Cairns, Australia

Wednesday, March 26, 08
Darwin is the first airport I've flown through which allows those remaining to accompany the traveller to the gate. It has been a delightful excursion into being taken care of, as Timika was. In Indonesia, as in Sabah, I was living in a fairly constant wary attitude. - not quite knowing where or how. Customs are so different. But here, I have relaxed and allowed the flow of energy into other than surveillance attitude.
Some Aussie words:
Bonnet - hood of the car
Boot - trunk
Woolies - Woolworth store
Arriving in Cairns airport I find the bus into town and sit across from a 22 year old Brit named Chris Watson. We decide to hang around together during the afternoon and evening. I ask, "Watson, as in Dr. Watson?" "Yes" he replies, "And that's as close to being a doctor as I'll get." We laugh. The afternoon is spent walking the Esplanade (street along the beach), internet searching, and lunching on fish and chips. Cains is mostly tourism. Their push to take you to the Great Barrier Reef for snorkeling and diving, is constant with tour agents everywhere. Here, I am on the Coral Sea.
We spend the afternoon walking the wharf and beach area with dinner at a pub on a second floor three blocks off the water. It's an early evening, 9:30, as I turn the key and enter the dorm room finding a French girl (Marseille) adjusting some luggage. This room is co-ed, as all of them are here. She, two guys from Germany, a young woman and man from Holland, and I are sleeping this 4 bunk bed room - first co-ed I've encountered. Lights out, the others drag in at varying times. The bathroom door doesn't lock and sticks with several inches of vision into the shower. Close enough! The young Dutch couple enters , she strips at her bed, puts on a night shirt and is in bed. I pretend to be asleep. Life on the road! Tomorrow, Port Moresby connecting into Lae, Papua New Guinea.