed our luggage, i dashed to find the local bus stop. Met a friendly guard who directed us to the correct bus stop and we waited for bus along with some people who also arrived in GC for the first time. The bus drivers are very helpful and patient, all you need to do is open your mouth and ask or bring along the address of the place you want to go. You will not go wrong. Take any bus that stops in front of the GC airport bus stop and it will bring you to the next main bus stop where you get Bus-700 to get to Surfer's Paradise. One good thing is, you just need to pay once and then you just show the same bus ticket to the next bus driver. I do not know how the fare is calculate but it's calculated according to Zone. You go figure it out.

The ride took about 40mins and it will stop at every bus stop on the way to Surfer's Paradise. Along the way, you will see beaches on your right and lots and lots of accommodations from hotel to motel. We went pass Pacific Fair shopping complex, Conrad Jupiter casino, Hooters, Sizzlers.....etc and finally the bus stopped in front of Cirle of Cavill. You can even inform the bus driver to let you know which is the correct or nearest stop to get down from the bus.

We walked for like 10mins from Cirle of Cavill to Sleeping Inn, Peninsular Drive, the hostel we booked online. The two heavy luggage made the walk rather difficult. One good thing was, we didn't sweat all the way there. The hostel was like a semi-d house with a mini pool. Not exactly that cheap and i wouldn't recommend it to anybody else unless you can find a cheaper place than this. Some of the staffs there were not friendly & never smile. Since we reached there earlier than the check-in time, we just stored our bags and walked back to SP. First, we went to hunt for Hungry Jack's, a highly recommended place for burgers. I swallowed a Bacon& Egg wrap while hubby went for Whooper. No chili sauce :( Proceeded to SP beach and the waves were crazy and yet you can see so many people sun-bathing at the beach. I was still nicely wrapped in my jacket :P


We also went to enquire bus info since we were going to Brisbane on the 5th day of our trip. There were so many bus companies and we went for the famous one - Greyhound. The price is AUD30 per person for one way trip to Brisbane - 1.5hour ride. I was shocked at the price was not the one i got from internet. Later i found out that the trip to Bris which i obtained from internet was using the public transportation, only AUD21.20 for 2 persons.

After grabbing some maps and mineral waters, we went back our hostel to freshen up before heading to Harbour Town. (From SP, take Bus 709, 703, 700 to HT, AUD3.40 per person, 1-way). Harbour Town is a huge factory outlets. You can from a lot of brands there from sportswear to baby clothings. Some of the prices are not really that cheap after converted back to RM, maybe equivalent to the price in Penang. We managed to grab from clothes from Esprit which was proven to be much cheaper than getting them from Penang (we regretted this when we reached syd - will write about this later). Out-of-season crocs sandals were sold for AUD19.90 per pair!! Sadly, hubby couldn't find the size he wanted and i dun fancy crocs sandals at all. We were looking for cheap local fruits but couldn't find any. I remember my frens telling that the local fruits there are dirt cheap. Maybe we went to the wrong place (we finally found out how cheap the fruits were in Syd). Packed dinner and we went back to SP.

It was a tiring day for us, not to mention the sleepless night before on plane. The other backpackers were not considerate at all. A group of them were playing poker on the dinner table when we went home. In the end, we had to have dinner at the balcony, accompanied by cold breeze & some rains. Bad experience. Oh yeah, we had 4-bed room and our roommate was a German girl. Friendly but very unorganized person. Do you put your toothbrush on the carpet of the room & shaver on the floor of the bathroom shared with soooo many strangers? Anyway, i fainted the moment my head touched the nicely wrapped pillow (i wrapped the pillow with the laundry bag i brought along).