Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Sunshine Coast

As you can see from the pictures, Sunshine Coast is BEAUTIFUL! The water is clear, the sand is so fine, the air is so fresh.... What more can you ask for? Well yes, KILL ALL SANDFLIES! ARGH! I'm bitten alive by sandflies! Now all my 4 limbs are itching like crazy! Been applying Dettol cream every 15 minutes. Somebody please just chop off my 4 limbs!

Well, it took us 8 hrs to get to Sunshine Coast. Yup, you read it right. 8 hrs. What happened was that we set off on a saturday and nobody wants to work on weekends! Australians!!! Anyway, took a bus to Toowong train station to catch the Caboolture train. That journey alone took us 1 1/2 hours. And once we reached Caboolture station, we realised that the train to take us to Nambour (Sunshine Coast) doesn't come till 1 1/2 hrs later. Therefore, we were stranded at Caboolture station for 1 1/2 hrs. There's only about 4 trains per day that goes to Sunshine Coast on a weekend. By the time the Nambour train came, it was already 1.30pm and the weather was not cooperative! It started drizzling!.... -_-'''

Well, by the time we reached Nambour station, it was 3.30pm and we have not reached our hostel yet! Someone was suppose to pick us up and somehow, she did not pick up the phone! It was raining and the wind was so chilly! We were once again, stranded at the train station. Decided to take the bus on our own to get to the hostel and guess what! Took the wrong bus. Instead, we had a 2 1/2 hr tour of the beaches in Sunshine Coast. Lucky it was raining, there's nothing you can do when it rains, so it was not a total loss... = ) But it was tiring.. the travelling kills.

Well, thank God that when we reached Sunshine Plaza in Maroochydore, Anika was there to pick us up. She manages the hostel. It was 5 plus when we reached the hostel. We stayed at the YHA (Youth Hostel Association) Backpackers Hostel. Well, before we set off, Yan Xia warned us that it was shared accommodation kind of thing. I was kind of prepared for it. We were lucky that we 3 girls had a room by ourselves. Phew!! It's all shared, kitchen, toilets (of cuz 1 for girls, 1 for guys), tv lounge and dinner table. Met all kinds of people there. Most of them are strawberry pluckers and most of them are Japanese. It's the strawberry season now (spring), that's why there are lots of job openings for strawberry pluckers. Next will be mangoes, oranges, avocados etcetc. Well, most of them are working and travelling at the same time. Something like nomads... they go where the fruit seasons go...Met Molly, a taiwanese gal. She's cool. Her english is so damn power-ful! Plus her chinese is YI JI PANG! That's cuz she studied in England for erm...(maybe 10 years? Can't remember?) before she came to Australia to obtain an OZ citizenship. She's travelling and working at the same time. Like i said, she goes where the fruit seasons goes.

Anyway, the hostel was an EXPERIENCE. If u get what i mean. You are only allowed a 4 minute shower, since OZ still having drought. There's a timer, so 4 minutes means 4 minutes. But HAHA! Ei Leen is smart. She cheats. Lol. She knows how to get 8 minutes showers. Hahahaha...= ) Hmm.. what else. OH YA. The bed. It sinks in the middle. Haiz. Now that i'm used to hard beds, soft beds make my back ache. *sigh* I'm getting old.

The beaches! Ooo... they're so beautiful! Blue sky, clear waters, white, really fine sand. What more can you ask for.... = ) The weather wasn't good when we went to Cotton Tree Beach. It was cloudy and there was big gusty winds! Just because we're in bikinis doesn't mean it's hot! IT'S freaking cold laaa.... If you notice, we're the only crazy ones in bikinis and other people are dressed in jackets. Lol.... = D Had yummy fish and chips! Mymy, their servings are huge! The seafood was really fresh though. But after one meal of fish and chips, we couldn't stand to see/eat another meal of fish and chips. Maybe because it's very oily. But it was gooddd.. *yums

The second beach we went on the third day was even more pretty! It's exactly like those postcards you buy at the souvenir shops. Enjoyed the second beach even more! = ) Very crowded though. Maybe because it's the school holidays. There were quite a number of hot girls there. I mean hot girls. Not women. Because the hot girls look like they're 14 -17 years old. Man, why are their bodies so goodd? Anyway, spotted ah mas suntanning too. Haiyoh. Saw their skin.... it's really damaged, yet they seem to enjoy themselves so much when they're actually cooking their skin off.

Went to Ginger factory.. Haiyo.. Just to get to this place took us 1hr bus ride. And it's buried deep in Yandina Industrial Estate! Can you imagine?! 3 girls dressed in beach clothes going to an industrial estate. What a sight. Oh well, the ginger ice cream was not bad. Surprisingly. O.O Had ginger chocolate and ginger cookie dough, which tasted the best. Think Mummy would love it. I'm not sure if i've been to Ginger factory before, but it looks familiar. Somehow. Think i took a picture there before.... Pa? We went to the ginger factory before righttt?? I remember the train.. but vaguely. We proceeded to the macadamia nut factory just opposite Ginger factory.

And thennn, we realised that we're stranded yet again. Simply because there is no bus stop to wait for a bus! You must be thinking how in the world did we get there in the first place. Well, the bus driver was nice enough to drop us near the ginger factory and we walked for about 3 minutes to the ginger factory. And nowww, we have no idea how to take a bus back to the hostel. Well well, we seek help at the information area, troubled the poor guy because he had closed for the day. But he was very very kind to help us poor girls. He told us to just wait outside this house and hail for the bus when it comes. So, we just stood outside this person's house and waited for the bus for about 45 minutes. Seriously. There is no bus stop pole/sign. It's just a random person's house. How interesting. But thank God we made it home. Hurhur... What an experience. = )

Well, on the last day, did some last minute shopping before heading back home. Took us 5hrs to get home even though we took the express train. Haiz.. So glad to be home. = ) I miss the 'not sharing' toilets, kitchens and living room. Hurhur... = )

xoxo Ei Leen xoxo

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Good for people to know.