Bye Bye Bangkok...

...and hello Darwin - eventually (more on that later)!

I waved Claire and Emily off from the Royal Hotel on Sunday morning and had a day and a half to myself in Bangkok. I walked to the reclining buddha temple up the road which was pretty impressive, even after seeing quite a few temples over the last few weeks! I took the chance to jump in a tuk tuk (little motorised taxi where the drivers have no fear) to get to Khoa San Road - every time you walk up that street you find something new! Ate in an italian restaurant where I bumped into Will, Jeff and Tom from our group - it's a small world! And couldn't resist buying a few souvenirs... Headed back to the hotel to watch a few films and enjoy a hot bath - was the first time I'd had a room to myself since that first scary night in Bangkok!

Monday I went to the MBK centre - a HUGE shopping mall - although I didn't really fancy any more shopping as it was so busy, I didn't quite have enough time to go and watch a film. Ate a really great meal of chicken fried rice made fresh in front of me, and had my last Dairy Queen ice cream for old times' sake!

Got to the airport in plenty of time, and the flight went well to Singapore. Had a few hours to spare until my flight to Perth, so took the chance to have a massage and foot reflexology at the spa there, which was so good, it put the ladies from the beach to shame! The masseur was a wise-looking Singaporean, who took one look at my feet and said 'Do you hold back your urine?' What a question! I said 'Not if I can help it!'

My relaxed mood became slightly unrelaxed when I found out that my 2am flight had been pushed back forty-five minutes to allow for a delayed Beijing flight. I ended up with three seats to myself though, so I took the chance to stretch out! I got to Perth Airport with a little bit of time to spare, so I quietly sat on the shuttle bus to go to the domestic terminal. I suddenly realised I only had forty minutes until my flight, and I had to check my bag in again and the bus was going nowhere. The airport worker eventually got me in a taxi with the Beijing people to get to the terminal. To make things worse, the place we had to be was next to the international terminal but for some reason (the taxi driver blamed the government) he had to drive the longest route round to get to it - meaning I missed my flight. The next flight was four hours later and, what's more, it went via Alice Springs, adding on another couple of hours to the journey. Result was - 24 hours from Bangkok to Darwin! Not a pleasant experience all in all! However, I can say that I have been to Alice Springs, and there was the most lovely sunrise as we landed in Darwin. Every cloud...!

I thanked my lucky stars (and Mum who had recommended this hostel) that the Banyan View Lodge was a great choice of hostel - I think if it had been noisy and grimy I would have cried! Lovely clean bed and bathroom, and a cheerful roommate - an Aussie schoolteacher called Marg who had plenty of advice for places I should visit.

I spent Wednesday washing all my clothes (what a luxury to see a washing machine and washing line!) and wandering around Darwin's city centre, which is lovely. So clean and quiet compared to Bangkok! I could spend more than a couple of days here, there are some really nice restaurants and cafes that I could work my way through! I had my camera checked out by a really helpful guy who told me it wasn't focussing because there was sand in the camera. Good news is it can be fixed and it happens quite often; bad news is that it would take him four weeks - which I don't have. Will have to wait until Perth or Cairns to do that.

Marg had recommended a tour to the Kakadu National Park, which was some way away but very much worth it. She was right - I set off this morning at 6.15 and didn't get back until 9.30pm! The park is home to a number of Aboriginal tribes who welcome visitors to educate us about the Aboriginal way of life whilst maintaining the original artwork on the huge limestone rock formations. I couldn't believe I was looking at layers of ochre that had been decorated on the rock thousands of years ago, and you could still easily see what they were - lots of fish, men and women, even early species of dingo. It was so hot though - on the top of the rocks with no shade, the temperature was hitting 40 degrees celsius - phew.

After lunch by the river (not too close as we kept hearing stories of people who had been swallowed by the crocodiles) we went on a boat cruise down the Yellow River (named after a chemical in the water that turns the water slightly yellow) to spot the 275 species of birds that can be found there - that's a third of the total number of bird species in Australia! (Can you see I made mental notes?) I'm sure that our guide could tell you about every single one, he was so knowledgeable! We saw lots of crocodiles which was scary but exciting, knowing that these six metre reptiles, just a couple of metres away from us, would bite off your leg at the first chance! Then headed the 400km back to Darwin, stopping off for barramunda fish and chips on the way - very tasty.

Tomorrow I'm going to wander up to the Charles Darwin Botanic Gardens and check out the Museum and Art Gallery, and have booked a place on the Darwin Walking Tour which is an easy-going two hour walk round the best historic sights of Darwin. May as well have someone explain them to me! Then up early on Saturday morning to begin my three week tour back down to Perth, which should be great - not sure if I want to go back there after my airport experience! Talk to you all soon. -E

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