I know a lot of "traditional travelogues" need to start with some beautiful pictures to lock your attraction, and in this post, I'm not exempt from using a few of the most amazing pictures in Cairns to put in the beginning, these landscapes are the totem of Cairns in my mind.
Overlooking the Great Barrier Reef
Pilot Uncle Eel
Overlooking the Great Barrier Reef
The invitation to come to Cairns came from Tourism Australia and Queensland. Frankly speaking, in my two years of working in a finance job with only five days of annual leave, I turned down a couple of such invitations - firstly I have very little annual leave, and the limited amount of precious paid vacation time I had to spend on my own travels; and secondly, I was worried that this kind of scheduled travel wouldn't be "good enough" for me.
The Cairns itinerary is perfect for avoiding these two concerns.
One is that I'm at a point in my life where I'm redesigning my life, and I have more time to "vacation";
Two is that two-thirds of the time of the invitation from the Tourist Board is "free time" to make arrangements for where to stay and what to do.
Secondly, two-thirds of the invitation from the MGTO was "free to arrange" where to stay and what to do.
It is because of these two reasons, I once again crossed the equator, the second time to Oceania, the first time to Australia. The landing point for this new continent was Cairns, in the northeast corner of the continent.
I'm going to talk about each of them separately, but I'm going to focus on Cairns' most famous and recognizable attraction, which is
The Great Barrier Reef, a marine wonderland
In fact, before I went to Cairns I was pretty much a stranger to the city - I'd heard about the Gold Coast, and I'd heard of the Great Barrier Reef. I've heard of the Gold Coast and even Brisbane (the capital of Queensland), but when I heard the name "Cairns", probably because of my profession, the first thing that came to my mind was "Cairnsism". Keynesian", "Keynesian economics".
It was only after I did my homework before I left that I was able to understand Keynes in the first place.
Cairns is a small seaside town of 152,000 inhabitants, and it is an important tourist city in Australia, with tourism as its main industry.
Cairns is rich in tourism resources (such as the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, Tropical Wetlands Park Queensland, Atherton Plateau, Daintree Rainforest Park, Paronila Park, etc.), the parentheses of these tours, in my 8-day trip I have visited, but there is one place, many of you may have heard of it before.
Yes, that's the Great Barrier Reef.
And to start with, the view of the Great Barrier Reef from the sky was by far the most stunning I've ever seen.
What is the Great Barrier Reef? Here's a brief description:
The saying "it's too late to travel" applies to many parts of the world. The Bagan Pagodas, which I recommended in my book Late Night Biking in Rural Burma and the Plains of Bagan, where 10,000 Buddhas look on, were hit by an earthquake a year after I left. earthquake that collapsed several of the pagodas I experienced.
A screenshot of my WeChat after the earthquake, when one of the pagodas I visited completely collapsed in the quake.
Even more sadly, after the earthquake, climbing was banned at almost all the pagodas, which is where I had most of my fun and enjoyment in Bagan.
Time to relax after a stupa visit
Here's what my friends have seen since they went back, and now that visitors are no longer allowed to climb stupas without permission, except for one designated one, one of the most memorable experiences of my life, pictured above, is no longer possible.
As a similarly vanishing attraction, the Great Barrier Reef should also be on the 'bucket list' for ocean and diving enthusiasts.
My flight to the Great Barrier Reef
My flight to the Great Barrier Reef had a lot of ups and downs.
As a free-spirited traveler who can change my plans at any time, I've made many unthinkable and wasteful trips, such as flying halfway across the world to Bolivia without going to the Mirror of the Sky, and going to Barcelona twice without leaving time for the Sagrada Familia.
On my second day in Cairns, I missed my bus because I was sleepy, and my day trip to the Great Barrier Reef was canceled.
I wanted to give up on it, but I heard that the other people who traveled with me came back and raved about the Great Barrier Reef. I spent the next few days thinking about it, and finally decided to book the same trip on Hakkasu Travel.
And it was such a lucky decision.
An AWESOME life experience! The bird's eye view of the Great Barrier Reef from the helicopter is so gorgeous, and the colorful ocean makes your ears automatically ring with Jay Chou's song "Coral Sea"...
, length 00:19
(actual video, welcome to click to play)
In this program of Great Barrier Reef sea tour, the helicopter overlooking the coral sea is just one of the part of it. There are many ways to play the whole trip.
We started with a boat ride out of Port Douglas, north of Cairns, which took about 40 minutes to reach a platform in the middle of the sea, where tourists were then able to take what they wanted from the fully equipped sea platform.
(from Tong Pak Fu)
Boat to the sea platform
For those who want to dive, the sea platform provides them with a wealth of complete equipment, such as wetsuits, diving goggles, simulated seawater test dive, snorkeling in real water, deep diving and other items.
(Above three pictures from Panna Bai)
And even for those who don't dive, there's a lot of fun to be had here such as a nice buffet on the isolated island of the sea, or a 10-minute bird's eye view of this beautiful coral sea from a helicopter, as shared above.
You can also take a semi-submersible submarine, for example, which allows you to walk under the sea through transparent glass without getting wet. It's free, except for the helicopter, which you have to pay extra for.
Cairns Tourism The crown jewel of the Great Barrier Reef is here, and at the end of my trip to the Great Barrier Reef, I finally realized that " the Great Barrier Reef is Cairns ". Even with the twists and turns, I'm glad I didn't miss you.
But there's more to Cairns than the Great Barrier Reef.
Resort hotels!
Anyone who loves hotels will probably love Cairns too, so here are a few shots of some of the hotels I've stayed in:
Room 1
Room 2
Room 3
Adorable animals!
Animal lovers can't miss this place. As we all know, Australia's ecosystem is very special, and there are many species of animals that are unique in the world living in this continent, Australia has more than 378 species of mammals, 828 species of birds, 4,000 species of fish, 300 species of lizards, 140 species of snakes, two kinds of crocodiles, and about 50 species of marine mammals. mammals. More than 80% of the plants, mammals, reptiles and frogs here are endemic species found nowhere else, and it is known as the Cosmic Zoo.
Unique kangaroos, koalas, emus, platypus ...... Here is a paradise for animal lovers. My companion 223 on this occasion was happy to shoot these critters all day long, and was simply overwhelmed with fatherly love.
(Wallaby from number 223)
Crocodile
Koala
Aboriginal civilization
Cairns is geographically far away from Australia's core, a north and a south, this place to do the plane to Sydney, a full four hours. In Cairns I opened the dating software, surprisingly received a greeting from Port Moresby , heard the name of the city, my heart at the same time surprised - I was surprised to know where this city, because it is extremely poor and backward Australian neighbor! -- the capital of Papua New Guinea.
From this perspective, Cairns is the closest thing to an old civilization that Australia has to an "island in the world", and unlike the predominantly white population of Sydney and Melbourne in the southeast, this location gives Cairns a unique Aboriginal culture.
There are two places in Cairns where you can experience Aboriginal culture up close and personal: the Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park and the Kuranda Rainforest Aboriginal Cultural Park.
During the day, visitors to these Aboriginal cultural parks can learn how the locals use the fruits of the bush for medicine, play the traditional instrument, the didgeridoo, and throw traditional darts and spears themselves. The nighttime program is even more varied, with indigenous performers taking to the stage to introduce tribal totems, ancient cultural costumes, indigenous celebrations and carnival dances. The evening excursion also offers the opportunity to enjoy a buffet at the restaurant while watching Aboriginal dance performances on stage.
Here are some shots of my experience.
Sorry, as I said before, I was going to focus on this part of the Australian Aboriginal experience, but as it covers some of the political and historical material, it's a bit sensitive in the tone of this travelogue, and this post is already too long. I'll start another post in the future about my feelings about the culture and current situation of Aboriginal people in New Zealand and Australia.
These are my recollections and summaries of the elements of my trip to Cairns, an Australian destination that is not particularly well known to the Chinese at the moment, but which is surprisingly diverse in terms of tourism resources.
On this trip, my fellow traveler friend 223 loved diving and animals, while I loved the sea and Aboriginal civilizations, so the tiny Cairns fit our needs at the same time.
Goodbye Cairns
The welcome fireworks on the last day were also memorable. Although it has nothing to do with the journey, I still want to record it.
Farewell!