March 24: One Months Observations of Cairns, Australia

Well, I have been down-under for a month now – now that my biological clock has adapted fully to the natural rhythms of this place, I can now justifiably look back at how things have gone so far.

What I miss about Toronto, Canada

I would say the biggest things I miss about living in Toronto was the shier amount of food variety that was available within a 2km radius from my old place. I had 3 HUGE supermarkets selling things at different price points and a few ethnic markets as well. I remember one day I went to a Middle Eastern store and tried “salt water yogurt drink” and just about threw up but nothing ventured, nothing gained

I really, really miss Salmon for some reason, I use to be able to get a fresh, very thick juicy slab of it for only a few dollars but here, not only is it not available, but any type of Salmon is about 30$/kg! I guess I also miss all my old cooking utensils and the set-up I had in my old kitchen as well… now that I look back, I actually enjoyed cooking!

What I don’t miss about Toronto, Canada

Things are so peaceful here in Cairns, no traffic jams, no smog, no polluted air and the list goes on… this place of 100K + people really doesn’t feel that large at all. I could easily imagine myself living in Hearst with a population of 5K walking down any of the streets here. I have yet to visit the Great Barrier Reef or Cape Tribulation but I got a year to “get around to it” so no rush. In the meantime, I have more then enough work to keep me busy and distracted

What I like about Cairns, Australia

I must say that the people here are incredibly nice and forthcoming. Just about every store here also has “cash back” when you make a purchase and employers pay via direct deposit almost exclusively, I have yet to see a check! Heck, I don’t even use cash here anymore! Other then the weather, I feel healthier here… tranquility is something that I prize more then most other things and there is this in abundance, if I want to get away, I can hop on a plane to such great destinations as Fiji, Java, Sumatra… basically leaving one paradise for another I would like to get into off roading here and extended tours into the bush on my own with a Land Rover for weeks at a time but that will have to wait a bit till a few more things work themselves out.

What I don’t like about Cairns

The number one thing I don’t like about Cairns is that it doesn’t have a beach! You look out on the harbor and right in front of you is… A MUD FLAT! I have been told by a few locals that Cairns use to have a beach about 75 years ago but when they dredged out the canal, all that silt began building up along the waterfront. There have been plans to return it to its original “beach” shape but now environmentalists are crying fowl because it would damage the mangrove forest that is encroaching from the airport. As for me, I believe if something was “originally” one way, no harm in returning nature to its rightful balance, even at the cost of a man-caused natural adaptation.

I had a friend tell me Cairns was also very touristy, that starts in about a month but as I don’t live downtown (nor visit it often), I doubt this will bother me much but they do have a “last call” around 3am or 4am here. I have seen my fair share of drunk people (both locals and backpackers) in the streets so I tend to stay away from the entire downtown area after dark. It is nice but drunk people are crazy and unpredictable – not my kind of crowd

General Irrelevances and Observations

A large fraction of people here walk around without shoes (and even shirts) everywhere, I am talking about grocery stores, malls etc… it does make sense in that it’s a tropical environment where it rains quite often (during rainy season) but I have yet to get use to it. In Canada, just about every store and mall has a sign that says “no shoes, no shirt, no service” - here – they couldn’t care less.

SUV, 4×4s… EVERYWHERE! I sometimes feel like I am either in Hearst or in the United States – I have rarely stayed in a place where there are so many BIG trucks, vans, 4×4s and SUVs of all kinds. It does make sense as they have washed out roads and the “outback” isn’t far at all from here. One surprising observation so far is that there are lots of old vehicles as well, in Canada, the winter salt pretty much assures that no car will last more then a decade but here, vehicles last far longer. I find this ironic because my bike that is less then a month old is already starting to rust

The Bottom Line

So far, so good – I like it here… if only they had cheap Salmon!