10,000 Maniacs!!!

G'day from Cairns. I'm about to say goodbye to the southern cross and welcome the northern star once again. I catch a flight to Sydney in a couple hours and then go on to Bangkok, and I should arrive at 6:30 the morning of the 19th. I'll stay in Bangkok for a couple days, then head up north into Laos, before going down to the islands off the southern coast of Thailand.
As you can guess from the title of the blog, I finally did a skydive. I did it in Mission beach, which is about 150 km south of Cairns. I finally got a break in the weather, and I made the tandem jump from 14,000 ft. I gotta say it was the best thing I've done so far. There were four people in my jump, and I was the first to jump. So, I was sitting right next to the door, which was glass so I could see us climbing higher and higher in the sky. When we finally reached 14,000 ft, the green light went on, the door opened, my guide and I slid to the edge of the door, with my legs dangling outside. I crossed my arms over my chest, leaned my head back, and the guide pushed us out of the plane and we instantly fell like a bowling ball. I think the best part are the first two seconds as you feel yourself being pulled to the ground at tremendous speed. The people who jumped after me said they got real nervous after they saw me go because you fall away so fast it seemed like I was sucked out by a vacuum. The freefall lasted about 60 seconds, and we landed on the beach, literally right in front of my hostel. So, when I landed, I unhooked from the harness, signed off to the camera (I got a DVD of the jump), crossed the street, picked up my bags and hopped on the bus to collect my DVD and head up north to Cairns. Very James Bond.
Cairns is an OK city with a pretty thriving nightlife. I met up with Valerie last night at P.J. O'Brien's to watch the rugby match between NZ and Ireland. Ireland lost a close match, but the last two tries NZ scored were a wee bit dodgy since it appeared the ball was dropped both times before crossing the touch line. Anyway, Val pointed out one of Uncle Des' former students who is now one of Ireland's best players. Legend has it, Des was short of players, saw this tall lad in the hall, asked him if he played Rugby and got him to start playing again. Then, with the proper coaching he's one of their best players. Val and I hung out til around 12, when she was catching a night bus down to Airlie beach.
The weather here continued to be overcast. I went on a daytrip to snorkel the Barrier Reef, but the visibility and colors weren't as good as they could have been. But, I hear there are excellent coral reefs in Thailand, so hopefully I will see more there.
Last night, Alessandro and I caught the USA/Italy match. Overall, a pretty crazy match, and I about broke a table when Beasley's goal was disallowed. But, the US played much better, and I was content with the draw. The best soccer story I've heard so far came from Tom, this English guy I met. He said one of his mates converts his living room into a stadium-like atmosphere for the games. There are chairs up front, and if you want a seat, you have to sit down and you have to be fully clothed. The back of the room is converted into an area reserved for the hooligans. In that area, everyone is shirtless, bangging pots together, and doing sing songs the entire game. He said there always some people who start off in the chairs, but by halftime, everyone is crammed in the back, bangin pots and making a lot of ruckus. The way he told it, just makes me laugh thinking about it.
Well, that's it for now. I'm not sure how often the blogs will keep up in SE Asia, especially Laos, but I'll try my best to keep everyone informed.
Enjoy Ireland. (Did anyone know that Grellan once shot an 87 at Lahinch??)

Cheers,
James