Sunburnt Christmas - Sam's Entry

We've left it a good while since the last entry, so there are plenty of juicy adventures and tales this time.
One of them was sleeping on the cold hard floor in an airport! EXCELLENT! I will not moan about this - we made the choice to save a lot of money on accommodation and went to Changi airport the next before, picking a corner under some chairs and "sleeping" until the morning. We were both childishly excitied by the prospect of doing it - being able to say we'd camped out on the terminal floor. So that's that painful episode out of the way.

After the 7 hour flight to Sydney, we were told we couldn't stay there for the night and had to move on. Using a handy hostel directory we rang around and ended up at "Original Backpackers" in a seedier part of town. I was determined to make the most of my first night in the Ozzie capital so I braved the clubs on my own, ending up at a place with a live band. I sipped my free Victoria Bitter (they do good beer) and shuffled home without making any friends, but we had plenty of good times later on in Cairns.

The hostel gave us a ride up to the airport where we shot over to Cairns on an internal flight, and we were suddenly bowled over by the sheer humidity of the place. It's oven stormy, cloud-covered and overcast but always stuffy and hot. We're used to it by now so we were able to find it quite pleasant, if not Christmassy. After another successful bout of ringing around we ended up at a megahostel called Gilligans, with over 900 beds, two bars, a nightclub, a cafeteria, and built in spa, travel agent's, laundry and gym. The place was excellent not just for the (comparitive) cheapness but for the people we met in our dorm; a mad couple of English girls, a German and a Swiss guy who were all up for an infamous game of 'Ring of Fire' which Dave unfortunately lost. We merrily hit the hostel club, where I suddenly found an insatiable need to get on the podium and challenge the place to a dance-off. This continued at the next club, where we ended up; my spectacle was overshadowed by a scheduled "Amateur Full Monty" lady's night which involved the mass bullying of three shy men to take their clothes off until one of them won a campervan. This night set the standard for Australian fun, and we've been trying to replicate it ever since. The next day was very hungover and what someone we once met in Laos would all "a f*****g write-off mate" but in the evening we did go to see 'Paranormal Activity' at the cinema, which to be honest is the scariest film I've ever seen in my life.

Seen as we have Christmas booked in Cairns and New Year booked in Brisbane, we had a little time to see the areas in between before Christmas. We chose to invest our money in a sailing expedition around the Whitsunday Islands. It took a day to get down there, and during the night time we met some German, French and English people and went down to the lagoon to cook some meat on the public BBQ. It was great to do our first BBQ, although we were hit by the curse of buying food while you're starving; we had so much I ended up giving a bit of it away to some vulturesque girls. The wine was flowing and we had a great night, most of which I spent wooing a married German woman (why was she backpacking??) and dancing around in a club. I caught a whiff of the dark side of Australia that night - so far it's been all smiles, great service, fascination with our accents and controlled, safe fun... but sometimes I get the feeling that there's a very intimidating, violent and aggressive side to a lot of Australians, particularly against foreigners and with drink involved. So far we've had a great experience though, and we'll have to see.

We got on our Maxi sailing boat early the next morning, and met our crew and group. There were a few nice people on our group, and the food was surprisingly good quality;we were treated to a dinner of goulash soup, and there were fruit bowls and filled up sandwiches as well. I was happy, and that was without even doing all the things we did! the sailing itself was brilliant - I nearly got knocked out by the boom, I helped hoist the 25ft mainsail, and when we were tacking left and right we had to scamper over to the high side of the boat while the whole body tipped a good 45 degrees to port or starboard. Very scary!

On our first day we sailed to the Great Barrier Reef, where we all went snorkelling. The guy who took us out on the dinghy got us all to commando dive backwards - first I was above ground looking at a pretty ordinary coastline... then I was suddenly attacked by hundreds of blue neon fish swimming right next to my face! the coral looked like a forest of fingers, there were bushes that looked like great pulsing brains and scrawny little tendrils that glowed bright turquoise and yellow. I saw a giant fish with a hammer for a head... loads of different colours. And it was good we were wearing stinger suits - me and Dave went for an explore and swam past a load of Irukanji jellyfish, which are almost transparent and very deadly. Got out of there fast! Dave had an intro diving course and I saved my pennies with another snorkel, before we set off again and listened to Jose Gonzalez while we 'sailed off into the sunset' - apologies, but I'll never actually do it again, to the cliche stays. We drank some beer and wine, sat around, and eventually slept in little bunkbeds, listening to the thunderstorm and drifting around on the Great Barrier Reef.
The next day was just as good. The morning was spent sailing and examining each other's horrific sunburn. At midday we shored up on Whitsunday Island proper, and went on a small jungle trek before coming into a vantage point where the opportunity for pictures was spectacular. I wish I could upload my photos, but I went to a camera shop yesterday and we were empatically told not to ever upload photos to public computers because of viruses that will, and have, wrecked our pictures. We're probably going to wait until we can find a safe family computer to upload again (I might take a risk and upload my pictures of elephants in Chiang Mai though - the camera shop man saved all my photos and put them on disk, so I thankfully havn't lost any!!). Whitehaven beach is a massive sediment deposit of pure, brilliant white silica, which seemed to shine up against the turquoise ocean. Even being used to the stunning colour of the sea out here couldn't prepare us for the best beach of my life - I won't be able to ever top Whitehaven, ever. We just lay there, maybe three hours went by... I swam around in the sea, lay down and slept some more... got a long-term reminder of my time spent there on my bright red body but oh well. We got back on board in the afternoon and sailed home.

Getting back to Airlie beach was a nice chance to relax, use actual shampoo and towels instead of high-pressure water and the drying power of the sun. We went for a little drink with our sailing group, then got in with some German girls and went clubbing. Australia is FULL of Germans. I'm not complaining... there's enough beach to go around luckily, and it's nice to practice my German. The next morning was an achievement in itself - our ability to eat an entire box of Frosties in one sitting detroyed any hangover from setting in and we bombed back to Cairns on a bus.

So now we're in Cairns. Our first night was back in Gilligan's; an early one, and a much deserved sleep. Australia is a great preparation for university; we don't have enough money to eat out, so we have to buy from the supermarket and cook ourselves. We've knocked up some fantastic food on a budget of under AU$7 each a night... spicy chorizo pasta, roast chicken in a white wine sauce, marinated bef steaks cooked on a BBQ, plus the standard porridge, toast and cereal (Dave loves his cereal). We've unfortunately had to move from Gilligan's, home of hardcore partying, because we booked accomodation at place called "Nomad's Beach House" months before coming away. We did spend one last night in Gilligan's, and our new hangout is miles from central town. Luckily the place runs a shuttle service every hour, so we're not so far out in the Styx. Further good news is that I'm joined by my brother and my stepdad, who are escaping snowy England for a sunburnt Christmas... and my Mum!!! nobody told me she was coming out to see me, so that was a really nice surprise. My presents are wrapped, Dave is tortured by the suspense of finding out what the cone-shaped gift is... and we're going our damndest to actually get excited about a Christmas that really doesn't seem normal. Australians are running around in Santa costumes in the boiling heat... BBQs are doubtless being fired up across the country. We spent Christmas Eve pushing my brother around in the pool, trying out choke-slams and playing a hilarious underwater stealth game. While all my mates are sitting at home with their families, (hopefully NOT watching it snow... please don't let it be the first white Christmas in my living memory) we'll be sitting on a beach north of Cairns drinking Victoria Bitter and Pinot, then coming back for an all-day BBQ with the 150-or-so residents of the Nomad's Hostels and listening to Christmas Carols mixed in with Jack Johnson and Bob Marley.

Merry Christmas :)

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Australia – Cairns: Dave’s Entry

Merry Christmas everybody!

As I write this it’s 4 pm in the afternoon on Christmas eve, it’s 32 degrees here in Cairns today and we have spent all day swimming down in the lagoon and sunbathing. Somewhat of a different lifestyle to the one I would usually be living this time of year at home.

It still doesn’t feel anything like Christmas and what with our plans to go 2 hours up the coast tomorrow to Palm Cove beach then partake in our hostels barbeque pool party it isn’t getting any more real. However I must say recent ventures out have been undertaken whilst wearing a Santa hat, which for the life of me I cant remember obtaining. Too much Goon (cheap Australian wine) tends to have this effect.

So anyway, we have been pretty busy since the last time we informed you all of our activities. After leaving Singapore and arriving in Australia, we spent the night in Sydney. Unfortunately our plans of sleeping in the airport for what would have been two nights sleeping in airports in a row were scuppered by the airport staff who informed us the terminals were to shut at 11pm. Disenchanted with our situation we were forced into booking into a hostel for the night in the infamous Kings Cross region of downtown Sydney. It was a neon slum and I was pretty glad that our stay there was limited to a matter of hours.

The next morning after a fairly quiet night we rose early to catch our flight up to Cairns. Entertained on the plane by the latest Disney production “Up” the journey flew by (excuse the pun). Arriving in Cairns, the first thing that hit us was the humidity, Cairns is just entering into it’s wet season and it’s location in the tropics means the humidity levels can get uncomfortably high here at this time of year. It was however a relief to be in Australia, simple things like hearing English speaking radio stations, being able to have normal conversations again with everyone and sharing humour made it a pleasure to arrive here. The hostel system out here is also brilliant, with every airport having huge advertising boards, free phones and usually free shuttle runs to any potential hostels. It’s certainly very different to the systems employed in Australia and has made life easier. The first day we arrived in Cairns we checked into a huge hostel called Gilligans, it was excellent, the facilities were all brilliant, they provided free, hearty dinners and we were delighted that the large communal kitchen provided finally gave us the chance to save some money by going self catered. The rest of the day was pretty much devoted to meeting and greeting our roomies, having a wander about and getting a bit of shopping done. I even broke the bank and shelled out on a pair of jeans, the pressures of social convention had finally got to me. That evening we decided to see the lights of the town but not before a savage game of the much revered Ring of Fire. Unfortunately for me the feared saucepan concoction fell to me as the cards didn’t work in my favor. Filled to the brim with goon, vodka and beer, the only positive to come from having to see it away was that I didn’t need to spend any more money on drinks when we ventured into town and that Sam managed to get some memorable action shots. So after our tomfoolery it was time to visit the local legend that is the Woolshed bar. It was a fantastic night out, for what I remember of it. This even despite us unfortunately hitting the ladies night special and having to witness what can only be described as filth. Men stripping to their briefs for prizes. Needless to say my eyes remained averted during the debacle.

The day after the night before was inevitably a very quiet one; we relaxed around town and the hostel during the day before going to watch a movie with the gang from our dorm in the evening. The film we saw was “Paranormal activity” and by the end Sam and I were grasping one another in terror. This greatly amused our German room mate Lars who was oblivious to fear, cultural differences and all that. The rest of the evening was spent in the dorm exchanging stories of the paranormal kind, everyone (despite Lars) was edgy and not even Lady gaga blaring out from the club beneath us could soothe our fears. After a while though the stories became increasingly farfetched and tedious as a result and our dual effort to play practical jokes on our roommates quickly evaporated with tiredness getting the better of us all and we nodded off to sleep. The sleep was a short one as we had to be up early in order to catch our bus down to Airlie Beach, an 11 hour journey that in comparison to the Bus journeys in Asia was very easygoing. Upon arrival we checked in for our boat trip the next day, checked into our Hostel (Magnum Backpackers) and then headed out with our brand new roommates for a BBQ down by the bay. The public parks in Australia all seem to provide free hot plates, BBQ style that our free and communal in use. So we all sat around under a starry night sky, eating our own body weights in meat while we watched the illuminated little boats bobbing up and down on the gentle black waves. It doesn’t get much better than that in terms of fine dining. After dinner we all sat around exchanged names and stories, conversing over a few glasses (I have substituted the paper cups that we actually drunk from for glasses to appear more sophisticated) of wine (Cheap goon) before we went out for a few more drinks at a nearby Irish Bar. Luckily I managed to remain relatively sober as I was fearful of the result of a hangover on a maxi sailing boat designed to churn through the waters at all kinds of speeds and angles.

This is the boat “The Hammer” that we boarded the next day for our cruise of the Whitsundays for 2 days and 1 night, which was unforgettably good. The sailing was absolutely excellent with us pretty much being at 45 degree angles to the water at points; it really did make me appreciate the skill involved from the members of the crew. The first day was spent at Blue Pearl Bay where we snorkeled in our stinger suits amongst deadly jellyfish and beautiful coral and marine life. I also decided to invest in a life experience and paid a bit extra to go on an introductory scuba dive which took me down 10 metres to the bottom of the coral and it was even more magical at that depth. The marine life was less disturbed and therefore more active and diverse and it was just a very worthwhile experience. It inspired me to do more scuba diving in the future and maybe even to get my PADI qualifications one day so I can dive more often, at greater depths and at more locations. We left the bay late in the afternoon and headed for Whitehaven Island, catching sunset over the water in the process. Of all the sunsets I have seen so far, there was something extra special about this one, as I sat on the side of the boat, with a can of Victoria Bitter, listening to Bob Marley and appreciating how good life can be and is at the moment. A quiet night on the boat in social terms was followed by an eventful one weather wise, as despite our captains attempt to shore us from the approaching stars in a secluded bay, we got hammered by rain and lightning forked close by. It was a fascinating site and falling asleep in a hobbit sized cabin, rocking on the waves while rain lashes down above you is a memory I won’t forget. I have slept in some pretty interesting places so far and that was definitely right up there! Hardly the double sized IKEA bed I left at home!

The next day after a sprightly breakfast that included a good few cups of coffee we made for Whitehaven Beach, a sight that is simply to magnificent to be described in words or captured in photos. To anybody who is a fan of fine beaches (of which I know a few) I implore you to pay a visit sometime. I have never seen sand so white and clean or water so clear and turquoise before in my lifetime. The scenery was mesmerizing. The image of a solitary boat bobbing gleefully up and down out on the sunbaked waters while I lied on the whitest sands has been scorched into my memory due to it’s perfection. We spent a good 3 hours just relaxing, swimming and desperately taking photos of the paradise before it was time to get back on the boat and head back to the Abel Point Marina and land again. The whole boat trip was most enjoyable, we met some thoroughly interesting people, ranging from French to Polish from New Yorkers to Israelis, travelling has defiantly broadened my spectrum and I find myself being able to mix easily with people from the strangest corners of our world. We all have one unalienable common quality, that we live to see the world around us and to pursue our dreams, the rest, the differences, are frankly what makes humanity so interesting. After arriving back on dry land and saying bon voyage to our crew we spent the evening sharing drinks with our newly found German dorm friends. At one point Sam and I were sitting with 8 Germans and it was great fun. We all got along marvelously well and we shared a few drinks together before we hit the bars as a group that evening.

The next day we made the long journey back up to Cairns, 11 hours again on the bus and a quick fish and chips along the way. We checked back into Gilligans and got a few bits sorted before having a very early night, we were shattered after the buzz of activity of the last few days. Waking up early again the next morning in order to make it to our new accommodation The Nomads Beach House in Cairns wasn’t to great and the 30 minute walk in staunch humidity with heavy bags was dreadful but we arrived, got settled and waited for Sam’s family to arrive. I also did my own washing for the first time and it turned out to be a roaring success which I was most proud of. Sam’s family turned up and it was so good to see familiar faces again, we all chilled out before having some dinner and another early night (they were tired from the travelling we were tired from previous partying).

Today has been very easy going, just relaxing and burning around the lagoon, working on those precious tan lines. It’s so close to Christmas, its tomorrow! It really doesn’t feel like the festive season at all. Still though , I’m having the time of my life. Everyday is a new adventure.

I wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous new year.
2009 has been the best year of my life to date. 2010 promises much.

Thinking of you all.

David