cindypepper! » australia

xxxiv: you better run, you better take cover (part ii)

Cindy — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 19:41:29 +0000

I am finally Stateside! Getting here was absolutely ridiculous: my flight got delayed for nearly four hours, I barely made my connecting flight, the lavatories were terrible¹, and my luggage got delayed. I finally got my suitcases delivered around 1am last night. Now that I’m (somewhat) settled in my dorm, I’m going to post the rest of the Australia photos.

DAY V (12/29): After snorkeling, I hung out on the beach. Later, we took a ferry back to the Cairns marina, where I strolled around and ate an awesome dinner at the Night Market. Click the thumbnails for a larger size!

DAY VI (12/30): Cairns (CNS) to Brisbane (BNE)
The last full day of the trip was spent in Brisbane, where there were some nice beaches and parks! Pity I didn’t get to spend more time there. I had to wake up at an ungodly hour the next day to leave for Sydney and fly back to Shanghai. All in all, a great trip.

Now I have to post my Shanghai photos! Goodness, I’m so behind on these things. Not to mention, I have a bad case of jetlag. Anybody have tips to overcome a 13-hour jetlag?

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¹: Half of them didn’t work at all. The other half? Didn’t have water. Therefore, the sinks didn’t work and the toilets didn’t flush properly. They even gave us water bottles so we could pour water in the toilet to make it flush.

xxxii: you better run, you better take cover

Cindy — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 14:40:32 +0000

DAY V (12/29): Okay, I’m going to bite the firewalled bullet and finish posting the Australia photos. Clicking on the thumbnails will take you directly to the Flickr page.

These photos were taken at Green Island at the Great Barrier Reef! I was in a submarine when I took these photos, but I also got to do some snorkeling and underwater-walking. I saw some clownfish and immediately thought of Nemo, haha. I’ll post pictures of the actual island later, but it’s amazing how blue and clear the water is.

xxx: this post title sounds so dirty.

Cindy — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 07:53:28 +0000

DAY IV (12/28): Sydney (SYD) to Cairns (CNS) One quirk of mine is that I usually scan safety manuals and in-flight reading materials as soon as I sit down at a plane. It was my first time flying with Qantas, so the safety guide below caught my eye:

One of these things is not like the other….

FURBIES. What! Do any other airlines have Furbies specifically drawn on their safety diagrams?¹ If so, please enlighten!

I had an early morning flight from Sydney to Cairns that day. Got there around noon and headed off to Kuranda, which a town surrounded by rainforest. I ended up eating lots of passionfruit, and I later spent the evening at the Marina. Hope you liked the pictures!²

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¹: Granted, I’m pretty sure the number of airlines that I’ve been on is not that impressive, considering that I tend to stick with one airline. But still, I can’t get over Furbies in the safety manual. Or Furbies in general. How many of you had a Furby at some point in your life? FESS UP.
²: Hmm, since I’m going to be switching layouts soon, I think that from now on, I’m going to post small thumbnails of my images. However, all the photos you see will eventually link to their respective flickr photos.

EDIT: My Internet is unbearably slow right now, hence why I’ve had to edit this post many many times. It even cut off my content! Cue headdesking.

xxiv: can’t you hear, can’t you hear the thunder (part 3)

Cindy — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 12:25:11 +0000

DAY III (12/27): Later that afternoon, we headed to Darling Harbour, where we went to Sydney Wildlife World. It has a bunch of really cool floral and faunal attractions, including koalas! That evening, we went downtown for (window) shopping, and I had to pack for Cairns the next day.

ARE KOALAS CUTE OR ARE KOALAS CUTE.

Let’s just say that compiling all these photos for my LJ return post is going to be a bitch.

xxviii: can’t you hear, can’t you hear the thunder (part 2)

Cindy — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 05:50:56 +0000

DAY III (12/27): Lunch was at the Sydney Fish Market, which is a fishing port and seafood market. Basically, so many good food options! It was nice out on the promenade as I took photos and walked around.

Sorry if these photos load too slowly! I’ll try to limit the number of photos to 15 per post.

xxvii: can’t you hear, can’t you hear the thunder (part 1)

Cindy — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 02:14:53 +0000

DAY III (12/27): Sydney Olympic Park! I fondly remember Beijing’s Olympic Green back in August, so it was nice to visit another Olympic village/park/green/site/etc. Except the one in Sydney was just about deserted by the time we got there¹, which is all the better for taking photos!

The Forest of Poles! Each pole either has an alphabetically sorted list of volunteers, world record listing, medal count, or some other relevant display. I really like how it’s primarily a “forest” of light blue poles², but then you get these bright poles that pop out.

I arrived 8.25 years too late. :’(

… have I ever told you that I am a HUGE Ian Thorpe fan? ³

HELL YEAH.

Various height-related Olympic and world records set.

HEY LJ folk: Do my photos show up on your flist? I sometimes try to access the feed through LJ/proxy, and they don’t exactly show up for me.

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¹: Granted, we did get there around 10am. But I do wonder what it would have been like to be here during the actual Olympics. Hmm…
²: Light blue poles were the ones that had the listings of volunteers, whereas the other colors designated special poles, such as the torch display or medal count.
³: If you had known me back in 2004 and read my LJ, you might have noticed some Thorpe fangirling. Makes me nostalgic to the point where I wish he had competed in Beijing.

xxvi: do you come from a land down under? (part 3)

Cindy — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 04:02:27 +0000

DAY II: Okay, the last part of Day II (12/26)! In the afternoon, we went to Bondi Beach and back to the city, where I actually got to see the Opera House up close. Oh, and I finally got reunited with dear Wagamama and the ginger cheesecake.

xxiii: do you come from a land down under? (part 1)

Cindy — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 07:53:36 +0000

DAY II: SYDNEY
Spent the day oohing and aahing over the views of the Harbor Bridge, Opera House, and Botanic Gardens. Also got to go to Bondi Beach that afternoon. Sydney is quite the photogenic city!

I actually have more photos from that day. These photos are just the ones from the botanic garden; I’ll put up two more installments of Day II later (!).

xxii: on a hippie trail, head full of zombie

Cindy — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 03:38:58 +0000

DAY I: PVG to SYD
Having arrived from an overnight flight from Shanghai to Sydney, I had a quick lunch before going to Blue Mountains National Park, which has amazing mountains surrounded by blue haze (…hence the name). The views from the Flyway, Skyway, and Katoomba Railway were amazing!

It’s already January 1st, but happy NYE regardless!

xix: …. and we’re back!

Cindy — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 11:15:08 +0000

Hello! So here’s the dealio:
« I am in China. Shanghai, more specifically.
« LJ is blocked in China.
« I doubt I will be using a proxy.¹
« I might update LJ when I am in Australia.²
« I’ll be back on LJ on January 17th, when I get back to NY.
« …. so expect more updates here.
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¹: The proxies here … kind of suck. Maybe because I don’t know a good site. Or maybe because they’re bad at accepting cookies (hence I can’t log on), they sometimes just don’t load, and they tend to go crazy with the pop up ads.
²: That is, if I have Internet. And if that is the case, there might be updates from the 24th-31st of December. Nevertheless, I’ll be updating from here as well.