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We jumped on a plane to Singapore early morning Thai time. We knew we had nearly 12 hours to kill before our next flight so investigated going into Singapore centre. Then spoke to an Irish girl on the plane about the Ozzie visa situation and she scared us into buying a return flight as she was convinced that even with a tourist visa we might have to have proof of us leaving the country (Dan - the Irish know nothing!). It was one of those times that you knew if you didn't sort it out they would ask so we decided to be a bit cautious and use our free Singapore time to search for a flight home. After guessing our daily budget we figured that we had to return home near the end of June. Luckily there was an internet cafe in Singapore airport launderette with a printer and we found our flights back from Melbourne for around 600 quid (what a bargain - relatively speaking) but knowing the end of my adventure was near was very strange.
Anyway, after killing lots more time in Changi airport we left for Oz. Got exit seats on the plane although I nearly decided to make a quick one when the smelly guy next to me asked the air steward if this was the same plane that broke down yesterday... Apparently the very plane we were on had broken down the day before, he said it had been fixed but this did not really help with my nerves! Why would you even say something like that!!!!!!!
After a sleepless flight we arrived around 4am Darwin time. We were dreading that immigration weren't going to let us in as the visa process had been so easy. Despite what the silly Irish girl had said it was mega super easy. The only thing that took some time was quarantine as we had been swimming in a freshwater lake within the past 30 days. They just wanted to see the footwear we had been wearing - strange as you don't often wear things on your feet when swimming but as I explained to them, most of the things we had when in Laos doing the tubing were destroyed (dans leg - hahaha), stolen (my flip flops) or lost. And that was that - no mention of return flights. They just let us in, took a while for it to sink in as we thought it was going to be such an effort. Lesson learnt, don't listen to Irish girls... bit of a recurring theme.
Anyway, not the best airport to hang out so we headed straight to our hostel. Dan was short changed on the airport bus and the people didn't seem that friendly - not a great start. We had already emailed the hostel to say we were on the early flight so knew that we could hang out there till 6.30 then leave our bags there and check in properly at midday. Instantly Dingo Moon Lodge cheered us up as they allowed us to have the free breakfast on offer and got our room ready super fast (dorm room but on our own) as they knew how tired we were. They were so friendly and helped us out at every stage of our stay. We love Dingo Moon!!!!
We had a little wander round Darwin and was so clean, tidy and had lots of new modern buildings especially down in the marina area. Bright blue skies but was only 28 degrees so we weren't sweating constantly!!
Had a good sleep that afternoon to recover and then went out for our free meal in the evening and met some strange South African bloke who now lived in New Zealand. Darwin was just the right amount of Western-ness to keep me from being too homesick. I hadn't realised till I got there how much I was missing normal stuff. Now we were in Oz we have to make our own meals but going supermarket shopping and "cooking" was quite nice actually. Had a bad first impression of Aboriginal folks - hadn't realised what a divide in the community there was and really how obvious the drug and alcohol problems are.
Next evening we headed up the Mindil Beach sunset markets and had a good look around at all the things we could no longer afford (I miss Thailand prices) but there was an awesome sunset over the beach and we saw a pod of dolphins swimming across the bay too. Very special. We tried Kangaroo Jerky and listened to a Didgeridoo drum kit duo - very ozzie!
Bought a pack of cards to try and save some money - then realised we only knew three 2 player games so any suggestions welcome... Smelly "Outback Colin" tried to help us play a few more games but his bush skills, dungerees and silly feather hat didn't really help! More amusement that evening came from some idiot Scottish bloke who had presumably locked himself in the blokes loo and then fallen asleep after a few too many tinnies. When we all realised a few hours later that he was still in there and none of his "friends" were around anymore, we tried to get him out as we were a little worried what might have happened. Our Ozzie friend then came back from another pub adventure (locked himself out of the hostel the night before) and starting banging on the door shouting "Darwin Police". This didn't work either but was very very funny. After the door was finally broken down he was just lying passed out on the floor with a broken loo seat on his head. Amazingly he sprung up suddenly and just staggered off to his room. Drama over. He was a bit sheepish the next day as this was witnessed by half of the hostel. Watching drunk people whilst sober is lots of fun!
On our last day we did our own walking tour of Darwin (thanks to Lonely Planet) and saw some interesting places and some rather strange, not so interesting places (WWII Oil Storage Tanks that were never actually used) but our impression of Darwin was very good. Met a few cool people at the hostel and had good fun in the pool. Best thing was bumping into a friend I had made on the vodka-train. I had no idea Anna was going to be in Darwin but we spotted each other from across the street as our hostels happened to be opposite each other. It was so lovely bumping into her again and we had a really great evening catching up.
Our flight to Cairns was again really early. As the airport bus was at 2.50am, we were going to stay up all night but then we went back to our room for an hours rest as we were so fed up of listening to an ex-Ozzie Naval officer, half French, vegan, racist, douche-bag, rant on about his hate for Asian people and the fact he was running away from his "issues".... Dan is convinced his girlfriend must have left him for a Chinese bloke!
Anyway, that was Darwin...
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Denise Craig
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Very funny account of your entry into Australia. Sounds like Dan has the ex-naval officer's number. The best 2-person card game I know is Crib, but you really need someone to show you how and a crib board of course. I'd try to find a scrabble or chess set - they are good two player games. Good to speak to you on Skype earlier too - hope you feel better soon. You certainly sound perkier in your blog than you did on the video call.:-) All the best Moot xx