Day 5 - Moving from big city to beautiful beaches

It was a huge difference travelling with a smaller and "budget" airline, Jetstar, compare to Cathay Pacific and Virgin Atlantic. Everything was chaotic and not well organized despite the fact that thought I spent over $280 CAD for the flight, I have to pay for drinks, snacks and meals. I flew with Air France when I was in Europe for a flight I paid for $100 EU from PARIS to LONDON (1 hour flight). I got elegan snacks (puffs, 1/4 sandwiches and other pastries), juices, and coffee. I am not overly impressed with Jetstar though their flights are relative cheaper. The remote control button was broken. There was no TV entertainment even when my flight was flying to Japan after stopping by Cairns. The funny and the most ridiculous thing is that during departing and arriving the airport, both times, there were "problems" connecting to the landing base or electric problems (light cut on and off).

Enough comment on that. The weather at Cairns was spectacular. Exact weather I am looking for. Hot but humid. The temperature was over 35 degree Celcius. I spoke with some staff at the airport. Apparently, I lucked out. They were having rain the past weeks (because it is the raining season at Cairns right not). Lovely. I felt the sun tanning my skin already when I stepped out of the airport.

Giligan's Backpacker is a brilliant hostel. Air Con, personal shower and toilet shared between the 8 people in the room (I never get that with hostel) for only $22 AU. There is an amazing pool, kitchen and common area. Guess what? They have their own pub, which is kind of like a club.

I bumped into a Canadian gal from Hamilton, ON. She ended up tagging along with me to my hostel and shared a room with me (and 3 other guys). Nicole is pretty fun. She is dropping by Australia to travel a bit before she heads to New Zealand to play hockey. Crazy isn't it.

It is awesome that Cairns, which has no beach in its main town, made a man-made "lagoon" at the edge of the ocean. You have a view of the ocean while swimming in a pool with man-made sand. Pretty sweet. I spent the rest of the afternoon reading my diving manual in the sun at the "man-made" beach eating watermelon.

Friends who know me knew that I love to cook and not a bad cook. However, you can't really do much if you are cooking onion for pasta without oil. Yeah! I cooked pasta sauce with a can of "reduced price" no-name mushroom, the cheapest pasta sauce, pasta, and onion. Bad idea. The onion was never cooked and I have to eat this pot of disgusting pasta for 3 meals.

If you are at Cairns or I guess up at Queensland, you got to try their mango. They are enormous and delicious. However, I have to say the Philipino mango are still the best. Australian mango are big but taste like Mexican mango.