Final Thoughts on my First Trip to Australia

Here's a summary of my Australia business trip:

Visiting Australia for the First Time
[Australia] Business Trip
[Australia] Dining in Gold Coast
[Australia] Meriton Suites Broadbeach
[Australia] A Crazy, Amazing Race-like Experience Heading Home
Final Thoughts on my First Trip to Australia

Borobi, official mascot of the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games at Paula Stafford Park

I had written about this trip being so hectic and scheduled at such a bad time that I couldn't extend my stay or do any sightseeing, which was a bit of a shame. Aside from getting to visit places in Gold Coast like Surfer's Paradise and the SkyPoint Observation Deck (or even whale watching), I would have loved to take an extra few days off of work and stop over at Sydney.

I was very fortunate to get to attend the Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo

It was also a bit of a shame because spring had just started. This meant that the weather was quite lovely. It did get cold at night but not something you would need a big thick winter jacket for. That would have made it perfect for sightseeing and other touristy stuff.

View of Broadbeach in Gold Coast from the balcony of my hotel room

I also previously wrote about buying lots of Tim Tams in the Woolworth's at the Oasis mall near our hotel. I will say though that Tim Tams in Australia cost just about as much as in the Philippines. In Australia, they cost about 6 Australian Dollars or roughly 230 Philippine pesos. You can get Tim Tams here in the Philippines at Landers for about the same price. Crazy! I always thought they were significantly cheaper in Australia! That said, many Tim Tams flavors had a 50% discount when I was there so I went crazy and got loads of them. I also did get several flavors that aren't available in the Philippines, even if they were full price.

Broadbeach in Gold Coast

And I guess because of all the Tim Tams I bought and a few other factors, I ended up almost not having enough space in my luggage. This was because I made a few key mistakes in preparing for this trip. I had a hard-shell suitcase that was somewhere between the traditional medium and large sizes. But because my trip was only for a few days, my suitcase was not full. I got worried that if it wasn't full and other bags get piled on top of mine in the plane, it might damage the case. As such, I ended up packing a lot of extra jackets (which I didn't get to use). Even after that, I still had space so I packed a couple of towels just to fill my luggage. That was kind of okay for my departure from Manila.

Another view of Broadbeach from my hotel room balcony

However, I didn't count on buying way too many Tim Tams and even coffee bags of coffee. Worse, I didn't realize I would end up with lots of loot from the Gartner event. If I did, I might have packed an extra duffel bag or even my usual backpack, especially since the weight limit for my check-in luggage was more than enough. In the end, I spent hours trying to fit everything into my suitcase and my hand carry. But I somehow did. Barely. It was one of those things where I felt that the moment I unzipped my luggage, everything would just start pouring out haha.

Durungul Budjerum (which means Calm Spirit) by Lann Levigne

This caused me to worry a lot when my luggage got lost. I was concerned that if customs opened my bag, the contents might just pour out and the inspectors wouldn't be able to fit them in again. Thankfully, they didn't. Whew!

I picked up my luggage at NAIA Terminal 1 after it got left behind in Australia

It was a good thing I didn't buy that large cute wombat stuff toy I saw at the souvenir shop because there is no way I could have fit that in my luggage. That said, I probably could have brought it with me on the plane as a carry-on item. But well, maybe if I have another trip to Australia, I can buy one.

Dusk in Broadbeach

While I did run into some major problems on the flight back home, I lucked out in the flight from Manila to Sydney by not having anyone sit next to me. That made my trip very comfortable.

No one sat next to me on my flight from Manila to Sydney

Even better, on my flight from Gold Coast to Sydney, there were actually no other people in my entire row! (Such a shame that just after that flight, everything started to go awry haha.)

I was the only person sitting in my row on my flight from Gold Coast to Sydney

I did really learn a lot from this trip and it has proven to be a very good one professionally, even if I was very reluctant to take it due to the conflicts it brought about in my personal schedule. I don't know if I will get another opportunity like this in the future but I'm glad that at least one in my life, I got to go.

Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo

And while I can say that I have now finally been to Australia, I barely got to see it. So I really do need to revisit the Land Down Under again in the future.

Broadbeach at night

[Australia] A Crazy, Amazing Race-like Experience Heading Home

My flight back home from Australia back to Manila was one of the most stressful flight experiences I've had in my life so far.

The selfie I took after a stress-filled rush to make it to our Sydney-Manila flight

An important piece of context: my colleague and I flew PAL but because PAL doesn't have any flights to Gold Coast, our Sydney-Gold Coast leg was on Virgin Airways. This also meant that we had to check out our bags in Sydney. We then had to move from the Sydney international terminal to the local terminal where we checked our bags into our Virgin Airways flight from Sydney to Gold Coast.

For our return to Manila, our Virgin Airways flight from Gold Coast to Sydney was at 6AM and we would arrive in Sydney at 720AM. Our PAL flight from Sydney to Manila was at 10AM. This meant that we had 2 hours and 40 minutes to catch our connecting flight. That should have been more than enough time, even if it we had to collect our luggage in Sydney and check them in again.

On the day of our flight back home, we arrived in the Gold Coast airport before 4AM but as it turned out, the check in counters open only at 4AM. It was past 4AM already but the check-in counters didn't seem to be open. That is, until we saw some people use the manual check-in kiosks. We decided to use those as well and we managed to check ourselves in. We got our boarding passes for both the Gold Coast-Sydney leg as well as the Sydney-Manila leg. Our boarding pass even indicated what our departure gate would be in Sydney and what the boarding time would be (9:20AM). We then decided to have some breakfast before heading over to our gate shortly before boarding time.

This is when things started to unravel. First, our flight was delayed due to bad weather. I started to worry that we might not make our connecting flight but maybe after a 15 to 30 minute wait, we were told we could board our plane again. Whew!

So it seemed things were gonna turn out okay right? Not quite. While we had boarded the plane, we were told that the weather conditions in Sydney were still not good and we ended up waiting for almost 2 hours on the tarmac. Our plane eventually left Gold Coast at close to 8AM. Considering that the flight was 1 hour and 20 minutes, I was already mentally preparing myself that we would miss our connecting flight.

We arrived in Sydney shortly after 9AM and we were at the luggage carousel at around 9:10AM. We waited for our luggage to come out but after everyone else had left the carousel, our bags were still not there. I started to think that maybe our bags would be checked all the way to Manila. Because we used the self-service kiosks, we didn't have an actual person to ask the situation of our bags. My colleague and I went over to the customer service desk and asked them if our bags were checked in all the way to Manila and she said they were. Our problem now was it was already past 9:20AM, which was our boarding time, and we were in the local terminal and still had to head to the international terminal.

Thankfully, the shuttle bus was already there when we got out so we didn't need to wait. On the way to the international terminal, we could hear practically every other person on the bus saying that they were in serious danger of missing their connecting flights. Someone else on the bus was explaining that the bad weather - strong winds - seemed to only be affecting the arrivals in Sydney but not the departures so all departures were still on schedule.

We arrived at the international terminal at around 9:35AM. Immigration in Sydney makes use of automatic passport-reading terminals so thankfully, it took under 10 minutes to get through both security and immigration. (The woman in front of me took a while to get the machine to read her passport and on her third attempt, I decided to help her because I couldn't really afford a much longer delay).

Once we had gone past immigration, it was now a race to our boarding gate. My colleague told me to run and leave her behind so that if I made it to our gate in time, I could tell them that she was just right behind me and wait for her. When I finally got to our boarding gate, it was around 9:52AM, 8 minutes before our flight. Out of breath, I told them that our flight from Gold Coast was two hours delayed and asked if we could still board. Thankfully, we could! My colleague arrived shortly after I did and we managed to still board the plane. Whew! I really didn't think that we would make it!

As I stepped on the plane, I asked one of the flight attendants to check if my bag made it on the plane. He headed over to my seat several minutes later to say that it did. I then breathed a sigh of relief.

Unfortunately, upon arrival in Manila, we didn't find our bags so we went over to the baggage assistance area. The woman there confirmed that my colleague's bag was still in Sydney but she said my bag was supposed to be in Manila. What? I started to think that maybe someone else took it (or that the airline lost it). And because I didn't have any Smart tags in it, I had no way to confirm exactly where it was. We filled our all the necessary forms and baggage assistance told us that because PAL flights from Sydney to Manila aren't daily, we would most likely get them two days later. They said they would let us know if/when our bags arrived.

Two days later, I still hadn't received any text or email. The PAL flight should have arrived at around 5pm so I was expecting to get some notification by the evening but I didn't. I started to panic, especially since there were a lot of important stuff in that bag, including my photo with ET and my signed book. After midnight, I still couldn't sleep so I decided to email baggage assistance to ask the status of my bag. In less than 5 minutes, I got a reply saying that my bag had indeed arrived. Whew! I will say though that I wasn't all that happy that they only informed me after I emailed them, especially since they told me two days before they would notify me once my bag was there. Nevertheless, I finally breathed a sigh of relief and managed to fall asleep.

I woke up early the next morning to finally pick up my bag from the airport. They can actually deliver it to you but I knew I was going to be out on the day my bag was expected to arrive as well as the day after so that might cause some delivery issues. Thankfully, it was pretty easy to retrieve my bag once I arrived.

Picking up my luggage from NAIA terminal 1

So that was my crazy stress-filled experience flying back home from Australia to the Philippines. Hopefully, I don't experience something like this ever again.

Next: Final Thoughts on my First Trip to Australia

[Australia] Meriton Suites Broadbeach

Meriton Suites Broadbeach served as my home away from home while I was in Gold Coast. This hotel was ideally located because it was just a short walk away from the beach, Surf Parade where you can find many restaurants, and Oasis Mall. It was also very near the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre where the event we were attending would be held.

Meriton Suites Broadbeach

My colleague and I got a 2-bedroom luxe suite because this room would be more inexpensive that getting two separate rooms at the same hotel or another similar hotel.

One of the rooms in the 2 bedroom luxe suite

There is a large living room area with ample and comfortable seating. It is also liked a serviced apartment, which meant that there was a kitchen with a refrigerator and a microwave. It also had a complete set of silverware, dinnerware, and drinkware.

Living room and dining area of the 2 bedroom luxe suite

The good thing about their 2-bedroom suite is that there are two bathrooms: one in the common area and another in the master bedroom. This meant that we didn't need to take turns using the bathroom.

One of the two bathrooms in the 2 bedroom luxe suite

It has a really nice balcony with a good view of Broadbeach although we never really got to use it. (The more expensive 2 bedroom ocean luxe suite has a view of the ocean.)

View of Broadbeach from our balcony

The room has a Nespresso machine which I got to enjoy quite a bit while I was there, especially since they had decaf capsules. There is also a 7-Eleven right next to the lobby entrance making it quite convenient for us to buy any items we needed, such as water and snacks.

The 7-Eleven is right behind me, beside the hotel entrance

The main lobby goes out into the Gold Coast Highway and this is where we stepped out every morning. However, there was also an entrance and exit at the back of the hotel that guests with access cards could use. Guests could use this gate to head out directly into Surf Parade and towards the beach. There was also a really cool sculpture right in the middle of the garden in this area.

Garden area of Meriton Suites Broadbeach

Since I didn't get to go around Broadbeach too much, I decided to take several photos at our hotel.

Meriton Suites Broadbeach is a great choice if you are visiting Broadbeach. It works perfectly for both business travel and for leisure. Their two-bedroom suite is perfect for small families traveling because of the two bedrooms (obviously) and two bathrooms, the large living room area, the balcony, the kitchen area where guests can cook if they want to, and the convenience of its location.

Meriton Suites Broadbeach
https://www.meritonsuites.com.au/our-hotels/qld/gold-coast/broadbeach/

Next: A Crazy, Amazing Race-like Experience Heading Home

[Australia] Dining in Gold Coast

I was in Broadbeach in Gold Coast for just a few days and I had most of my meals at the event I attended so I only got to try a few restaurants while I was there. Among the restaurants I visited, my favorite is Urban Fish Market. I had dinner here on my first night because I felt that since I was in Gold Coast and was right next to the sea, I should enjoy some seafood.

Urban Fish Market

I ordered the Seafood Basket which has NZ Hoki, 2 calamari rings, 2 sea scallops, and 1 prawn cutlet. I thought this was the perfect dish for me because it was a lot of seafood on one plate and I was really hungry. You get to choose how your food gets prepared: grilled, crumbed, or battered. I asked the lady at the counter what she recommended and she said battered so I went with that. My meal was really good! If I ever visit Broadbeach again, I am definitely eating here again.

Seafood Basket at Urban Fish Market

I had dinner alone because my colleague still wasn't hungry because she had a very late lunch at Rumi, a Persian restaurant right next to Urban Fish Market. Her flight arrived in Gold Coast a couple of hours earlier than mine so we met up in Rumi. By the time I got there, she had eaten her meal but she did Baklava for dessert and wanted to share it with me. I thought the Baklava was a bit on the sweet side but it was still good. And the presentation was very fancy!

Baklava at Rumi

Monday night dinner was organized for several event attendees at Sage, which was also in the Surf Parade area and just about a block away from Urban Fish Market and Rumi. I got to meet with some other folks from Southeast Asia, including a few Filipinos who were also attending the event.

Sage Restaurant

We were all asked to pre-order and I selected the Sirloin Steak. It had good flavor but I felt it was overcooked and a bit too tough, an opinion shared by other folks who got the same dish. I think maybe Sage isn't fully equipped to churn out dozens of similar plates at the same time because our group included maybe about 50 people and they served our main dishes at about the same time. Nevertheless, that didn't deter me from fully consuming and still enjoying my steak haha.

Sirloin steak at Sage

What we all loved was a seafood platter that was served before our main courses arrived. I'm not sure what it was but looking at the Sage menu, I guess it might have been the Hotplate. Whatever it was, it was exceptionally good. I guess Gold Coast really does have great seafood.

Seafood platter at Sage

We also had dessert. I selected the lemon meringue dessert and it was delicious.

Lemon meringue at Sage

On our final night, my colleague and another friend had dinner at Harajuku Gyoza Beer Stadium which is just on the outside of Oasis Mall.

Harajuku Gyoza Beer Stadium

We ordered a few different gyoza plates as well as the Popcorn Pork Belly (crispy slow cooked pork belly served with a chili caramel sauce, coriander and pickled red cabbage slaw, sprinkled with red chili and fried garlic).

Pork Belly and Gyoza at Harajuku Gyoza

I didn't have an opportunity to have more Australian-specific items like vegemite or kangaroo. If I get to visit Australia again in the future, maybe I need to try these.

Next: Meriton Suites Broadbeach

[Australia] Business Trip

As I mentioned in my previous post, an international business trip in 2025 was NOT on my bingo card. While I had many of these in my younger years, my last international business trip was back in 2009, a whopping 16 years ago. In fact, I was initially hesitant to go on this trip, but as it turned out, it turned out to be something that will really help me.

Photo op with E.T. the Extra Terrestrial

I attended the 3-day Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo held in Gold Coast. Gartner is the world's leading research and advisory company for IT and they apparently host this event every year. While the main topics and agenda items are geared towards IT, this event actually isn't just for IT professionals and many of the attendees weren't IT.

My first time attending the Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo

My goal was to learn as much as I could from the many different sessions over the event's three days and try to figure out how I can apply what I learned to enable our company to do things better. I ended up attending 25 sessions so it was definitely information overload for me haha but thankfully, I did have a whole lot of aha moments. Now that I'm back, I still need to review all my notes, check the available documentation, and rewatch the video recordings to come up with recommendations.

View of Gold Coast from the Symposium venue

A colleague went on this trip with me and she got a lot of tips and tricks from her manager who had been to these events before, including registering the day before the event. Apparently, the registration gets very crowded on the morning of the first day so attendees have an option of registering the day before. Thankfully we did because I was able to have my photo taken with this awesome McLaren at the entrance of the convention center before it was cordoned off the next day. (You could still have your photo taken with it of course, but not as close and with a rope barrier.)

McLaren car on display at the venue

While the great value of this event to me is that I feel I've become a bit more equipped to do my job better, one of the highlights of the event for me was the Xpo Galactica event on the second evening. It was an evening socials event with a sci-fi theme.

Kicking off the Gartner Xpo Galactica evening event

According to our agenda, it would run from 530pm to 730pm. I was initially unsure if I would attend, at least until I saw the description of this event: Get ready “to boldly go where no one has gone before”. Join us for an evening voyage to the final frontier, test your aim in laser tag, snap your photo with E.T. and capture the droids that you have been looking for. Embark on a quest of new intergalactic partnerships over a pitcher of spotchka at the Galactica Bar. Get ready to discover the unknown future rolling towards us while being guided by the force. This will be no ordinary night.

Awesome sci-fi design at the Xpo Galactica event

As soon as I saw that it included a photo op with E.T. the extra terrestrial, I just had to go! Naturally, when I got there, I tried to figure out where and how I could get my picture taken with E.T. I finally saw the photo booth that was recreating the most iconic scene in the film: Elliott in his red hoodie riding a bike with E.T. in the basket carrier. I was so excited that I actually forgot to put the hoodie on to cover my head (see the first photo in this post). I asked if I could fall in line again to have my photo taken, this time with the hoodie on, and they said that was perfectly okay. Here is the final photo (which is now on display at home in a picture frame haha):

This photo is the main reason why I wanted to attend the Xpo Galactica event

I also had many more cool photo ops. There were a lot of Star Wars fans there so I got a photo with Chewbacca, Kylo Ren, and a Storm Trooper.

Chewbacca, Kylo Ren, and a Stormtrooper

I also had my photo taken with R2D2 and BB8.

Star Wars droids R2D2 and BB8

There was also a recreation of Han Solo in carbonite at one of the bars.

Han Solo encased in Carbonite

It wasn't all Star Wars though. I got to see the Men in Black with an alien on a gurney and their neuralyzers...

Men in Black with an alien being autopsied

...and I also saw Terminator.

With the Terminator

Another highlight for me was that I got to listen to Ashleigh Barty, a retired Australian tennis player who was ranked #1 for 121 weeks and won 3 Grand Slam singles titles. As a tennis fan, it was great getting to hear Ashleigh talk about how she set her goals and how she achieved her success as well as how she decided to retire when we was still #1.

Former #1 tennis player Ash Barty was a keynote speaker

Then there was the swag. There are a lot of different booths on the Xpo floor and most (all?) of them give out stuff to people who spend some time talking to them. My favorite thing that I got was a really cute bee stuff toy! I would have probably tried to get more swag but I wasn't prepared for it and I didn't have enough luggage space haha.

My loot from the Gartner IT Xpo/Symposium

There was also overflowing food and drinks, including coffee. In the lounge area where I would normally have my meals, they had this beautiful painting on display. It is named "Durungul Budjerum" which means Calm Spirit and it was created by Aboriginal artist Lann Levigne.

Durungul Budjerum created by Aboriginal artist Lann Levigne

I also got a few free books, including "The Graduate's Guide to Future-Proofing Your Career" by Paul Redmond, who was another keynote speaker. I'm definitely not anywhere near close being a graduate haha but his talk about the multi-generational workforce was very insightful so I am sure his book will share even more great insights. He had a book signing on the third day and it was cool that attendees could get these books for free (as long as you fall in line early enough)!

Signed book from Paul Redmond

I believe that it costs a fortune to participate in this event so I am very thankful to my company for sending me there. Now, I just gotta make sure I can apply as many valuable learnings as I can.

Next: Dining in Gold Coast