brisbane and the gold coast

brisbane, the capital of queensland, is low key, casual and very pretty. it is hard to imagine it is one of the biggest cities in australia.



trinath, a cousin who just finished grad school in melbourne, flew down and it was great to see him after many years. we stayed at the magnificent renaissance – styled conrad treasury and it is easy to tell why it is rated the best hotel in town. the furnishings are grandiose and the service warm.



the city center was surprisingly noisy late into the night. walked around the place and grabbed a bite at one of the open air restaurants.



a cruise on the meandering brisbane river on a warm (re-word to “hot”) day is a delight. the waterfront houses surrounded by greenery are absolutely gorgeous! the best i have ever seen in any "big" city. not surprisingly, there’s a real estate boom out here!





a short drive south of brisbane (~ 1 hour), is the crazy and clichéd gold coast. 35 kilometers of world-class beaches. the gold coast tries to be all things to all people (shopping like in NY, beaches like in southern california, theme parks like in orlando) and does a pretty decent job.



we stayed at the courtyard marriott, right by surfer’s paradise. the name says it all. the tall waves a few feet into the water is ideal for surfing. lesson one – it is not safe to swim in surfing waters, especially for novices like me (i always thought i was an amateur but who was i kiddin’?) ! i learnt it the hard way. a swollen upper lip, strained lower back and some skin off my elbows.







the very interesting and unique music of an aboriginal playing the didgeridoo for a bunch of curious tourists stopped us in our steps. saved us a walk into the bush to experience it!



“vindaloo roo” - name of the kangaroo dish we ate for dinner at the “tandoori place”. damn, it was good! and so was everything else we ate at this place. it capped off a really “exciting” day on the beach.

the next morning was supposed to be thrilling! skydiving off a helicopter from 10000 feet over the beautiful coastline! more waiver forms (3 pages!), a 2 mins training class and a harness. it was time to wait and pray for the clouds to clear. unfortunately, the agonizing wait lasted a couple hours before we decided to give up and rush to the airport to catch a flight. bummer!





we miss the flight....but we are put on the next one to melbourne, victoria. phew!