ONE MANS SEARCH FOR THE PERFECT BURGER

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We woke up and decided that a decent breakfast was needed before our long walk to the nature reserve. Feeling the need for something that tasted of breakfast and not curry, noodles or cake we struggled to find anything. Finally we spotted a burger king advertising breakfast served till 11am. This looked like our best bet. Looking at the menu we were pleased to see sausage and egg. As we read on we were soon disappointed to see it was served in a croissant - who’s crazy idea was this! Finally we found something that was served in bread and ordered just in time. At 10.55 every American for miles around descended upon this tiny restaurant desperate for breakfast, not minding who they shoulder barged out the way to get it. We settled ourselves in a quiet corner and bit into our first proper breakfast since we left. We couldn’t hide the disappointment in our faces as we realised the bread was sweet. A large amount of tomato sauce disguised most of the sugariness and made it at least edible. At least it wasn’t dried anchovy curry.

We set off on our trek to the nature reserve. We walked through little India with all its stalls and food courts. The busiest place by far was the huge beer stall, but this definitely appeared to be a men only zone. There was a fantastic buzz about as tonight was Eid, the end of Ramadan also called Hari Raya. Everyone was getting gearing up for a celebration and most people were wearing beautiful ornate clothes.
Just as we were leaving little India it started spitting with rain. We decided to carry on as it was still lovely and warm. Andy said that it was only about 3 miles so it shouldn’t take us too long. Four very soggy hours later I decided to mention that maybe we should be there by now? Andy checked the map but it appeared that we were still miles away. Not wanting to offend his map reading skills we blamed it on an inaccurate map scale and hopped on the train. We emerged from the station to very heavy rain. We weren’t exactly sure where the entrance to the nature reserve was, so we walked in the general direction. Again there were many funny shop names but the nature reserve was nowhere in sight. After wandering about in the rain some more we had to admit defeat and turn back. We wanted to get back to Little India in time to enjoy the Eid celebrations and would have to change out of our soaking clothes first. We caught the train back and as we wandered back through the stalls we came across another Clive Road. It appears that every country has one! We spent the evening watching the busy streets from our favourite table at the tapas bar. We met and had a beer with some interesting people throughout the night before finally making it to bed at 3am.

After only 5 hours sleep we were feeling a little delicate. There would be no lay in today as we were flying to Darwin. I was so pleased that I had packed the previous evening as I watched Andy and his aching head struggle to stuff everything in his bag. Eventually he decided that it would be easier to leave some stuff behind. After missing dinner the previous evening we were starving. We wandered round for a bit but with our rucksacks and our hangovers on the hottest day yet we just had to find some air con. We ended up in Burger King again. For Andy it turned out to be the best place we could have gone because as I looked at the menu I noticed there was a burger that Andy had been talking about for as long as I had known him. Apparently it was on the menu about 10 years ago and then disappeared. Ever since then he has checked menus in burger kings around the world with no luck. “Are you having the mushroom double swiss” I asked. “Don’t tease me” was his reply. As I pointed to the menu his eyes followed my finger and I could have sworn I saw a tear in his eye as he read the words he’d been longing to see for all these years. He almost floated to the counter to make his order. He unwrapped his meal and took his first bite - I didn’t ask how it was. I didn’t like to interrupt a rather special moment between a man and his burger!

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Comments

[Clive]

Clive
Amazing news on the long lost burger !!! And a Clive Street... Brilliat :)

[Alan]

To Spur You On
Just letting you know that I am very much enjoying your bloggs - as before . Keep taking the time & trouble to write - it makes me very jealous - except for the ribit bit - you can keep that. All the best to both . Alan