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Published: June 25th 2017
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Wow. Get Ready to Land. We Are in Darwin Australia
This is exactly what we kept saying to ourselves as we approached this unexpected destination, so far from home - geographically at least. Who goes to Darwin Australia for, like, a weekend? Well, we do, it seems. The motivating factor was the required Visa run which all travellers are familiar with: the need to leave said country, only to re-enter again days - or even hours - later and start the clock ticking all over again on a new Visa on Arrival in the destination country. We had to resolve this dilemma, and when we began looking at our options, we found some sweet flight deals to Darwin from Bali - as in $150 round trip for the two and a half hour flight. Since we have already been to the other nearest options - Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, but have never been to Darwin, we decided to make it happen.
Point to note - do not assume that Australia has Visas on Arrival, like we did. We definitely should have known better, but we were relying on inaccurate memories from our last trip to Australia in 2006, from which we were convinced that we did not need visas in advance. WRONG. Believe me, it is not a good feeling to arrive at the airport to find out that you cannot board your
The Esplanade and Harbour
A large portion of this area was public park land, with beach and swimming areas, swimming pools, and parks, all surrounded by a variety of restaurants. Backing on to the public areas were a number of condos overlooking the ocean. The public parks area had glass elevators and a walkway connecting pedestrian traffic easily and safely from the beachside areas to the city's urban centre. plane because you do not yet have the required entry visa for the country you are flying to. Very fortunately, we arrived early enough to make the application on line - a service made available to Canadian passport holders and perhaps a half dozen other countries (don't ask me why). So we completed the application, paid our $20 fee for each, and immediately received emails saying all was well, had been electronically processed, and would appear on computer when our passports were presented in Australia. The entire on-line application procedure took less than twenty minutes. It worked out well in the end, and left us with a good lesson about adequate advance Visa prep for future travels.
Darwin is a lovely little city. It has some night life, a lot of parks, ocean esplanades, and condos overlooking the ocean - and much much more that we did not have the time or means to discover without renting a vehicle - public transportation and bicycle rentals not being available. In many ways it felt a lot like a very small, lower key Vancouver, some areas very closely resembling Stanley Park. People were friendly, the city was impeccably clean, and it
Vancouver Moment
As if this isn't reminiscent of Vancouver . . . Check it out, there is even a bike path! was a nice experience. It felt very much like being in Canada, with an Australian accent.
I am glad we came here. Sometimes you need to go somewhere to confirm where you do or do not want to be. This little jaunt - even though it entailed a fourteen hour travel day to get here and left us completely brain dead upon arrival, and even though it has been a pleasant experience - has reaffirmed that Australia is far too much like home for us, with its clean, quiet, nicely manicured streets and orderliness. We miss the energy and vibrancy of Asia : the streets full of people, the slow moving rivers of motorbikes frequently featuring family outings of four on one scooter, the music in the streets, the freely offered smiles, the feeling that something unexpected is always waiting to happen, and of course all the excitement and rewards of learning a new language and culture. Asia still has so much to offer us, and the more familiar we become, the more it feels like our home away from home. I think maybe I lived here in a past life . . .
So thank you Darwin.
The Bombing of Darwin
Darwin is a city that has been rebuilt three times. It had been destroyed by a major cyclone in the late nineteenth century, then rebuilt; bombed brutally by the Japanese in 1942, then rebuilt; and hit by another major cyclone in 1974, and again rebuilt. So it's quite new, as far as cities go. One could also say it is a city of some remarkable resilience. It has been a pleasure visiting. You have been very good for us.
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