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aki in Cairns, Australia @ Sep 4, 2004 12:31 PM

Cairns was once a transit point for mining. It's been converted over to be a tourist destination now for mostly its position in relation to the Great Barrier Reef. It's the gateway city to the largest living thing on the planet.

We used to think it was pronounced K'air'ns. Instead, from listening to the locals, it sounds much more like "cans", kind of like Cannes as in the "Cannes movie festival". Isn't english hard enough without two silent letters in a single word? Or perhaps it's just that my ears aren't used to the sounds and hasn't been trained to hear it.

Odd though, cities at some level seem so generic in the Western world. We're in Cairns and from the ground, it seems like Coquitlam or Burnaby with its trees and surrounding hills. Some photographers have taken arial shots and have managed to portray it in a new light but it still can't quite get away from the logical and orderly arrangements of large buildings that modern cities are synonymous with. But one really, really good thing is the food, we went out for Indian for lunch and it was decent! In fact, it was excellent. Try and get a decent Thali platter that in some small town, good luck.

Only a few more days left before I leave Australia for home. Seems so soon. And I'll have to kiss Lainie goodbye for 5 months as well. Oh well, it seems I've got my work cut out for me when I get back and there's many things I've been wanting to do and no doubt this is a great opportunity to carry them out.

Tomorrow, we head to the Atherton Tablelands. I'll bring my camera along and I'll keep my fingers crossed in the hope that I'll end up with a whole bucketload of shots that will be worth keeping.

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