Saturday, September 02, 2006
I promised a bit of an overview of the trip to Cairns, Queensland on my break from the mine. No really outrageous stories, nor any jail time...so a pretty laid back easygoing weekend all up. Phil was not on what I would call his "best behaviour", but he did not end up in jail, either, so all is well.
We got into Cairns about lunchtime, and upon walking into our hotel room we were greeted by a wonderful sight. See picture below taken from our 6th story balcony hotel room. Mad props out to the bunch at my hotel. I'd love to mention their name, but I wouldn't want to incriminate Phil for his later actions.
Phil basking in the beautiful (and slightly carcinogenic) Queensland sun
After settling in, we decided to have a shower and a hot cup of tea on the balcony, enjoying some of the "scenery" below us at the pool. I, being a man of indellible integrity would never stoop to taking pictures of unsuspecting females sunbathing poolside. Phil is not quite so integritableishnessing (one of my made up words where I take the root and add tons of suffixes). I quickly learned that I could not leave Phil alone with the camera.
So after heading out for a venture and grabbing a bite to eat, Phil and I rang up a work colleague who was in Cairns for the weekend bunking with his brother. The work colleague, we'll call him Dave (because that's his name....or not) was busy making plans for the next day's tropical Queensland bush walking adventure. The next stop would the the rows and rows of shops in Cairns CBD, aimed at swindling money from backpackers' pockets. Have you ever seen so many stuffed koala bears and I "heart" Australia T-shirts? I have, as in the past I've been the consumate tourist in the major touristy spots in Oz (Sydney Kings Cross, Melbourne, Alice, etc). I may have even partaken in the occasional stuffed roo or koala as low-cost gifts for folks back in the US. Now I kind of dispise the tourist culture for all of it's cheap "Australian" goods imported directly from China or Pakistan. If you are one of the people that buy only this junk to remember a country by, I say save yourself alot of time and money and go to China, collect souvenirs from every place you want to visit straight from the factory that's pumping them out, and get it over with. My flavour for souvenirs is artwork from local artists. An original painting may cost more than a furry, stuffed platypus, but the authenticity can't be beat!
Back to the roam. I happened upon this magical place that I had heard rumours of (yeah, yeah, ending a sentence with a preposition...bad grammer...blah) . It was kind of like an oasis in the middle of a desert...a breath of fresh air with fresh water and the scent of coconut oil. A small semi-tropical, but mostly synthetic refuge for those seeking water, crowds of scantily-clad people, and a skin-aging altercation with Mr Sunshine. It is called "the lagoon". You see, all of the beaches in this part of northern Queensland are man made. The coast line is mostly mud, and they tote sand in and create small strips near the waters edge. The erosion of the sand is so bad that in Townsville, they actually pump the sand back towards the beaches from the bay. Not that you would want to swim in the ocean anyways, with all of the little devils that will bite or sting you (jellys, blue ring octopi, stone fish, etc). The beautimus (another made up word) engineers of Cairns decided to build a freshwater "lagoon" just inland of the pier to provide a nice grass/concrete area for pasty backpackers to lay around and add 10 years to their appearance through progressive sunburn...and for folks like Phil to get a bit of eye candy. I'm not real sure how to describe what Phil and myself saw in our 15 to 20 (to 50) walking laps around the lagoon. Young and old, skinny and hefty, hairy and bald, bikini tops and no bikini tops...um what? God bless the Europeans and their free-thinking ways. I must say the novelty wears off quite quickly when the taboo of being in a state of undress is removed. It's more like, "hey, nice set"...and you move on.
I'll post more about Cairns later this arvo after I have had my brunch.
