Gold Coast ~ Part 1

Yep..as i promised earlier..i will update entry on my latest pre-planned trip for this year..and yeah..if u refer to this entry u will know that i went to Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia recently...

First of all, please let me educate u some little piece of information about Australia..as u can see Australia been divided into 6 states which are New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and Northern Australia...If you hit Australia in the google, you'll find that the origins are indigenous Australians which are divided into several regional group..and mostly famous indigenous Australian in Queensland is Murri...But somewhere in 400years back, the Englishmen from European countries has settled in Australia and it became a place of deporting convicted criminals (just like America) and quickly grew its population. So, that is how we see a lot of english people in Australia. They are actually from the Europe just like us, who are mostly from either Indonesia or Thailand.

So, Gold Coast is basically in Queensland and so is Brisbane. Gold Coast is located in Eastern Australia, south to Brisbane and north to Sydney. You can see clearly in map below.

map of Australia - courtesy of google

As you can see, Gold Coast located in Queensland but it is adjacent and share its border with New South Wales. In fact, we even found the border gate between New South Wales and Queensland when we were in Tweed Heads town.

If you zoom a bit in, you'll found that in Gold Coast itself been divided into smaller towns. But, the biggest and most happening is surely Surfers Paradise, the heart of Gold Coast. That is why most tourist (with lotsa money..hehe) will choose to stay in the heart of Gold Coast cause this place live till late night whereas most of the shops and markets in smaller towns closed as early as 5pm.

Ok, enough bout Gold Coast and Australia geographically, lets start to talk about the trip. This trip has been planned a year ealier. Biasalah..nak beli flight tiket AirAsia yang zero fare kene beli setahun awal la. If im not mistaken, the flight ticket was bought during the promo for Air Asia zero fare around August 2010. Once it launched, we (me, fae, liza n yan) straight away decided our destination and date. Tips: Nak grab free seats ni bukan senang ye kawan2..perlu bersekang mata dan mempunyai access internet yang laju untuk berebut. Dan sangat sukar untuk dapat tarikh yang kite nak, jadi kene la adjust sikit2. Mende murah kan, kene la berebut. Tapi bila da berjaya booked to mmg gembira tahap lompat bintang. Dan, sila sediakan sekeping kredit kad yang mempunyai baki yang banyak didalam nye terumatanya kalau nak beli tiket destinasi yang jauh2..ini memang nanges..T_T..hancur hati tengok baki kad da tinggal sikit..

Yep, we successfully booked a satisfying fare. It costs us around RM600++ for through and flow seven hour flight ticket from LCCT to Coolangatta Airport, Gold Coast. Ok la kan..dari nak bayar beribu..7 hour flight, takkan nak expect harga tiket RM66 pulak kan?

The trip as a whole: we didnt take any of pre-booked tour packages. We did research on our own and we custom made the itinerary ourselves. We'll get into that along the update entries ye.

13th Oct 2011 - Our flight from LCCT depart at 9.25pm. Its a night flight. Yeay! Boleh tido dalam flight (boleh ke?). Since its international flight, we have to be there atleast 2 hour earlier (tips!) so, dengan jasabaik kawan yan, Apex, yang menghantar kami (me, liza n yan je..fae datang sendiri) ke airport, kami sampai jam 6ptg. Ye, gile awal. Tapi better than late dan terkocoh2 nak bag drop bagai..oh, tips lagi: if u're flying with Air Asia, please make sure to check in online, either via mobile or internet and get your boarding pass printed out. Its faster and easier. Then, at the airport, just straight away to bag drop counter to check in ur luggage. You'll save RM10 per person instead. (Ha, dah macam promoter Air Asia dah ni!)

Air Asia improved a lot y'know. Cause i never got any flight delayed so far. Our flight took off precisely at 9.25pm. The flight is half full. So, we still have room to change seat. fuh lega.kalau tak kene dok ngan strangers. But somehow, i n fae manage to change seat, 3 seater for us both. Liza n Yan sgt selesa kat tempat diorg kot, jadi x tuka seat. Meal was served as early as two hours after took off. So, for the rest of the flight time, kami kelaparan. Nasib baik night flight so most of the time we were asleep..in hunger..T.T..

ok, this is the dish being served during flight. tips again : please do pre-booked your meal..its much2 cheaper compared to purchase in-flight. Pre-booked meal being served once only..kalau lapar lagi, silalah beli sendiri kat trolly yg flight attendant tolak tu yer..

jadi kat sini terimalahh beberapa keping gamba kami mase departure dalam flight..

In-flight meal : international meal yg x sedap. Saranan: sila choose Malaysian meal..lagi sedap dan kenyang..oh, coke tu tambah sndiri ye..RM6 setin..T.T

me and fae happy dapat chop tempat baru

gamba ni flight attandant yg tolong amekkan..mekaceh cik pramugari..

xduduk tepi tingkat..maka dapat gambar tingkat je..gamba luar tingkap da x nampak.T.T

arrived at Coolangatta Airport

Liza, Yan and Me

we arrived at Coolangatta Airport at about 7.30 in the morning...damn early but kat sane dah cerah terang menderang ok..

ok korang..nnti i update lagi untuk hari2 seterusnya di gold coast ok? see u in the next entry..