An Ode to Sisterhood (and a trip down under)

When my sister Emmy found out that I was headed to China for six months, she suggested we meet up in Australia for a vacation together.  I like to tease her that her geography skills are clearly limited (given that Shanghai and Australia are almost 5,000 miles apart), but maybe she was just being self-aware about where in the world she did (or didn’t) want to visit.  The trip remained mostly a pipe dream for a few months last winter and then in late March we finally settled on an itinerary, purchased flights, and prepped for the big adventure.  As I mentioned in my last post, May was a challenging month for me so our trip couldn’t have come at a better time.

Boarding the Qantas flight in Shanghai after work on a Friday, it felt like I had already left China and entered a more comfortable, English-speaking world.  I met Emmy in Brisbane at the local train station and remember her asking if I could walk any slower as I dragged my way up the stairs and through the exit gate.  After an overnight flight to Sydney then a short hop to Brisbane, I was exhausted but so relieved to see someone I’ve known my whole life.  We spent the day in Brisbane going for a hike up a local mountain, something I haven’t done since I left Portland.  We also found an awesome vegan restaurant and each had different takes on a veggie burger.  Then we left the next morning for three days in the Whitsundays.

The Whitsundays were GORGEOUS and I’d definitely spend more time there if I get a chance.  The white sands of Whitehaven Beach are as picturesque as the millions of pictures taken there each year imply.  The sunset sail complete with cheese & crackers and champagne was relaxing, albeit a little slow due to lack of wind.  And the sea kayaking was picture-perfect, topped off by green sea turtle swimming just beneath our kayaking for almost a minute. 

Our trip was planned around seeing the Great Barrier Reef as much as possible – and before it all dies due to climate change – so we made sure to snorkel during our first few days.  Planning this part was more challenging than it would have been a few months ago due to Cyclone Debby, which delivered 30-hours of X-per-hour winds followed by 3 feet of rain in 24 hours.  In addition to the damage to buildings and infrastructure, it also washed immense amount of sediments into the ocean that have yet to settle out.  This reduced the snorkeling visibility significantly, meaning that the best option was to head to the outer reef for the day.

So we hopped on a boat that took us 2 hours off the coast to a set of pontoons floating near the outer reef.  It wasn’t a particularly warm day, so we put on not one but two wetsuits and then hopped in the water.  Emmy had originally planned to get scuba dive certification before the trip but I convinced her that snorkeling was fine.  This was a moment of truth for me – I was worried that she’d be wishing she were scuba diving but when she popped her head up for the first time I could tell she was perfectly content to be stuck on the surface rather than diving below.  The reef was different from what I remembered in the US Virgin Islands and was full of many fish species I’d last seen in an aquarium in China.  I didn’t see any turtles, but Emmy found one and I was glad that she had found some more “exotic” wildlife.  I spent the last few moments of the trip with a Mauri Wrasse that was almost as long as I was who didn’t seem to be bothered by how close we were getting.

The next day we were on another flight, this time headed up to Cairns.  We rented a car our first afternoon to go hiking in the Mossman Gorge and then learned about a free sailing night at the Port Douglas Yacht Club.  Again the wind was not on our side and there was no real sailing to be had, but we motored a sailboat up a coastal river looking for crocodiles.  We had our eyes glued to the riverbanks, but we couldn’t find any.  The locals amused us with stories of tourists doing dumb things with crocodiles.  But my favorite story was of a local who told a cute tourist that “crocodiles don’t bite locals.”  He jumped into a river to prove it and was promptly attacked.  I don’t know why exactly but that story stuck with me.  We drove back to Cairns in the dark with Emmy helping to remind me which side of the road to drive on… I was fine once we were on a road but I didn’t like having to make turns from one road to another.

In Cairns, we added to our lists of adrenaline rushes with a second snorkeling trip and rafting the Tully River.  While snorkeling, I saw a reef shark and was surprisingly calm about it.  It was 10 meters below me and all the tour operators had assured us many times that if we see a shark, it would be this species and they are pretty afraid of us.  I also remember someone in the Galapagos telling me that sharks only attack things three times smaller than them and this one was only slightly bigger than me.  We found new fish species as well, including one that I nicknamed the “American Flag” fish because of the way it looked like it had stars and stripes on it.

But the most memorable part of our time in Cairns was rafting the Tully.  Emmy had read about it in the guidebook and it was on our “must do” list.  A friend of mine had also done it and said it was “epic”, or something along those lines.  Given that our dad is an avid paddler in his own right, I said I’d do it even though it made me nervous just thinking about it.  According to our guide, the Tully is different than other rivers because you are supposed to intentionally hit rocks rather than avoid them.  I’m still not sure if that’s true or if she just has some paddling skills to improve; either way we did hit a lot of rocks.  Thankfully Emmy was in front and bore the brunt of all the waves that came our way.  I was in the back of the boat just in front of our guide, who thought I was a space cadet and wasn’t paying attention.  At some point she realized that I did know what I was doing and stopped chiding me so much, but I was glad Emmy was there to relieve the tension and laugh at my eye-rolls.

Overall, my trip lasted 8 days (Emmy had an extra week before I arrived) and it was some of the best sister-sister bonding we have had in years.  We were lucky enough to go on many family vacations together as kids but I can’t remember ever doing something just the two of us before this.  (And to be honest, my guess is there won’t be very many more of these trips in the near future.)

As I’ve become more immersed in Chinese culture, I continue to admire how close families are and how involved grandparents are in grandkids’ lives.  But one thing I would miss if my family lived this way is that there would be no Emmy.  Almost every family in Shanghai has only one child and despite the lifting of the One Child Policy, most Shanghai families do not plan to have more than one kid.  When I see families walking down the street, I am reminded how lucky I am to have a sister, someone who has been by side and shared my experiences since I was 3 years old.  We’ve had some pretty formative experiences, including getting stuck overnight in the Detroit Airport by ourselves when I was 12 and seeing Taylor Swift in concert in Seattle two years ago.  Although we live on opposite sides of the globe, we are probably closer now than we ever have been and I know that closeness will only continue to grow.  

So to my one and only sister (on her 25^th birthday): I love you!  Thank you for planning an amazing vacation!  See you back in the US soon!