Come see the world with me!

Finally reached the Gold Coast! It’s been a crazy last couple of hours, not even sure exactly how long it’s been. When I initially went through check in, found out that I was carrying luggage weighing 40 kilos!! And 20 of those kilos were undoubtedly only from all the gifts I was carrying.

So back out I went dumped out about 15 kilos worth of stuff into my parent’s car, in the bargain dropping off my cosmetics/toiletry case as well. Well.

The flight from Mumbai to Sydney was peaceful. I had a window seat next to a woman who somehow managed to sleep almost the entire way – and it was a 12 hour flight!!

The Qantas in-flight entertainment system is excellent & I had a large variety of movies to watch – and watch I did; Borat “Make Study of America for Benefit of Glorious Nation of Kazakistan”, Stranger than Fiction” and “The Interpreter”.

Sydney airport was peaceful enough, walked through Customs, who told me it would be fine if I then left a bag off at a Baggage Storage area. Incidentally the Qantas ground staff in Mumbai insisted I couldn’t do it – why they argue without knowing is beyond me! – my advice is always check with a couple of people if your common sense is telling you something other than what you’re hearing.

From there I proceeded to the Domestic airport. Talked to a nice Indian couple from Delhi who were off to honeymoon in Brisbane. On my flight to Brisbane (unlike the earlier flight) sat next to a very sweet pyt from Brisbane who happily chatted with me almost the whole flight.

From there it was off to the Gold Coast via mini-van (was picked up by one of those placard holding guys standing outside the airport).

When we approached the Gold Coast all I could see was homes & more homes and somehow no people and hardly anything happening all around me. I suddenly had a painful flashback of a holiday I had in Goa in non-tourist season where there was nothing going on at all the whole time.

Entering Surfer’s Paradise though I saw a couple of high rise buildings & literally went *Phew*. Re-discovered I’m such a city girl!

I was, as you can imagine, ridiculously tired by this stage. However when I reached the house I’m staying at for the next week, all my energy automatically reappeared!

The color that dominates most of the house is cream; the walls, (most of) the furniture and the flooring. It’s décor is intentionally sparse and has a feeling of space. The best part of course is that it’s bang on the Nerang River (even has a jetty going out onto the river) and even has an outdoor pool that overlooks the river - simply breath-taking, simply wonderful.

My room is equally wonderful and I’m happy now to just go & get some shut eye.