Sweet Summer Travel Experiences To Recapture (Part 1)

It is always good to refresh my sweet memory of previous travel experiences here to welcome my readers. I’m so excited to recapture here some of the tips and guides of my posts featured in my first blog as below:-

• A Trip To Gold Coast
  • This installment is about my Honeymoon trip to Gold Coast, Australia with my lovely wife back in year 2005. It was a wonderful summer travel experience to remember and I want my daughter to read this twenty years later (when she is 20 and start to understand what is ‘LOVE’).In 24th of March, 2005, me and my wife, Jean, reached our lovely international airport, KLIA at 7a.m., just to catch an SIA air Flight, transit in Singapore and reach Brisbane, Australia at local time 5p.m. (Australia is 2 hours ahead of K.L.). Why Gold Coast? We had a few options: Gold Coast, Sydney, Rome, or Venice. We love to travel, firstly. Secondly, we preferred western country with cooler weather, not to say rejecting Asian countries, but as for honeymoon, we presume it would be more romantic to be in those countries (perhaps influenced by the Hollywood blockbuster movies). Thirdly, because of our budget constraints, those are the most “expensive” place that is still under our budget and finally, we preferred somewhere which have a more relaxing environment, and this was why we chose Gold Coast.

  • 
    Before we depart to Australia, we have booked hotel for Brisbane for a night online. As a travel tips, I strongly recommend that you should booked your accommodation before you travel to your destination for a peace of mind. In our case, we planned to stay in Brisbane for a night, 3 nights in Gold Coast and a night in Noosa Lake. So I booked accommodation for Brisbane, a night for Gold Coast and a night in Noosa Lake. We planned to look for alternative hotel in Gold Coast once we reached there. And we planned to rent a car once we reached Brisbane and this was a mistake (you will know later on..)

    We flew to Brisbane by SIA Airline which I would personally recommend to all of you. Their stewardess’ service, the food, the onboard entertainment, are all excellent, and the fare is even cheaper than our local airline, MAS, except we need to spend an hour or so more for transiting in Singapore Airport.

    After about 5 hours, we reached Brisbane International Airport, Australia. Only then, we realized we were lucky but unlucky!!? Why? Because it was Easter Holidays. We were lucky because we would have a chance to experience what Australians are doing during their long Easter holidays which stretched from Friday to Sunday. And we were unlucky as we were competing with the local people to get accommodations, rent a car, need to pay 10% surcharge on the food and the Rent-a-car shops were closed for holidays!!!

    After settling down at the hotel in Brisbane air precinct, we were so excited and quickly grabbed (or called) a cab to the town, and it was already 8 p.m., and because of the holidays, most of the shops were closed, except night spots such as pubs, restaurants and casino!! What we could do during night time? He..he.. we decided to visit their renown Casino in Brisbane. It was quite similar to our familiar Genting Starworld Casino, except lots of players there were holding a glass of liquors in their hands while playing Blackjacks!! We called it a night after spending 3 hours in there…

  • There is one good thing to remember about Australian or Queesnlander. They trust their customer. They trust people and expect people trust them as well!

    The next morning in Brisbane at our hotel, we woke up early at 8 a.m. just to catch the car rental first thing in the morning before all vehicles being rented out during this peak season. We checked (in fact asked for favour) with our hotel receptionist the nearest Car Rental around and called them up. The old lady (old? How old are you then?) was very helpful indeed and she helped making quite some calls to car renting shops around. After quite a few tries, she managed to get one for us which would cost us AUD56.00 per day for a Year 1995 TOYOTA CAMRY. We agreed and someone from the shop picked us up at our hotel an hour later to go to their office. Since there wasn’t much choice, we agreed on the offer and signed some agreement kind of documents and this was where we found it ‘Strange’.
    
    There was something we found it not right when the shop owner (another old lady) explained to us the procedure of returning the car. First, we have agreed to rent the car for 5 days. On the last day, when we want to return back the car, there are 2 options: Either return to their yard before 5p.m., or parked at their dedicated parking lot at airport. Fine, it was quite logical. But when we told her what if we return it after 5p.m., she said no problem: we could still park the car at their yard and drop the keys into the mail box; or park at airport and put the keys inside the car before locking it as they have spare keys!! Not only that, we were asked or requested to swipe credit card in advance as the deposit in case for any repair cost if there is any damage to the car during our rental and they will post back receipt to us after we came back to Malaysia! It was quite unsecured, right?

    Firstly, what would happen if there is theft case happened to the car after we parked our car without acknowledgement from them? They can always argue that we did not return the car back to them. Secondly, what if they claim us money for repairing car after we left Australia without join inspection when we return the car, not to mention if someone else damage the car after we left. In my experience, this is quite normal to happen and is quite important to query her. But she really got a shock and embarrassed (this is a better word to describe instead of ‘humiliated’) when we asked her these 2 questions. Her face turned serious and emphasised that there wasn’t anything happened like this before since she started the business 25 years ago!!

    “You don’t trust me, do you?” She added, ”some Chinese lady did ask me the similar questions 2 years ago, does this happen in your country, Malaysia?” I was silent…..

  • What would you do in Gold Coast? Too much to describe? I’m writing this article to tell what I would do in Gold Coast, Australia. Gold Coast is a paradise to surfers. That’s why the busiest beach in Gold Coast is called Surfers Paradise. The first thing we did when we reached Gold Coast was to look for Surfers Paradise. We have booked a resort there, K-Resort, which is ‘cheap’ but still walking distance from the paradise (oops… I meant Surfers Paradise). K-Reosrt is a low rise apartment resort for family which facing the main cannel of Gold Coast. Right after we registered and checked in, we immediately went to the beach, the golden sandy beach where Gold Coast got his name from. At the beach, we would rather relaxed ourselves lying down, feeling the cool yet warm atmosphere there (cool weather if compared to Malaysia but warm ambient with lots of beautiful yet sexy babes – my wife better didn’t read this).

    The coastline is straight and long, stretching over 70 Kilometers from Cabarita beach to South Stradbroke Island. Here I would suggest to whoever visits Gold Coast for the first time, you must stay at the stunning beaches for at least 2 days: the first and the last day of your visit. Because we went to the beach only in the afternoon when we reached there and we regretted that we should have enjoyed the sunbath once again cause the sun is so sunny, the sand is so fine and smooth and there are over 35 patrolled beaches along Gold Coast!

    The best part of Surfers Paradise Beach is those shopping complexes, restaurants and shops along the beach, for me. After soaking in the sun and atmosphere, we walked up and do our shopping! Yes, it is that near. So, for daytime activities,, I would stay around SP and Main Beach, a great spot for families with its perfect beach and full range of activities such as beach volleyball, barbeque sites, cafes, surfing and parachuting and when we were there, there was a Friday night open air cinema showing on the beach!

    So, what would I do during night hours? Both me and my wife went to an Australian themed restaurant for our dinner in BroadBeach. We had a few glasses of bear, enjoying the fantastic meal and the environment of Gold Coast night life except only when I was lighting up my cigarette. To my surprise, there wasn’t anyone smoking around. Luckily I checked with one of the waiters and only knew that the Australian government has banned smoking in all restaurant and even pubs even though we were at the roadside seating area!” Oh my god” for a smoker like me, it was kind of disappointed that a satisfying dinner and drink couldn’t be accompanied with a stick of cigarette! Anyhow, I still could smoke after we left the restaurant, on our way to the world renowned casino, Conrad Jupiter, across the road at Broad Baech.

    I must admit that it is a world class casino featuring 609 hotel rooms, 9 bars, 6 restaurants, 5 stages, a night club and a world class convention centre and off course, the 24 hours excitement of Jupiters Casino. If comparing to Genting and Monte Carlo which I have been to, Conrad Jupiter has a more friendly environment whereby you could even bring along your glass of bear, put it on the gambling table and chatting with those bankers. We enjoyed very much for the first day of our visit to Gold Coast.

    The next day, we went to the Cartoon World and a trip to catch those famous Australian Mud Crabs…..

  • When you first reached Surfers Paradise and walking down to the beach, you shouldn’t miss the Raptis Plaza and the Centro shopping centre at the Esplanade. There you could see a huge statue of ‘The David’ (off course it’s the counterfeit version, the original is still in Florence). We’ve got our first impression on the Australian culture there. There are all sorts of café, foods stall, ice cream (Gelato) counter, swimming costume and accessories and souvenir shops as well. The price is apparently ‘adjusted’ for tourists but still acceptable. Then off course, you must try their homemade fudge along the way to the beach for your sun-bathing.
    
    In the afternoon, we went to the largest shopping centre on the Gold Coast, Pacific Fair. It is located just opposite the Jupiter Casino at Broadbeach (where we visited in the first night of our stay in Gold Coast…), 5minutes drive from Surfers Paradise. There are over 290 stores, including all of the major department stores and Birch Carrol and Coyle Senstadium Cinema. There’s also a sensational range of special stores, which include lifestyle, jewellery, souvenirs, Australia and international fashion, giftwares, household, fresh food, cafes, novelty, cosmetics and confectionary. We had our afternoon tea there at The Crepe Café. Before the sunset, we drove further down the road to the weekly day market and bought some T-shirts and souvenirs, and dropped by the nearby fresh food market, COCO’s. We supposed to look for some fresh vegetable and food for our dinner cooking session that evening (and you must buy a couple of bottle of Autralian wine).
    

• • In the evening, in fact was in the second night (we had our own cooked dinner with wine in the first night), we went for the ‘mud crab cruise’. It was a 3 hour calm water cruise along the Canal where we caught live mud crabs, cooked by the onboard chef, and had our wonderful dinner with seafood platter and off course, full range of beverages. The freshness of mud crab meat was unforgettable and I would strongly recommend it. Moreover, we had a fishing session on the Broadwater from the tour boat. During the tour, we could feel the calm environment of the canal, relaxing under the beautiful moonlight and sparkling starlight. Around 3 hours later, after enjoying fully our dinner on board, we cruised back to where we started, the Mariners Cove. From the quiet and calm atmosphere on the Broadwater awhile ago and back to the happening and crowded, noisy atmosphere of night clubbing spot on the quay of Mariners Cove. At a price of AUD98.00, it was definitely enjoyable. Before we called it a night, our last destination was surely the open-24-hour-a-day Jupiter Casino….

    🙂 – Travel Feeder, your ultimate photo travel blog

About The Author

Cecil Lee

The author is an avid traveler and photography hobbyist who loves to share with others his travel and photo-taking experience in many popular tourist destinations around Europe, Asia and Australasia. Read the exciting stories with many photos captured on his journeys.