Australia: so where the bloody hell are you?! :)

HELLO GUYS I'M BACK!

Just came back (okay technically I'm back for nearly a week already) from my Australia trip and I enjoyed it pretty much, except for a few mood swings from both of us. Hahahahaha. I'm still slowly uploading my photos from iphone and the cam.

Food was pretty much accompanied with chips for every meal and I don't really take chips after my sinseh said to cut down on oily and fried food. But anyway I was glad I didn't put on weight when I was back! Hahahaha We had korean, thai, chinese, italian and german food which were all pretty good,

A main highlight of this trip that's different from all the trips I have done is staying at Backpacker's hostels. I actually enjoyed staying there! In fact, to me, a bed and a clean toilet is all I need despite having to share with others. It's really great making friends with the roomies from Sweden, Switzerland, England, Japan, China, Scotland and Americans & Brazilian from our tour in Sydney. Anyway Backpackers hostel is really fine and if you guys are planning to stay in a backpackers, try to search if there's lifts or if you have to climb lots of stairs, especially if you are carrying luggage with you instead of backpacks. Because maggie had a hard time lugging her luggage up the stairs and she was complaining all the way for the backpackers hostel we stayed (except for YHA at Brisbane- a 5star backpackers hostel that has lift). My luggage was pretty light so it was alright for me.

And also, if you mind staying on the upper deck of the beds, don't stay backpackers. Because for 2 hostels we only had upper beds left and maggie was complaining she doesnt like upper beds! Hahahahahaha! Some hostels are ensuite, which means they have a toilet in each room (otherwise it's a common bathroom outside the rooms) which are better because it's more convenient and wouldn't disturb the roomies if you're getting in and out for the toilet.

Alright a summary of my trip! It's gonna be a wordy one and I'm lazy to upload pictures here because they're all on FB. Go onto my fb to view the albums and those I was tagged in (by Maggie) okay! :)


Perth:
Love the serenity of perth cos it isn't that busy with cars and humans everywhere unlike surfers paradise and sydney. Loved the road trip which was my first time driving a really long distance with nothing but sceneries beside me. And of course, the endless roads that is accompanied by the blue skies and really fluffy clouds. Arrived at Lancelin where we wasted an hour searching for sandboards for hire and walking into the deserted sandy area because we were misled by a sign to points "sand boarding" and actually it meant a sand boarding area. Plus it was off-road area so our car which wasn't a 4wheeldrive couldn't go in. In the end we went back to near the entrance of Lancelin to get our boards and we were glad the owner was really friendly and nice! Sand boarding's really fun and I would love to spend more time there if not for our rushed trip up to Pinnacles Desert as we didn't want to reach there when the sun sets. Pinnacles Desert was nice and it's really amazing how such rocks or whatever you call it can be formed there. and the sand's really like gold when the sun shines on them.

We spent 3hrs driving down to Fremantle because I took a wrong exit. But we still managed to reach there safely. Fremantle's a nice town with lovely architectures. The italian pizza we had there for dinner was great too! And then it was down to the Airport from Fremantle, and luckily, I didn't miss any turns hahaha i had to wait at the airport for 6hours before my flight in return for saving a night of accommodation. Mag's and my flight was 6 hours apart, which meant when she reaches brisbane, she has 6 hours too. Hahaha


Brisbane:
Took a shuttle down to Gold coast and to Surfers Paradise Backpacker's which we spent 4 nights there in a 6-bed mixed dorm with en-suite toilet. It's pretty far from the city area with walking distance of about 15minutes. Anyway, the beach is really beautiful and the city was full with Schoolies where they were there was this week-long of beach party. It's for the high-school graduates or something. And everywhere on the streets you'll just spot them, all high on drinks and some just plainly high. And at night you'll just hear them shouting everywhere on the streets and even from an apartment to the opposite apartment lol.

The next 3 days was spent at the 3 themeparks - movieworld, wet'n'wild and dreamworld. All which I tried on each and every ride and I really wished I had the time to go for a second time! I would say dreamworld has the most thrilling rides! Too bad mag has fear on some of those rides and I had to go alone. But it was still awesome even taking it alone! hehehe OH and I spoilt the DSLR display screen! :/

We wanted to take up surfing lessons at gold coast but didn't have the time. And even our hotair ballooning was cancelled because of wet weather. Pretty upsetting actually. Anyway, we picked up our car and since it was raining, we pushed back our drive up to Mooloolaba (sunshine coast) and went for some shopping at Harbourtown Shopping centre where all the outlet stores are located. And I really wished we had more time because there's really too many shops! I only got myself a cardigan because we basically just go into a shop, browse around and out, as we didnt have the time.

Anyway, the drive up to mooloolaba was about 2 hours and about 120km away, and this is the longest distance I've ever drove this year! It's even more than what I have drove in Singapore. Hahahaha! It was raining on the way but we still manage to reach Mooloolaba safely. Anyway, wet weather meant no beach activities, so we stayed in our room for the night and booked a river cruise lunch for the next day. That's where I had fresh prawns and after soaking myself in the beach (after the lunch), my eyes began to swell & voice totally lost and our plan of going to the attractions on the way back from mooloolaba to Brisbane city was destroyed thanks to my swollen eye.

Mag had to drive me down to the hospital, where I wasted lots of time waiting for the medicine to take effect. I was really sad and sorry that I ruined the trip. Anyway, it was my first time in A&E and it's really cool to experience for myself how it looks like hahahaha. Anyway, before actually deciding to go to the hospital, I wanted to just get eye drops because I experienced this before and I merely just used eye drops. But since we couldn't get any, hospital was the next choice.

Oh and the doctor was shocked to hear that we drove down from Mooloolaba because there were 3 hospitals on the way. And the nurse and her were really astonished. really should have took down their faces hahaha. They told me sternly that I should have went to the nearest one. But I told them because we had to spend the night in Brisbane city, so we decided to go the hospital in the city. And in fact, we missed 2 turns for 2 hospitals hahaha

So much for brisbane. lol.


Sydney
Sydney is really bustling and busy. Human and vehicles traffic jam. Even the driver of the shuttle service was so impatient and drove like mad - making turns here and there to avoid the traffic. Went for a free tour around sydney, saw the sydney harbour bridge and opera house, went to the wildlife park and aquarium world at sydney, went up the Sydney tower for a panoramic view of Sydney, oceanworld at Manly Beach...

Sydney's weather is good. Sunny but not hot. Windy but not too cold :) Oh and this is where we stayed in a new hostel in Kings Cross, a red-light district area, which was actually quite alright. In fact, it's not even noisy at night and there aren't much party going on in the streets. So it's still safe! And the hostel has pretty small space so it could only expand upwards, which means our rooms are on the 4th floor and we have to climb those stairs everyday. Good exercise though! ;)

Like what all the backpackers say, there's really too much to see, but too little time and too little money. Hahaha. Australians aren't that racist as what people always say. It's a good trip to end off my education life officially. And I would want to travel with all of you - yes, my dear friends -next time if our schedule and budget allows! :)