Welcom to the Tropics!

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After our very brief trip to Cairns we flew to Darwin. Darwin is soooooooooo hot! Am def not used to this temperature anymore. It's was about 32 degrees but as the sun is so strong it kinda feels like your whole body is on fire. Not good and meant that we had to be sensible with lots of suntan lotion and hats whenever we left the hostel. Luckily everywhere has air-con so it was easy to sleep - although saying that we had a girl in our dorm who was working in the local Irish pub and didn't get back till 5 am everyday. Meant we didn't meet her until for 2 days, which was strange!

Anyway, back to Darwin. It's an ok place. It's the first place where we have been where there are actually indigenous people. About time really! Although I didn't realise how bad the difference is between them and the other Australians, meaning the difference in wealth. It is quite shocking really, but I wont get into this now as I don't really know enough about it and I don't want to receive hate mail from people like Karen did!!!

We spent a couple of days in Darwin and as it is so hot most of the stuff happens in the evenings. It was kinda like being in Asia again as we went to a nightmarket, which pretty much sells the same stuff but at a much higher price! Although I did have a nice pancake there, which I probably wouldn't get in Asia. Also we went on a nice sunset cruise. We didn't opt for the fancy 4 course dinner one as it was a bit much, so instead we went for the champagne and canapes cruise, which was very nice. Although, for some reason they decided to sprinkle the platter of canapes with nuts so Ian couldn't have any. Instead he was given some fresh fruit, which was nice but not the same and we had fish and chips at the harbour after to make up for the lack of food. Sunset was really good and it is nice not to be on the East coast anymore as we can finally start to see some amazing sunsets.

Saying that it was too hot to go out in the day didn't stop as being true tourists as we went for a walk during the hottest part of the day around the Esplanade one day (which was ok, but not that amazing) and to the Botanical gardens the next. The gardens were really good and we saw some snakes and a massive spider. We also saw the locals playing cricket in the heat. Crazy, but apperently this is winter (well the dry season for them as they only have dry and wet) so they were fine!

All in all Darwin is a nice town, although I don't think that I would want to go out drinking there as the locals and backpackers look a bit dangerous to me!!! We have to go back here in about 6 weeks so it's a good job I don't hate it here.

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