It’s a long, steep, windy road up to O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat in Lamington National Park but it’s worth the trip.

These school holidays my oldest son went to visit family and friends in New Zealand while the rest of the Candy family hung out in Australia and visited the Gold Coast or the Goldie as everyone calls it.

I’d been wanting to visit O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat and when Gold Coast Tourism invited us to stay there we were excited.

There’s no rest for the wicked though and rather than a retreat we had an action-packed 24 hours.

10 am – Check in, settle in and take in the scenery

O’Reilly’s is an old family business and a classic old building. We had a huge room with cosy beds and mountain views.

The views and the pools

10.30 am – Rainforest Tree Top Walk

Exploring a hollow strangler fig tree which has grown around a long gone host tree

Walking on the suspended bridge

Climbing the 30 meter (98 foot) ladder to the rainforest canopy

1 pm – Bird of Prey Show

Featuring rescued and rehabilitated birds trained by Carmen pictured here with a clever sulfur-crested cockatoo

3 pm – Flying Fox

Kiara and the Mucho Man getting kitted up

Kiara flying hands free

Me coming in for a smooth landing

Max scaring his mother. A lot.

A little lizard lurking by the track

 5 pm – Spa Time

I enjoyed the sauna too. It was too hot for the kids so I had a lovely peaceful lie down.

 5.30 pm – Happy Hour in the Bar while the kids go to the Eco-Rangers for supper and games!

Half price drinks for happy hour - we had mohitos while this lady waited for her husband to reappear

6.30 pm – Supper

I had ocean trout, a buffalo mozarella pizza and this chocolate indulgence desert.No idea what the Mucho Man at but I shared some desert with him. The food was fantastic and best of all we got to eat in peace with the Candy kids entertained royally elsewhere.

8 pm – Glow Worm Tour

In which I learn it’s impossible to take photos of glow worms. The kids were very tired by this time as we got up at 4am to get our oldest son Luke on the plane to New Zealand but the glow worms were beautiful and we all slept super soundly that night.

6.45 am – Bird Walk

Because the early bird catches the worm we had an early start with expert nature guide Duncan who recognizes all the bird of the forest by sight and sound. The cat bird sounds just like a cat but we couldn’t see it as cat birds are green and well disguised in the rainforest.

Has anyone spotted any birds yet?

We spotted heaps of birds and snapped this handsome yellow-breasted Robin.

So is O’Reilly’s worth the trip up the mountain?

Definitely, I’d love to go back and stay longer next time so we can do some retreating as well as adventuring.

O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat has a spa too and gorgeous walks in Lamingtom National Park we didn’t have time to take with wishing trees and waterfalls so I’d make the trip up the mountain again any day and stay longer next time too.

O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat is an utter treat for all the senses.

Many thanks to Gold Coast Tourism and O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat for kindly hosting the Candy family for stay and all our adventures.

Here’s a round up of my top 10 funny travel stories and blog posts from the last two years.

Hopefully you find a few stories you haven’t read and some laughs. I’ll be back with more hot travel tips and stories soon.

1. Funny Search Engine Terms
What are some people thinking when they google these?

2. Naked In Greece
Sleep paralysis leads to embarrassing over exposure on a Greek island.

3. The Problem With Aussie Birds
In which I try to capture the sound of a Kookaburra’s call in my suburb in Queensland, Australia.

4.  Heard the Joke About the Kiwis and the Sheep?
My daughter surprises me with her inability to recognise common farm animals after returning from 18 months living in the jungles of Costa Rica.

5.  Moving to Australia From Costa Rica and New Zealand and Online Shopping
How we ended up with more salami sticks than we could ever eat.

6.  What Looks Like French Bread But Isn’t?
A case of mistaken identity while waiting to be picked up hitchhiking in Paris.

7. Lessons From an African Witchdoctor
But you have to read this post all the way through to find the funny bit and it’s more funny peculiar than funny ha ha.

8. Puberty Bite: Talking About Puberty With Kids
A surprising talk on a sticky topic.

9. Daylight Robbery in Australia
In which I get robbed and stranded at the beach wearing a bikini a couple of sizes to small.

10. Funny Family Portraits
My siblings and I strike a pose with our parents in the early seventies.

Photo: Liquene

“What’s Melbourne like?” I asked everyone who’d ever been there before my visit.

“Oh, it’s fantastic. Amazing culture, shopping and cafes. Melbourne’s great. You’ll love it.”

That was the general consensus.

I visited Melbourne last year for a blogging conference but I didn’t see anything apart from a conference room and 150 bloggers.

Much as I love bloggers (and I do!) when I went back for another blogging event I was dying to see Melbourne properly and experience it myself.

You see I just didn’t really get the concept of Melbourne or what everyone got so excited about.

As Australia’s second largest city there are the inevitable comparisons between Melbourne and Sydney. Of course, everyone loves Sydney. Sydney has the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge and Bondi Beach. Beaches galore in fact which make a stunning back drop to the city.

But Melbourne is famed for its shopping and cafes. Sadly I don’t like shopping much and I don’t drink coffee so while I was looking forward to checking Melbourne out my expectations were low.

My guess was that Melbourne would fall short compared to other cities I know well like London, Paris and New York. That it wouldn’t have the buzz of Istanbul in Turkey, the laid back vibe of Vientiane in Laos or the diversity of Nairobi in Kenya.

I was wrong. What I love best about travel is having your expectations overturned and that certainly happened to me in Melbourne.

After nearly oversleeping (I blame the comfy beds and lovely dark rooms at the Lyall Hotel) and almost missing my first morning in Melbourne, it was a lovely surprise to wake up to find that I just had time to shower, eat and grab my camera before leaping into a van with Simon from Melbourne Private Tours for a city tour.

Simon was a veritable font of knowledge on all things Melbourne and by the end of the morning I felt like a local. I not only knew which places I wanted to go back to but I knew how to get there by tram.

Here are 7 things to visit in Melbourne, the capital of Victoria, Australia.

1. Walk the pier in St Kilda or hire a bike and go for a ride along the esplanade. It’s not normally this windy though everyone agrees the only downside to Melbourne is the ever-changing weather.

2. Go to the Botanical Gardens, admire the views of Governor’s House (if the flag’s flying the Governor is in residence) or jog the tan which loops round the gardens.

3. Ride a tram. Melbourne City has the largest working tram network in the world. The City Circle is a free tram for tourists but it’s easy to get the hang of the trams and ride them anywhere which will really make you feel like a local.

4. Visit Brunswick Street in Fitzroy for cafes, books, giftware and alternative shopping.

5. Cruise along Lygon Street for fantastic Italian food and make sure you go to Brunetti for coffee and a sweet treat. The cake counters and displays look as good as their baking tastes.

6. Shop at Queen Victoria Market for a huge selection of fresh fruit, veggies, meat and fish. It’s also stuffed with delis selling everything from Polish sausages to Australian chocolates and everything else you could ever need from clothes to Aussie souvenirs.

7. Zoom up the Eureka Tower. The lift will whizz you up to the 88th floor in less than 40 seconds for fantastic 360° views over and beyond Melbourne city.

So what is Melbourne like? Well, you need to visit yourself to find out.

But I get Melbourne now and I’ll be back. I’d like to bring the Mucho Man next time and who knows, maybe if they play their cards right I might even bring the Candy kids along too.

My Splendid Sponsor

I was thrilled to be sponsored by The Tailor for my trip to Melbourne to attend a blogging conference. The Tailor is a luxury travel company that creates and organizes Australian and African travel experiences for discerning travelers.

Thanks to the Tailor I spent four nights at The Lyall Hotel in Melbourne and toured the city with Melbourne Private Tours.

Would you like to visit Melbourne or have you got any tips for visitors to Melbourne?

Have you ever been told there’s no such thing as a free lunch?

Well, think again because when I was contacted by the Malaysian Kitchen Insiders, and the lovely team at Ogilvy and Mather, I discovered there is. Kind of.

You see the Malaysian Kitchen just treated me to another Malaysian meal on the condition that I write about it. Since I’m passionate about eating and writing as well as travel it seemed like a sweet deal.

I love writing and I happily do it for nothing but the joy of writing but, as a professional writer I do essentially write for food. So this seemed like a great way to cut out the middle men (banks, supermarkets, cooking etc) and get straight to the fun part – eating the yummy food.

So recently the Candy family set off to A Taste of Spice, a Malaysian restaurant close to where I live. It’s not a posh restaurant which was perfect as it meant I could take the kids. It’s just a tiny place which is always full in the summer and popular for takeaways.

The Candy kids love eating out. Every meal is a free one for them so they don’t appreciate that part, but they love being allowed to choose from a menu and being waited on hand and hoof.

I like to think that maybe, just maybe, they even enjoy being to chat and spend more time eating than we usually do.

But that’s probably nonsense. It’s mostly about the food.

A Taste of Spice keeps it simple – no starters, deserts or alcohol – so, after finding a little table outside under the gas heater, we ordered five main courses.

Most people would think five big main courses for two adults and three children would be too much to eat. So did I but not the kids. They polished it all off.

I had the most famous and popular Malaysian dish ever: Laksa. Seafood laksa in this case, with prawns, fish and squid all stewed in a delicious spicy coconut milk soup with coriander, chilli, lime and oodles of noodles. So tasty and rich it filled me up for days.

Seafood Laksa

The Mucho Man ordered Beef Rendang – probably the second most popular Malaysian dish. Beef rendang is a curry flavored with tamarind that gives it a lovely acidic hit.

Sadly I couldn’t try it as I don’t eat beef but the Mucho Man raved about it. Sometimes I think he loves beef and curry more than he loves me.

Beef Rendang

Luke aged 13 went for Malaysian Curry Chicken. It’s a nice, mild coconutty curry spiced with star anise, cinnamon stick and cloves. Not that any of us got to try it. Luke wolfed it down all by himself in a flash.

Max aged 10 tried the Penang Char Kway Teow at my suggestion because I loved it last time we ate Malaysian food. He’s a good boy our Max and he loved it too – heaps of noodles and meat all cooked in soy sauce what’s not to like? It’s a tasty but mild dish, the perfect winter warmer or comfort food.

Penang Char Kway Teow

Kiara aged six had lime chicken which was a vast plate of crispy fried chicken covered in tangy lime sauce. I can’t say this is true Malaysian fare but if she’s happy we’re happy. Kiara tucked into that leaving us all free to enjoy of authentic Malaysian dishes. Brilliant.

I think even A Taste of Spice owners Anil and Chamoli where impressed when, just a few nanoseconds after they served us, they came out to see if we were enjoying our meals only to find that we’d already finished the lot.

Not a drop of curry or even a grain of rice remained.

So you see there is such a thing as a free lunch. Or supper in this case. It tastes delicious.

Do you like the Malaysian flavors of lime, coconut, chilli and coriander?

Did you know I try to do something scary every day?

Some days it’s something simple like reaching out to someone by email. Sometimes I send off a guest post I’ve poured my heart into. Now and then I just going surfing.

There are plenty of things that scare me. The lovely Jen Gresham at Everyday Bright interviewed me about this strange practice so you can read more about why I do it here.

Now the more scary things I do, the scarier the things I do keep getting.

You see I’m running out of scary things to do, so now I have to do the things I’ve been putting off longest. The things that scare me most of all.

So in March I joined Toastmasters to improve my public speaking.

Why Public Speaking Scares Me

I was a teacher for many years so I used to be at ease standing up front talking to people.

This year I’ve been doing a lot of talks and workshops about blogging and I feel comfortable with that. It’s okay teaching and talking to people about topics I know well but talking about myself is terrifying.

If you thought writing and sharing your personal writing on your blog was hard, then try talking about them to a room full of expectant strangers.

I also have a problem with putting my body on display.

I can talk away happily when sitting down. Standing behind the safety of a lectern is great. But I hate standing in front of people with nothing to hide behind.

I feel awkward. I don’t know what to do with my hands. I remember how I got teased at school for being a skinny giraffe.

Writing it down sounds ridiculous. Just as I can’t understand people who fear flying because it doesn’t bother me, so you may not be able to relate to this awkward body image thing of mine.

But it’s a deep-seated problem and to be honest joining Toastmasters (a group to help improve public speaking) has made it worse.

I never realized how scary it would be until I actually tried it.

I’ve given six speeches to my fellow Toastmasters on various topics but what bothers me is, unlike the people who’ve paid to learn from me, all they probably want to do is practice their own public speaking skills. Not listen to me. So I feel bad for boring them.

But deep down I know my speeches aren’t boring. I spend days writing them then many long hours practicing and memorizing them.

As with anything I’m a perfectionist.

I want my speeches to be better than anything Martin Luther King ever uttered. No wonder I get scared with the bar set that high.

Most times when I finish my speech at Toastmasters I want to run to the toilets and cry. Sometimes I do that.

But when I did my sixth speech there was a watershed moment. Afterwards I thought my speech was actually okay.

I know I shouldn’t feel so scared of speaking and I know the only way to kill my fear is to keep doing what scares me until I’m not ruled by that fear any more.

So that’s why I keep doing scary things every day and why I persevere with the things that scare me most.

Why Pitching a Travel Book Terrifies Me

Since my fear of public speaking is so out of proportion I decided it needs serious treatment. Instead of quitting like I so badly want to, I decided to participate in a live blog pitch for my book The Naked Travel Stories.

It’s doubly scary because I have to talk and, worse still, talk about my book The Naked Travel Stories which I’m terrified might not be good enough.

I haven’t even written the book yet and fear is probably why. I know procrastination for writers is driven by fear. It’s driven by the fear that our writing won’t be good enough.

I suffered rejection and it sucks but I know we can bounce back from rejection. I’ve done it.

Why I Pitched My Travel Book Anyway

So I signed up to pitch my book The Naked Travel Stories live in front of a publisher, an author and an audience of 60 other writers at a literary festival.

Here’s the video of the book pitch made about an hour before the pitch by Lake MacDonald in the Noosa hinterland. Can you tell how scared I am?

Now I’m ratcheting the fear up more by sharing this video with you. Because if speaking live in public is hard, being videoed has to be the worst.

Sharing the video on YouTube where who knows who might watch it strikes fear into my heart.

But hey, what’s the worst thing that can happen? Not much. It’s not exactly life-threatening is it?

That’s the thing about fear. It’s irrational, it’s cowardly, it’s idiotic. Worst of all fear robs us of living our dreams.

So we have to face those fears. They may seem real to us but really, they’re as fictitious as Hannibal Lecter himself.

I hope you’ll take courage from my exercise in conquering fear and do something scary too.

My Book Pitch For the Naked Travel Stories on Video

Can’t hear the video? It’s not your ears, the volume is low. I apologize. Next time I’ll really yell. Until then, please turn up your computer speakers and the YouTube video speakers – full blast:)

Can’t see the video? If you’re reading this in an email or RSS you need to visit the blog to see the video. See you there.

Non-Fiction Book Pitch Transcript: The Naked Travel Stories by Annabel Candy

Here’s the full transcript. I divided my pitch into three parts: Who would read the book, what it’s about and why I’m the best woman to write it.

The Naked Travel Stories fill the gap between who we once when we were children and young adults and who we are now.

They’re written for women aged 35 and older to explore the conflict between our childhood dreams and our parents’ dreams for us. Between the desire to follow those youthful dreams versus the instinct to play it safe and follow the beaten track. The desire to travel and have fun versus society’s expectation for us to settle down, have children and get a proper job.

The Naked Travel Stories cover the first ten years of my adult life when I was traveling the world, not just exploring the globe, but also exploring who I was, what my potential was and what I would become.

When I left school I knew I wanted to be a writer, in fact I’d known that since I first started school, but writing wasn’t a career or a lifestyle choice my parents supported.

So instead of following my dream I got two degrees, lived in eight different countries and traveled to more than 40 counties before finally coming to terms with who I am today – a mother, a wife and, at last, a writer.

But during those 10 years when I was traveling I experienced things which are at odds with the respectable business woman and mother you see before you.

The English private school girl, wearer of white gloves and a straw boater, nicknamed Baby Doll by her English teacher Mr. “Don’t Mention His Grandfather” Tolkien, has had a few adventures.

I’ve experienced sleep paralysis in Greece and, convinced there was a strange man in my room run outside naked, calling out to some nearby men for help then quickly switching from fear to confusion then tears when we discovered the intruder was nothing more than a figment of my imagination.

I’ve slept free in Germany during the Oktober Fest in Munich when beds are booked months in advance, wrapping myself in kitchen towels to survive the cold nights.

I’ve hitch-hiked extensively and traveled by donkey cart in Tunisia, Porsche in Germany, gravel truck in Zimbabwe and fire truck in Turkey. Palms slippery with sweat, hanging on grimly to the metal pole at the back as the truck careened round corners up a steep mountain pass with Turkish firefighters laughing merrily at me in the rear view mirror from the safety of the cab.

So how do we fill that gap between who we were, what we’ve done and what we’ve become?

It’s been a long, rocky journey. Sometimes funny, occasionally angst-ridden, at times plagued by depression but always in motion.

And over time I’ve learned to reconcile the little girl who wanted to be a writer with the hippy chick who traveled the world and unite them as happy room mates in this middle-aged body. They still have the odd skirmish but on the whole those three parts of me have learnt to get along.

Finally I’ve given myself permission to be the writer I was meant to be and accept that, while I might look like your average middle-aged mother, I’m not, and I never will be.

The Naked Travel Stories are a fun way to explore the differences between what we were and what we are now and come to terms with them.

Today I’m a writer and travel blogger. I started my blog Get In the Hot Spot two years ago and it now has over 20,000 unique visitors each month. I have over 2,000 subscribers and 5,000 followers on Twitter and Facebook.

I was chosen by Coca-Cola in 2010 as one of four Australian bloggers invited to become Live Positively Ambassadors because they liked my writing.

I frequently speak about blogging and social media to business and writing groups and hope to speak at BlogWorld, the largest social media event in the world, this November.

My travel writing has been featured in Escape Magazine and on some of the biggest blogs on the internet. I write for the local tourism company Sunshine Coast Destination Limited and Regional Development Australia and am frequently interviewed about travel, writing and social media.

Thank you for listening to my journey round the world and through my heart and for your interest in The Naked Travel Stories, about a woman who spends ten years traveling the world to find herself, but ends up back where she started.

Thank You, Merci and Kop Khun Ka

Many thanks to my dear friend Lisa Alexiou for recording the video and for her incredible, generous and much appreciated support for my writing and all my nutty ideas.

Thank you so much to all my Toastmasters mates in Coolum for listening to my speeches including this travel book pitch and encouraging me onwards and upwards.

Muchas muchas gracias to the Get In the Hot Spot team and readers who’ve made me brave enough to share my stories. I am so very grateful to have you here.

What scares you?

Have you ever fantasized about having a job where you could live anywhere in the world? Being able to travel the globe while still earning a decent income?

I’m excited to have an audio interview with Jen Gresham from Everyday Bright and the No Regrets Career Academy to share with you today.

The interview will give you tips about location independence and help you consider if you really want to make those location independent lifestyle dreams come true or if they’re better kept as dreams.

This is an 18 minute audio interview which covers:

Jen’s personal experience of the location independent lifestyle.

What exactly is a location independent lifestyle anyway?

The three different independent lifestyle models: Jetsetter, Nomad and Expat.

How to chose which model is right for you.

Tips on to consider when making a change.

Tips on how to overcome your fears and take the plunge.

You can listen to the interview right here or download it here to listen to it later on your favorite mobile device.

Reading this by email? You need to visit Get In the Hot Spot now to hear the interview. Sorry, I can’t embed an MP3 audio file in an interview.

About Jen Gresham

Jen describes herself as “a scientist by training and an optimist at heart”.

She’s made an amazing career transformation from being in the US Air Force to being self-employed and has also recently moved from the USA to London.

Jen helps people turn their career fantasies into reality so if you’re looking to change your life or change your career she should be your go to person. I recommend you check out the No Regrets Career Academy.

Jen is just launching a new career change training program. Sign up ends on September 25th with limited spaces available so if that sounds like something that might interest you this could be the perfect time.

She’s also created three free training videos to get you thinking about how to make your career change happen and make it work. You can check them out over here.

Join the Conversation

What do you think about the location independent lifestyle?

If there’s anything bothering you about the location independent lifestyle, if you have questions for me or Jen or you just want to share your experiences we’d love to read your comments below.

Me and Jen will be checking in to reply to your comments and keep the conversation going.

Photo credit: Chokingsun

Sponsored post by InsureandGo Travel Insurance

Are you a worrier? If so it’s perfectly normal and nothing to be ashamed of.

Most of us are but for some reason travel fills us with more fear than anything else.

In fact, one of the reasons I started blogging about my travel adventures was because so many people got that far away, wistful look in their eye and said to me:

“I’d love to travel more.”

You see the thing is they can. You can. Anyone can. Travel is easy and accessible to all of us if you just overcome your fears and take the plunge.

Irrational Travel Fears

Of course there are many fears to be overcome and some of them are even real fears too.

Did I feel scared about going to live in rural Zimbabwe for a year?

Was I nervous about moving to New Zealand when I’d never even been there before?

Did we have sleepless nights about selling most of our belongings and house then moving to Central America with three kids?

Of course the answers are yes, yes and yes!

But it was worth it.

The vast majority of fears are completely irrational and when you look at all those travel experiences I mentioned above, the worst thing that could happen was probably that I didn’t like it and ended up coming back home.

Yes, I’d have wasted money. Sure I’d look like a fool when I came home early with my tail between my legs. Finally all those naysayer would be able to roll their eyes and say:

“I told you so!”

But I went on those trips anyway because if you never dare to try anything, if you never dare to shake the status quo then you’re more or less guaranteed to end up feeling dissatisfied, resentful and unhappy. To me that’s a much greater fear.

That’s why I’ve written before about giving fear the finger and why I try to do something scary every day.

But there is one proviso for travelers.

You have to prepare yourself for those travel disasters which you could never foresee. The times when you get sick, your bags get lost or stolen or your plans change through no fault of your own.

Overcoming Travel Fears

Travel is a huge expense. It’s not just the cost of air fares, accommodation and food. There’s also the loss of income when you’re not working.

Sometimes you can save money by taking a two day train ride instead of flying. If you do your homework you can often find great accommodation for a fraction of the cost you’d expect to pay for it. Simple things like making one meal a day a picnic will save you a small fortune.

But travel insurance is one thing you should never skimp on because sometimes bad things do happen to good travelers.

I’ve seen horrific things happen to other people on my trips.

Travelers who’ve knocked out all their front teeth when they were in a remote area of Africa.

Travelers who were walking down a road in Costa Rica when an all terrain motorbike careered on top of them giving them severe burns down their legs.

Travelers who suffered months of illness in India because they couldn’t afford to change their flights home.

The good thing is that although these things may ruin your trip they don’t have to ruin you financially.

I’ve been pretty lucky in my 25 years of travel. Of course I’ve had a few things stolen over the years but things are replaceable so that doesn’t matter.

The worst was when my sons ended up in hospital in Singapore and in Costa Rica. Not at the same time thank heavens.

Luke was six when he slipped at a water park in Singapore and ended up being hospitalized, tranquilized then stitched back together.

Our flight was the next day and it was touch and go if we’d make it. In the end we caught the flight but it really didn’t matter that much. We had travel insurance so we were covered if we’d needed to cancel our flights and stay longer.

So instead of worrying about money and unexpected costs we could concentrate on the real issue of looking after our son.

Max was five when he slipped by our pool in Costa Rica. I know what you’re thinking and trust me, I’ve told those Candy boys a zillion times not to run or jump around water but some people never listen do they?!

Max had a really nasty injury which needed x-rays, a dentist, a doctor and a nurse to attend to him. More stitches were involved in places you just don’t want to have stitches and we had to plug up his nose to stem the bleeding for a whole week afterwards.

That time we never even needed to use our travel insurance because the bill was just under the excess but I’d never waive my travel insurance.

How Travel Insurance Keeps Travel Fears At Bay

It’s having travel insurance that gives us peace of mind and allows us to take small risks because we know that if something terrible happened we’d be covered and looked after.

If you’re covered for all eventualities you can just be happy and enjoy your trip.

So just get some decent travel insurance before you leave and don’t worry about the things that could happen.

If you’re anything like me they”ll probably never happen anyway.

This blog post was kindly sponsored by InsureandGo Travel Insurance.

If you check out Insureandgo’s website you’ll see that kids get free insurance on single and family policies. Amazing really. Especially now you know what my kids are like.

“If you can’t stand the heat stay out of the kitchen”
Traditional Saying

I was stoked when Malaysia Kitchen asked me to be one of their merry team of hot bloggers. As you know, some like it hot and I definitely do so I was delighted to become a Malaysia Kitchen Insider.

In case you haven’t heard of it yet Malaysia Kitchen is a global campaign to help people find out about how tasty Malaysian food is and get more of us sampling it.

My first port of call was the Old Town Kitchen restaurant on Brunswick Street in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane.

I have to admit that, as planned, I was starving when I got there.

Normally me and the Mucho Man eat with the kids at 5.30pm. Sad I know, although it is supposed to be good to eat early – it gives you more time to burn it off before bedtime.

In a happy turn of events, the Mucho Man and I had the opportunity to spend one night in Brisbane sin ninos, sans enfants or without kids. This was a first and we were excited.

We caught an early movie but when it ended it was late (by our standards) so we didn’t eat until 9pm.

When we finally arrived at the Old Town Kitchen Malaysian restaurant I was starving which was perfect because I wanted to try as many dishes as possible.

But despite the fact that I’d collected a menu earlier, taken prolific notes about Malaysian food on the internet and carefully studied the pictures of dishes in the window, I still couldn’t decide what to order.

Malaysian food is amazingly diverse with influences from Chinese, Thai and Indian cooking and Old Town Kitchen have over 150 items on the menu. I wanted to try them all, so cutting it down to three things that we could reasonably eat was tough.

But I finally did it. We chose:

• Malaysian Sizzling Fish Fillet in Sambal Sauce
• Assam King Prawns
• Char Kuey Teow

The Char Kuey Teow arrived first. It was hotly recommended in online reviews but it’s not a chilli hot dish. Just delicious. Nasi Lemak is wide noodles with seafood, green beans and bean sprouts. You can tell I’m not a food writer but trust me it tasted great so it didn’t take us long to hoover it up.

Next came the Assam King Prawns. I love prawns.

If you ever want to curry favor with me please send flowers, chocolate or prawns. Ideally all three.

The assam king prawns didn’t disappoint. Eight lovely prawns floated in a spicy sour curry sauce along with tomatoes and green beans. The sour flavor comes from tamarind which I also love and in case you didn’t know I like it hot so this was always going to be a winner. It had just the right amount of chilli to give you a kick without bringing tears to your eyes.

Finally the sizzling Malaysian fish made our fellow diner’s heads swivel. I’m sure they all wished they’d got what we had. This dish is super temperature wise but not chilli hot though it is aromatic and spicy.

Malaysian Sizzling Fish Fillet in Sambal Sauce

Next our smiley waitress brought us some complimentary fruit followed by glutinous sticky black rice pudding. It’s a lovely sweet treat cooked in coconut milk which we devoured with gusto.

A palate refresher

Black glutinous rice pudding

As you can see in the photo up top by the end of the evening we’d polished off every single dish.

I’d do it all over again too.

Does Malaysian food sound good to you?

Many thanks to Malaysian Kitchen who kindly paid for our meal. It went down a treat.

Old Town Kitchen is at: Mcwhirters Mall, Shop 221, 247 Brunswick St, Fortitude Valley QLD 4006 or phone (07) 3252 2866.

Find out more about Malaysian Kitchen Australia at their website which has a handy restaurant finder.

The global Malaysia Kitchen site has lots of recipes so you can cook up a storm at home.

Could you use a night off? Would you enjoy 24 hours off from the kids, the household chores and the lists of things you should be doing?

Me too and, thanks to a strange traveler, I just got the chance to spend a night in Brisbane, the capital of Queensland and Australia’s third biggest city after Sydney and Melbourne.

Not quite one night in Bangkok, where I once spent more like 100 nights, but still great excitement for a country mouse like me.

Even though my home’s a 90 minute drive from Brisbane, I’ve only been there a few times in the two years I’ve lived in Australia. Once to get my shipped goods cleared by customs, once to show my mum round and once for a tweet up with some hot Aussie bloggers. Sad isn’t it?

But due to a happy turn of circumstances, and the aforementioned strange traveler (who turned out to be an angel, read more here) I recently spent one whole night in Brisbane with the Mucho Man (my hubby, check him out here). We were lucky that our kids could stay at home in the care of someone we’d only met the week before, but who rapidly become an honorary and favorite family member.

Exploring Brisbane

After checking in to the Riverview Hotel (I’ll do a mini hotel review in a later post), then immediately checking out of one room, and into a better room with the promised Brisbane River view, we hopped straight back in the car to explore.

We wanted to visit Fortitude Valley or “The Valley” as locals call it. Fortitude Valley is one of those areas all cities have which used to be seedy and run down, but is now hip and happening.

We nosed around a little market, read a lot of menus in eager anticipation of eating out and observed people from all walks of life. I guess I’m sheltered living in Noosa, but it’s amazing how many different people in all shapes and favoring all fashion styles live in the city.

Brisbane really has that gritty city feel you  just don’t get in a chi chi holiday resort like Noosa and that’s fun.

Next we zipped off to the Queen Street Mall in down town Brisbane where I did a bit of window shopping (or window licking as the French call it) while the Mucho Man had a beer and watched the world go by.

Then we nipped back to the hotel to get changed and catch the full moon rising over the Brisbane River and the big blue bridge.

We got lost a few times driving round.

Brisbane has one of those one way road systems which makes navigating tricky, but despite that we only went the wrong way down a one way street once. A bit hairy as it had four lanes, but luckily we did a quick u-turn and sped off before anyone was the wiser.

The Mucho Man claims we almost died when he realized we were about to get on the motorway then quickly swung over across two lanes, narrowly avoiding a concrete wall, before getting us back on course.

I missed that bit as I was too busy trying to work out where we were on his new smart phone. It’s still a mystery to me.

After all that excitement we thought it best to chill out at the cinema. There’s not much on at the moment but Jane Eyre worked a treat even though my brother scoffed:

“How many versions of that are they going to make?”

But the Mucho Man, revealing a rare gap in his education, didn’t know the Jane Eyre story and I loved this latest film version. So moody, romantic and moving, it’s a perfect date movie.

Finally it was supper time and we were starving as it was 8.30pm and normally we eat at 5.30 pm with the kids. Now that’s not just sad, it’s tragic.

But we zipped back to the Fortitude Valley for a Malaysian meal which deserves its own blog post (coming soon!)

We were so stuffed afterwards we had to go straight back to the hotel for a wee lie down.

Before we knew it morning had come so we missed out on all the partying opportunities on offer in the Fortitude Valley, but we’re probably a bit over all that anyway.

Now that would never have happened when we were in Bangkok.

The Morning After

After breakkie we zipped over the Brisbane River to the South Bank where we strolled along the river front walk, dipped into two art galleries, catching a short and very surreal surrealist film, then browsed the Sunday lifestyle market.

All morning we were marveling about what a great city Brisbane is and how we must visit more often.

Heck, maybe next time we’ll even bring the kids. They’re keen to come but we’re not so sure.

Those 24 hours kid free time were fabulous and one night in Brisbane would be quite different with the Candy kids in tow.

But still, who needs one night in Bangkok? I personally recommend one night in Brisbane. Preferably without any kids in tow.

Fabulous buildings in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane

Fortitude Valley boasts a small, but perfectly formed, Chinatown

The view from our hotel balcony

The Savage Eye film is so weird and wacky it's compulsive viewing. See it at the surrealism exhibition at The Queensland Modern Art Gallery until 2 Oct, 2011

Shady, hibiscus-covered walkways at Brisbane Southbank