A trip to Australia 2015 - Day 3 to 5 (A summary)

Today is Day 5, I have been really tired the past three days as it was packed with activities. Therefore, I decided to compile a summary of these three days in one post instead.

Day 3

We walked from our apartment to the Brisbane Botanical Gardens today. It was almost 12 pm but there were a lot of people strolling or jogging on the paths in the park. Either Australians were very cautious about their physical fitness, or it's because the cool whether invites people to take a nice walk in the park. Nevertheless, it was a very pleasant experience.

We walked to the end of botanical gardens and the Queensland University of Technology was just around the corner. Just opposite the university was a bridge that took us across the Brisbane River. We started to feel hungry so we started to stroll along the other side of the river to find something we could eat for lunch. We passed the Griffith University and found a couple of restaurants and cafes. The first one that caught our eye was Burger Urge. We took a seat inside and I ordered a "Cheese Louis". It was one of the best burgers I have ever eaten.

After lunch we walked passed the Wheel of Brisbane again.

I had lasagna and broccoli for dinner.

Day 4

Today we checked out of the apartment at around 10 am while my dad grabbed a rental car. We were moving to Gold Coast today. After loading the luggage on the car, my dad had some problems with the GPS system in the car because it was unlike the GPS system we used in Singapore. We left about half an hour later. As the GPS lagged a little bit and the GPS voice system was really soft, we went off route a number of time. However, we managed to reach the Meriton Service Apartment safely within a couple of hours.

The View from the Meriton Service Apartment Gold Coast

Living Room

Kitchen

Bedroom

Tiny Study Room

After exploring the room, we went downstairs in the search of food. There were a number of restaurants but they were slightly pricey. We settled on McDonalds. I was thinking of getting the Double Cheeseburger like always but then my eyes shifted down a line and I saw "Triple Cheeseburger". That's definitely what I'm going for. The McDonalds here had a slightly different collection system, whereby we were given numbers and it'll be displayed on a screen for collection.

Like what it's name suggests, three beef patties and three layers of cheese. I'm in paradise. Just writing about this makes me hungry,

I finally decided that it was a good time to start jogging again before I lose my stamina by the end of the trip. We walked down to Surfer's Paradise Beach and I did my running there. The air was very chilly so my throat got dry easily, but it was overall a very enjoyable run. 

After the thirty minutes run, we walked to one of the restaurants nearby that we crossed earlier in the day. The "Rock at Broad Beach" restaurant. My dad ordered some fish dish (forgot the name), my mum order the Spaghetti Bolognese and I ordered the Ceaser Salad.

After the dinner, we visited the Jupiter Casino a few streets down. It was the first time I actually entered a casino.

Day 5

I woke up at around 10 am today. Had noodles with eggs and broccoli. My dad wanted to bring me to Sea World today because apparently, I went there when I was about 3 years old. The entire place was filled with the laughing and chatter among children and adults. We watched a number of shows there including a Ski Jet show, a Sea Lion show, and a Dolphin Show. Between those shows, we visited the polar bear and shark exhibition.

The park closed at 5.30 pm but most of the stores have already closed. Hence, we had to drive to another location to eat dinner. We drove to the Pacific Fair town center. Although the shopping mall had only 2 stories, it was very long. We nearly gave up finding a place to eat in Pacific Fair because all we could see were rows and rows of shop. Fortunately, we came across a big food court after a long walk. My mum and I ordered a Kutsu Don each which came with Miso Soup and my dad ordered Kutsu Curry. The food here is delicious!

After dinner, we bought some groceries and headed back to the apartment.

A trip to Australia 2015 - Day 2 - Exploring the City

I woke up at around 10 am today because I slept late last night. It was bright and sunny today. My hair was in a total mess. it was like my hair had a a party while I was asleep and ended up drunk. My hair refused to go down without a fight. I pulled, pressed and used water before it finally died down.

City View from the Apartment

Today, we were going to explore the city surrounding the apartment. We stayed near the Brisbane River, and a number of joggers and cyclists zipped passed us on the path located beside the river.

We passed by a convenience store along the way and I decided to pick up a Birthday Card for my friend's daughter who lives in Brisbane. I was unable to visit them because of we are only staying in Brisbane for approximately one more day, and then we had to leave for Gold Coast. I thought it was only right if I could at least mail a card to their place since I was not able to see them.

I dropped off the card at a mail office located around the corner. It had a self service mailing counter which provides us the stamp required to mail the card. We were not as "tech-savvy" as we thought. Thankfully, a cheerful woman was there to help us through all the steps. The system required us to place whatever we were mailing onto the glass panel provided, which would determine the weight of the object. It will then show us the amount we needed to pay based on the weight on the item. Once payment was made, a sticker was printed out and it is pasted onto the mail.

We strolled out of the mail office and we saw an Apple flag fluttering proudly in the wind. We have arrived at one of the Apple outlets. The store was huge, with multiple tables displaying rows and rows of iPhones, iPads and Apple watches. The shop assistants were standing beside the displays with an iPad in hand, waiting to serve any customer that walks through the entrance.

The Apple Store

As we continued down the street, we came across a building called Winter Garden Brisbane, Queen Street Mall. It was lunch time so we entered to find something to eat. There was a food court on the bottom floor. Mum and I decided to share four massive sushi rolls. She also ordered a cup of miso soup as well. The miso soup was literally served in a coffee cup, and it displayed the nutritional values on the label. Pretty unique. My dad ordered a Tokyo Beef Rice and Laksa,

While we were consuming our meal, we were questioning ourselves if we were sitting at the right place because everyone sitting around us were eating McDonalds. Another interesting thing we've discovered is that vending machines here not only sell food and drinks, but they also sell phone accessories. The one we came across sold iPhone cables, earphones and portable chargers.

Once we were done with our meal, we wanted to visit the park that was located across the river. We zig-zagged through the multiple skyscrapers in the vicinity and finally saw a bridge that led to the other side of the river.

The Treasury Building

The highway. while crossing the Brisbane River

The Brisbane River

By the time we "finished" walking along the park, we decided to head back to the apartment, and grab some groceries on the way. Most of the shops started closing, as most of them get off work around 5.30 pm.

For dinner, I shared Spaghetti and Meatballs, with a side of boiled broccoli with my dad. My mum decided that she would just fancy a couple slices of toast and strawberry jam. I was shattered, having to walk up and down hills of streets with groceries in both hands. On the bright side, it was a good work out.

I thought that I would be able to wake up early every day to go jogging like I was used to in Singapore. However, I am not really confident about that since the jogging path was located a few streets away from the apartment. People might say that I could jog along the streets, but it's hard to do so when there are students and workers swarming the sidewalks of the streets. Besides, who would want to breathe in the exhaust that is given out my motor vehicles on the streets.

But hey, it might not stay that way, once we are in Gold Coast, I am looking forward to waking up every morning and jogging along the beach. It would be perfect!

A trip to Australia 2015 - Day 1 - Flying

Today felt like any other day, but today was different. I guess that's how you feel when you wake up unusually early, disorientated. I'm flying off to Brisbane. I woke up at 6.30 am and stumbled out of bed reluctantly. The soft, comfortable sheets were too hard to part with. The thought of plummeting back onto those cushy pillows was so tempting. However, the driver that was going to send us to the airport was coming in less than an hour. I dragged myself into the bathroom and threw myself into the shower. I never liked taking showers in the morning, it was so cold.

I stepped out of the shower, put on my clothes, and walked briskly towards to the kitchen. I grabbed a used cup along the way and poured some water into it. I had to be quick because I would need to wash the cup before leaving the apartment. Once everyone was ready, my parents and I took the luggage we had and brought it down to the black SUV that was already parked in the car park.

The morning was cool and slightly overcast, as rays of sunlight slowly peeked over the horizon. I was not used to waking up this early in the morning, so I fell asleep during the ride. We arrived at Gate 5 of Changi Airport Terminal 3 at around 7.50 am, but there were long queues already forming at the multiple Business Class counters. We decided to take a lane each to see who would reach the counter first. Fortunately, the attendants at the check-in counters worked swiftly and we checked-in our luggage in no time.

We made out way to the Business Class lounge, and as expected, it was nearly full. Looks like morning flights are really popular. We managed to locate three counter seats and settled in. They were having a buffet in the lounge. To my disappointment, most of the food were already gone, but I managed to grab some noodles, sausages and half an omelet. Our flight was taking off soon. I shoved down my food, grabbed my bag, and headed towards the departure gate. 

Shortly after the plane took off, the air stewardess started serving us the Brunch. I decided to have the Poached Eggs. The other choice, Dim Sum, seemed to be more popular among the Australian passengers on board. Throughout the flight, they kept us well fed, serving us sides and dinner a couple of hours later, I felt like I put on at least a pound or two just from this flight alone. Constant eating plus minimal walks to the bathroom? Never a good thing. 

As we started descending to Brisbane, the sky has already turned dark and city lights dotted the ground beneath the aircraft. We touched down, got off the airplane and started making our way to Immigration. A lady greeted us and told us that it'll be much quicker if we had a bio-metric passport and just scanned our way through immigration. I have used this system many times and thought I would be very familiar with the system. Turns out it was slightly different. Firstly, the system required me to insert my entire passport instead of half the passport that was required in Singapore. I did not know that and could not insert my passport fully because I had a plastic cover on my passport. After I realised what I was doing was wrong, I took out the plastic cover and slotted it in. The screen prompted me to answer a few illness-related questions and the glass doors flung open. I wave of relief swept over me and I thought it was all over. WRONG. Turns out, there were another pair of glass doors I had to go through. This time it had like a facial recognition system, where they try to match your face with the picture on the passport. Did I pass through? Of course not. My passport picture was taken years ago and without my spectacles. So I had to retreat to the assistance counter where I had an immigration officer check my passport details. 

The immigration officer was very serious and to be honest, I felt kind of intimidated by her glare. While she checked my passport, suddenly she said in a loud voice: "Sir, you cannot make a call here." At first I thought she was directing that at me, until I processed what she just said. I turned awkwardly around to see a guy talking on the phone. She repeated herself several times before the caller decided to put down the phone. I always felt so relieved whenever I pass through immigration. It's a lot of pressure when the immigration officer lowers her glasses slightly and gave what felt to be a judging look before forcefully stamping the passport.

We collected out luggage and strolled toward the baggage collection exit. It was always awkward for me when I walk out the arrival hall. All I could see was a sea of human heads out the door. I could feel the heat of people's gazes as I weaved through the crowd towards the exit. As we made our way out of the airport, a cool breeze swept past my face. The temperature was so perfect. I wished it was this cool everyday in Singapore. The bus that would take us directly to our apartment arrived at around 8.30 pm.

About half an hour later, the bus halted on a slope. This was where we were alighting. The driver helped us take out our luggage from the back of the bus and I held onto two of them. I never liked slopes, especially steep ones. It was like a phobia but I already had this fear since I was very young. So I struggled to pull two luggage up the slope while my mind started drifting off. Anxiousness started settling in as I thought of my luggage rolling down the slope and my palms started to become sweaty. My dad noticed, and decided to take one of the luggage from me. It was so much easier after that.

We found the entrance to the apartment and I noticed that there was quite a number of Asians here, most between their teens to mid-20's. I figured most of them were Koreans because I overheard some of their conversations in Korean. The lift that the apartment here has quite an unusual and interesting system. To use the lift, you had to scan your key card, and key in the floor that you wanted to go to, on the number pad provided, The system will then assign you to either lift A, B, C, or D.  We stayed on the 66th floor. I did not even notice how tall the building was. Apparently, there are over 70 floors in this apartment. The lift was surprisingly fast though. The ride to the 66th floor was way faster than the ride to the 30th floor back home. In fact, you would not even feel like the lift was moving. I think we should change the lift system we are using at home.

The apartment was very spacious. It had a living room with a fully equipped kitchen, a master bedroom, a master bathroom, a bedroom with double beds, a small study, and a guest bathroom. We stowed our luggage in the corner of the apartment before heading back down to buy some groceries. Fortunately, a 7-11 was just round the corner and was still open. To my knowledge, most of the shops in Australia can close as early as 5.30 pm. I was slightly peckish so I picked up a instant-ready lasagna to eat. It claimed to have 97% reduced fat, but it's hard to trust labels these days. Whether or not it's true, it still tasted and smelled amazing. It was almost 10 pm local time, but I guess I'm having jet lag since I usually have my dinner at 8 pm and Australia is two hours ahead of Singapore.

Having been transferring from one vehicle to another throughout the whole day, I decided to take a bath. I have started to appreciate some things in Singapore that I have noticed before. Firstly, the toilet seats here are freezing cold. Secondly, I was shivering violent the moment I got out of the shower. 

I will now end the blog post here as it is almost 1.30 am in the morning. Check back here again next time for more updates on the trip! :)

A day in the Singapore Botanic Gardens

I woke up around 8.45am to the constant beeping of my alarm clock. Today, I was meeting Simin and Hui Lian at the Botanic Gardens. We have been there once three years ago, so I was looking forward to going there again. We were supposed to meet at Holland Village to grab supplies for our picnic. It was overcast so I was slightly worried that it would start raining when we reached the Botanic Gardens like the last time. Turns out, all my worries were for naught. By the time I reached Holland Village, the sun rays were shining down mercilessly. I waited at the meeting venue for about 45 minutes before the girls arrived.

After buying the supplies we needed from Cold Storage, I had a feeling that we were not going to be able to finish all the food. We bought a box of freshly made salad which consisted of: Spinach, Chicken, Bread Pieces, Pumpkins, and Raisins. My initial thought that this would be the weirdest salad that I would have ever consumed in my life. Turns out to be pretty decent. We bought a Honey Baked Chicken. I suggested to take the smaller one but they insisted to take the largest one available. We went on to grab a Tuna Spread of Biscuits (Which I picked out), a loaf of white bread, a bag of Sour Cream and Onion Raffles chips, and a few bottles of drinks. I listed out every single thing just to emphasize the amount of food we bought. We started making our way to the MRT to grab our transport to the Botanic Gardens. We passed by a Pizza Hut outlet and then decided to buy three slices of BBQ Chicken pizzas. The reason why we bought so much food was probably due to the fact that we have not eaten breakfast yet, and this has led to our misjudgment of how much we can actually fit in our stomachs.

Spinach Salad from Cold Storage

Once we reached the Botanical Gardens, we managed to find a shelter that was currently occupied by a little girl and her mother. They were throwing bread crumbs on the ground which the native pigeons were happily picking off the ground. We settled down in the seats opposite them and decided to start eating the slices of pizzas. We realised that the birds were able to smell the pizzas that we were eating and one by one, started to approach us. It was hilarious watching Simin react to the birds. At one point, she just jumped on the bench when the pigeon approached her. Hui Lian was swinging her legs at the birds to try and scare them away from us. At one point, this seems to work but the birds kept coming back. We swiftly finished our pizzas and the salad we have bought and decided to start exploring the park.

I was chatting with Simin about the camera on the iPhone 6 when she told me that it had the HDR function. The realization of the fact that I had not turned on the HDR function since the day I got my phone came crumbling down on me. (Of course I’m being dramatic) In actual fact, I was kind of disappointed that I have not found out about this function sooner.

We walked through familiar routes that we have taken the last time we have been here, and we started reminiscing the good old days when we came here as polytechnic freshmen. We came across the orchid garden and turns out we only needed to pay a dollar for the entry fee as students. We took numerous of pictures of the colourful flowers within. After that, we came across the single, white bandstand that stood out from the nature surrounding it. We wanted to take a similar picture that we took three years back. However, there was a couple taking wedding pictures there. We decided to take a seat at the swings nearby. About 15-30 minutes later we walked back and there was like a TV crew there. (At least that’s what I think). We strolled to Swan Lake and decided to sit nearby to eat the Honey Baked Chicken that I was carrying the entire time. Of course, we were unable to finish it and we walked back to the Band Stand in hopes of remaking the picture that we took years back. There were about four wedding couples taking photographs around the bandstand but fortunately we were able to take some decent photographs before one of the couples started approaching us.

This is the photograph that we took today

And this was us 3 years ago.

I think we did pretty good ^^ 

We were shattered and decided that it was a good time to head home. Though we stumbled through the blazing heat and got multiple mosquito bites, we enjoyed ourselves a lot. We will definitely be here three years later to remake this photograph.

Must Try Foods!

Over the past week, I have tried some new foods and these are some of the ones that I would like to share with you.

The first one that I would like to bring your attention to, would be the Mango Strawberry Tart that I bought from Fruit Paradise in Vivocity. This one was amazing! I would have requested this for my birthday if I knew this even existed. Unfortunately, my birthday had already past last month. Each piece costs $7.80. This may appear to be very expensive to the majority. However, you are getting bang for your buck. Just look at the size of it! I loved it so much that I bought 3 more pieces to bring home and let my family try it.

The second one that I would like to talk about would be the Hazelnut Banana Pancakes from Pies and Coffee. I went to the outlet in ARC (Alexandra Retail Center). At first I thought the chocolate sauce would be too rich for me. However, I was pleasantly surprised. It was not too sweet and it was just right. The pancake is soft and fluffy, and melts in your mouth. One of the best pancakes I've had in a long time. P.S. Besides McDonald Pancakes because I'm Lovin It ;)

So, if you are near any of the places I have listed, I highly recommend you trying both of these desserts. You will not regret it!