Saturday, March 05, 2005


Saturday, 5 Mar - Brisbane
After the 8 hour flight to Sydney we get offered an earlier transfer to Brisbane, which we accept and just manage to catch, no worries.
Sit next to an interesting guy, a retired NYPD detective from the Bronx who's just flown 14 hours from LA. Swears by Ambien sleeping tablets. Talks about 'mystery meat' as part of aircraft meals. Chat about NYC of course and he's happy to tell us about life as a cop and a couple of cases he's worked on. He suggests the Super 8 motel as a good option for a stay in NYC, particularly when you avoid weekends.
The advantage of our earlier flight is neutralised by one of our bags coming in later, on our original flight.
It's a very warm and sunny blue-sky day in Brisbane.
At 0900 a shuttle bus takes us to the Ruth Fairfax House for 35AUD return. The place is run by the Queensland Country Womens Association www.qcwa.org.au/rfhouse.htm. It offers basic accommodation for $82 a night incl an early breakfast and is in a fairly good location, a 5 min bus ride or a 20 min walk to the city centre.
We rest for a while, not having had much sleep and having lost another 3 hours on top of the 4 hour difference between Amsterdam and Bangkok.
Around midday we venture out to the city centre. Down a hill and through pretty little Roma Street parkland. Pick up some ideas for things to do from the tourism kiosk.
We walk through the botanic gardens, take a look at the Queensland Art Museum and walk along part of the river to Chinatown. Then back to the centre, have a $5 container of almond chicken on rice/noodles and buy some snacks and a $11 bottle of white wine to take back. Early night, see if we can catch up on some sleep.
Brisbane seems pretty compact and peaceful, particularly after Bangkok. Short on temples, too.
Posted by Hello

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