Cairns

I left Papua this morning and I am back in Australia. My Port of entry is Cairns, only two hours by plane from Port Moresby. As there is no connection back to Darwin until 9 hours later I took a car to explore the coast up North. It is dotted with an incredible number of beautiful and 'wild' beaches. Dozens of them all the way up to Port Douglas and above. I ferried across the Daintree River to Cape Tribulation and came back to Cairns before the sunset. I did not stay long but I found the city to be pretty similar to Darwin but with a much more touristy feel, tons of backpackers (obviously using it as the gateway to the Great Coral Reef) and a funny but great idea - since it is virtually impossible to swim in the sea because of the usual box jellyfish, sharks and the rest - of having an open sea water pool in the middle of the city.

Smithsonian Institution

Museums, museums, museums. Apart from all the governmental bodies, Washington houses tons of museums. All of them are free. There is so much to see. After a nice start through the Eastern Market and more crab cakes and grits we headed back to the National Mall to explore the Sculpture Garden, the Natural History Museum with all the kids and families and finally the Hirshhorn Museum for some great Contemporary Art. Visiting museums is a highly tiring activity of course, so we ended up resting and warming ourselves around a nice American meatloaf in one of Washington's popular hangouts, Busboys and Poets. A nice cosy hip place without the attitude.

Fish Tour!

Don't you think that it is an amazing way of travelling for fish? They seem to have a free tour of Ho Chi Minh. At least they must be quite protected from the pollution but just imagine being a fish living peacefully in a protected environment somewhere on a nice reef and suddenly finding yourself among the humans in the chaos of the city. It must be a real shock!

Back to school

The month of June was quite sweet as it was the mid-year school holidays. As a result the traffic was free flowing and the public transports were not suffocating. Now everything is back to normal. There is no longer any gain of time if I try to catch a taxi from / to work and I am assured to be sandwiched and standing for the whole MRT journey. I am longing to find that job that could be an enjoyable walking distance from where I live...

Neighbours

It is the second time since I arrived I read about stories of people who have been found in their home ages after they died. But Singapore does not seem to be much different than any other big city. The polls clearly show that less than 40% people know the name of their neighbours. I believe the polls would be pretty similar in Paris, London or New York (or even worse). Anyway, this article also shows you what makes the front page of the Sunday paper here (the quality of which I would not comment).