2013.03.27 Cairns: Traveling and Touring the City

It was finally Easter break and that meant one thing: time to travel to Cairns (pronounced like cans).  The trip had already been planned out, included a rainforest tour, bungee jumping, scuba diving the great barrier reef, and more.  If you'd like to read the week's agenda, check out my blog post titled '2013.03.07 Spring Break Planning.'

We had booked a flight through a budget airline called Tiger Airways to fly us direct from Melbourne to Cairns.

  The plane left at 7:40 am, so we scheduled a taxi to pick us up at 5 am from campus.  After a $15 (each), 30 minute cab ride, going through the check-in process and blowing through Australia's easy security checks it was time to wait for the plane.... at 6 am.

And once the time came we started boarding the plane.

I was asleep the entire flight, from the moment I sat down to the moment the touch-down in Cairns woke me up.  I was pretty excited even though Wilfrido was clearly still tired.

But the weather in Cairns was awesome, it was just above 70 degrees F, sunny, and only 11 am - we had a whole day ahead of us.  We were staying at a backpackers called Gilligan's, which offers a free shuttle pickup service from the airport.  It was a quick 10 minute ride.

Once we were dropped off at the airport, we explored.  Gilligan's is really cool - besides being a backpackers with an in-ground pool and volleyball net and complementary $3 dinners, it has awesome entertainment every night.  They have a live band come in and play 7 days a week to start off the night.  Once the deck starts to fill and the bar gets busy, the two clubs located right downstairs start up as well.  They also have different events on several nights of the week - wet t-shirt contests, jelly wrestling, electric bull-riding competitions and more.

 Above: The entrance to Gilligan's

Above: The view of the pool from the deck.  There is a huge screen that they project sports or music videos on each night.

Above: The deck overlooking the pool.  This is where live bands are set up each night around dinner time.

Above: Picture of the outdoor sitting area, and the closed-up bar on the far right.  The tree going up through the center of the deck is really awesome, this picture doesn't do it justice.

But on the downside, I've heard that other backpackers people have stayed in had nicer rooms than Gilligan's does.  The room was a very simple hostel-style room: a room with several bunk beds set up, a deck outside, a toilet, a shower, and a sink.  That is all.

So if you're looking for somewhere to stay and have fun and don't need a nice room, Gilligan's is definitely the place to stay.  At $17/night is was perfect for me.

It was noon by now and we had the rest of the day unscheduled, so we started walking around and exploring Cairns.

Cairns is a pretty small down - by bike you can get across town in about 15 or 20 minutes.  It is very tropical though, with palm trees, blue water, small shops and the like.  Cairns is also nestled between moderate tropical rainforests and the whether is a mix between coastal whether and rainforest whether.  It is breezy and the perfect temperature, not too humid, but there are plenty of sun showers.  In one day I had seen the whether bounce between sunny and hot, to drizzling, and back to sunny at least seven times.

By the time we were done exploring and getting lunch it was mid-afternoon, so we headed to the pool at Gilligan's to relax.  I stopped by a shop on my way back and picked up an underwater case for my iPhone so I could take pictures of the reef the next day.  I tested it out in the pool.

People make the best faces underwater.

A few hours later we started what would become a nightly tradition.  Because we did this most nights we were here I won't post about it every night (except for maybe a couple exceptional pictures).  But the night would start off with the included dinner listening to whatever live band was playing.  Sometimes it was one person playing the acoustic guitar, some times it was a full band playing covers.

The lights, screens, and music would really transform the entire area, it was really neat.

Above: The outdoor deck right by where the band plays

Above: The club room before the tables are taken out.  You can see the sectioned off area where they would have the wet t-shirt contest that night.

Above: Getting our first dinner at Gilligan's

After dinner, the next step would be to start pregaming.

We would start by playing pong, or flip-cup, or just chatting while drinking.  It was actually incredible to realize that all the people I was drinking with came from all different parts of the world, happened to meet in Australia, and became friends in minutes.  In this picture alone are students from America, Mexico, Bolivia, Italy, Germany, Ireland, Switzerland, and Britain.  Some people we were with are fellow exchange students from Swinburne, some are travelers we are rooming with, and others are people we just met while walking around Cairns.  Even though we were getting drunk, the conversations we had were really cool, comparing different countries, cultures, etc.  

 Above: From left to right - Chinese-American, Mexican, and British

Above: Wilfrido teaching me Spanish

Once 11 pm or so came around it would be time to head downstairs.  Entry was free at most places, and we would always start at Gilligan's.  Some nights we would stay for the event downstairs, sometimes we would hop bars and clubs around Cairns, but it was always fun.

Noteworthy pictures of the night: