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.