some odds and ends:
tired with the cekadax of of our respective bosses and the talkative tea ladies, last year mat jos and i when to a travel fair looking for a destination to crash and rocknroll. A few destinations came up to mind: sabak bernam, bukit kayu hitam and tampoi. but in the end, after hearing a lot of good vibe about it we choose goldcoast, australia. ask a bunch of friends if they are interested as well:
mat prean : "orait...gua on"
mamak izani : "jgn cakap banyak...jalan terusss"
alang alang kepalang cemerlang gemilang tembelang...after a few discussion, we agreed to xtend our journey to sydney as well.
the agent of travel
they suggest we would save about RM400-RM500 if we go via royal brunei due to lower fuel surcharge. However there is a catch: we have to spent a nite at bandar seri begawan ...errr..whatever..
KLIA to Brunei-Brunei to Brisbane(nearest airport to Goldcoast)-Goldcoast to Sydney (via train)-Sydney to Brunei-Brunei to KLIA
the suspex
bandar seri begawan, brunei, 16-17 February
contrary to popular belief, foods served onboard royal brunei is as good as MAS
and all the stewardess wore headscarfs..but the odd thing is, they take it off momentarily for the customary safety and emergency demo...and then wear it again...
aaaa...is that a routine protocol or blatant hypocracy?...harharhar
royal brunei gave us rooms to crash at Traders Inn.
meet-up with jos brunei buddies, azam and isaac apek who brought us for a sightseeing ride to two of Brunei famous mosques and the Istana Nurul Iman...sultan hassanal bolkiah's wives nowhere to be seen though
azam and apek belanja us makan and send we off at the airport..these guys turn out to be cool
goldcoast, australia, 17-24 February
transfered from Brisbane International Airport to Coutyard Marriott at Surfers Paradise,Goldcoast...right in the middle of the action...just the way we want it to be..
apart from the bitch...ahem..beach...we did manage to visit the Paradise Farm [aussie wildlife such as koala, kangaroo and animal (not tiger) shows], Warner Bros' Movieworld (hollywood-laden rides and shows) and Sea World (like our Sunway Lagoon, only 10 times bigger)
Looking at all the pix above, u may be wondering why all the NOFX Tees...actually on the second nite we manage to catch a NOFX show at a place called Coolangatta, the southern-most part of Goldcoast..and nice t-shirt was on sell as well
NOFX punkrock show, Coolangatta 18 February
the show was rad, except for the endless brawl between meat-hungry bouncers and the drunken mat sallehs..and too bad my digicam was accidentally damaged by one of em...which led me to write this post
we are transported to Goldcoast via Brisbane airport... and we kinda curious about Brisbane and on 22/2 decided to take a 2 hour train and spent half a day there.
sydney, australia 24-26 february
Our journey from Goldcoast to Sydney is on 24/2 via an integrated transportation service called 'Countrylink'- a 3 hour bus ride + 12 hour overnite train. basically we only have 2 full days at sydney....just enough time to checkout syydney citycentre + sydney opera house, Bondi Beach and the nitelife at victoria street
THANX TO MAT PREAN, MAT JOS AND MAMAK
FOR THEIR ALL AROUND RAD-NESS
epilogue:
