Australia 2001
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Summary
I traveled to the other side of the world, to a land called Australia. I
first hit Sydney, found the weather to be inclement, so I headed to Cairns.
I saw a lot of interesting sights and experienced a land much unlike my homeland.
Travel is an excellent way to trade dollars for experience, and I did just that.
Hotels
The Russell
- I stayed in room 3 at $115 per night. Breakfast was
included and it was pretty hearty. There were shared
bathrooms, but I had a phone in my room, so there.
Ryan's Rest
- The room was pretty hot, but had a ceiling fan that
made it ok.
Purchases
Bundaberg Rum Overproof
Didgeridoo
Detail
Wed, 21 Nov 2001
The 13 hour flight wasn't so bad. I saw the movie
Curse of the Jade Scorpion.
I slept a lot of the flight.
I arrived in Sydney in the morning. It was drizzling rain.
I helped a French gal (Camille?) get a few extra cigarettes
through customs. In return, she and her friend showed me how
the Sydney trains worked. Trains are simple in Sydney. I
headed to Circular Quay (pronounced "key") and then to my
room at the Russell in an area of Sydney called "The Rocks."
Wedge and Trish and I went to the Sydney Aquarium
at Darling Harbor. Wedge had some sort of coupon that applied for the three of us.
Wedge, Ling, and I had dinner. I ate Kangaroo. It was
good, not gamey, but not very flavorful either. I had
a martini with dinner because I didn't want the added
hystamines from a beer. The martini was not very good.
Thu, 22 Nov 2001
Wedge, Ling, and I went on a Blue Mountain Tour through
Mount 'n Beach Safaris.
Our guide was named Fiona. There were some other people on the
expedition as well: a woman from Denmark and a couple from England.
Our first stop was a few hours out of Sydney where we had morning
tea. It was in a park where there were wild Kangaroos. It was
possible to get within about 6 feet of them. Some had baby roos
in their pockets. There were also Cockatoos.
Further on the trip we stopped at the Featherdale Wildlife Park.
There were all sorts of interesting animals, like Koalas, Kangaroos, Dingos, a cheeseload of birds,
Tasmanian Devils, and many others.
The English couple from the tour recommended "cook your own" steak place near my hotel.
The food was good, but it was more effort than the Palms here in Carpinteria.
While in Sydney, I noticed that most of the people were very well dressed.
I was curious about this, so I asked Fiona the tour guide and said that
people dress well in Sydney because of an elevated level of self importance.
I had to laugh!
Fri, 23 Nov 2001
Finally found an Internet cafe. It was pretty inexpensive.
Being a fan of IMAX theaters, and Darling Harbor having a massive one
with both 2D and 3D movies, I decided to walk there. Unfortunately I
didn't have enough time to see a movie before my next adventure.
I had scheduled a Bridge Climb at
12:25pm. The tour guide's name was Julie who was very enthusiastic. The Bridge Climb consists of
putting on a harness, attaching it to a guide-wire, then climbing to the very top of the Harbor
Bay Bridge. Once at the top, you cross over to the other side then come back down towards where
you started. My foot was a bit sore and swollen after the trek, but did not bother me too much.
The view from the top was exquisite. Unfortunately, they don't allow you to bring cameras to the
top, so I didn't get any decent shots from there. The Bridge Climb wasn't very scary. The
most titilating moment was not at the top, but just above ground before starting the ascent.
Dinner w/ Wedge & Ling at Indian Restaurant. $50 AUS. I needed to leave dinner
before Wedge & Ling did because I needed to catch a train to Chatswood. I went
to see Les Liasions Dangereuse at the Zenith theater, a production of
the Epicenter Theater Company.
The play was excellent! Chatted with a drunk old woman named Claire who gave
me some postcards of the play. She had made the props
of the playing cards.
Sat, 24 Nov 2001
The weather had been sort of crappy in Sydney and I was only scheduled
for three nights at the hotel, so I decided to go somewhere else. I
talked to the receptionist at the Russel and she suggested many different
places, but the one that sounded the most interesting was New Zealand.
I called Qantas and asked about the price of getting
to New Zealand. The price was a bit on the prohibitive side. I asked where else I
could go and the gal at the airline suggested Cairns in Queensland. Sounded good to me.
People will give you a lot of helpful advice if you ask them nicely.
I took the airport shuttle from the hotel to airport. I should have
taken the train as it is much faster, but it was raining and I didn't
want to make a mistake.
The airplane was really great: each seat had its own LCD monitor with
a selection of about 1 billion movies. The plane left about 40
minutes late and we needed to switch planes, but we finally got
underway. I saw the movie The Fast and the Furious.
It was ok, but nothing about which to write home.
The first thing I noticed in Cairns was the heat. Whew! I started
sweating bullets. Cairns is the "gateway" to the Great Coral
Reef, the Undara Lava tubes, and the Daintree Rainforest. I booked
a room at a guesthouse named "Ryan's Rest." A single room was $30 AUS
a night which equates to about $16 US.
As it was nearing summer and there was much more daylight than Santa
Barbara, I walked around the town a bit. It was late and I didn't feel
like a sit-down dinner alone so I ate at McDonalds. What a revolting
experience! I couldn't finish it and I became nauseous over the
grease fries.
Sun, 25 Nov 2001
Today I went on the Big Cat Green Island Cruise to the Great
Barrier Reef. Tania from the guesthouse dropped me off at
the Pier. Tania is 23, one daughter and another on the way.
Her husband lives in Melbourne and works in the service industry.
Tania was very helpful booking tours, setting up breakfast,
and otherwise being a friendly face.
The Big Cat cruiser was enormous. It had maybe 300 people
on it. It went about 16.2 mph and took 1.25 hours to get to
the island. Green Island is a small coral cay of 15 hectares
surrounded by a coral reef. It is an environmental heritage site
which means it falls under all sorts of protection laws.
The island was named after an astronomer named Charlie Green.
It is made entirely of coral, i.e. the sand is ground up coral
reef. Very sharp on the feet! The tour people said that the
coral reef can be seen from outer space. The center of the island
is a tropical rain forest.
There is a 5 star resort there called the Green Island Resort.
A room costs $440AUS per night. Even at Australian prices,
that is some significant ching!
I went on the Yellow Semi-Submarine
Coral Viewing Tour and the Glass Bottom Boat
Coral Viewing Tour. The yellow semi-submarine was really just a boat
that you went down to the hull and watched through the
glass sides. The glass bottom boat wasn't quite as good, but I
did this first so I wasn't overly dissapointed.
I didn't end up snorkleing. My foot was rather swollen
and I wasn't sure I should try using a fin just yet so
soon after getting my boot off.
I walked to the end of Green Island (0.3 miles) and sat at on a Eucalyptus
bench while staring out over the Great Barrier Reef. Click
here
to see a pic of me there. The cyan water,
the light breeze, and the hot sun made for a serenely beatiful
and almost spiritual experience. I sat there for over an hour.
Just before pulling out, the crew of the Big Cat threw special
fish food over the side of the boat. Some of the fish were three
feet long! Huge fish, colorful fish, so many fish.
As we were pulling out for the day, I saw a turtle, maybe
9 inches long, swimming alongside the boat. I don't
think anyone else saw it.
I needed a decent dinner so I went to a nice restaurant named Tosca's Trattoria Pizzeria & Bar.
I had the veal which was very good. Chatted with the waitress named Vicki a bit, then headed
back to Ryan's Rest to crash.
Mon, 26 Nov 2001
Pickup at 7:00am, driver named Ross.
Today I went on the "Daintree / Cape Tribulation Day Tour" via Billy Tea Bush Safaris.
Now Billy Tea is not the name of a person, but the name of a style of making tea. On the tour we were
given a sample of the tea. Click here to see how it is made.
This tour was a full day event, and I do mean full. We saw a lot of the rainforest.
The Daintree lies within the tropics and next month starts the rainy season.
Oddly, I didn't see a lot of bugs... a few flies but no mosquitoes. A good
sign; I didn't need to reconcile ahimsa just yet. We saw a small crocodile, some
strange birds, lots of mangrove trees, and some really beautiful beach area. The
guide, Ross, was very knowledgable, but sort of deadpan or atonal. An
enthusiastic guide can make the difference.
As you can see, we made a number of stops, so we didn't really have a lot of
time at any one place. This made for a long trip.
Met: Aks from England, Tad from US, Shelley from England,
Justin and Rachel from Melbourne, and a couple from Boston.
Ross was nice enough to drop me off at the Esplanade at 6:30pm. I dined
at "The Coffee Club" and had barramundi, a delicious fish dinner with a VB
beer for $10 american. You just can't beat the food here!
As for beers, VB is pretty good. XXXX bitters is very good. Cascade
from Tasmania I found a bit harsh.
Tue, 27 Nov 2001
Today I went to the Undara Lava Tubes.
It took 3.5 hours to get there, then two hours in the tubes. Sort of
interesting how the tubes are made. I hope the pictures
turned out. I use type 400 speed film, but it was pretty dark in
there.
Tour guide named Stuart was a nice enough guy, but a little
too gung-ho on the activism. Still, he was very informative
and made the 3.5 hour drive to the tubes go by quickly. The
way back was a bit more arduous. I tried to snooze, but what
can you do? Stuart gave a good flavor of the area. Very few
people live around there... cattle and sheep farmers. One
farm can be 10s of thousands of acres. Medical assistance needs
to be flown in by the Royal Flying Doctors.
The drive up showed rainforest and we even saw a bushfire.
The lava tubes were interesting. There were steps and platforms
going deep into them. The second one was a little shy on oxygen,
or heavy on carbon dioxide depending how you look at it.
Other intersting sights: the Gillees Girl, termite mounds, smelly grass, lamb
killing grass, more....
Wed, 28 Nov 2001
This morning I took it easy. I scheduled no tours and
had no plans. It was really hot in Cairns... the
sun was blazing. Fortunately Ryan's Rest has a swimming pool
to keep me cool.
I looked at my schedule and I realized that I had another day
in Cairns that I hadn't factored in.
I started the day by walking along the Esplanade (along the
shore), had a $13AUS breakfast, basked in the sun a bit, and read some of
"Pooh and the Philosophers." I bought this book at one of those
astrology type stores that are so prevalent in Palo Alto. The
book sucks.
My TIMEX Ironman watch happened to die today so I bought a $10US
piece of junk from the local Target. The Cairns Target seemed to sell
a lot of candy and clothes. It appears that water from
the swimming pool got inside. This was a great watch that
lasted me about five years. Walmart.com
has them for about $33 plus tax and shipping. Amazing value if you ask me.
I found out that no stores except liquor stores can sell alcohol, although a grocery
store can sell you home brew ingredients. XXXX Bitter is a pretty
decent beer.
The best way I have found to get money overseas is through an ATM
machine. Credit cards are useful for meals and tours, but you need
a bit o' spending cash for the little things.
I walked to the Cairns Civic Theater to see if there was
any interesting theater playing. I asked the gal behind the
counter what was going on that night and she
replied that there was a basketball game. I said that was
hardly theater with a laugh, but she was not amused.
I saw the movie Zoolander.
It was fun, if not funny.
Thu, 29 Nov 2001
I was walking around Cairns and saw that one of the movie theaters
was playing Malena at 12:30pm. It had left the theaters in the US
and I sort of wanted to see it. So I saw it. It was ok.
I met Angus, a guy from England who was also staying at Ryan's Rest, downtown.
We got a cup of coffee and chatted a bit. Angus was staying in Cairns
to learn how to become a diving instructor. He had just finished a
stint at HP in the UK.
For dinner, Angus and two Swiss guys and I went to the Woolshed. I
got a whole steak dinner for $10 AUS ( $5 US ). I can't say it was
really the best steak I have ever had, but the company was good.
Fri, 30 Nov 2001
I headed downtown early because I knew I was going to fly back to Sydney.
I stopped in a store called The Queensland Aborigine and bought a
didgeradoo. It cost $145AUS + $70AUS to ship it. It arrived about three
weeks later. The guy who helped me was very friendly and talked to me
at length about didgeridoos, how to play them, what to look for, etc.
Check out their store off the Espalande at Shield street:
4 Shield Street
Cairns, Queensland
Australia
Tel: 07 4041 2800
Mobile: 0409 632 007
E-mail: qabodidg@cairns.net.au
I E-mailed them wondering on the status of my shipment because I would
be away over Christmas. I received a prompt E-mail response from Troy
Paul. Very friendly shop and authentic didgeridoos. Now all I need to
do is learn how to play it!
I flew back to Sydney. The return Quantas flight wasn't nearly as good as
the one getting to Cairns. The food was nothing and only one choice of movie.
That night I walked down to the IMAX theater again to see if I could make
the 7:00pm show. I got there at 7:05pm, but the line discourage me so I
started to walk back aimlessly. I saw that the Genesian Theater on Kent
Street was playing Oscar Wilde's "An Ideal Husband." Hey, why not? I got
a ticket then went to find a bite to eat. I ended up in the mall eating
lasagne. It was actually very good.
The play was good, but not as good as the other play I saw. One thing that
bothered me was that they had the ceiling fans on full blast and I got a
massive case of dry-eye. The performance didn't quite have the verve I
would have liked, but it kept my attention for the three acts, so I guess
it had that going for it. Only cost me $8. For that sort of money
it was a masterpiece. The theater was quaint. I think it was built out
of an old church or something historical.
Sat, 1 Dec 2001
I had until afternoon to catch my plane, so I headed into town to try to
find an Internet cafe. One was closed and I couldn't remember where I had seen
the other one. Oh well. Eventually made it to St. James park and took
some photos. Then I went back to the Russel to shower up.
I finally made it to the Opera house and was sort of unimpressed once I
saw it. The white color is just a superficial tile. I guess I wasn't
expecting that. It is much more impressive from a distance.
I got on the airplane and headed home. The plane was, of course, late. I
waited in line two hours only to reach the plane ten minutes before
its scheduled departure. What gives with that? There were at least a
hundred people still in line.
I still had a semblance of humor in me, so when the guy was finished
checking my baggage with the metal detecting wand, I said "hey, try
it on my foot." He did, it went off, and we both laughed.
I slept some on the plane, saw the movie: Greenfingers
which was fun. Eventually I caught the airbus and walked the rest of the
way home. What an expedition! It wore me out.
