Well, I'm now home from my honeymoon. The best word I can think of to describe it is, unfortunatley, extra-pukey. We went on a dive trip and lived on a boat for a week. Turns out I get sea sick. Like, can't-get-off-the-bathroom-floor-or-I'll throw-up-again sea sick. I had no way of knowing this was going to happen 'cause I've never really been on a boat before. Ferries to Vancouver Island clearly do NOT count. Since it was a dive trip and you can't dive on drugs, I did not start the trip on pills, although I did bring some.
Here's the run down:
30-odd hours of airport and flying time. Australia is freakin' far away.
Day and a half in a hotel in Cairns, including Christmas day. Nothing was open 'cause it's Christmas. I slept, discovered that the hotel coffee was terrible, we wandered around town a bit. Jet lag? Not really. Hooray!
Dive trip, Day 1 - We went down to the Explorer Ventures office, took a bus and then a wee little plane (which they had to jump start, causing cries of, "Okay, who left the lights on?" from the passengers) to where the boat was moored.
Night 1, we motored out to the dive sight for day 2. I was a litltle nauseous, buit I figured if that was as bad as it was going to get, I could handle it.
Day 2 - Did three dives, including one where the dive master fed Potato Cod and Red Bass and some other blue fish I couldn't identify. These fish are all about 6 feet long and excited. Got caught in some wicked updrafts swimming over coral ridges. Saw a bunch of little Nemos (clown fish) and some lion fish and turtles and such. Water temperature was 27 degrees Celsius. Wow. We beak about it being hot when the AIR temperature is that high at home.
Night 2 - Motoring out to Osprey Reef. Incident one of extra-pukey. No drugs. Spent the night on the floor in our bathroom (fortunately we had our own bathroom, although it was tiny 'cause we were on a boat). Did not sleep. Even my husband got sick. Everybody except the crew and the guy form the US Navy got sick, actually, but the rest of them didn't spend all night doing it.
Day 3 - Did not eat, slept little. Remembered to drink water so as to not die of dehydration. No diving for me.
Night 3 - We weren't going anywhere, so I slept okay, although I still felt like crap.
Day 4 - Ate crackers and toast. Now used to rocking motion of anchored boat, so feeling less crappy. Still no diving, which is too bad 'cause my husband said the diving was great at Osprey. Best of the trip, even.
Night 4 - Motoring back in from Osprey Reef. Took my sea sickness drugs. THEY DIDN'T WORK! More puking, no sleeping.
Day 5 - Slept, went out on deck and talked to the engineer. He hadn't slept the last night either, but that's 'cause the crew can't sleep when we're moving. He didn't get to sleep once we were at anchor either, though, because some stupid woman had flushed a tampon down one of the toilets on the starboard side, plugging up the works so none of the toilets on that side of the boat functioned. They specifically told us not to do that for a reason, moron! The engineer's the one who fixes that, it turns out. Then a compressor broke so we had no fresh water for a while, and he had to fix that, too. Bad day for that guy.
Night 5 - Motoring minimal, slept okay.
Day 6 - Felt okay, went snorkelling. Realized that you have to wait until your fins are all the way under water when you do a surface dive in order for kicking to do anything except make you look funny.
Night 6 - New Year's Eve. More motoring. No partying for me. The last thing I needed was alcohol. One of the other ladies gave me some prescription sea sickness pills and another guy gave me some over-the-counter stuff. I took all of them. Not sure which one worked, but they knocked me out and I didn't get sick, so hooray!
Day 7 - Back in Cairns, off the damned boat. Yay! Went to our hotel in Trinity Beach, a suburb north of the city.
Over the next 5 or so days I tanned (Without sunscreen. Even wearing only SPF 8, I won't tan.), swam in the ocean (suncreen applied after tanning), paddled aroung in the hotel pool, and genreally relaxed. We took a train up to this little village called Kuranda one day. It's kind of like North Queensland's Banff. We went to the litttle zoo and got our pictures taken holding Koalas (mandatory tourist duty done!), split a Kangaroo burger (tastes like...meat?), then took the gondola back down. We also took the bus back into Cairns one day to go tourist shopping for our friends and family. Michele and danny_g, I have stuffed Australiana for you.
Flying home also took for bloody ever, and I was struck by a huge bout of home sickness on the plane...when I was on my way home. Wierd. I was watching Babe on the plane and when the pig says, "I want my mom," I just burst into tears. As you may have noticed, I don't actually like international travel. I'm always glad I did it once I get home, but the process itself usually sucks. And we got to spend even more time than originally planned in LAX because our flight was delayed an hour and 45 minutes. Stupid Air Canada. There are arm rests between all the seats in the airport lounges in LAX so you can't lay down and sleep unless you do so on the concrete floor. Are they actually trying to make it unpleasant to have a layover there? They're certainly succeeding.
Anyway, now I'm home and enjoying a day off work. It's nice to be back in my own bed and to see my kitties agian.
Addition: They showed Snakes on a Plane on the plane on the way over!
Here's the run down:
30-odd hours of airport and flying time. Australia is freakin' far away.
Day and a half in a hotel in Cairns, including Christmas day. Nothing was open 'cause it's Christmas. I slept, discovered that the hotel coffee was terrible, we wandered around town a bit. Jet lag? Not really. Hooray!
Dive trip, Day 1 - We went down to the Explorer Ventures office, took a bus and then a wee little plane (which they had to jump start, causing cries of, "Okay, who left the lights on?" from the passengers) to where the boat was moored.
Night 1, we motored out to the dive sight for day 2. I was a litltle nauseous, buit I figured if that was as bad as it was going to get, I could handle it.
Day 2 - Did three dives, including one where the dive master fed Potato Cod and Red Bass and some other blue fish I couldn't identify. These fish are all about 6 feet long and excited. Got caught in some wicked updrafts swimming over coral ridges. Saw a bunch of little Nemos (clown fish) and some lion fish and turtles and such. Water temperature was 27 degrees Celsius. Wow. We beak about it being hot when the AIR temperature is that high at home.
Night 2 - Motoring out to Osprey Reef. Incident one of extra-pukey. No drugs. Spent the night on the floor in our bathroom (fortunately we had our own bathroom, although it was tiny 'cause we were on a boat). Did not sleep. Even my husband got sick. Everybody except the crew and the guy form the US Navy got sick, actually, but the rest of them didn't spend all night doing it.
Day 3 - Did not eat, slept little. Remembered to drink water so as to not die of dehydration. No diving for me.
Night 3 - We weren't going anywhere, so I slept okay, although I still felt like crap.
Day 4 - Ate crackers and toast. Now used to rocking motion of anchored boat, so feeling less crappy. Still no diving, which is too bad 'cause my husband said the diving was great at Osprey. Best of the trip, even.
Night 4 - Motoring back in from Osprey Reef. Took my sea sickness drugs. THEY DIDN'T WORK! More puking, no sleeping.
Day 5 - Slept, went out on deck and talked to the engineer. He hadn't slept the last night either, but that's 'cause the crew can't sleep when we're moving. He didn't get to sleep once we were at anchor either, though, because some stupid woman had flushed a tampon down one of the toilets on the starboard side, plugging up the works so none of the toilets on that side of the boat functioned. They specifically told us not to do that for a reason, moron! The engineer's the one who fixes that, it turns out. Then a compressor broke so we had no fresh water for a while, and he had to fix that, too. Bad day for that guy.
Night 5 - Motoring minimal, slept okay.
Day 6 - Felt okay, went snorkelling. Realized that you have to wait until your fins are all the way under water when you do a surface dive in order for kicking to do anything except make you look funny.
Night 6 - New Year's Eve. More motoring. No partying for me. The last thing I needed was alcohol. One of the other ladies gave me some prescription sea sickness pills and another guy gave me some over-the-counter stuff. I took all of them. Not sure which one worked, but they knocked me out and I didn't get sick, so hooray!
Day 7 - Back in Cairns, off the damned boat. Yay! Went to our hotel in Trinity Beach, a suburb north of the city.
Over the next 5 or so days I tanned (Without sunscreen. Even wearing only SPF 8, I won't tan.), swam in the ocean (suncreen applied after tanning), paddled aroung in the hotel pool, and genreally relaxed. We took a train up to this little village called Kuranda one day. It's kind of like North Queensland's Banff. We went to the litttle zoo and got our pictures taken holding Koalas (mandatory tourist duty done!), split a Kangaroo burger (tastes like...meat?), then took the gondola back down. We also took the bus back into Cairns one day to go tourist shopping for our friends and family. Michele and danny_g, I have stuffed Australiana for you.
Flying home also took for bloody ever, and I was struck by a huge bout of home sickness on the plane...when I was on my way home. Wierd. I was watching Babe on the plane and when the pig says, "I want my mom," I just burst into tears. As you may have noticed, I don't actually like international travel. I'm always glad I did it once I get home, but the process itself usually sucks. And we got to spend even more time than originally planned in LAX because our flight was delayed an hour and 45 minutes. Stupid Air Canada. There are arm rests between all the seats in the airport lounges in LAX so you can't lay down and sleep unless you do so on the concrete floor. Are they actually trying to make it unpleasant to have a layover there? They're certainly succeeding.
Anyway, now I'm home and enjoying a day off work. It's nice to be back in my own bed and to see my kitties agian.
Addition: They showed Snakes on a Plane on the plane on the way over!
VIEW 5 of 5 COMMENTS
danny_g:
Yeah, well, there's been a change in the landscape this week. Doesn't mean I'm going to avoid socializing when it pops up (as it has fairly thoroughly the last three days), just means that if it's just me and Tivo three days a week I'm more than okay with that.
goblintcat:
The pleasure has been all mine. Make sure to keep representing us Canadians around here! 