Previos post: Australia - Cairns Day 3

I woke up at 4-5 a.m for Subuh prayer – I walked like a zombie due to exhaustion. Sun rise pretty early in Australia. At 7 a.m we woke up and get ready for breakfast. Boil the water, heat up the food for lunch and take shower in turns (thankfully we have 2 bathrooms). For breakfast, we have some OJ, omelet, fries and maggi. We made omelet and fries for lunch, packed it up and get ready.

While I was watching the TV, there is a headline for Movie World. The Green Lantern Coaster derailed yesterday leaving riders stuck on air. I was shocked. They are dangling by 2 wheels. Ya Allah, we are thankful that we did not go there yesterday since Green Lantern coaster was in one of my must-ride list! The park is still open but the GL ride was closed. The riders were brought to hospital with minor injuries.

Superman Escape roller coaster

We depart from apartment and reached Movie World in 30 minutes. We are early so they were a lot of parking space. The gates open and we went inside with smiling faces. I took a glimpse at the closed Green Lantern ride. The crowd was okay I guess. Coming in, you will be greeted by DC souvenir shop and the view of the Superman Roller Coaster (ride goals).

So, my ride goals:

1. Superman Return

2. Arkham Asylum

3. Scooby Doo Dark Coaster

4. Green Lantern

The Superman Coaster was already up and running but it was too early for a G Force ride early in the morning. We opt to walk around the park and ride a kid coaster (I am embarrassed). Syima and Feeza chickened out for roller coaster ride so we ride the Road Runner Coaster which is a loop coaster with thrill level cater for kids. I even stole the front seat! Aha!

Just like universal studios, there were a lot of building here according to ones theme. We managed to walk the boulevard, met some characters and watch some shows. The next ride was the Scooby Doo Spooky Coaster. Well, this ride was special as it was an interactive dark ride. They have a cart that fit 4 people. I was separated from Feeza and Syima - they rode with a couple of young kids and I rode with an Indian couple. Its dark, spooky and thrilling! They have elevators for the cart - yes actual elevator and they have a backward drop. So, be prepared for that! The waiting space consist of an old spooky castle with videos from the Scooby Doo movies.

With shaggy and scooby foo

Willy Wonka Chocolate Shop

Survived the cool dark ride!

Right after, we went to see some live action show for "F&F-like" movie. There were stunt men riding fast cars as part of a movie shooting set.

Large crowds here

Then myself went to my 1st thrill ride which is the Arkham Asylum. Travel buddies ditch me for this ride. The ride seems to extreme for them. Well, it is. I kin of understand why it was called Arkham Asylum. One main cool thing was the entire section, commentary and even the ride staff dressed according to the theme. Arkham Asylum was home for the Joker in batman series and this ride was supposedly a treatment for patients.

It was full of 360 loops and never ending corkscrew. I was seated next to a middle school boy. See, this boy is braver than my travel buddies *evil laugh*. Then I went to my last ride which is the Superman Escape. As always, complete portrayal of Metropolis. The coaster interior was a subway station. I was waiting in line - about 2 more batches left and suddenly the ride experienced technical difficulties. -____-

I waited for 10 minutes then gave up. We decided to have our lunch. Then, the moment I stepped outside of the gate, the ride was on again! OMG! We keep our lunch plans by retrieving the lunch pack and ate our lunch at the bench outside.

Joker as a welcoming committee.

Superman!

To celebrate my bravery

After lunch, I decided to on the ride with a full stomach - bad idea, I know. But since this ride does not have loops I think i'll be fine. I tried one last time to persuade Feeza to get on but I failed. She taught this ride has loops - which she can't stand. It turns out it does not and she later regrets it.

My heart was beating fast and I was in the coaster. I heard that it launch from 0 to 120 km/h in 2 seconds. We were going through a mini coaster inside the building. I hold the restrain so hard the moment I heard "Don't worry folks, I'm gonna get you outta here, fast - superman fast". In 2 seconds I was on the top hat of the ride. :')

Yeah, I have to insert my hijab inside my shirt. It was so fast that my brain couldn't comprehend my whereabouts- I only feel winds on my face. This ride offers a positive and negative G Force and boy, it does not disappoint. It was a quick, violent ride. When we are done, I felt hangover.

Bugs bunny himself.

I choose not to buy my ride photographs because they are all ugly. Hahaha. We spent the evening shopping at the souvenir shop. Syima bought loads of stuff. I bought a jumper and a tshirt. We then watch some parade before heading home.

Cik kak ni action je amek gambar depan coaster tu hahaha. Padahal tak naik pun. Gayat katanya.

We head back home, rest a little bit and head out to the Surfers Paradise Boulevard. It was a reasonable walking distance. We surveyed some souvenir shops and enjoy the sea breeze. We head back to cook dinner and tomorrow's lunch. We are having a mini road trip tomorrow!

Good night from SP.

Next post: Australia - Lamington National Park Day 5

At 3.30 a.m., we checked out of the hotel with the same night shift guy. When we went down, we heard a couple of drunken pals from backpackers hostel next door chilling at their lounge. At 4 a.m, our airport shuttle pick us up.

We reached the airport pretty early. We then go through security as usual and went to the boarding terminal. Luckily there was a coffee joint that opened 24 hours so that we can have our breakfast – I ate my kebab leftover.

One problem – there is no prayer room for our Subuh prayers. Since they are not many people at the airport at 5 a.m, we manage to pray behind an escalator at the end of terminal. We sneaked and pray comfortably. At 5.30 a.m, we begin the boarding process. Due to full flight, Jeststar made everyone go through the hand luggage scale routine. Yes people, don’t assume this is Air Asia where they just let you pass. Jetstar is very strict on 1 piece hand luggage with handbag where BOTH must not exceed 7kg. Yep, they made us weigh both our handbag and hand luggage.

There was no issue for us since we are prepared for this. Even Syima passed the scale because we distributed some our stuff around. There are some Asian tourist who are being stubborn. They bring like 4 pieces of luggage and insist on going on board – they were escorted to check in their luggage.

Degil jugak diorang ni sebenarnya. Lepas tu buat buat tak paham. Lepas tu pelik kenapa kena check in. Dahla bag dia besar lepas tu banyak and berat memang staff pun x leh tolong lah.

The day was sunny and beautiful – my heart sank because this is the weather we dreamt for our Great Barrier Reef Trip. If only we stay one more night. If only. During the flight, we fly over the Great Barrier Reef. We only experience it from air. Sob. Tengok dari tingkap plane pun jadilah.

We arrived in Brisbane as scheduled and we ran to the car and straight away we drove to Sea World – our first themepark. We first have to queue to change our ticket to a plastic pass where they took our picture. Sea World was huge with a lot of shows and rides. We organize quickly on our time in here. We went to Penguin House before going to the famous Sea World Dolphin Show. BTW, you can see the dolphins near the main entrance. Their pool are located out here so you can actually see them outside of show times. This time, we already cooked or heated our lunch at Cairns. We had the Fried Rice from Brahim as our lunch before sending Syima off to her special Dolphin Adventure. She bought this online which entitled her to experience dolphins up close complete with DVD and picture. There’s a lot of package but her’s was AUD 200. They will provide you swimming attire. Meanwhile, Feeza and I went around to see Polar Bear and we go to the touch pool where you can touch Stingrays! They are super friendly and slimy. You just have to put your hand inside and they will give you a ‘handshake’.

We actually went to ride the Storm Coaster. Aha! My first roller coaster ride in Gold Coast! Feeza whose afraid actually went on it because this coaster has no corkscrew or 360 loops. I know it’s a wet coaster but we ‘assumed’ that if we sit at the back we will be fine. We put our stuff in the locker provided and changed to flip flops. The queue was not that long and we managed to be seated at the back. It was a coaster simulating a Cyclone hits a city – there’s ruins and flipped cars and sirens. Then we accelerated to the first drop. It was fast and fun – not to terrifying since Feeza enjoyed it. Then, cam the plunge. Okay, we were a little wet and it’s what we expected. Entering the complex again came the unexpected waterfall. Our jaw dropped. Feeza was seated on the right so yeah, the waterfall got her. She was drenched. I was not – hehe. We didn’t go in the dry pod since it was very sunny today.

We met with Syima and went to the Tropical Aquarium where you can see sharks. Yes, you can pay AUD110 for a tropical reef snorkeling in Sea World. We went to the polar bear and stingray enclosure the second time so Syima can see them. We then went to see the Jet Ski Show by Jet Ski world champ. Did I mentioned that they’re hot? At one point my eyes were fixed. *cough*.

We bought our souvenir on our way home and I bought a Sea World towel. You can buy some Dora Explorer and Ninja Turtle stuff here too. We went out at 5 p.m and straight away to the apartment. The apartment was easy to find thanks to Google Street. I was pretty cautious since Gold Coast tram rail has begin operation. So, watch out for the tram!

Since we arrived outside of office hours, we checked in on our own with instructions from the intercom. They gave me a code for the safe and in it was our car park key card, apartment key and receipt. We only have to fill the paperworks tomorrow. We parked our car at the basement and headed to our 15^th floor apartment.

Our apartment was excactly the same as in Agoda pictures. Clean, huge and pretty! 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. It is a fully equipped apartment. After prayers, we went out by car to the supermarket 5 blocks down (its so near we regret taking our car). We parked the car and went to the 1^st supermarket below the Grand Chancellor Hotel which sells halal chicken meat. Yeay! We bought chicken, eggs here and went to the supermarket inside the hotel to buy rice, oil, French fries, 2L orange juice, vege mix, 2 fillets of fish, prawns and seafood mix (fish, mussle, prawn, squid). How much it costs for all of these? AUD27. Yes, you heard me. AUD27 for all 3 days’ worth of cooking. Murah kan? Mewah sebab beli banyak seafood.

We went back to the hotel and samak our cooking utensils, plates with Sabun Tahara. Kalau tak bawak sabun ni macam mana nak samak, nak masak. We cooked 2 dishes – for dinner and lunch tomorrow. Our dinner tonight was rice, ayam madu, mix vege and omelet while for lunch we cook chicken kurma. Feeza and I took the master bedroom while syime took the second bedroom. We cleaned the kitchen, watch a little bit of TV and sleep, very well. We unintentionally leave the window open so Feeza and I were freezing.

Previous post: Australia - Gold Coast Day 1

We went down at 6.30 a.m to meet our receptionist – the sweetest and kindest Vicki. She’s well aware of the GBR cancellation and she, being a total sweetheart, keep calling all Barrier Reef operators in Cairns to see if anyone is going out – the answer was NO. The tides are too high and the cyclone are quite strong. It was raining since last night. The Australia Met has issued a warning for no sailing/activity on GBR. That’s how serious it was.

Vicki finally find a tour that we can go for which is the Kuranda Scenic Tour where you went up to the Kuranda Highlands by cable car and went down by a traditional steam train. She suggested we go for rainforest trekking but yeah we are not prepared for that. Baju pun taka da sebab bawak baju mandi. We have no choice but to proceed. She took care of everything for the tour and the pickup. We didn’t have to lift a finger. The tour was at 9.30 a.m so we venture out for some breakfast. I had coffee at Gloria Jeans beside our motel. We take a short walk to the boardwalk in front of the hotel to pass our time. This task was not easy since it was raining and stopping and raining again. Kejap angin kuat, hujan lepas tu tetiba panas.

The wind was crazy out here. We finally being picked up by the tour operator and brought to the Smithfield Cable Car Station and everything went smooth. We went up the Kuranda Highland by using cable car via 4 stations. The view was spectacular. We can see the rainforest merge to a sugar cane fields and we see the shorelines all in one view.

I did mentioned there was a cyclone right? We were up in the middle of the station and suddenly a very strong gush of wind passed by. The cable car stopped and rocked in the middle of nowhere. The cable car swung left and right because of the cyclone force. Syima and Feeza are both afraid of heights – I remembered they are pretty scared while riding a cable car back in Malaysia. Not only that, there were very thick fog outside so, basically we cannot see a thing out there – adding terror of not knowing where we are, how high we are, are we moving etc.

Mula mula cable car stop then angin kuat lalu. Apa lagi, memang bergoyanglah cable car tu. Sepanjang perjalanan kitorang kejap hujan kejap berhenti.

We finally going to reach our 1^st Station where we can see various types of trees, ferns and some animals. This is the Red Peak station which offers a boardwalk trail in the rainforest.Then we went to the main attraction which is the Baron Fall station where you can go to 2 trails to gaze on this waterfall. We can see the fall from the cable car but the fog got to us *sigh*.

 One thing that is advantage for us in this raining season is that the water flow at the waterfall are magnificent which is why we go for this tour. The sheer amount of water just makes everything beautiful and majestic! It was like a baby Niagara Falls. The fog makes visibility shift back and forth between good and bad. The good thing was, they provide an umbrella when we walk through the trails to the waterfall. We were pretty wet since we are taking photographs in the rain, hence we chuck aside the umbrella. Thankfully the trees actually act as a natural shade for us.

We finally reached Kuranda Village after 45 minutes of cable car ride. We saw that the Kuranda River was actually overflowing to the riverside due to non-stop rain. Kuranda is a charming village rich with arts from Australia. We take a walk and we buy most of our souvenirs here because it is cheap. Yep, much cheaper than in Gold Coast.

We had lunch – again fish and chips at a charming family café. The rain was still pouring on and off while in Kuranda. They have a flee market there. They sold stuff from handmade jewelries to soaps, glass, carpentry, you name it. We explore with the time that we had before departing to the Kuranda Scenic Rail Station at 2 p.m.. We verified our tickets and board the charming old train. Okay, it has like an old Wild West movie kinda vibe. This train has no air conditioning – all fresh air from the mountains.

This ride was fascinating as we do not have these in Malaysia. Another similar attraction was in Melbourne called the Puffing Billy. We passed through a lot of tunnels and creeks before we stop at the Baron Falls Station. I put my raincoat on and went out despite of a heavy rain and ran back to the train. We are all tired and Syima actually sleep almost the whole of the 2 hours journey.

We then proceed to the famous spot of Kuranda Rail – the amazing Stoney Creek Falls. This waterfall was merely meters away from the train! Thanks to my perseverance and patience, I got the perfect shot for the waterfall. I beat all the tourist inside the train. Hehe!

Our ticket entitled us for the last stop which is the Cairns Station. Most of the tourist disembark at Fresh Water and Kuranda Station. Along the way, we see huge fields of Sugar Cane. Some say that the name Cairns were derived from the word sugar cane. We arrived at the Cairns station and we went into the mall to walk to our hotel. Sitting beside the window of an old train with sugar cane field in sight – that is one unforgettable experience for me. It was like I was in another time.

We did not carry a map so we rely on the harbor’s location and surprisingly we made it. Also, Cairns CBD is not too huge that you risk of getting lost. We passed by several bars, pubs and lots of backpackers on our way back.

That night, we had dinner at the kebab stall next to our Motel. Finally, we ate something other than fish! The price are reasonable for a very big portion. I even kept half of my kebab for breakfast. We then have a delicious gelato from the store next door. The best pistachio ice cream I have ever tasted in my life.

We then walk to the Cairns Night market which is located 1-2 block away from our motel. Here they have a wide variety of food stalls. Asian food mainly but sadly non-halal ones. We spent a lot of time in the night market. I ended up buying a key pouch made of kangaroo skin. Syima and Feeza went wild for their souvenir. Risau jugak bag terlebih berate!

We walk around Cairns that night before going back to the hotel to pack and sleep – we have a 6.00 a.m. flight back to Brisbane! We should have stayed longer in Cairns. Maybe next time. For me, staying at Bellview Motel was a good choice. It is located at the center, conveniently close to everything.

Next post: Australia - Cairns Day 3