Beautiful Cairns

I recently went to Cairns for the Genome Integrity Conference with 2 other colleagues and my Lab Head. To be honest, I wasn't all that keen on going but was convinced to attend it in the end. 

Stayed at the Pullmans' for the week. It's a pretty neat hotel. I was a little scared to be by myself in my hotel room, to be honest. The Husband was on the line with me every night I was in the shower, ha! Yes, chicken is my middle name.

The view from my hotel- pretty decent though I did wish I was on a higher floor.

Conference "goodies". Mad love the mini marker pen, heh!

In between pockets of breaks during the conference, I went out for a wander. The hotel was situated very near the sea so I took a stroll down the esplanade a couple of times. It was beautiful! The mountains were so near, much nearer than how it looks in the pictures.

I think I blogged about this before but I have to reiterate- the Paleo Cafe serves up magic! I walked 2 blocks almost every other day to have breakfast here. The spiced sweet potato rosti was absolutely delish!

We had a free and easy afternoon on one of the days. There was a deal for trips going out to the  Great Barrier Reef and Green Island and most of the delegates signed up for but since I am not much of a water person, I decided to stay high and dry on land. It was only the night before that I decided to go on the Kuranda Scenic Railway and Cable Car Skyrail tour. I had initially thought I would just stay in the hotel and watch a few movies, but at the end of the day, I was really glad I went on the tour! I enjoyed it very much. 

The whole tour cost slightly over a AUD$100 but to me, it was worth every cent. A coach picked me up from my hotel, and dropped me off at the cable car station. I was to travel and make 4 stops during the cable car ride, visit each little town during each stop and then catch the mountainside scenic railway back.

I am actually quite afraid of heights as well but I may secretly be an adrenaline junkie, I don't know but I was actually quite excited and scared at the same time whilst waiting for my cable car. 

It was a loooonnnnng way up and a loooooonnng way down. My hands got all clammy and I was gripping the sides of my seat in the cable car. I had one whole cable car to myself each way, so that was quite fun.

It was very quiet the higher the cable car went, very serene indeed. It felt quite surreal actually! I only wished the Husband was there to join me, it would have been a lot more fun. Next time perhaps!

When you can't even see the other side of the station because it's just too high up or far down, you know you'd be in some deep shit if you got stuck halfway.

Lovely short walks through the historical Daintree Rainforest:

I can't remember the name of this gorge, I only remember being in complete awe when I saw it from the viewing platform!

I bumped into my colleague halfway during the walk through the forest! He was the one who first introduced me to the tour and asked me to go but at the time, I hadn't decided. Anyhow, it was good to have some company along the way.

The last stop was the village of Kuranda! I love this village so much. There was so much to see and do! I only wish we had more time there. There were heaps of little markets and stores, it was huuuuge! I bought quite a lot of things from there, including some stuff for Mum and Dad.

By 3.30pm, it was time to hop on the old steam train and head back. I was really excited about going on this ride, I love trains. It was very quaint, everything was made of polished wood and whilst not quite like Harry Potter and his 9 3/4 platform, it certainly felt like I was in the steampunk era.

This was our wee cabin!

Most of the journey was not too interesting, we passed through a lot of tunnels which was quite boring actually. Nevertheless, there were still a fair few good bits of scenery along the way!

Coming back, we passed by heaps of sugarcane plantations. Apparently, they export a lot of this stuff.

My stop was at Freshwater, I disembarked and got on the coach to go back to my hotel. I had so much fun and was quite exhausted by the end of it.

I had to present my poster for two nights, and on the 2nd night I was kind of feeling a little bummed out by one of the delegates' comments (more of a miscommunication on her part actually) so once the session was over, I headed straight back to room and ordered room service. I had duck pancakes, pumpkin risotto and creme brulee! Usually, room service food isn't fantastic but I did think very highly of what the Pullmans' had to offer, especially the creme brulee. It's not your ordinary custard with scorched sugar, it was flavoured with kaffir lime and dusted with crushed nuts and some other spices. It absolutely blew my mind off.

Oh and as it turned out, I actually won the poster prize! Ha. I mean, a $100 isn't much but it was fun to win something, to come home with something.

All in all, it was a good trip. I have a good first impression of Cairns and wouldn't mind going back there again!