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August 1, 2011

Australia trip-Port douglas-Brisbane

Day 3: Not much happening on day three since i was gonna gone to town in the afternoon to do some browsing around! However i spent all afternoon put myself back together.( it was sad day)
I came back after poster session! Talked to Lan Anh about everything around my life then when to bed
Day 4:
After all the talk in the morning we went to DanTree rain forest! I didnt appreciate the rain forest that much since you know i've seen better! In compare with Cuc Phuong national park, this is nothing! I didnt see any big scary animals or colorful trees like i hoped. All i saw was green trees, well to be honest i do come to apprecitate green now after living in arizona for too long. we only saw some turkeys, buterflies, and one big bird that i cant name. However do enjoin the nice walk, nice talk with young Romanian guy came from UC berkeley (abt his korean fiancee'). Later on i found out that he has quite characters.
That night Tim and i went over my slides, fixed here and there, and gave a lot and a lot of practice.
Day 5:
We only had 2 talks on wednesday in the morning and we all boarded to go out to the sailing cruise to go to the great barrier reef.
We only went out to Low Isles. I did try snorkeling, but it didnt work for me. I sank like a stone. I was never good in water :-((. At least, i've done what i promised to Nikki (tried snorkeling). I later went on those glass boats that they provided and looked at the corals, turtles, some fishes.
After the boat, i took a walk through the island (which took me literally 10 mins). But the view is really beautiful. I took some corals home (with Tim's helps), because i'm not supposed to do so :-s! But coral is so pretty, and it's from great barrier reef. So i cant help.
Day 6:
Rather long but very important day, Because there are presentations all day, and most it was the day that i have to present. I think i did pretty well in terms of delivery the info, the length of the materials, and at least nobody is sleeping.
Later on i got compliments from John Maier (who Tim said very rare on his compliments), Andrews ellis (i will have to check his name later) (chair of my session), and some other ppl told Tim that i did a good job. I think i made Tim proud.
In the evening, we went to crocodile farm for the banquet! I saw one is huge (5m crocodile) just imagine only me in the wild with him, guess who would win in that battle?
I did try some crocodile meat! To be honest i didnt like it that much. It tasted like chicken but a little bit more sour! I think i still prefer steak.
Day 7:
I woke up at 5:40am went to the beach hoping to catch some sunrise, however it was a cloudy day. So i missed out
It was rather very short day. We only attended the first session b/c Bob Field was giving the talk. Tim and I skiped the last session to went to town for Tim to get some cash, get the car, and for me to buy some stamps, sending my postcards, buying the fridge magnets for my fridge (it's kinda the hobby of me that every place i go traveling, i bought little magnet for the fridge)!
Just before we left, my ZrO2 paper on JPC got accepted. Im so glad. Just some minor corrections.
We checked out of the hotel, ha lunch and now currently on the road!
The town we r staying is Townsville.
Day 8:
We went to coffee place in townsville, then did a little hike up to castle hill in townvilles then back to driving.
We had a little picnic for lunch on a beach at a little town called Bowen. The park was nice and the beach was amazing.
On the drive we saw a lot of sugar canes and sugar mills.
Australia country side is very flat. It reminds me a little bit of everwhere i've been.
The weather is perfect! They seem complaining that is cold, but 25*C, i have nothing to say. Way much better than 47*C in Phoenix.
We will see how far we could go today.
Day 8:
We ended up staying at Sarina beach last night. After, asking at one hotel where there is no vacancy at, and one hotel is closed (for business) we stayed at a very weird bed and breakfast. The onwer has a huge dog, about half of my height.
The town is also very weird because they say it's high season, but we saw no tourist wondering around. There is only one take away restaurant and it's closed at 7:30pm on a saturday night. It seems like a ghost town to me:-s. We had a clear look at a southern sky last night as well, boys, this is a first time i had a clear look at a milky way. Appearently, the northern sky and the southern sky are so much different and the sky is limit at where we stand.
Now of to the road we go. We r trying to get as far as we cant today.
We stopped at Gladstone trying to get something for lunch. But we learned from that experience it's Sunday, everything is closed. Off the road we go again. We made reservations at Hervey bay. Only one more night until Melbourne.
Day 9:
we got a little walk at Hervey bay last night and i like the beach more than any place that I've been.
I got some more corals for Nikki. The weather is actually colder as we get down south. but i feel perfectly fine. After some coffee and little walk at hervey bay, we off to brisbane.
After checking in at the hotel in brisbane and some lunch. Got rest and Tim drove me to the airport to go to Melbourne in the evening. I finally got some internet at the airport and finally get to publish this

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