Arriving in Port Douglas, Cairns

Monday, November 14

When we got back to the hotel last night, we tried to take advantage of the hotels (not free) wireless technology. Of course, my PC was having none of it, so I only had a few minutes to post some of my piled up blog entries. Blogger chose to not let me upload any pictures and I finally gave up in disgust. My laundry list of why Blogger sucks is growing.

In the morning, we had a quick breakfast then headed off to the airport to catch out flight from Melbourne to Cairns. We were flying JetStar, which is one of those annoying “cheap” airlines that don’t give you any food and don’t have seat assignments. Not having seat assignments is all well and good for business people flights like the Delta Shuttle from NYC to Washington DC, but for regular folk it spells CHAOS. I did not approve. Luckily, Doug and I strategized and ended up with a row to ourselves.

We landed in Cairns and immediately felt the change in the atmosphere. Instead of the breezy chilly air of Melbourne, we were feeling the hot tropical air. I was itching to get to the hotel so I could get on the beach or at least to the pool.

There was a shuttle to take us to the hotel. The driver had two pieces of bad news: 1 – it was an hour drive to the hotel and 2 – the air conditioner in the shuttle was broken. Yikes.

Sweating to death in the shuttle on the way to the hotel.

We made it to the hotel, more or less intact. It’s a beautiful place and our stay here is practically free because Doug has some ungodly number of Starwood awards points. Our room is right on one of the 6 pools (or lagoons as they call them in this hotel). Our porter was helpful, but gave us the longest and most detailed hotel/room orientation we’d ever experienced. We couldn’t get rid of him. By the time I made it to the pool, the sun was gone. But it was nice to be outside for a while.

On the plane, I started reading the book Down Under by Bill Bryson. He’s a travel writer and this book has been recommended by a few people. It’s a hilarious view of his travels through Australia. I’m glad I’m reading it toward the end of my trip because I feel like I can relate to some of his experiences.

Doug and I decided to have dinner in town, so we went to the porter to ask for a cab. We ended up getting a stretch limo for $12 AUD ($8 USD). It was white and the interiors were covered in a white furry fabric which smelled just a little bit like wet dog. But of course, we arrived in style at the Salsa Bar & Grill. The food was fabulous. We shared a house salad (with goat cheese) and the ubiquitous trio of dips appetizer (this has become a regular thing for us, there is usually hummus, eggplant, and salmon roe (or guac) dips with pita or focaccia bread). Doug had the gnocchi special and I had a roasted lamb dish that featured a kangaroo wonton. For dessert, I followed our waitress’ recommendation and had the chocolate cake made with black sapote fruit which apparently tastes like chocolate. Doug had the dragonfruit, mango and lime sorbet.

Doug at the Salsa Bar & Grill.

Me doing my infamous "Crazy Eyes" imitation of scared cows.

We walked around the town of Port Douglas for a few minutes after dinner. It’s bigger than I thought and there are lots of shops to explore (which were all closed). One of the main claims to fame for the town is that Bill and Hillary Clinton have visited there. In fact, they were dining at Salsa Bar & Grill on September 11, 2001. [Cue the spooky music…]

Doug and I just have to decide what to do with our last two days in Oz. We want to go check out the Great Barrier Reef, of course, but we also want to soak up the rays before we go back to the winter chill of NYC.