It's a little bit weird to be in Australia. There is a lot of space and there aren't a lot of people. The wideness of the roads reminds me of the US. We are thankful for the dry heat here, which everyone seems to be suffering from, but which we welcome with open arms after Ubud's oppressive humidity. The Australians are incredibly friendly, everything is well-organized and it's a relief to be in such a clean environment where the toilet and shower are nicely separated. It is, however, extremely EXPENSIVE here. It's quite a shock! No doubt we were becoming quite spoiled in South East Asia, but this requires a bit of an adjustment. Luckily, we are no strangers to living on the cheap. We have a huge kitchen at our hostel and, although the groceries are also very expensive, it's definitely cheaper than eating out and it's also nice to be cooking again. Our hostel also has AC and a pool. For the last 2 days we stayed in a quiet and clean room with one other couple and a boy who was staying there longterm. But when we first checked in, we ended up in a dorm room with 4 very young boys who spent their days sleeping and their nights drinking, which was less than ideal. Overall, the travellers here seem much younger than in South East Asia and of the kind that come here to work for money and then spend it all on partying. As you might have guessed, this isn't exactly my kind of crowd. It's like being in a college dorm again at the age of 28. Mostly, I feel old. But now that we're in our new room I feel much better. I guess it just takes some time to get used to Australia.
Our first day here was a bit of a bust. I needed to find a nurse to give me the second booster rabies vaccination that I had brought all the way from Indonesia. It took a while to find a clinic and we had to wait a while to see a doctor. I was then referred to a very crabby nurse who told me that the vaccine might be useless. Mind you, she told me this AFTER she had already given me the vaccine, meaning that it was now too late to give me a vaccine that they could guarantee would work. I looked at her while thinking: 'What the HELL do you mean?!' Why anyone would give a patient a vaccine that one is unsure of is actually working is beyond me, especially considering the fact that rabies a lethal disease. The word 'malpractice' comes to mind. The nurse and the supervisor kind of seemed to want to get rid of us, telling us to call some company in France that makes the vaccine. I was sick with worry and Jochem was clearly getting angry. We stood our ground and when the doctor heard about out ordeal, he was mortified and came to our aid immediately. He made some calls with the French company, the doctors on Bali who had treated me before and a couple of travel doctors and he agreed to personally give me a new vaccination on Friday morning, free of charge. What a relief! Perhaps he was trying to avoid a lawsuit, but it's always nice to be recognized when people make potentially fatal mistakes. So, in conclusion, I've now received 3 rebooster rabies shots and will probably not die a mad death.
Welcome to Australia.
But look at Cairns - isn't it pretty?
Cairns Harbour
The very next day we went on a 2-day snorkelling trip to the Great Barrier Reef - surely, the # 1 must-see tourist attraction in Cairns. We were very excited, but ended up a little bit disappointed, if you can believe it. There was nothing wrong with the company or with the boat - to the contrary! Our boat, the Kangaroo Explorer, was super nice. We had our own cabin and our own bathroom and the boat had AC and the food was amazing. If we'd had this boat in Nusa Tenggara, it would've been the trip of a lifetime.
Kangaroo Explorer
Hold onto the shade for dear life!
And that's exactly the problem. Although trained from birth that making comparisons is a bad thing, it was virtually impossible for us NOT to compare the Great Barrier Reef to Nusa Tenggara. And we feel that when compared, the Great Barrier Reef bleaks in comparison. Perhaps the reef is a far better place for divers because it's not exactly near the coast - it takes about an hour and a half to get there by boat which ensures that the water is deep. Not only is this sometimes quite scary, it also makes it much harder to see things. In Nusa Tenggara the coral is close to shore and as a snorkeller you can get extremely close. That wasn't the case at the Great Barrier Reef. Moreover, the visibility was often poor and the water was absolutely infested with thousands of jellyfish. The first time I almost had a heart attack from desperately trying to avoid them, having just read Bill Bryson's account on the box jellyfish in In a Sunburned Country, about a man who had so much pain after being stung that he kept screaming even when unconscious. Yikes. I got used to them during the next few times in the water, and at certain places there weren't that many, but during our last snorkelling trip there were so many that we had to get out because it was simply impossible to enjoy the reef with so many jellyfish in your hair/face/neck, despite wearing a stinger suit at all times.
I saw no jellyfish in Nusa Tenggara. Jochem saw one. You catch my drift?
But, you know. We saw the Great Barrier Reef! There were huge coral formations up to 30 meters high! We saw turtles, and a stingray and even reef tip sharks! And the boat was awesome.
about to hit the jellyfish-infested waters with our much-needed stinger suits
Here I go!
Nemo (also known as a black clownfish)
I survived yet again!
sunset on board
When we came back we decided to explore Cairns. We took a bus to the Cairns Botanic Gardens because (1) we wanted to see some typical Queensland flora and (2) it was free. We walked from Saltwater Creek through the area with the Centenary Lakes to the Flecker Botanic Gardens, where we picked up a brochure and took ourselves on a self-guided walk. This was both a rewarding and frustratring experience as the brochure was a little bit unclear and I kept failing to find the right plants and had to drag Jochem behind from yet another tree in order to listen to me as I read aloud the very interesting decriptions of flora. But we had a laugh, in the end. We ended our visit with a walk on the Rainforest Boardwalk and, for a while, it was like being in South East Asia again. Mosquitos included.
Saltwater Creek
Flecker Botanic Gardens
Rainforest Boardwalk
Today we've been busy getting ready for the next leg of our trip in Australia, but we made a quick stop at the Lagoon on the Cairns Foreshore Promenade. Cairns doesn't have a beach, so the very clever people here built themselves a very popular 4800-square-meter salwater swimming lagoon. It sounds corny, which it is, but it's great fun. There is a small beach and grass surrounds the area and there are places where you can barbecue - it's a nice family place. We've been having great weather in Cairns, nothing but blue skies and sunshine, despite the rainy season, so we took a dip this afternoon.
Lagoon
We've booked a couple of overnight buses to save money on hostels, which sounded like a great idea when we booked, but right now sounds like suicide. Our bus to Mt Isa leaves at 12.25 AM tonight. First, we need to drive down to Townsville, where we'll arrive around 5 AM. Around 7 AM we board a new bus which will arrive in Mt Isa about 12 hours later. Then we're still only halfway to our final destination, which is Alice Springs, but we decided to make a 2-day stop in Mt Isa because travelling in a bus for 33 hours seemed like madness. Mt Isa is a rich mining town in the Outback with just 22,600 inhabitants. Yikes.
If you'd like to see more pictures of our world trip, check out our picture gallery here!
No comments:
Post a Comment