Chapter XIII / Daintree National Park

I flew from Hong Kong to Cairns via Brisbane in order to meet up with two of my closest friends from college for a week in far North Queensland. 

I hadn't seen them for six months and nearly four years respectively, and it was superb to spot them in the arrivals hall at Cairns airport. We had each hoped to surprise each other from behind in the terminal, and after sending a decoy email directing them to baggage carousel two, I loitered in a cafe until I spotted them, at which point I crouched behind a variety of weary travelling parents and got about half a second of surprise before leaping on Tom and Tom.

En route I had enjoyed what tuned out to be the best view of the Great Barrier Reef:

We headed north in our rental car towards the World Heritage-listed Daintree Rainforest and the start of our weeklong adventure. 

Chapter IX / In which the Chinese train network yields some surprises

Part of China's wave of infrastructure investment has been channelled into a high-speed train network connecting many of the country's cities. Soon after arriving at Xiamen Bei ('Xiamen North') railway station, I could see that the traveling public had something to show for it:

Editor's note / In which a quick fix is found

I've become self-conscious at the time lag on this blog, since my latest post is about Tallinn, a city that I left more than ten days ago. The sluggish pace has been caused by equal parts procrastination and distraction, and has had the unfortunate consequence that I'm not publishing thoughts spontaneously but instead spending 'blog time' trying to remember what I did the week before last. I've been loath to simply 'skip' cities, for fear that I'd never come back to write about them and also for fear of jumbling the order on the blog, so instead I'm going to post a series of short 'placeholder' entries written in something closer to a stream of consciousness, and return to them later to add detail and edit. Vanity might prevent me from advertising these placeholders so if you don't see them on facebook you'll know why.

Chapter XII / Initial reactions upon landing in Australia

1. Broad sunshine bathing the tarmac, aka "It's good to be back" or "Winter? What winter?"

2. Australian delicacies, aka "I didn't realise how much I missed you"

3. Tony Abbott, the Australian Opposition Leader, aka "Trademark sh$t-eating grin":

Chapter XI / In which Hong Kong reminds why it's one of the world's great cities

I had another 30 hour stopover in Hong Kong, en route from Shanghai to Cairns and northeast Queensland. The highlight was a late night drink at Ozone Bar, the world's highest located on the 118th floor of the ICC Tower in Kowloon. None of my photos turned out but this gives you an idea of the vertiginous view:

Chapter X / In which Shanghai turns up the heat

From the Shanghai Daily on the morning of my departure:

"Shanghai has never seen four straight days with highs topping 40 degrees since 1873, when its Xujiahui observatory began recording temperatures, according to the Shanghai Meteorological Bureau." 

They went on to note "it was the eighth high temperature day this month" though it was not clear what temperatures qualify as 'high'. This contributed to a number of anomalies during my visit. The normally-busy Shanghai Sightseeing Bus Center apparently reported a big drop in passengers. The normally-popular tourist promenade along the Bund was empty. The normally-full parking lot was apparently empty. Even the normally-cool Marc Jacobs perfume pop-up next to the beautiful Jing'an Temple was apparently too hot to handle:

Chapter VIII / In which Xiamen puts on 'the wedding of a lifetime'

I had never heard of Xiamen until my friend François announced that it was to be the venue for his marriage to his fiancée Si (pronounced 'Sir'). But the four days I spent there were absolutely unforgettable.