The Three Monkeys Coffee & Tea House

When I was visiting Brisbane for a conference once, I met up with one of my ex-students. She suggested to meet at The Three Monkeys at West End and I obliged. Having never been to West End, I took the opportunity to explore the area and walked from UQ to West End (I know, long walk).

Opened in 1990, it was originally started to serve the students living in the three houses above. As its popularity grew, so did the premises. In 1995, The Three Monkeys changed hands and major expansion took place, moving into the courtyard and across into adjoining rooms.

There was a Mediterranean feel to the place. It was decorated with an eclectic collection of international memorabilia, cosy couches and booths to hide in. 

The queue was long for as long as I was there. Must be quite a popular place, I thought.

I was pretty attracted to the display of cakes - such a wide selection and all at $7.35 per slice.

 We ordered a salad, a pizza and a slice of lemon cheesecake to share.

I also ordered a hot chocolate, which I really liked. And I was impressed with the lemon cheesecake. If I visit again, I would give their other cakes a try, too.

The Three Monkeys Coffee & Tea House
58 Mollison Street, West End, QLD 4101, Australia.
Tel: +61 7 3844 6045
Sunday to Thursday 9:30am to 11:30pm
Friday & Saturday 9:30am to 12:30am

From Brisbane to Hervey Bay

We were pretty excited to start our long northbound drive. The first stop on our itinerary was Glass House Mountains National Park, 70km north of Brisbane. In The Genesis of Queensland (1888), the following extract from Lieutenant Captain James Cook's journal on Thursday, 17 May 1770 noted:

These hills lie but a little way inland, and not far from each other, they are remarkable for the singular form of their elevation, which very much resembles a glasshouse for this reason I called them the Glass Houses...

And so that was how the mountains were named.

It consists of a flat plain punctuated by rhyolite and trachyte volcanic plugs, the cores of extinct volcanoes that formed 27 million to 26 million years ago. The mountains would once have had pyroclastic exteriors, but these have eroded away.

This area is home to koalas, goannas, echidnas and grey kangaroos. We were lucky to spot one grazing in the bushes.

Many birds such as kookaburras, cockatoos, lorikeets, rosellas and peregrine falcons can also be seen. The glossy black-cockatoo, which is considered vulnerable to extinction, could also be found in the Glass House Mountains area.

After a short hike, we headed to Noosa Heads to look for lunch. We were not expecting many places to be open. It was Boxing Day, after all. From far, we saw a noodle bar and approached it. Surprise, surprise, it was a Malaysian place!

Apparently, A Taste of Spice is the place to go to for noodles in town. For dessert, we had some top-notch gelato from Massimo's Gelateria.

We checked-in at Pialba Motor Inn and after checking the place out, we went out to look for more food.

The most sensible place to start looking would be town and that was where we went. We stopped at all the restaurants along The Esplanade to quickly browse through their menus. My, my, they were all really pricey! Oh, and we found another Malaysian restaurant but ended up dining at Thai Diamond Restaurant. Due to the small portions (and expensive charges), we headed to The Beach House Cafe for some dessert.

Hm, let's just say there's room for improvement in the food section but no complaints with their service.

Hello again, Brisbane!

Last year on Christmas Day, I ended my road trip in Brisbane. This year on Christmas Day, I started another road trip from Brisbane. I wanted to 'continue' my journey northwards.

It was a beautiful day in Sydney when our flight departed the airport for Brissie. We could see all the beaches: Coogee, Maroubra, Bondi, Palm and others which we could not recognise from that high up.

The first thing we did after checking in to YHA Brisbane City was to meet up with Xin Wen's cousin, Brandon and his wife, Vivian.

We found it funny that despite telling ourselves that we would not be consuming junk food on the trip, our first meal out of NSW was at Hungry Jacks on Queen Street Mall. Hm, should not be complaining because we did not pay for the meal, the Lees did. Thank you!

Brandon took us sight-seeing at Mount Coot-Tha, where from the Lookout, we could see the entire skyline of Brisbane city.

Not surprising with Mount Coot-Tha standing at 287 metres above sea level.

We also took a stroll in the grounds of the University of Queensland. Xin Wen wanted to see where her baby sister reads her degree. There was a tad of envy but she is more glad that her sister gets to study in such a lovely environment.

I quenched my curiosity of wanting to see what that lake I drove around last year looks like. And much more, too, as I made friends with its resident turtles, lizards, ducks and other feathery friends.

Our day ended with lots of girl gossip under the cool breeze of the air-conditioner. Girls, tomorrow onwards, we have more than two thousand kilometres to cover before arriving at our final destination. Gambateneh!

The Sydney to Brisbane drive (Day 8)

Who knew that our visit to Brisbane would be this wet? It did not help that it was a public holiday, which had the city deserted with not many places to choose from to grab a bite. We parked our car at Post Office Square, which unfortunately, was badly damaged during the recent flood.

We headed to a very quiet Queen Street Mall in search of brekkie and settled with Milano.

We were served by two waitstaff, whom we both thought were really friendly and helpful.

Audrey had something light - the ham, cheese and tomato croissant.

I, on the other hand, had eggs florentine spinach (eggs, mushroom, spinach and hollandaise sauce on toasted muffin) because God knows how much I love my eggs!

Milano
Queen Street Mall (George Street end), Brisbane, QLD 4000
07 3210 0305 (Tel), 07 3003 1294 (Fax)
E-mail: admin@milanos.net.au
Sunday to Thursday 7:00am to 12:00am
Friday to Saturday 7:00am to 2:00am

We then locked into the GPS directions to the University of Queensland. It was not until we were driving in the direction of the airport that I realised something was wrong with where we were going. I checked again and oh no, we were going to the campus in Cairns! I quickly re-entered the St. Lucia campus as our destination and we were re-directed through a maze of posh homes. There were 'ooh's and 'aah's all around and one home had Audrey asking: Do they have a son our age?

UQ was beautiful! They had a lovely lake in the middle of campus with a boardwalk. They had a ferry stop in uni, as well! While we were scouting around for a toilet, we also took the chance to look for any Harry Potter-looking buildings. I mean, after all, they are the third oldest university in the country.

The search was not in vain. They had a section, which was similar to the Quadrangle in the University of Sydney.

Why am I not studying here?

Satisfied, we drove back into town to look for other places to visit, as we still had plenty of time before our flight. We decided to stop at Chinatown, as we drove past it on the way to St. Lucia.

Located in Fortitude Valley, which is a district known for its nightlife (bars, clubs and adult entertainment), it did not feel as 'Chinese' as the Chinatown in Sydney.

It was rather quiet other than the tour groups that entered and exited the Asian restaurants.

You would be able to tell that it was Chinatown because they had Chinese characters on their street signs!

Our last stop was St. John's Catheral in the middle of the city. It is funny how you fit into your itinerary places you stumble upon.

Too bad it was not open. Otherwise, we could see the interior. I would think that it would be grand inside, as the outside suggested.

St John's Cathedral
373 Ann St, Brisbane, QLD 4000
07 3835 2231 (Office Tel), 07 3835 2240 (Service Time Tel), 07 3832 3173 (Fax)
E-mail: brisdean@anglicanbrisbane.org.au

And that marked the end of our roadtrip! Next roadtrip would hopefully be around the same time next year (or perhaps slightly earlier in September or October subject to work and study schedules, as well as weather). Another week of fun to save up and look forward to!