BANANA LEAF RESTAURANT- JOTHY'S CURRY HOUSE

Jothy's curry house is a popular restaurant in Kota kinabalu serving the Southern Indian authentic cuisine. It is famed for it's fish head curry and rice served on banana leaf. They also offer chicken, mutton, fish, prawns, squids and quails cooked in a variety of aromatic spices. We were there for dinner two days ago.

Located at Lot 1, G9, Api Api Center, Kota Kinabalu, it's open from 11am to 10pm daily

 Rice served on banana leaf with 4 different vegatables.

Our selections for dinner were Fish head curry, squids in sambal, curry mutton and deep fried quails.

 

 

 

 Close-up pictures of the dishes.

These were the free refill vegetables - cucumber, eggplant, bean sprouts and spinach.

Overall, the restaurant was clean with average service and good food. Price-wise, it's a bit expensive but worth it.  

VIRGIN AUSTRALIA AIRLINES: SYDNEY - BRISBANE

On our return trip to Brisbane, we selected Virgin Australia Airlines instead of Qantas. It's our first experience to fly with the second largest airlines of Australia. Virgin Australian was formerly known as Virgin Blue which started as a low-cost carrier in 2000 and turned into a full service airlines after 2011.  

  Virgin check-in and bag drop counters at Terminal 2

Our boarding gate at 38.   

Ready for departure.

 

Summer sunset closing in as our departure was 8pm.

Taxiing out to line up for take off.

Good bye Sydney!

Climbing to cruising attitude.

The comfortable B737-800 economy cabin - a generous leg room of 31" pitch. 

 

Refreshment - complementary coffee or tea with a snack were offered on this short flight.

 

Approaching Brisbane

Landed at 8:15 pm, 15 minutes ahead of schedule.

There is not much different in flying with Qantas and Virgin. Customer service-wise, they are compatible as both carriers have friendly and helpful crew. Economy class guests are provided with complimentary tea, coffee and water on all their domestic flights. In addition they also offer a selection of complimentary beer, wine, cider and soft drinks. Fare wise, they are almost par.   

BRISBANE TO SYDNEY - 11 HOURS DRIVE

On 02 January 2016, we departed Nundah, Brisbane for Sydney with our son on the wheel at about 10:30 in the morning.We have in the past used the Pacific Highway, the coastal road that went through number of scenic coastal towns. This time, we took the New England Highway, known as the inland route to avoid the heavy weekend traffic expected on the coastal route..

 Heading for Warwick

 The A15 highway

 

 Beautiful scenery along the highway

Passing some hilly roads

 

865 kms to go!

 Approaching the boarder of Queensland and NSW

 Wallangarra, the last take away and rest area of Queensland.

 

Wallangarra train museum - the history of railroad between Queensland and NSW.  The train line from Brisbane reached Wallangarra in 1887, and the northern railway line from Sydney reached Jennings the next year.

 Still 725 kms to Sydney!

Next stop - Glen Innes

 Coming into Glen Innes, a beautiful town

 We had KFC for lunch at this little town.

 

 

 549 kms to go!

A brief stop at Back mountain for fuel. Back mountain is one of the highest town in Australia located at about 1,312 metres (4,304 ft) above sea level.

 The only Black Mountain motel by the road side.

 

 

Entering the Thunderbolts way, a narrow "highway" with the speed limit of 100 kpm. We were the only vehicle on the road for an hour or so.

 

 Mostly farm land with sheep and cattle.

 After almost 2 hours, we arrived at Gloucester. From here we follow the Bucketts way to Pacific Highway (A1) where we took another 30 minutes to reach our destination, Sydney.

 It was almost midnight as we got into our Rockdale accommodation in Sydney..

It was a awesome inland drive with beautiful countryside scenery. As there was not much traffic most of the  way, we enjoyed a smooth and comfortable 11 hours drive with this VW amarok.