Day 5 - Going Brisbane

Packed up and ready to go! Before we left, I went to the Coles at Chevron Renaias... to get ... 12 cans of canned fruit! U dun get to see those in can form, only in bottles, and moreover they were just 59cents! Well... I think we would miss this place, but there were not much things to see. Anyway, these are some shots of the nearby surroundings... Nice sky right? (it is always blue-r elsewhere...) I have also included one of Holiday Inn Surfers Paradise where we stayed. My comments of the hotel were posted in www.tripadvisor.com.

Driving to Brisbane was quite a challenge, esp for us who dun drive in Singapore. Navigating is my job, so every night I would read the map and select the rooute and mark out the relevant pages in the street driectory. The road towards City was pretty straight-forward, but it was the city roads that were of concern. Which exit from the highway, and whether the road is one-way or two-way (we had experienced that in Christchurch). Also, the drive would likely take about an hour to two, and I had to find a gd stop for tea.
Fortunately, it was a right choice that we came out from the highway to a place called Tanah Merah (dun ask me why a Malay name?), and there was this HyperDome which included Target, Coles, Woolworth, K-Mart, etc ... and most important a Food Court where we settled our lunch. We also got some books for Xin Yi at Angus & Robertson. About an hour and half, we were on the road again, and less than 30 minutes later we were at Brisbane and checked in to Holiday Inn Brisbane. Why there? Cos' the price was more affordable. Else I would have tried Stamford which was near Brisbane River and the Botanic Garden.
Actually, Holiday Inn Brisbane was a decent hotel, except that it is next to the Roma Street station, and the train rolling noise would wake you up... also some hwo or another, the window panes kept giving cracking noise in the early morning. Perhaps it was due to thermal expansion, but it was certainly the first time I heard such noise for a long span of time. The hotel also seemed short-handed when we checked in on a Sunday and ... believe it or not ... we had to request for slippers! None were found in both our rooms! (in caseyou r wondering this pic shows a view from our room - the bldg is not our hotel!)

After putting our bags, wash-up ... and Xin Yi had her milk, we walked towards the Riverside where they had a Sunday market till 4pm... even before we reached there, Xin Yi was too tired and slept on the stroller... By the time we reached there, it was 2 plus, but they were already packing!!! Too bad... parents had drinks at McDonald's while I jalan around.


The Riverside and Eagle Pier were nice places. There were jetty/pier for the City Cat and City Ferry. You could see the Story Bridge in the background. The bridge, with due respect, was not that spectacular, but pple were paying hundreds of dollars to climb it. Unbelievable!

We took the City Cat and dropped at Southbank. Thereafter we strolled around and as the wind were quite strong, it was becoming even colder at Gold Coast. We decided that it was enuf and made our way to a train station to our hotel (Roma Street station) which was located on the same building at the Transit Centre. Thus for those who travelled extensively on rail, the hotel is very suitable. They have KFC and McDonald's... Btw, the chinese food store at the centre was terrible especially the chinese lady which was very poor-mannered.

We turned in early as there would be a longer drive to Australia Zoo at Beerwah, but I was rather disappointed on its small scale and the fact they charged $43 per adult. More photos on Day 6.