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Published: November 22nd 2006
Park In Darwin
How Clean Is this?! ***** UPDATES ON ASIA COMING SOON *****
We reached Darwin today in the early hours of the morning (approx 4am). As usual, drama ensued! Firstly, we were on a flight operated by 'Jetstar', its the worst airline I've ever traveled with for leg room, my knees were at my chin as the space was so cramped! It was supposed to be a Qantas flight so you can imagine the uproar during the flight! Everyone was having a moan that they had paid for Qantas but were given this lousy Jetstar flight instead and everyone's going to be writing to Qantas about it. For us it was a 5 1/2 hour journey so although we joined in with the moans (as you do), we were lucky to leave the flight at Darwin whilst most people were flying onto Cairns.
When we left the aircraft we had to get rid of any food and drink we had as we weren't allowed to bring it into the country! Oooo... Went through immigration and had our passports checked and stamped. On the way out I was stopped by one of the security ladies who asked 101 questions about our stay and how
Park
Park In Darwin long we were traveling for and how we were planning to travel etc.. Long! We turned the corner to baggage reclaim and heard a woman bellowing "Stop right there, don't move... I said hold it right there." I saw my bag going past so went to reach for it and I got shouted at "I said don't move". Ok so now I was scared, I asked the lady in the khaki coloured shorts and shirt with the sniffer dog really nicely if I could pick up my bag, she was like "Pick it up and drop it don't move from there". Wow, this was serious! Ria & I are standing there being circled by this little dog, sniffing away at us. We got the all clear from the doggy but I was too scared to move until she told me I could do so! We put our bags on the trolley and made our way to the next point. Here we were asked if we had any thing to declare or any medication. Ria then realised she left her ciggies that she bought in Singapore on the plane. The lady said she would see what she could do and went
Sunset
At The Park in search of a Jetstar rep. So we waited around for a bit and I ended up going through the next check point with the bags whilst Ria waited to see if they could locate her fags. Nice one Ria, we got out of having to open up our backpacks and show them all our medication! I also didn't tell them when they asked that I had wooden objects in my bag... I mean, I bought them as a pressie so I weren't going to dash them out of my bag! Plus I figure if it was that forbidden their great security systems would pick up on them right!
So I move on out of the arrivals and on my way out, our immigration cards are just sitting there on the table so I figure they are for us to keep (as we did in Asia) so I picked them up and walked out.
Once out of the terminal I went to sort out the bus to our accommodation. Thinking the Visitor Information Desk was the place to go, I went up to the lady and asked her how we arrange the bus to drop us at our accommodation.
Sunset
More Of The Beautiful Sunset She didn't even look up at me, oh no she was too busy knitting away! Said to go outside and get the bus. Great, thanks for that! So god only knows why but I proceeded with my second question but I did anyway, I asked if I needed to keep hold of the immigration card for leaving Australia. She glanced up briefly and blimey, the response I got was "Well I don't know what your doing with them, they aren't supposed to be this side of the wall so I don't know". Great source of info was this old dear! I quickly went back to see if I could get through the arrivals terminal but no such luck so I walked down to the immigration desk and handed them over there. They must have been important as the guy was like "My god, you are a legend for bringing these back, thank you so much!".
I found the bus we were to board and Ria came out still minus her fags. We paid our board (which was refunded at the backpacker lodge) and were struggling to pick up our backpacks when the driver just got one in each hand
Sunset
Cant Get Enough Of The Sunset and loaded them on. Oh my gosh! We'd spent so long in Thailand loading and off loading our own packs with the bus drivers watching us struggle that we were shocked, we just looked at each other and started laughing! Well impressed! As we were about to depart, the security ran up to the bus with Ria's fags in hand. Nice one! Ria was talking about having to give up as she lost them so Im glad she got them back, we all know what withdrawal symptoms are like! Hee hee!
STA did a great job and failed to let the hostel know we required a bed when we landed (even though we gave them our flight number and everything), so we ended up having to wait until the manager arrived at about 6.30am before we were able to get into a dorm (yes, we are dormin' it up out here!) earlier (think usual check in was at 10am).
After a few hours kip we decided to see what Darwin had to offer so we took a stroll down to the park (nothing like Wandsworth Common -so clean!) and saw the beautiful sunset. The Aboriginal people seem to like
Shall We Walk?...
Decided Against Walking Down The Path To The Beach For Fear Of This Sign me as they keep saying hello or just stopping to have a good ol look at me. I think its because there are not any black people here except for them so when they see someone like me, they're like "yes my sister". Ok so not quite like that as they have their own language but you get what I mean.
We walked around Darwin and found a cinema. We decided to come back to see The Departed. On the walk back to our digs we enquired about the prices of tours to Ayres Rock and Alice Springs. It turns out we don't have enough time to cover these areas and the national parks as our flight is due out on 22nd. So we talked to one of the travel desk ladies and asked her to find us the cheapest way to go. She gave us a few different options but due to funds we had to opt for the longest journey ever and take a 24 hour greyhound bus to Alice and book a tour from there. Think we'll book that tomorrow.
After a freshen up, we went back to the cinema to see the film. It
Ria
Out On The Lash was such a good movie, I would recommend you all go and see it. Absolute quality! We went for a drink in the hostel bar afterwards and ended up chatting to a guy called Ben who works up in Darwin. We all ended up going back into town for a few more drinks. In this one place were a live band, think they were called The Skins, they were really good and played requests from the crowd and got people up singing as well. I got cornered by this idiot of a guy who has never seen a black person as dark as me so kept trying to stroke my hair and touch my skin. He was freaky, just wouldn't let it go and kept asking if he could stroke my hair and my arm. I was obviously unimpressed, I mean I got it LOADS in Thailand and Malaysia but those are countries that don't often see people as dark as I so I understand why they point, stare and laugh hysterically but this guy should have a bit more brain power. He's surrounded by Aborigines who are darker than I am so what the hell is the big deal?!
The Jig
Ria Doing A Jig With The Irish Boys Managed to shake him off and we moved onto a club. On the way we bumped into an Aussie who was also heading there so we all went together. The club was quite small as they had closed off the downstairs area for the evening but we had a good dance and I was offered a job washing cars and a hotel to stay in by a dirty old man who wouldn't leave me alone, got called boring because I wouldn't dance with another dude and got talking to some Aborigine girls in the ladies dunny. They were sweet, loved my hair and wanted me to do their's! I don't think so.
So our first day in Australia was cool, the people seem nice enough but Darwin is very quiet. All the shops close at 4pm so after that time its like a ghost town except for the backpacker hostels and bars! Loving it all the same, going to book our bus to Alice Springs tomorrow.
Sorry no pics today, maybe tomorrow!
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Mum
non-member comment
2nd blog
Hi Roxie, is so nice to read about all this. Good on you and Ria. Keep enjoying very bit of time there. Lots of love. Mum.