Australia-0-0
Cairns 0
October 2018
Xiamen
During the descent at Zhoushan, I felt something was off.
Even though there was no plane change, the flight was delayed by an hour.
Since I had a few hours to spare, I decided to go out and explore.
When I left Xiamen Airport, there was no one to remind me about the connecting flight.
On the way, I met a Vietnamese couple (students) who spoke fluent Chinese.
Connecting Flight
When I arrived at Sydney Airport, I had to switch to another terminal for the connecting flight to Cairns.
I got a little lost and asked a cleaner who pointed me in a direction.
LittleMaster wondered why there was a duty-free shop in the internal transfer area.
The woman in front of the ticket counter had an Australian passport. Something seemed off.
In the blink of an eye, it was LittleMaster’s turn to automatically check-in. When he saw that the flight was headed to Singapore, he hesitated for a moment. But the person behind him urged him on, so he impulsively chose that option.
After all, something didn’t seem right, so LittleMaster kept his wits about him and quickly approached a live person to ask if this was the flight to Cairns.
The man exclaimed, “Nooooo, why are you here, what are you doing here,” and then took LittleMaster to meet a bald man.
The bald man wasn’t as friendly and asked the man how he got in. Then he asked LittleMaster why he chose the flight to Singapore. After making some changes on a form, he quickly told LittleMaster to go and catch a bus and not to come back.
After exiting Arrival, LittleMaster still looked bewildered, but fortunately, he saw the Information Service.
Finally, someone was there, an auntie. He quickly went up to her and asked.
The auntie said to go downstairs to see McDonald’s, do some transit there, and then get off at the Domestic Airport Station.
LittleMaster only understood “Golden Arches,” and until now he still wasn’t sure if “transit” was the right term. Shouldn’t it be a shuttle bus?
Then he asked if Domestic was T2. It seemed that Sydney didn’t consider it as T2. Finally, the auntie asked if LittleMaster could go on his own, but if he couldn’t, she could accompany him.
LittleMaster said he could go on his own, and the auntie took a “service temporarily unavailable” sign and led him downstairs.
Tigerair
The connecting flight was on Tigerair.
I was worried about the 7kg weight limit. But it turned out that there was an American girl in front of me who was selected for inspection because her luggage was overweight. She opened her bag and took out some things, causing a deadlock on the scale.
Everyone else passed without any problems.
After boarding the plane, I fell asleep immediately. When I woke up, I realized that the meal cart had already passed by.
I was sitting in an inside seat on the plane and didn’t even get to eat the meal.
Later, I found out that budget airlines didn’t provide meals at all.
Swimming Pool
After arriving at the Airbnb, I dropped off my luggage and went out for a walk. I saw the Daintree phenomenon.
I originally wanted to go sightseeing and get a brochure, but unfortunately, the information office was already closed.
I saw the unforgettable 1400-square-meter swimming pool.
LittleMaster immediately left the swimming pool.
On the way back, I met an older man who claimed to be a local and owned two houses. He said next time I visit, I wouldn’t need to stay in a hotel anymore.
He had been to Tokyo, Japan, and recommended a few places.
Finally, we embraced each other and added each other on Line.
Group Hug
After becoming a lifeless body, LittleMaster didn’t want to move at all.
So I lay in the hotel until noon, but was woken up by seagulls and realized that I had a room with a sea view.
I walked out and turned right, and there was the travel agency with a 25% discount that I couldn’t stop thinking about. There was a blonde girl in front of me booking a trip, which delayed me for a while.
I took the opportunity to look through most of the brochures for my planned activities.
Then the staff introduced themselves and when they saw I was Asian, they asked, “Do you speak Chinese?” When they got a negative answer, I had no choice but to switch to English.
This store highly recommended the Reef Magic cruise, where you can float on the sea for 5 hours. After comparing, as a programmer with a sense of design, I decided that SunLover was more fun, after all, it had a ☀️ (sun) and you could eat a lot of “dog food” (affection) and save money on meals.
Then I remembered the recommendation from the man yesterday for Fitzroy Island. When I saw the brochure in Chinese, I realized this was Emerald Island. I asked if I could go there, and was told it was a different plan, just like Green Island. I could only choose either the island or the floating activity, and the island was a self-guided activity with no guarantee of safety (regardless of whether you live or die 🤣).
I decided to go for SunLover, and then I asked if there was a 25% discount. I was told that only the jungle tour had the discount.
So I made the reservation for the jungle tour.
Surprisingly, they even charged a processing fee, and I paid in cash.
Then I went to the shop of the nice auntie from yesterday, hoping to see if there was any discount 🈹️ because this shop was recommended for SunLover. But I found out that there was a different person now, and I was disappointed. I asked a couple of questions and left.
Lagoon
When I arrived at the huge Lagoon, I noticed many people in the water, but it was so big that it still didn’t seem crowded.
In the past, I used to wonder if it would be embarrassing to wear a swimsuit. But now that I was here, I realized that everyone did it and no one paid attention to you, so I didn’t feel anything special.
There were showers nearby, and I went in to change into my swimsuit. When I came out, I saw many people helping each other with sunscreen. Since I was alone, I had to apply sunscreen on my own. Then I went into the water.
The shallow water area had a beach, and I slowly walked towards the deeper part. As I went further, I started feeling cold.
Even though I had sunscreen on, I still got sunburned. I noticed that many people wore sunglasses, so I went back to get mine. When I stood up, I felt a cold breeze, so I quickly crouched down. Surprisingly, the water felt warm compared to the breeze.
At some point, my watch asked if I was swimming, but since I was just floating, I honestly answered no.
The rest of the time was spent swimming vigorously…
After an hour, I still couldn’t figure out why others were able to float in the water while I sank. I slid (walked) to the diving area, and a gust of wind made me sneeze 🤧, so I quickly came up, changed my clothes, and went back.
Bushfire
After a nap in the afternoon, I booked the SunLover for tomorrow and the hot air balloon ride for the day after tomorrow. It was time for dinner, so I went downstairs to eat at Bushfire.
Each time a meat dish was served, the waiter would explain what meat it was. In the middle, the waiter said something that I didn’t understand, so I repeated “algebra algebra.”
I said, let me give it a try, and then I cut a piece.
When I put it in my mouth, I suddenly understood.
It turned out that the waiter had said kangaroo, and I repeated “kangaroo kangaroo.”
To be honest, it didn’t taste good at all, it was like dried-up beef.
After dinner, I was going to go back to the Lagoon and continue swimming.
But after a shower, I suddenly felt tired. Since I had to get up early tomorrow for the SunLover ⛵️, I took a bath and sat on the balcony for a while to enjoy the view of the sea at night. Then I prepared to sleep 😪.
Translated by gpt-3.5-turbo