Goodbye Darwin, up to Western Australia!

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Hello all,

Yes, finally I’m leaving Darwin!!! I’m really up to it, since I’m tired and sick of working now…it’s time to hit the road and travel again! The last two weeks I wasn’t much in the mood of working anymore.

Last couple of weeks in Darwin
The last few weeks in Darwin were good, everything went fine. My new passport is ready and all my stitches are removed from my right eye. Today I have to go to the hospital for a last check up before I leave town. Tonight I have my last shift at The Vic, Mc Donald’s was last Tuesday and I worked at a bakery three days this week for ManPower…packing bread in boxes, in the cool room. At Mc Donald’s they appreciated that I’ve worked there so long since they are always short on crew persons, and ManPower send me message thanking me for working for them and being reliable (always showing up when I have to work etc.); these things makes you feel good. At The Vic there’s nothing new. Still finding an average of AU$15 to 20 every night when I work (last Sunday AU$ 67!). But at The Vic they play the same songs every night and I was a little bit sick of hearing the same every night. And besides that, I wasn’t enjoying it as much as before…the “crew” we had the first couple of weeks was much better and more fun. Last week my two best colleagues (Tetly and Morris) came back from travelling which was good.

Micheal came back to Darwin early July since his father needed someone to help out in his shop. I didn’t expect him to come back at all, but it didn’t last long for him to go back to Bendigo since the father promised him many things but at the end he didn’t keep his promise. I caught up with him a couple of times; we also went to Pam’s birthday. Micheal still wants to save money to pay for a course, so he can go and work in Afghanistan or Iraq as a private security guard (they escort diplomats and other important people in those countries from point A to B and have to protect them against attacks from insurgents). I had lunch three times with Pam and Grant, while Pam’s mother (from Newcastle) was also here on holidays. It was nice to see them all again.

I also met with Heather in Darwin. She used to work at Melaleuca Hostel reception, where I stayed in the wet season. I used to stop at the reception on my way back from work and talk to her and Kyra for a while (Irish girl who used to work there too), sometimes bring them burgers from work. Heather lives in Darwin with on of her sons, Sam, and she has three other sons: one in Mildura, Victora; and the other two in Brisbane, Queensland. She also arranged with a friend in Melbourne so I could visit a school there. She’s been very nice to me, always saying that if I need anything to let her know. She even offered her car to me in case I really needed a car for an hour or two to go and do something. I really appreciated how she treated me here.

Leaving Darwin feels a bit weird because I’ve spend so much time here (5,5 months in total). But Darwin was “the place” for me to work and save money (and for many other backpackers), and that’s the reason why I spent so much time here. And the weather is warm like back home too, the city is small, not busy, no pollution and traffic congestions, it’s easy to go around and there is everything you need in this city.

The hostel
At the Cavenagh hostel/motel I stayed in room 43 since my arrival…a great and fun room. It was messy sometimes though, but that’s how dorms are. It’s a 12-bed dorm (6 bunkbeds) and again I had some great roommates here. We often went out together, had dinner together etc. I’m a fan of the cartoon Family Guy (not suitable for kids) and I bought some of the DVD’s and when I’m watching the half of the room comes and sits around my laptop to watch. The roommates who stayed here the longest are Will, Lewis, John, Kym, Cath (all five from the UK) and Gabriele from Italy. And we had several other people moving in and out but those six people have been here very long. I started play volleyball again early August, and played about five games together with the university team. We had training every Monday and games every Wednesday evening. I wanted to take pictures during the last game I played but I forgot to take my camera, too bad!

Further plans
I’m leaving Darwin tomorrow together with Alexandre from France and his sister (who is arriving tonight from France), Nick from UK and Cathy from Finland. Alexandre has a van with which we’ll be travelling the coming three weeks until Perth, capital of Western Australia. Many backpackers buy they own vehicle to travel around so they can be independent, but travelling alone is too expensive so they always search for people who wants to join, that way you can share the fuel costs, the driving etc. In hostels and other places they put messages on noticeboards like : “Lift offer to Perth” etc. That’s how I found Alexandre. We’ve met a couple of times already and he seems cool, so it’s going to be all right. All of us met earlier this week to discuss about where we’re going to stop etc. The plan is to stop at Litchfield National Park, Katherine, Kununnura, maybe The Kimberley’s, Broome, Eighty Miles Beach, Karijini National Park, Exmouth, Coral Bay, probably Monkey Mia & Shark Bay, Gerladton, Pinnacles Dessert and then Perth. To give you an idea: the distance between Darwin and Perth by car is about 4300 km.

I want to spend two or three days in Perth and then fly to Cairns in Queensland, from where I want to travel south and visit Arlie Beach, Whitsunday Islands, Hervey Bay, Fraser Island, Brisbane, Byron Bay, maybe Newcastle and then back to Sydney. My flight to Bangkok, Thailand is set for 14th of October but I can change that if necessary, free of charge. From Bangkok I want to fly to Hanoi in Vietnam and travel south to Ho Chi Minh City…and then visit Cambodja. Then I want to go back to Bangkok and fly to Philippines. This country has always attracted my attention and the fact that it’s not filled with tourists (yet) makes it even more interesting to visit. One of my Filipino managers at Mc Donald’s, Lovella, said that I could stay for a few days at their place on an island near Cebu. She also asked me to bring an ATM card for her brother when I go, but I couldn’t confirm yet which date exactly I’m going. As soon as I know that, I have to let her know and she’ll send me the card to Sydney so I can take it when I leave the country.

I was also thinking about spending 10 days in New Delhi, India because Chandan (my Mc Donald’s colleague) is from there and he’s going back in November to celebrate his birthday and of course visit his family and he invited me (he comes from a quite privileged family). But I’ll need a visa to visit India, which can take up to a week to be ready. The main problem is that I won’t have enough time for that visa to be ready, since the consulate has to keep your passport for that week…and I won’t be spending a week at any place from now on. So most probably New Delhi won’t happen. I’ll visit also Laos instead I think. Everything depends now on my money from tax back, I’m waiting to get that back and it will probably be next week. If I get what I expect to get, I can surely do Vietnam, Cambodja, Laos and Philippines. Those countries are VERY cheap and that will be a good feeling after travelling in the very expensive Australia.


Curaçao
I might be here in Australia but my mind is always in Curaçao. Amigoe, La Prensa and Extra are among the three first websites I always open when I go on the internet. I read about Senior League baseball becoming sub-champions of the world, Junior League World Champions and Little League again Caribbean champions…those things makes me feel proud of our tiny rock.
I also saw the races of Churandy Martina here. I saw both the 100m and 200m semi-finals and finals. During the final of the 100m I had to work at The Vic but they have TV-screens around the place so at 12:00am exactly I stopped working for a few minutes. During the 200m semi-final I was working at Mc Donald’s and the manager gave me 10 minutes to go to The Vic and watch the race, then come back. During the 200m finals I had the night off and some of my roommates also came with me to see the race, exactly at midnight. I had my Netherlands Antilles flag (an old one, with 6 stars) and of course I was happy when he finished second. When I heard about the disqualification the next day it ruined my whole day, I was not in the mood at all to work that day. I couldn’t believe what happened. In Osaka 2007, USA’s Michelle Perry completely stepped in the other lane during the last 40 to 50 meters of the 100m hurdles finals for women, disturbing the Swedish girl in that lane to get any medal. It was clearly visible, strange that officials didn’t see it. The Swedish protest was too late and USA kept their gold medal. Now the US protest against Martina was also too late, but Martina didn’t keep his silver medal. Just because it’s the USA they always get what they want? I hope the NAOC will win this case in court later this month. I can’t imagine that they’ll lose the case.

I've been thinking a lot these last couple of weeks....about my future, about going back to my island. I miss it a lot, my best friends and other childhood friends are there, my parents, my nephews, my brother and other family. It's the only place I can really call "home" and I feel prepared and ready to go back next year. It's the only place where I'd really like to settle down: have a permanent job, buy a car, a house, look for a serious relationship (not now, don't even talk about it 😉 ). Although I'm aware of opportunities that I might have abroad, and if I would only think about the money I could make then I wouldn't chose to go back to Curaçao for now. But money is not the main thing for me, otherwise I would prefer to stay in Australia, try hard to get a permanent and good job and stay here for good, or try to emigrate to another country where they have some of the highest salaries (Iceland or Norway maybe? lol).

The ONLY little thing that worries me a little bit about going back to Curaçao, is the study debt in Euro's that I'll have to start paying back next year. While earning Antillean Guilders it could be a pain in the ass, since € 1,00 = ca. ANG 2,70 I think. But it wouldn't be the end of the world...I just want to settle down at a place where I can really feel at home, where it's relaxed, where the weather is good, where the people say "good morning or good afternoon" to you, where general living conditions are good....so it has to be Curaçao (otherwise the other two of the ABC-islands 😉 ). Everything depends on the job vacancies which will appear in January 2009, and on the education departments of Curaçao who had an interview with me already. Since there is a shortage of teachers there, chances are good. If in any case it doesn't work out to go back in 2009, The Netherlands is definitely not a choice. I feel nothing at all to settle down there or work there again. It would be terrible to have to settle down there again. I'd rather try to work in some (southern) European country for a while. Will I miss The Netherlands? If I say no I'd be lying, of course I will miss it. It has been a nice couple of years, did a lot, met a lot of people, it's a good place to study and live, but 6 years were enough for me.

But I try not to worry or think too much about this. I’ll see what the future will bring to me. The most important is that we all enjoy life, be happy to have lovely family and friends, be grateful that we have food and a place to sleep everyday without taking those things for granted, since hundreds of millions others (even a billion) don’t.

Ok that’s enough for now I think…the blog is long enough. The next blog I’ll write it from Perth.


Take care you all,

Elton

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Comments

[bins]

nice narration!
hi, i read ur blog, i was trying to gather some information about darwin scince i am going to migrate there within two months. Whatever you wrote about darwin, reduce a lot s of my anxities. Your style of writting is too good. If get a chance visit India, regards, bins

[Elton]

Hello, thanks for your comment! India is definitely on my list of countries I want to visit in the future!!! Do you live there?