Other than sugar cane farming, Cairns is primarily known as a tourist gateway to the Great Barrier Reef and Cape York. The town isn’t that large and is primarily made of hotels, restaurants and crap shops (a.k.a. stores that cater to tourists). I was staying in a 6 person dorm room at a brand new backpacker’s hostel called Gilligan’s. And other than the Sheratons I stayed at in Vietnam and Bangkok, this was the nicest place I’d stayed at on the trip - except for the fact that I would be sharing my room with 5 others.
Photo Albums
« June 2004 | Main | August 2004 »
Oz- in the Beginning
Walking around Sydney felt odd for the first couple of days. For the first time in 6 weeks, I was just like everyone else (probably a bit stranger but only you guys know that). After walking around Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Bangkok for 7 weeks I was no longer the minority. Gone also was cheap food. Air-conditioned rooms with satellite TV for $ 8. Strange & exotic people. Eating un-identifiable food hoping not to get sick.
My friend Wade was nice enough to let me crash at his place during my stay in Sydney. His flat was in Waverly which is quite close to Bondi Beach and was a great place to base myself and also free. Since I didn’t have a plan for my Australia trip and more importantly, didn’t have any warm clothes, my first day was spent wandering over to the mall at Bondi Junction to buy warm clothes and to visit travel agents to sort out the rest of my time in Oz.
That day, I also had the first of what turned out to be a staple of my Aussie diet. No, I ‘m not talking about beer, although that was a big part of my nutritional pyramid. I’m talking about the humble pie. We really don’t have an equivalent in the states, although I suppose a chicken pot pie is probably the closest comparison. If there was a pie completition in Athens, I think the Aussie’s would be up on the top of the podium. The pies in Oz were awesome. Flakey crust filled with all sorts of savory fillings: Beef and peas, beef and mushroom, lamb and veggies, Beef Burgundy, Thai chicken, etc. The pie quickly became my food of choice, especially after a night out.
I had planned on 17 days in total and had a shortish list of places I wanted to see. After consulting with a couple of travel agents it was pretty much sorted out. A couple of days in Sydney followed by a trip up to Queensland for diving and a sailing trip on the Whitsunday Islands. Then it got a bit more vague and was dependant on my ability to get tee times at a couple of golf courses in Melbourne, which ultimately worked out. After Melbourne, I needed to return to Sydney to catch my flight to Auckland.
With my plans sorted out, I headed out to see the main sights in town. The weather was spectacular as I strolled around the harbour. The Opera House looks like all the pictures you’ve seen, yet is still very impressive. The Harbour Bridge is a big bridge - not that amazing as bridges go, but a nice complement to the skyline. I also spent one afternoon riding the ferry from Circular Quay out to Manly and then back again at sunset. One morning, after having brunch with Wade and his girlfriend Carmen, I walked up the coast from Coogee to Bondi Beach and then hung out in Bondi working on the internet and booking a sailing trip for the Whitsunday Islands. That pretty much sums up the major point on my itinerary for my initial stop in Sydney.
Overall, I really enjoyed Sydney but it lacked the exotic edge that I’d grown accustomed to in Asia. My conclusion was that it would have been better to visit in the summer when the beaches were warmer and it would be an amazing place to live. But the best part about my visit was hanging out with my old and new friends. Watching the Australia vs. England rugby match with Wade and his mates. Catching up with my B-school friend, Guy, for beers one night. Having a Vietnam reunion/Darling Harbour pub crawl with Lucy, Sue and Sean was a blast. These are the thing that stood out as I headed off to the airport for my trip to Cairns.
I’ve posted some pictures of Sydney in an album called Oz the Beginning.
Angkor Wat?
Once in Siam Reap, I loaded all of my stuff on a motorcycle taxi at the airport and went to Smiley’s Guest House. After a nap and a shower, I strolled around town for a couple of hours and had a delightful lunch of some sort of curry. Other than its proximity to one of the most famous temples in the world, Siam Reap doesn’t really have anything of note to see other than a bunch of shops that cater to the tourists in town to visit Angkor Wat.
Upriver to Cambodia: Heading to Phnom Penh
There were very few details about the logistics of the border crossing except that we would be leaving our comfortable boat and getting a different one to Phnom Penh. We pulled to shore and waited for 20 minutes for the guide to come get us for immigration control. Slightly upriver was a small house with two red and white gates and a Vietnamese flag flying above and then about 50 yards past that was another house with a Cambodian flag - the border. Other than that is was unremarkable. Not surprisingly, there were no big signs saying, “Welcome to Cambodia, Have a very Khmer Day.”
Continue reading "Upriver to Cambodia: Heading to Phnom Penh" »
Upriver to Cambodia: The Delta
It was chaos leaving Saigon. 20 people pile on to a minibus and almost immediately half are unloaded with their luggage and moved to another bus. After an hour, we stop for a pee break and half the people are moved once again from one bus to the other bus for good measure. I think it is a version of Vietnamese 3-card Monte. For the rest of the day we were told to get on certain boats and buses depending on the length of our tour – 2 days versus 3 days. The tour I signed up for was 3 days. In the end it didn’t matter one bit as, almost all of us ended up at exactly the same stops at the same time and then ended up all having dinner together in Can Tho.
Recent Comments