BrisVegas

By Bobbi-Jo // 30 April 2010 // Comments: 0 // Related Categories: abseiling, adventure, bars, Best Backpacker Job, Kayaking, museums, Nightlife, rock climbing, Things to do

Ever wonder why the call Brisbane “BrisVegas”?

I did, too.

It’s a small enough city that there can’t be THAT much madness going on. But, I should have known that a city that has two 7-Elevens right across the street from each other - for reasons still unknown to me - probably has a few tricks up its sleeve.

On the non-party front, Brisbane is pretty laid back. This makes places like The Valley (I’ll get to that in a bit) all the more surprising. But the sprawling parks and quaint markets make this city unique in that there are things to do if you don’t feel like staring at concrete all day.

We spent a day at Riverlife Adventure Park doing activities that you’d think you’d have to be out in a National Park to get to do. First up was a kayaking trip down the Brisbane River. If you remember correctly, kayaking was added to the list of things that I discovered I’m not great at when I got to Australia. But this river was wave-free and I didn’t find out it had bull sharks in it until yesterday, so I was pretty confident that I could handle a paddle without incident. I’m please to report that I didn’t fall overboard once and that no bull sharks found their way into my canoe.

We managed to sandwich in a trip to the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) which was way cool. I still had a bit of a bad taste in my mouth regarding modern art galleries after my visit to the Tate Modern a few months ago. Sidebar: a mirror on display that has a description that says something about the artist wanting the viewer to reflect upon themselves by gazing into the piece is not art. Seriously. But, there was only one borderline silly installation in the entire gallery, and the rest was packed with so many beautiful and challenging pieces and installations that we found ourselves having to tear ourselves away to make it back to Riverlife in time for the rest of our activities.

Abseiling at Riverlife was interesting. Even though I’ve been abseiling before and this was a much shorter cliff than the final waterfall I abseiled in the Blue Mountains, I found myself missing the 5 and 10m warm-up abseils that I got my first time around. I definitely wonder if I would have been able to lower myself backwards off of a cliff had I not done it before. I ended up only having one go at it because I was more nervous than I expected. However, the really wonderful thing about this spot is that it is literally right across the river from an ocean of high-rise buildings. Just think, if you work in one of the banks in Brisbane, you can hop over the river for an abseil on your lunch break. What other city can you do that in? And if you’re a backpacker looking for something at little more nature-centric during your stay, well, Riverlife is right there.

Rockclimbing didn’t go well for me at all. I made my way up the wall just a little bit before my nerves got the better of me. We were a fairly big group (about 11 of us) with only one instructor. This would have been fine if we were all experienced climbers, but I’m not, and neither was the person balleting for me. This adds up to a rope with no tension and a very scared little climber. I got over the disappointment of not making it anywhere near the top - or the middle - because we went over to the rocks around dusk, allowing us to see the brightly lit rock walls on one side and the beautiful city lights on the other side of the river. It’s really a special place and locals are lucky to have that sort of adventure oriented outlet at their fingertips.

If you’re visiting Brisbane and want outdoors with a little more bite to it, Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary ranks among one of the best animal enclosures I’ve seen yet. With the very big exception of the sheep dog show - which seemed more cruel than entertaining - the animals seemed well taken care of and had tons of rooms to crawl, hop, swim and generally be cute and happy. This was a great opportunity to cuddle a koala and to see pictures of all the famous people - everyone from Princess Diana to Mariah Carey - who have done the same at Lone Pine. My favorite part was, surprisingly, the fruit bat enclosure. Usually when you see bats, they are way up in a tree or flying quickly, so it’s hard to get a good look at them. Lone Pine puts the height of its bat pen closer to the ground, allowing you to see the bats rustling around as they wake up if you go at the right time (right before dusk).

So with all this tree hugging and animal cuddling, how is Brisbane anything like Las Vegas, you ask?

Well. You’d have to go to The Valley to find that out.

Now, this isn’t a must-do. I’ve met people that go to school in Brisbane that have never been. Probably because they’re scared that they’ll lose their pride if they go. Which is entirely possible. Much like how what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, I won’t go into too much detail here. But for what should have been a fairly quiet Easter weekend, The Valley managed to give us a few “oh my god, did that really happen?!” moments along with a very interesting encounter with a person dressed in a giant bunny suit. I’ve heard Cloudland is the place to go, but we were denied entry due to our flip-flop sandals. So backpackers beware: dress to impress and be prepared to shell out for drinks and cover charges. The most laid-back atmosphere we found, complete with a live band and reasonably priced drinks, was the Elephant and Wheelbarrow. But, in terms of The Valley in general?

Proceed at your own risk.

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Many special thanks to VIP Backpackers for being our gracious hosts throughout this trip! You can also receive amazing discounts on most of the activities mentioned with VIP Membership!