March 10, 2010
I hope we didn’t miss out on anything super exciting yesterday, because we have officially lost March 9, 2010 back at the International Date Line. And we are still enroute to our final destination, Cairns, Queensland, Australia. We cleared Customs in Sydney in a breeze (deep breath). The Australian Customs are very friendly and despite having answering “YES” to 5 questions that I should have said “NO” to on my customs form, I was told “No worries” and waved on through. There was an announcement overhead for everyone to put their purses and carryons on the floor and a cute little Beagle dog came sniffing around everyone’s belongings. We were told that after his “work” was done, he will be rewarded by a game of tug-of-war and fetch. After a 4 hour layover, we boarded for Cairns. And so one more movie accomplished for Heather on this flight - The Blind Side. Another feel good movie…just the way I like them. It usually takes me days or weeks to get through one movie at home and I just successfully finished watching three in less than 27 hours. It’s got me wondering what I’ll watch on the flight back to the US?
We arrived Cairns in a storm. Upon descent to the airport, we saw lightening. It was pouring rain - like those rainstorms that you can take a shower in. I love stepping off the airplane into humid tropical air. It is so different than stepping off the airplane in dry desert air, which gives me the sensation of choking. We got our luggage and picked up the keys for the rental car.
Now I knew it was going to be a challenge for me to drive in this country. The driver sits on the right side of the car. The lane directions on the streets are opposite of the US - so to me it is like driving on the wrong side of the road. Well, my family will be happy to know that I acted responsibly when I got to the car I had rented (after running through the rain in a torrential rainfall and becoming sopping wet). I sat in the drivers seat, put the key in the ignition, and turned it over. The car jumped forward - AH! It is a manual! There is NO way I am going to drive in the wrong side of the car, drive on the wrong side of the road, and shift with the wrong hand. So, back to running through the rain to Thrifty’s rental car counter. Of course, the guys helping me just chuckled, but they were kind enough to let me trade it in for an automatic though it was a smaller car. Our luggage had to be stacked in the back seat, as the only thing that would fit in the trunk were our purses and the computer bag. Thankfully I had a backseat driver with me to help keep me on the right side of the road. In the 30 minutes it took to get to our hotel, I only drove on the wrong side of the road twice. Though one of the bigger challenges for me was the simple task of turning my blinker on. The blinker is on the right of the steering wheel and the windshield wiper is on the left. So every time I wanted to make a turn, I either turned my wiper off or on super speed.. Surely I will become more accustomed to this way of driving during our short stay here.
We arrived at our hotel in Palm Cove, about 30 minutes north of Cairns. I took much time in selecting the place for us to stay and having never been here, I relied a lot on travelers reviews that I found on the Internet. I wanted to stay someplace lush, tropical, relaxing, central, affordable and most importantly clean with no bugs. Okay, the no bugs part…I know that is impossible in this climate. I just don’t want to bring home any new crawling pets for the family. As you can see from these photos, I was very pleased upon our arrival to our suite…
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