TGIF: Hotel George Williams and Hanaichi Japanese

Our weekend was adorned with ocean breezes and sunshine down to Brisbane, Stradbroke Island, and the Gold Coast last week. It's always fun when it comes to traveling, and yet pretty exhausting at the same time as it sucks up just too much of energy. We spent most of our time, apart from exploring the Straddie Island, meeting and catching up with friends, shopping, indulging our taste buds, then traveled through the loop of shopping and indulging our taste buds all over again. 

Checking in at the front counter. It was such a pain for us to uncover the hotel's basement car park. It's not signposted, extremely poor surfaced, and has tremendously limited parking lots, like maybe 10 or lesser. And guess what? The parking lot is not even reserved for your vehicle after being charged for $24 per day. You gotta be kidding me right?!

We've paid $48 just for the parking fees alone and had to crack our heads looking for car park (the hotel's car park was full), after coming back from a dinner on Saturday night. In the end, we were left with no choice but to park our car somewhere near the Roma Street Parkland (right behind the Roma Street Railway Station) since the parking in the city is free on the weekends.

My self-shot *ahem*

Let's take a good look at what the 3.5 star hotel has to offer. It's not something that intertwines with luxurious, apparently, but its overall cleanliness did impress us. We were given a very small room (a lot smaller compared to other hotels in Brisbane) with a queen sized bed and Brisbane city views.

Oh yeah, did I forget to mention how thoughtless they were for not having any blankets on the bed or in the wardrobe of the room?! It's winter now, in case you (the hotel management) have forgotten. The noises are at the unbearable level too, the corridor, the rooms next door, the antique air conditioning system and the fridge.

The basic necessities from coffee to TV...

The wildest thing happened when I was in the bathroom, the fire alarm actually went off  (twice in a day!!!). Luckily, I was fortunate enough to have my clothes on while walking down the stairs from the 4th floor. The fireman crew rushed over, did what they're supposed to do, before affirming it a "false alarm".

For lunch, we came to Hanaichi for sushi.

Seared scallop with Caviar. It tasted a bit funny this time, as if they were charcoal grilled or something. I don't blame my sense of taste 'cause Mr. Choo kinda thought the same too.

One of the must-haves.

First time meeting up with William. We got to know him through MapleStory #OnlineGamerFriends back in the college days. It felt unreal to finally meet him in Australia (instead of Malaysia) after so many years. Thanks for the little souvenirs, William! =)

Bento set to share.

Spicy soft shell crab. They were absolutely delicious!!!

Smoked salmon, grilled unagi, and heaps more until we stuffed our tummies to the fullest!