Come see the world with me!

Got up really nice & late and ate a good brunch (waay too late for breakfast!). My big “POA” for the day consisted of going to the beach with Aki. Yes hard work, but someone’s gotta do it!

When we got there we realized that this indeed was “the life”!! This place is called “Surfer’s Paradise” and Paradise it is, even to non-surfers.

Talking about surfing though, I caught a group of novices being taught surfing –interesting stuff! Also honed my voyeuristic skills by “observing” a group of guys playing “footy” on the beach!

And since Baywatch was born on Australian beaches – I thought it was only fitting that I spend some time with the lifeguards. With purely touristy intentions, of course. Also saw some guys doing what is called “Sand Art” – in the pic they’re building a “fire spouting dinosaur”! It was still in initial stages but could already make out that it was very good stuff!

Met a nice Canadian girl – Karinne – who spent some time with us on the beach – three pretty single girls hanging out on a beautiful beach – how lovely is that image?! Karinne also invited us to go out to a night club with her since tonight was a special ladies night. However since neither Aki nor I wanted to go, we passed that one up.

Aki & I spent the better part of the day on the beach – and I got some great pics – I especially like these ones, of our shadows (!!) and of our footprints in the sands (which were incidentally, gloriously white!)

After that we headed into Surfer’s Paradise to do some shopping (how perfect was this day turning out?!). There were plenty of malls & cafes all around – even saw the Hard Rock Café, Surfers Paradise (& missed the folks back home for a split second).

The main part of Surfer’s Paradise ( 2 minutes from the beach) is made up of high rise building (though not too many of them) – one of buildings - called the ‘Q1‘ - I found out is – the highest residential building in the world! The people here – like I’m told in the rest of Australia – are very laid back – they walk the streets as if time means nothing. Clothes are optional & surf boards are common accessories. Which is not a problem for me

Finally headed back to Sandra’s place – which is heaven in itself – originally decided to have a dip in her pool but then changed my mind since the water was too cold (have now decided to go back to the beach tomorrow). In the meanwhile we watched the sun set from Sandra’s private jetty – wonderful!

In the night, met the wonderful, beautiful and very alive Maggie, who’s Chinese (yes, an Asian day indeed!) and a close friend of Sandra’s. First Maggie & Sandra cooked us a wonderful meal.

After dinner, we all headed down to “Club Cheetah” (which was actually Sandra’s living room turned into a temp disco). Maggie would put Shakira to shame with her *amazing* belly dancing!! We all had a wonderful night dancing away to loud belly dancing music!!!