Cairns, Australia: Orchid Plaza

I visited Cairns, Australia in August 2012 and to my surprise, one of the most memorable places was an Asian mall. Orchid Plaza is a small, two story mall supposed located "in the heart of Cairns," according to the mall's website. There is also free wifi, but it's a bit hard to access.

Though I was on vacation and usually would have liked to experience the local food, I was constantly drawn toward the Korean stall in the upstairs food court called Corea Corea for several reasons.  The first reason is that there is a TV that is always rerunning kpop music shows and music videos.  In the middle of a tropical, beachy tourist town are signs of Korean culture!  As my family continuously passed by this stand, I couldn't help but stare at the TV for a dose of kpop.  Another reason is that restaurant prices are extremely expensive around Cairns, and this food court is a more affordable option.  There is also complementary tea that is self-served.  My apologies for not writing a better review on the actual food or service; I wasn't planning on blogging about something I had experienced 6 months ago!

I got the best seat in the house: my view was the TV! The clips usually alternated between girl groups and guy groups, but I was more interested in the guy groups. Starting from the top left and going clockwise, I first saw CNBlue's Love music video. Next was Ss501's Love Ya music video (which includes a close up of Kim Hyun Joong), and lastly Gummy's music video starring Hyun Joong. These songs are all from 2010, so what this TV plays is a bit outdated. However, CNBlue and Ss501 were one of the first bands I discovered and Love and Love Ya are two songs I cherish deeply, so I really did feel a connection!  For a better view of the TV, zoom in on the photo!

Upstairs, there is also a small Japanese convenience store.  Despite being a Japanese store, I did notice some Korean sodas with two of Big Bang's members plastered on the front! One soda reveals Taeyang while the other shows G-Dragon. This is the soda Sunny 10, which is a product of Coca-Cola. All five members of Big Bang endorsed this soda during 2012.

If you're ever in the area and want to kill time, stop by Orchid Plaza! But of course this place is not worth a plane ride just to visit!