Gold Coast, Australia 2012 - Day 1, Brisbane

Year 2012, October. We have been to Gold Coast. We are going there by AirAsia X, 8 hours with limited leg room, it's not easy.

This is the first picture i took in Australia on the plane. It's wonderful sunrise.

Finally, we passed all the immigration check points. You will need to pass a questionnaire section, might take longer and many questions will be asked. Then it's your language turn. It's very strict for Australia custom. You can't not bring a lot of things especially foods. So my advise, get it from there and try their food. It's really worth a try.

Since we have four of us, so we decided to rent a car. You can take the car package online. There are many packages. With insurance or without insurance. Around Toyota Altis rangem it will cost you about 40AUD. Petrol is around 1.5 AUD per litter during that time. There service is not bad, you can return the car slightly later by just giving them a call, but no one will pick up during weekend.

Here we are, the Brisbane.

Hybrid taxi is popular there.

Of cause, their parking can cost you a boom. For those road side parking is cheaper, but you need to keep on topping up. If i can remember well, covered or building parking cost about 5AUD for first half an hour then 2 or 3 AUD per QUARTER hour.

You can see these recycle bins everywhere. Their environment is clean. Air is fresher. During October, it's a bit windy and cold.

We reach the town of Brisbane. It's actually built by shop lots with pretty classic design. You can see the information center in this picture. You can actually get a lot of brochure , voucher and map there. Work out your plan there if you didn't done much research before going.

Street performance.

Very hardworking garbage collector. Their reaction is really fast and smiling when they on duty.

This is our first breakfast in Australia. It's very huge set for Asian. It cost about 20+ AUD but it can fill two stomach efficiently. HAHA.... Tomato is very juicy, bacon is yummy delicious, mushroom is famous and popular here.

This is the friendly waiter in the restaurant. The restaurant is located just in front of Brisbane information center. Sorry that i have forgotten the name.

 Guess what, a citycycle machine. You can rent a bicycle with this automated machine.

By rounding the Brisbane, we can actually see this kind of building (Australia style?).

This is their local beer factory, XXXX. I cold joke from my friend, why is the name 4 "X"? Because the pioneer doesn't know how to spell beer. =,=

It's time for KOALA.. Here we go Lone Pine Koala Santuary...

You can also see and feed kangaroo here.

Koala!!! Very cute..

Wombat.

Huge and picture section, cost about 16 AUD. part of that will be donate for raising the Koala.

Platypus

And Kangarooossssss

Can you see her child?

Woolworths hyper market

River side view in Brisbane.

Red tag is free for ride..

Beautiful sunset...

It's time for dinner. My friend in Brisbane introduce this Italian food for us..Very delicious..

Their famous

Franchise pie shop..Pie is worth a try but not coffee :p

My best moment...

Everyone has their best moment when and where they feel really comfortable, relax and free. Some people's best moment are in their house, during their holiday and etc. For me, inside my car, while i'm driving, "you" as my passenger, is the best moment for me. We are in the car average 3 hours per day. Nothing much we can do and nothing much distract us.

We owned a Toyota Prius C, it's safe and comfortable, no doubt, but this is not the only thing to make it the best moment for me.

While i'm driving, i only need to think that drive safe to my destination.

While i'm driving, i holder her hand, can feel that she is feeling safe with me. I'm not a fast driver, so it should be okay.

While i'm driving, we are only 2 persons in the cars.

While i'm driving, we listen to the radio and sing together.

While i'm driving, we share our day with each other, happiness and sadness.

Yes, this is my best moment....

Brilliant Toyota Prius C (PC)

Recently i just owned a 1.5 cc Toyota Prius C, which is fully import from Japan. I got superb satisfaction on this car. My rating to this car is 9/10!!!

It has very good fuel consumption, it's about 750km for 31.5 liter (RON95), comfortable seating, powerful ( above my expectation on "hybrid power"), solid assembly, stable even up to 160km/h. My best FC per trip so far, 30.2km/l. The maximum i heard PC can go is 985km so far.

I tried to turn off the ECO mode, definitely it very powerful, slightly impact on the fuel consumption (like 700km for  33.5 liter RON95).

According to my brother in law, he claim the interior assembly is better than Althis ( assembly in Thailand ).

I mange to get RM1k discount from my SA friend and a full tank of fuel. Then i just get EC Tint (heard that can compare with VCool) from him which cost me another RM800. Maximum discount i heard was RM9k.

Most of them compare Prius C with Honda Jazz hybrid. The following are my found about this 2 cars in my own view and i have choosen Prius C.

Prius C Advantage:
-2nd Gen of hybrid, has higher fuel consumption. Air cond also running by electric.
-Has a spare tyre which Jazz doesn't have
-Nice LCD display
-Rumor that cheaper battery (8k) compare to Jazz (10k)
-Bigger boot space

Weakness compare to Jazz:
-Smaller leg room but still acceptable.

Prius C legroom

Jazz legroom

-Jazz has nicer interior.

Prius C interior

Jazz Interior

If you are interested to go deeper, this site explains what the power and gear of Prius hybrid.

Herewith some side for forum and FB pages:
FB Prius C LYN (highly recommended to join this page)FB Page for lowyat forum
FB Page Prius Club Malaysia
Lowyat Prius C forum V2
Lowyat Prius C forum V3
Prius C Malaysia Page
Malaysia Hybrid Club

Saving compare to conventional car:
This is a very good comparison side done to show how Prius C worth more than a Toyota Vios 1.5G.

Updates:
These information may be informative to you. Are you wondering what if your PC finished petrol, what will happen to it? Not moving or only running with the battery. This is what i got from lowyat forum.

when pc out of petrol, the battery will still work, until the battery left 2 bars, your car will show "power on" means the car in accessories mode. that moment when i pressed the pedal but the car no longer got power, it only can drive slow with the battery support. lucky the petrol station just 500meter away from my stop  points. i switch on my emergency light, and i notice i cannot lock my car.... it need me to total switch off the car in order to lock it. for safety reason, i have to let the car unlock and walk to the petrol station.

Pictures referred form this page: http://www.kensomuse.com/toyota-prius-c-vs-honda-jazz-hybrid-the-battle-for-the-most-affordable-hybrid-2/

Soccer live stream and sopcast channel

Finally, i have found a website for sopcast channel. Now i can stream BPL soccer by using sopcast program. I feel that it has higher streaming speed and higher quality.

Besides than using sopcast, it also has some web live streaming. What a fantastic website. :)

Bad experience on Maxis service

Regarding to recent port in promotion, i have few bad experience. Dealers and Maxis center can not give accurate information. I call alamanda maxis center this morning to ask if they have stock for the phones, they told me, i have to be doing to port in successfully before July 1st. LOL.... I double confirm with her, she said yes, very sure. I swt..

Then i still don't believe it, i called the same number second time, this time is the different person, she told me that is not true, and phones stock still available. I very happy and went there.

In the maxis centre, the operator told me, i can port in but can't get the phone, because i have to port in successfully before 20th Aug. I was shocked because a dealer told me that i'm entitled as long as i register before 20th Aug, but the operator insist.

At the end, i lost the chance to port in. :(