Aussie Adventure [Part 2/12]

DAY 2: AUSTRALIA ZOO & EATSTREETS MARKET

We spent the day in Australia Zoo paying tribute to Steve Irvin the crocodile hunter.

Much of the day's event has been posted before.. But I'll repost some and more on the EatStreets Market happening every weekend in Brisbane..

Help! A life-size crocodile just had me!
(True story is that since Australia is isolated from the rest of the world, things evolved)

Can you spot the koala?

Taking a pic on top of another life-size crocodile

Now how do I get down from there??
It's so high! 

With godson in the mouth!

Let's go to the Roo Heaven!

Selfie with Roo!

Eat up you bitch!

There's a koala in this tree!
ON this tree....

Laughing kookaburra birds 

Wombat

Hi wombat!

Tasmanian Devils are.. like a giant mouse...

Yeah damn giant mouse...

Tasmanian Scallop Pie, really got 7 scallops inside...

Tasmanian Scallop Pie - $16 with fries

How about a hot guy?
A shooting is going on and he's promoting the tornado chips.
BICEPS.. OH BICEPS!!

One section of EatStreets Market

In later part of my trip, the Aussie tour guide/driver I was with on my Great Ocean Road tour told us that since Australia is isolated from the rest of the world for millions of years, things evolved into funny creatures..

Like.. kangaroo... koala... tasmanian devils... wombat... which are all native to Australia.. penguins swam north from Antarctica so it doesn't count..  along the way, the crocodiles which are direct descent of dinosaurs, have and could grown so much in size that the replicas found in Australia Zoo actually represents the actual size that one could find only in Australia!

Amazing isnt it!?


... to be continued ... 

Aussie Adventure [Part 1/12]

This will be a long series (of maybe 12 sections? to sum up my 14 days of Australian Adventure).

Let's start from the very beginning on how this trip came about.. I have always wanted to do Australia and even more so my friend keep persuading me and I keep putting it off... for more than seven years I postpone it..

When I broke off this middle of the year, I was thinking to myself, "this is it, Australia it is!".. and frantically began searching for flights..

The cheapest at that point was RM1.8k for the route I wanted (Brisbane/Melbourne) for a return flight on Malaysia Airlines, I didn't buy.. I waited.. then the fare dropped to all time low of RM1.3k (KUL-Brisbane, Melbourne-KUL only this route) and right away I booked it and took the next 1-2 months to pay it..

Once that was done and out of the way, I then proceed to plan for domestic Australia flights, and spent weeks looking at the cheapest fare, and including a stopover in Sydney as well..

So once all that is done and my flights were booked, things looked set, and I still left the pettiest of things - that is to ask for discounts to help me mitigate my expenses..

I flew out of KL to Brisbane with Malaysia Airlines on 9.40am on 11 September, then from Brisbane to Sydney with Jetstar Australia at 1pm on 16 September, and from Sydney to Melbourne with Tigerair Australia at 2.40pm 19 September, finally from Melbourne to KL with Malaysia Airlines at 7.40am on 24 September.

My flight route

This is the fare breakdown:
KUL-BNE / MEL-KUL on Malaysia Airlines RM1300
BNE-SYD on Jetstar AUD57.50
SYD-MEL on Tigerair AUD87.00
... for a total 14,500km

And in Australia, ground movements clocked another thousand km plus, all in all, this trip alone I clocked over 16,000km ground distance..


Day 1: KUL-BRISBANE
I left home about 5.30am by taking the taxi to KL Sentral and caught the KLIA Express train to the airport. On arrival, I headed straight for Plaza Premium Lounge for a quick bite - it was full thanks to the peak hour morning departures.

Before long, it's time to board. It was a 8.5 hours plus flight to Brisbane, arriving at 8.20pm, past schedule due to the congestion in KLIA and BNE, by the time I got out of the airport, it was almost 9pm, thankfully my friend was already waiting for me in the pick-up area.

We then drive to a McDonalds drive-through near his place in Bracken Ridge and bought the $2 chicken and mayo burger. I was surprised there's such cheap burgers, which will then be my easiest-to-get meal fix over the next 2 weeks.

After that, went home, freshen up, chatted a bit and called it a day.

My sleep for the 5 nights that was set up nicely for me

On arrival in BNE airport

Passing through the Red Centre

Passing through the Red Centre

Passing through the Red Centre

Airline food.. ok la not too bad

Flight route

... to be continued ...

Day 3: Gold Coast, Day 4: CBD & Redcliffe

Day 3 we took a drive to Gold Coast for a day trip as the kids won't be able to endure the long distance. Conquering Surfers Paradise was one of the highlight in Gold Coast although no doubt had we stay 2-3 days it will even be better! 

And some sun burn later yet it didn't affect me any bit!

As for Day 4, spend the morning going to CBD, bought lottery tickets hoping to strike a million dollars (lol, no I didn't win any), and some history lessons and then took a drive to Redcliffe to enjoy the Pacific Ocean from the jetty. 

My friend truly knows I love sea and beach! Hahaha..

This wraps up the first part of my journey in Australia as my first #AussieAdventure.. 

Tomorrow I'll be flying to Sydney where I'll go for some excursions to learn more about selling Australia.. It will be a quick stopover in Sydney for just a few days.. 

A day out in the zoo

Day 2: Australia Zoo / Eatstreets Market

No hesitation to go to the zoo as I'd love to see the kangaroos, koalas and wombats, kookaburra and Tasman devils.. These are all natives to Australia and no other place better to see them than here..

Spent the entire day out and when we get back to the city in the evening, we're all tired out, get a quick bite and back home and sleep by 9pm.. It's 7pm in Malaysia..

My godson and I getting cosy lying down... 

24,665km Trip

Very excited to go on the first part of a total of 24,665km journey this month and next month all combined.. 

First up is Australia - the trip was very impromptu and I just bought the tickets to "console" myself after going through a breakup.. I would like to get away from all and just have no plans and no itinerary and just go.. Every time I'm at an airport, I feel like "eeni mini maini mo" and randomly choose a destination and just go, and I will do that one day..

And because it's my virgin trip Down Under, I've just decided to do the main main tourists stuffs, such as Gold Coast, climbing Syndey Bridge, going to Great Ocean Road, the zoos... Probably find a couple hours to look see look see the gay scenes, the saunas and what nots lol... Shopping wasn't a major thing for me but I'm kill for outlet shopping especially hunting for LesMills-Reebok stuffs.. 

Unfortunately the operator for Yarra Valley whom I'm supposed to follow using my travel agent rate was uncontactable, so I'll have an extra day lol, probably just spend it at St Kilda :) 

Also not missing out on nude beach, if I can find my way lol... 

Pluck in LesMills Q3 workshop and going to Shane's class in Melbourne, I'm like, getting a good workout in between my holiday! Lol.

I'm very lucky to have friends in every major Australian city that is ever so willingly let me crash, because we all know how expensive accommodation is! For roughly $100 a night, I have saved $1.3k in all 13 nights! That's freaking RM4k!! A big shoutout to my primary school friend in Brisbane who took leave to lepak with me in exchange to babysit his kids (LOL!!!), to my first ever Singaporean friend now in Sydney whom I knew online more than 15 years ago and to a blogreader-turned-friend-cum-BODYCOMBAT comrade in Melbourne... THANK YOU for taking me in!!! 

Sorry friends in Perth (MK and the rest!), I'll have to skip Perth this time around, not enough time, not enough money and flight routing wasn't in my favour anyway.. I promise I'll do Perth next time! 

I'll write more when I get back in 2 weeks time! 

Signing off, Aussie Aussie Aussie oi oi oi!! 

Back shot

This is such a rare back shot of me.. Caught in the most vulnerable pose where I'm not able to "defend" myself.. But I kinda like the pic so I thought I'll just share :) 

Hahahaha...