I went to Cairns with one of my best friends from highschool, Sharmilla (Shabs) as she had a week of leave she needed to take and we both wanted to go away. For me it was just an excuse to do some travelling and this was the perfect opportunity. We decided to stay in Cairns for 8 nights, which now that I think back on it was way too much time. Being from Melbourne I am used to a big city with lots of people and lots going on. So naturally I expected that Cairns would be the same. I was very very wrong. When we were in the taxi driving from the airport to our hotel (which was in the CBD) all I kept saying was I really hope this isn't their CBD as it was very empty. I was laughing the whole way to the hotel as I just couldn't believe that this was their CBD. The tallest building was a 10 storey apartment building. Right off the bat Cairns was nothing like I had expected it to be. It was definitely a change. Oh and when we landed we both had difficulty breathing at first I thought it was just me but it wasn't, the weather was extremely humid and very different from the heat in Melbourne.
Since there really wasn't much to do around cairns I did what came naturally to me, I did a pub crawl. I ended up doing a pub crawl with Ultimate Party Cairns (http://www.ultimatepartycairns.com/). This was only the 2nd pub crawl I have ever done and it was pretty good. Definitely exceeded my expectations. I met a lot of backpackers (as to be expected seeing as about 75% of people in cairns are tourists) and had way too many shots and drinks and danced the night away. The pub crawl itself was quite well organised and well priced. It was $35 with entry to 5 different bars and a shot at every bar, also got some pizza as well which after a few drinks was the best idea ever! To get from bar to bar we took a double decker bus which was awesome, we had music blasting from the bus and everyone just looked at us with envy as we were having so much fun; either that or they were thinking what a bunch of lunatics but either way who cares we were having a blast and very much drunk!
Straight after the sea walker tour we had our guided snorkelling tour. The way the snorkelling was set up was that anyone can do snorkelling on their own if they wish, they had an area roped off for you to do snorkelling yourself. The guided snorkelling tour was with a tour guide who took you beyond the areas in which everyone else can snorkel. He pointed out a lot of cool things to us and we even got to touch a sea turtle which was amazing! We also found nemo in the first minute of our guided tour. After the guided tour we did our own snorkelling which definitely wasnt as good which is why we were so glad to chose to do the guided tour as well. From memory it was another $30 for the guided tour. We got to spend about a total of 3 and a half hours at the reef before we made our way back to cairns city.
I am so glad I got to visit such an iconic site of Australia, even though Cairns city itself fell a bit short on my expectations the reef was amazing and definitely worth the trip up to Cairns to experience! This was the perfect trip to start off my travels in 2014! So excited for the the rest of my travels this year!
Until next time sexy people,
Ray