if only we had some ruby slippers!!!!

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Well we are now finally in Oz,
the journey here sounded pretty simple.
We were due to leave yogya at 8am for our flight to jakarta, so we caught a bus to the airport around 6 only to find out once we'd checked in that our flight was now not leaving till 10.20am. things were not looking good for arriving into singapore around midday as we'd hoped!
We did leave around half ten and the flight to jakarta took about 1 and a half hrs. however our (9.30am) flight to batam now had four guys underneath it weilding a big spanner!! We were told it wouldn't be leaving until 1pm.
At 12.50 there was a big crowd around the check in desk and we managed to work out that we now wouldn,t be leaving till 3pm. It wasn't until just gone ten to 3 that we finally got on a plane (thankfully not the one which they were still working on) and we arrived into Batam around 5pm. We caught a taxi to the harbour for the fast ferry to singapore but the 5.30 one was full so we didn't set off till gone 6.30, the ferry took an hour and so along with clearing customs and the time difference it was now past 9pm. we hadn't booked anywhere to stay because we thought we'd be arriving early, so the first place we tried reception had closed and we went traipsing off to another hostel which thankfully had room. By the time we'd got settled in and had a quick KFC it was 11.30pm.

The next day did go smoother although we were still pretty tired, we headed to the airport around 3pm and after going on the net for a bit and perusing duty free we were on our way aT 6pm.The flight was a bit cramped to to a very annoying person infront who seemed to think his chair should go back much further than it could, but we finally arrived into Darwin at 12.30am.We had booked into a hostel so we caught a shuttle bus to the door and crashed into bed.

It's very different here already, it's sooo nice to be able to ask anyone anything and you don't stand out like a sore thumb. the hostels are also very different and have a different type of traveller, they come with pools, kitchen facilities and some even have spa's and bars!!
we've been cooking for ourselves which is nice and relatively cheap compared to eating out, although the relatively young crowd are highly annoying in there kitchen manners,which i think is something we'll experience quite abit.
We are both pretty happy to be here and it makes a nice change from the last 7 months in asia, we'r taking it easy for a few days to try and recover from lingering colds and just relax a bit before we move on.
hope all is well back home,be nice to hear from you all
all the best

Paul n helly xxx

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