I am back from my Cairns trip... hmm... overall, I am going to rate the trip 6/10...
day 1: Sunday 24/4/11- 1.5 hour trip one way out to the outer barrier reef... the waters were quite choppy and it rained during our ferry ride out to the reef, making the boat really rocky... and being me, even after taking travel sickness pills and buying the travel calm wrist bands, I still felt like throwing up... whilst we were almost out at the reef, I was told that I could not scuba dive as I had childhood asthma, prisy fell and cut her leg needing stitches, so in the end, both prisy and I did not scube dive, only pong did it, and I ended up snorkelling... which I sucked at as well cos I simply could not grasp the breathing technique of having to breathe through the mouth rather than the nose... which meant that I drank lots of seawater, did not really see any fishes, the water was really murky due to the rain... the trip back was really rocky as well... I felt sick pretty much the whole day... after returning back to cairns, we headed straight to the medical centre... prisy was told by the doctor that she is not to touch water or participate in any contact sports for the next week... she was not happy to say the least...
day 2: a day trip to Kuranda village, went to the village via cable car and returned via train... nothing really much to see in the village though... the food was crap as well... the highlight of the day was probably seeing the barron falls...
day 3: this day was the highlight of our trip... had to wake up at 3am though... first activity was hot air ballooning... was taken up the mountain and got to catch the firing up of the hot air balloons... it was truly amazing... a tip for any one who is thinking of doing hot air ballooning... if you are doing a 30mins trip... choose the second trip... we got to enjoy the whole 30mins of the trip and did not have to worry about making sure that the balloon lands on an appropriate spot... the only thing was we did not manage to catch the sun rising... but on the whole, I really enjoyed hot air ballooning, I thought it would be scary but it was really good...
following hot air ballooning, we had breakfast discount vouchers and one of them were discount for breakfast at the Sebel, 5 star hotel... we were like, after the last 2 days of crap food, we are so going for it... when we arrived at the hotel at 0930, we were told that the buffet would end at 1000, so we pretty much have 30mins to stuff ourselves at the buffet... which was exactly what we did that morning... we did not even want to stop eating to take pictures or talk... we just kept eating... the food was really good... and they actually had real honeycomb... which apparently is very expensive... after breakfast, we were so stuffed, walked back to the apartment and had a nap...
in the afternoon, pong and I headed off to white water rafting whilst prisy stayed in... when we were going around doing hotel pickups, this large group of older people boarded and we were like oh no, please not let us be on the same rafting group... thank god, younger people came up and we were in the "younger" group... there were lots of people when we arrived at the barron river... alot of asians, mainly japanese and chinese... had to hire shoes, helmet and safety vests were provided... the walk down to the river was quite scary though... it was quite rocky and the shoes are not the best ones to be walking in... however, once we were in the raft... it was really exciting and the water was not very cold... the rapids were not too bad as well, there was only one moment when I was quite scared... another tip if you do not want to fall into the water... sit at the back! we were lucky to be sitting at the back, and we still got wet but not as bad as the 4 others sitting in front... the front two people got the worst of it... another highlight was the guide allowed us to have a quick 'float' down the river and we were the only ones doing it out of th 4 other rafts... it was really good... did not see any fishes or anything weird whilst I was in the water, which was a good thing... all in all, a really good day...
day 4: we decided to go out into the reef again as prisy did not get to see the reef or any fishes at all on the first day... we chose to do the semi-sub and glass bottom boat tour... the weather was very windy and cold that day... as a result, the water was extremely choppy and the boat really rocky... the good thing was the trip to green island was 45mins, half the time required on the first day... when we got to the island... there was nothing to do whilst waiting for the semi-sub tour, it started to rain... when we were finally in the semi- sub, the water was becoming even more choppy and the semi-sub was really narrow and stuffy and rocky... the water was murky, can't really see anything underwater... I started to feel really nauseated, sweating, and sick... I had to go back up to the surface and sit on the deck and in the rain otherwise I am going to throw up... I have been told after that my lips went purple and white... it was that bad... I had to pass on the glass bottom tour... whilst I was waiting for prisy and pong to finish their tour, it started to really pour and there was not much shelter at the jetty, so I was standing at the half shelter and getting wet from the bottom down, I was freezing cold and people all started coming to the shelter to wait for the ferry... all of us were wet by the time we got onto the ferry... the trip back, needless to say, was choppy and rocky... not a good day... after the trip back, we went to the shopping centre for lunch and wait around for the airport transfer... when we finally arrived at sydney, it started to pour... again, not a good day, getting rained on twice in a day...
all in all, the trip was not as good as I had expected... cairns is not one of the cities I would be going back to anytime soon... next destination: South Korea!
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