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Published: January 29th 2009
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Guide to Indonesia
First book we've bought. Always managed to swap so far! Kakadu, no can do! Wednesday 28th January 2009
Darwin is a bit of a dump; a nothing place. It is drab, boring and full of Aussie backpackers on walkabout, or rather sit about and drink about. There are very few other nationalities here, unlike most places on the usual global travel routes so it is entirely lacking in any charm whatsoever. We have been here just twenty four hours and hate it. The shops shut at 5 p.m., the restaurants offer little variety, the hostel kitchen is as dirty as the people using it and we are checking out tomorrow. Darwin Harbour is attractive but this little city really doesn’t have anything else to commend it. We did find a nice Thai restaurant for a good meal, but apart from this one restaurant, run by lovely smiling courteous Thais, the rest of Darwin’s eating establishments are not exactly a gourmet’s delight!
The original plan was to spend three or four days here and then go to Katherine (about 300 kilometres south) and then west to the Kakadu National Park. Well Katherine costs #70 per person each way on the Greyhound bus and then a further $50 each to go
on a boat up the first gorge (the second and third are under water). The Kakadu is also under water with only about 5% of its roads open and those are the ones that don’t go anywhere, and so Darwin is full of people sitting around with nowhere to go. It is just unfortunate that the cyclone has flooded most of the Northern Territory but that is part of travelling! For us, however, life is too short to sit around in a dump like Darwin, so we’ve just been down to the Qantas office. Instead of flying to Bali on 11th February we are going tomorrow! So we have changed the itinerary to two nights instead of two weeks for this leg of the trip. After visiting the Qantas office we headed to a bookshop and bought a Lonely Planet guide to Indonesia and then went online and booked a room for a couple of nights in Bali not too far from the airport (we don’t land until 21.30).
So, big change of plan! Whilst we were at it, we changed our next flight from Bali to Singapore and brought that forward from 10th March to 28th February (to
Free internet access!
Departures lounge at Darwin Airport keep within the 30 days visa allowance in Indonesia) and then changed our flight from Bangkok to Heathrow from11th April to 14th April because the Thai Water Festival is on 12th/13th and it would be a shame to miss it. The good thing about these changes is that we now have two weeks longer to go overland from Singapore to Bangkok. The good thing about Round the World tickets is that one can change the dates free of charge.
Despite ending our Australian tour in Darwin and the disappointment of not seeing the Kakadu, we have really loved Australia and feel that we have seen and done a great deal since arriving here before Christmas on 23rd December. We have also met some really nice people. New Year in Sydney was a special highlight as was snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef. The Blue Mountains and the Daintree in Queensland were totally beautiful, and for the most part we have been really lucky and dodged the worst of the stormy weather. We are “all in one piece” and feeling fit and well so on we go! Onwards and Westwards! It’s the travelling that counts!
So, it’s “Goodbye” to Oz and “Selamat Siang” Indonesia (which means G’day according to the guide book).
Thursday 29th January 2009
Darwin’s saving grace is it’s airport! We are now in Departures awaiting our flight to Bali with a beer, FREE internet AND there is a SMOKING AREA !!! Haven’t seen one of those in Departures for ages!
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