Byron Bay Surf and the Gold Coast

4 days after staying in Brisbane, we decide that was enough and it was off to venture into the unknown once more. Our temporary stop would place us in Byron Bay. Most people would describe this town as a very chilled out, laid back type of place and they were right. Definitely one of the most relaxing places I have been to yet.

It was like we traveled through a time machine and landed in the 70’s. Not that I have ever been to Woodstock but I can imagine it would be similar to this. This town was the perfect getaway for any city dweller, beach bum or perhaps simply a pot smoker (more on this later).

This is also the place were I finally decided to take the plunge into the ocean with a surf board. Getting started, I decide to go completely against my beliefs of being a natural born athlete, and humble myself by joining a 3 hour class to learn the basics before I make a complete fool out of myself. As you can see, there was no fool this day! It was on my third try that I was able to balance myself on top of a wave “all by myself”. What a feeling it was! Though it was no 50 foot wave, it was nice to know Asian’s can surf.

The evenings at Byron didn’t leave much to the imagination. It would start out with Simpson’s and beer (literally), followed by death billiards (one of which Island Rice came out champion), then finally a trip to the local bar/club.

As relaxing as it was, time simply flew by. On the day we were leaving, we end up hearing about a place called Nimbim. This was situated in the interior and was simply a place where the weed would grow faster than snow would fall in Canada (I apologize for the lack of creativity in my metaphors). I was told that this is the only place in the world that hosts the cannabis Olympics. Before I cared to find out what that was, we were on our way back to Brisbane with a stop over in Surfers Paradise.

I guess you could say that because we conquered the waves, we earned the right to visit the infamous town. Truth be told, it was a cheap, cheesy and dodgy version of LA’s Venice beach or Florida’s Daytona beach. Yes, there was over 25 km of beach and waves, but because of commercialization and major corporations, they turned this small town into half a concrete jungle with shops, theme parks and heaps of buildings.

Our stay wasn’t that long as you can imagine but I thought it at least deserved a mention.

- the lone asian