A few days in Cairns turned in to a few weeks at our hostel - The Asylum. The place does strange things to your head (we weren't sure if some odd 'inmates' had come thinking it was an actual Asylum) and no one ever wants to leave. There was always alot to report from Asia especially over two weeks but in Cairns we managed to do very little but have the most fun. We met a great bunch of people from the Asylum and we travelled with Simon from Liverpool and Ian from Canada right down to Brisbane. We also went some of the way with Chris, Tom and Jodie - all from England and all a great laugh. Most days in Cairns were spent at the Lagoon (a sea water swimming pool) or playing table tennis and poker (I won 3/3 games & $100 if the lads can believe it!) at the hostel and we had some classic football games. In the first week me and Simon played nine holes of golf at Cairns Golf Club for cheap and we managed to get round but without much glory. We got attacked on the last hole by some protective birds who thought my ball was their egg and swooped at our heads until we retreated! In the second week we finally got out of Cairns. Mike did a day trip to the Outer Barrier Reef on a rocky as hell boat but he was drugged up on travel pills so could enjoy the amazing Great Barrier Reef - and he found Nemo! I went on a road trip with Ian, Simon and Jodie to Cape Tribulation, which turned in to a great day out. We drove to waterfalls, Port Douglas for lunch and then over the croc infested Daintree river and in to the rainforest which took us to Cape Trib. The sun was still out when we finally got to the beach where rainforest meets reef and we spent an hour or so messing about before we found a coconut. Ian's new name - Castaway - was set when he set about desperately smashing the nut on a rock with his long hair and beard. We got it open and drank and ate it with the spectacular sunset over the mountains behind. Definately the highlight of the day. On our final day me, Ian and Simon went wakeboarding on a huge lake where a pulley drags you rather than a boat. We got two hours having paid for one and it was . Ian had the most experience and was trying out afew tricks while I managed to get round a few times although the third corner caused some big crashes and my body was in bits! Simon crashed out on the first corner so much we renamed it Simon's corner. Cairns' nightlife was probably its best feature and being at the Asylum made it even better. Every night we had a free meal at the Woolshed - a huge pub which did quality big meals and cheap beer - and spent quite a few nights dancing on the tables there especially after the amazing FA Cup Final. We went on two Mad Mondays - a pub crawl run by our hostel - where we got a t-shirt, free internet, 5 drinks, dinner, pizza, free goon before we went out and a great pub crawl with most of the hostel for $10. The video run on loop all week after it at the hostel shamed most of us. After two weeks we forced ourselves to finally book that Greyhound ticket to Airlie Beach and start the tour to the Whitsundays and Fraser Island which we have just finished.