RTW Adventures of J&M

 
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October 24, 2009

Reconnecting with Friends

After coming back from our trip, J and I hosted a "We're Back!!" party to reconnect with our Seattle friends. Aside from the fresh Costco strawberries we strictly served drinks and snacks that we encountered during our world travel which included Coopers Pale Ale (Sydney), Estrella (Barcelona), Tsingtao Pure Draft (Beijing), San Pellegrino Limonata/Aranciata (Rome), Malbec (Buenos Aires), Dulce de Leche (Buenos Aires), assorted salami from Salumi's and marinated mozzarella (Rome).
 
For a little bit of entertainment, J and I decided to have a friendly photo contest during the party. He and I each picked and anonymously displayed 5 of our "best" photos and asked our friends to pick their three favorites. The winner got to decide our next vacation destination! Here were the winners in descending order:
 
1. Kaikoura Peninsula, New Zealand
2. Bluff Cove Lagoon, Falkland Islands
3. Buenos Aires, Argentina
4. Amsterdam, Netherlands
5. Barcelona, Spain
6. Great Barrier Reef, Australia
7. Barron Falls, Australia
8. Paris, France
9. London, UK (tie for 9th)
10. Tongaririo Crossing, New Zealand (tie for 9th)
 
Right now, I'm thinking the Maldives. =)
 

                   
Click here to download:
Reconnecting_with_Friends_tag_.zip (1176 KB)

Filed under  //   Amsterdam   Barcelona   Buenos Aires   Cairns   London   New Zealand   Paris   Seattle   South America Cruise  

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July 26, 2009

Picture of the Day: Devouring a Jr. Whopper

 

Location: Cairns, Australia

When it comes to fast food J and I sit on opposite sides of the table. I am a McDonalds fan through and through. J swears by Burger King. Fortunately for me J usually gives me what I want and we haven't eaten at Burger King in years!

J finally managed to get his Jr. Whopper in Australia, but our Burger King-free streak technically still continues.

Filed under  //   Cairns   food   Picture of the Day  

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April 14, 2009

Cipro and Imodium to the rescue

Here it is, ladies and gentlemen, my second blog post on food poisoning. I'm amazed that it didn't happen sooner. Truth be told, I've had weird bouts of stomach aches throughout the RTW trip, but this was the first time that warranted the usage of Cipro, an oral antibiotic, and Imodium, an over-the-counter drug that decreases the activity of the myenteric plexus (if you have to ask what it is, look it up on wikipedia).

It all started the night before we left Australia. Like my first food poisoning episode, it couldn't have happened at a worse time - I was about to embark on a 15-day camping trip! That night I took two Imodium pills hoping that my immune system would sort things out while the pills took care of the symptoms. A week elapsed before those drugs began to wear off, but the stomach bugs were still there! So, I went on another round of Imodium and started taking Cipro - 1 every 12 hours for 72 hours. This time it worked, but my myenteric plexus only recently got back to its regularly scheduled program - 3 weeks after Australia. Either Imodium is really strong or I'm just super sensitive to it.

Here's a video of the hot mud pools in New Zealand's north island with a very descriptive (and accurate!) narration by our Flying Kiwi friend, Katie. It's pretty appropriate for this particular post, no? =)

     
Click here to download:
Cipro_and_Imodium_to_the_rescu.zip (247 KB)

Filed under  //   Cairns   food poisoning   New Zealand   sight-seeing  

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April 9, 2009

A souvenir from Cairns

I only have one this time.. for A&A

 

 

Filed under  //   Cairns   souvenirs  

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March 19, 2009

Day 130: Good-bye, Cairns!

 

We will miss the ever-changing colors of the Pacific Ocean and hope that the Great Barrier Reef will still be here when we return.
 
We will be hiking through New Zealand (Auckland to Queenstown) for the next two weeks so it is most likely that there will be few, if any, new posts until the first week of April. However, I will try my best to update you on our adventure as much as possible!
 
Picture: The bit of ocean seen from our apartment at 11:58 AM GMT +10 which really does look different depending on the time of day!
 
Current Location: Cairns, Australia

Filed under  //   Cairns  

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March 19, 2009

This costs HOW MUCH?! A room with a million dollar view

Item: Oceanfront studio at the Amaroo @ Trinity Beach
Location: Trinity Beach, Queensland, Australia

1. A small, but clean and functional bathroom
2. Double bed separated from the kitchen/living space by a half wall
3. Kitchen with a double burner stove, refrigerator and microwave
4. Living space
5. The deck at the end of the living room.

Please submit your estimates in USD per night.

         
Click here to download:
This_costs_HOW_MUCH_A_room_wit.zip (339 KB)

Filed under  //   Cairns   How much?!   RTW Lodging  

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March 19, 2009

Cairns, the city

Our sole purpose of coming to Cairns was to see the Great Barrier Reef. Mission accomplished!
 
After being here for two weeks, we realize that there isn't much to do in this city other than to see the Great Barrier Reef. The water by the beach is too rough to really swim in and you can't really just swim anywhere because of the rip current and the threat of being stung by jellyfish. Downtown Cairn is 4 square blocks of hostels, hotels, mediocre restaurants, souvenir shops, activities(tour operator) centers, a huge public swimming pool and a mall. J took a day trip to the rainforest town of Kuranda and felt a bit underwhelmed.
 
Regardless, we still had lots of fun, but in the future we think we'd come back for a week if we're doing a multi-day diving trip or just a weekend if we're only snorkeling.
 
Random Thoughts
  • there's a ton of Japanese and German tourists
  • buses to the Northern Beaches is convenient, but the trip is extremely long.
  • it's worth it to rent a car
  • if you don't rent a car and want to stay outside of Cairns pick Palm Cove as there is an express bus from there to Cairns
  • do a multi-day liveaboard dive/snorkel trip to really see the Great Barrier Reef
  • love the pay-first-then-eat system
  • Cairns waterfront is ugly during low tide
1. Downtown Cairns
2. Cairns Lagoon - a huge public salt water swimming pool. Salt water pools are the standard here.
3. The 2A Sunbus - the public bus that connects the Northern Beaches to Cairns

     
Click here to download:
Cairns_the_city_tag_Cairns.zip (234 KB)

Filed under  //   Cairns  

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March 15, 2009

Day 125: An anniversary on the Great Barrier Reef

J and I have this tradition where we lump Valentine's Day, our annual dating anniversary and our x.5 wedding anniversary into a one-day celebration. The actual day varies year-to-year depending on our individual schedules but we always do it sometime in February. Remarkably, February came and went this year and neither of us remembered! I guess we were having too much fun in Sydney!

Today, we headed out to Michaelmas Cay for a sail and snorkel trip. It was J's turn to see the Great Barrier Reef. We saw a variety of different tropical fish as well as many colorful giant clams. It was J's first time using prescription masks and he's hooked! On our way out of the water he managed to spot a baby Picasso Triggerfish no bigger than one inch in length!

During the sail home we were given a complimentary glass of champagne. I sat there first thinking, "Too bad there's no occasion to celebrate." But, then I remembered that we missed our February thing. So, we retroactively made the snorkeling trip our annual February celebration and toasted our free champagne to the past 7 years that we've been together. One of my friends recently tagged me on Facebook as "the smitten one." I will not argue with that.

Current Location: Cairns, Australia

Filed under  //   Cairns   sight-seeing  

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March 14, 2009

The Great Barrier Reef is indeed a Natural Wonder

11 dives in 48 hours was exhausting, but so worth it! I must say that diving the Great Barrier Reef is thus far one of the most amazing experiences of my life! The diversity of life under the water surface is just incredible. Words cannot describe how amazing it really was!
 
The night before I left for my 3 day liveaboard excursion with ProDive Cairns James and I attended a 2 hour class called Reef Teach. I'm so glad I went because it helped me gain a greater appreciation for everything I saw during my dives! 
 
Things I saw underwater and could remember long enough to write it down:  chocolate-dipped damsel, blue streak cleaner, wrasse, humbug damsel, moon wrasse, yellowtail fusilier, blackbacked butterfly, moorish idol, palette surgeon, black and white snapper, red bass snapper, sting ray, various corals (plate, slipper, boulder, brain, staghorn, needle, fire, cabbage), 3 varieties of sea cucumber (black, leopard, pineapple), flatworm, threadfin butterfly, pufferfish, napoleon maori wrasse, black anemonefish, teardrop butterfly, regal angel, giant clams, sea urchin, green turtles, clown fish, seahorse, blue patch butterfly, crab, moray eel, trumpet fish, white tip reef sharks and grey reef sharks.
 
Yep, that's right. I saw sharks. I saw my first shark on my very first dive, a bunch of them during a night dive and then a couple more the next day. During the night dive the crew threw frozen sardines into the water to attract them so we were practically jumping into the water on top of them. At first I was very nervous about encountering sharks on my dives, but by the end I regarded them as very big fish. They don't like humans and just swim away when you approach them. Although I have to admit - it definitely felt a little eerie to see sharks swim by during the night dive.
 
Please pardon the fact that there is a lack of fish photos. Taking pictures underwater was extremely difficult because I have not yet mastered the art of buoyancy.
 
The Boat - ScubaPro II
 
1. My bedroom for two nights. I got top bunk. No closets, no drawers. Just two hooks and enough room between the bunk and the wall to have one person stand.
2. The very small bathroom with all the essentials - toilet, small sink and a shower head over the sink.
3. The sundeck where everyone hung out while we weren't diving or sleeping.
4. The dive deck where everyone's diving equipment was stored.
5. The awesome crew, sans the Captain, aboard the boat who took care of us for 3 days
 
The Great Barrier Reef
 
6. A typical reef scene
7. Cabbage coral
8. A giant clam
9. A green turtle who just surfaced for air
10. A view of the surface from underwater
 
 

                   
Click here to download:
The_Great_Barrier_Reef_is_inde.zip (1054 KB)

Filed under  //   Cairns   sight-seeing  

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March 8, 2009

1st week in Cairns

I am super excited for this upcoming week. I love to dive, but ever since getting my open water certification in 2002 I have dove a grand total of ONE time! Now, I am only a few kilometers from the Great Barrier Reef, the mac daddy of all diving destinations. I really can't wait!

 
For the next 5 days I'll be completely submersed into the world of diving. On Monday and Tuesday I'll be taking a 2-day refresher course to re-familiarize with everything diving related. Then on Wednesday I hop aboard a boat for a 3 day, 2 night liveaboard diving excursion to see the Great Barrier Reef!
 
So, what is J up to this week? He isn't a fan of diving and he has to work. So, he'll be staying on dry land and putting in that 40-hour work week from our apartment. Feeling sorry for him? I wouldn't. Just check out his home office for the next two weeks that we're in Cairns!
 

Filed under  //   Cairns  

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