Posted 5 months ago at 12:05 am. 3 comments
The Rockhampton Plaza hotel is a piece of shit. Seriously. A piece of shit. A piece of shit that still, for some reason, see fit to give themselves a 4 star rating.
These are the things I hate about this hellhole, in no particular order.
- The service is fucking awful. The counter staff were cold and unhelpful.
- The shower has NO FUCKING WATER PRESSURE.
- There are 6 levels and only two elevators. Oh yeah. One of the elevators is broken - and by my internet research, has been since at least February. Classy, guys.
- My bathroom leaks. I know this is a fairly general statement so I’ll be a little more specific. There is a pipe that comes out of the wall, and water drips out of it onto my floor.
- ONTO MY FLOOR AND SUBSEQUENTLY ONTO MY PYJAMA PANTS. I thought that deserved its own line
- The room, while not dirty or messy, just seems grubby. The bed is uncomfortable and the sheets just don’t seem white. This isn’t helped by the fact that there aren’t many lights in the room - and one of the lamp globes are broken.
- The TV is fucking small. They say they have cable, but.. they only have 6 channels aside from the normal Free to Air, and three of those are sport.
- There’s no minibar in the rooms. In order to enjoy the minibar, you have to go down to reception and purchase the items from there. What the fuck.
- On all of the websites I visited before opting to stay here, they ALL listed that there was room service. Upon my arrival I was informed that room service has been restricted to breakfast only, and it seems that they intend on keeping it that way.
Out of 10.. I would give this place a 2. Fuck staying in this place, I’d never, ever do it again.
I’m sure I’ll have more to add after I sleep on it. Luckily, I’m off to Emerald tomorrow.
Posted 5 months, 2 weeks ago at 2:13 pm. 0 comments
I’m really sick of traveling, just FYI.
This week - Townsville. Next week - Rocky, Emerald, Gladstone. Week after - Warwick, Toowoomba, Dalby, Kingaroy.
<3
Posted 6 months, 2 weeks ago at 5:27 pm. 3 comments
No, this isn’t birthday related. Even though my birthday is coming up surprisingly soon. Wink nudge.
I just saw two old ladies - one of them was wearing a black shirt and jeans and the other one was wearing a black polka dot dress. They live in identical little houses, except one is painted blue and the other one is pink.
They were saying things in funny voices to each other and then cracking up laughing. The one in the jeans was watering her garden and the one in the dress was sweeping her driveway.
I’m pretty sure I just saw old Jess and Rach.. I wonder if Ashley lives in the green one next door and Old Nathan was inside the blue house playing guitar? *scratches head*
Posted 6 months, 3 weeks ago at 8:55 pm. 3 comments
I’m currently in the Torres Strait, on Horn Island at the “Wongai Beach Resort”. “Resort”, if you understand me.
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We left from Cairns just after 9 yesterday morning and flew to Horn Island, which seems to be the transport hub of the Torres Islands. After leaving Brisbane in fairly normal weather, to surprisingly mild Cairns weather.. to tropical island humidity? Oh my. The Islands are Hot. Stinking Hot. STICKY. STINKING. HOT.
I don’t work so well in the humidity 
After arriving on Horn Island yesterday, taking in the tiny little airport and adjusting to the humidity, we were herded onto a 10 seater light plane and took off to Badu Island - a 20 minute flight from Horn.
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The water was almost beautiful enough to take my mind off the slightly bumpy flight - I took plenty of photos from the plane. It’s this light greeny blue, and with the clouds underneath the plane on top of the water, it’s particularly nice.
We attended court in Badu and tested our wares to great success. There was this really cute little kid there, with these huge brown eyes - very cute. I couldn’t get a photo though. I was a little taken aback by the lack of amenities and all the stray dogs running about the place.
When we returned to Horn Island to our hotel, I realised that the stray dog problem wasn’t isolated to Badu - and later learned that the families are paid $20 a week, per dog, to feed and house them. Crazy stuff.
The “resort” is scary-ish. I’d really call it more of a pub with some little rooms out the back, but it’s really not all that bad. The staff are nice and it’s reasonably clean aside from a few ants in my tea (no tea for me :(), i’m fairly happy with it. Last night we walked to the hotel down the road for dinner - a $25 buffet that I wasn’t at all impressed with - but the company was great. We ate and had a few drinks with the Chief Magistrate and one of the Cairns Magistrates, as well as a police prosecutor and a Deps Clerk. They’re full of some pretty good stories, and we had a decent laugh. I was a bit nervous about walking home on the Island, particularly after reading some of the horror stories, so the magistrate and the policeman walked us back to our hotel! Very nice of them.
The lady at the airport informed us today that it’s probably not a good idea to walk around on the island as there have been a spate of bashings in recent times.
Charming. If only she’d told us earlier!
Today came with a visit to Saibai Island.
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Saibai is gorgeous. It’s ~4km from PNG and the flight is lovely. The roads are unsealed and the water is beautiful! The amenities at the courthouse were troubling - filthy toilets and no toilet paper left me holding the water i’d been drinking for hours.. lucky the island is so pretty!
I returned back to my hotel and had a quick look around - I’ve avoided the bar as much as possible - there’s a lot of drunk locals and visitors - all men! We had a quick dinner in the restaurant and now I’m doing a bit of work and catching up with some emails.
I’ll get some pictures up as soon as possible! I really do miss all of you lots and I can’t wait to get back!
Posted 6 months, 3 weeks ago at 10:08 pm. 1 comment
I’m in Cairns. It’s work related - luckily I’m staying in a beautiful apartment! In the next couple of days, I’m off to Horn Island, Thursday Island and Saibai Island. I’ll take so many photos and keep you all updated as much as possible.
I miss you all terribly.