In a Land Down Under
Trip Start
Apr 19, 2008
1
4
42
Trip End
Nov 31, 2008
Darwin,
Australia
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Welcome to Australia!
Unfortunately it was after midnight when the supercheap Tiger Airways flight from Singapore touched down in Darwin so I saw little from the air or en-route to my hostel. But I gained an insight into local life the following morning, skimming the 'Northern Territory News' over a cafe breakfast on the street, enjoying headlines such as "10,000 Drunks Locked Up' and "UFO Spotted Over Northern Territory". Darwin is being developed and marketed as a hotspot tropical destination but, while bearing little resemblance to the wild town in which Mick Dundee did his drinking, I found there was a still a feel of 'frontier' edge to the place, with its leather skinned residents, gunshops, tough-nut men downing beer at 10 am and dishevelled-looking aboriginals weaving across the roads.
I took the opportunity, being back in an English speaking country, to visit the local cinema which turned out to be the most atmospheric I have ever sat in. 'The Deckchair Cinema'is just that - a few rows of deckchairs in front of a big screen showing one of the many alternative non-Hollywood films from their listings. You show up at dusk, buy a ticket, help yourself to free mossie spray, buy a beer and a plate of lentil curry, grab a cushion and settle in for a show under the stars. It was great. (The film was 'Two Days in Paris' and mom and Anju, you both have to see it for the French characters in it...)
I noticed several odd things in Darwin, after 10 months in Asia:
*I went to several toilets and they ALL had loo paper! How strange!
*When browsing through tourist junk in a souvenier shop, everything was price-tagged and the owner offered neither a "Special price for you, my friend!" nor a "How much you want pay? You first customer, very lucky for me!" ... weird.
*12 euro covered, not a private room, 3 meals and a couple of beers, but merely a bunk in an 8-bed dorm... and food was extortionate... that hurt.
*5 euro bought 20 minutes of public transport, instead of 12 hours.. ouch!
*There were lots of really obese people - I'm not being fattist (not an option given the size of my current beer belly!) but it was a shock after months in Asia where large people are very rare.
*There is no dire Asian pop music playing anywhere... oh happy day! Though there's plenty of dire Aus-pop to replace it, which is not necessarily a good thing...
*Excuse me for stating the obvious but everyone talks in Aussie accents!!! It's like being in an episode of 'Neighbours'! Mighty odd after listening to various foreign tongues for so long. I can start eavesdroppuing on conversations again!
On my second morning I boarded the longest train I have ever travelled on, The Ghan, which cuts right down through the middle of this vast land, with a handful of passenger carriages followed by a never-ending line of freight cars. After 24 hours of chugging across rich, red earth peppered with scrubby bushes, pointed termite mounds, and wallabies gazing confusedly at the metal tube whizzing past them, we were now a couple of hours from 'a town called Alice', which is still only half way down the map. It's hard for me to get my head around the immense distances these train journeys cover, but I have plenty of trips ahead to get a feel for it!
Comments
Luxury!
So you took the train, eh? Luxury! In my day, we had to take the bus from Darwin down to Alice Springs, even if the road was nearly washed out. Kids these days ...
Re: Luxury!
Don't think they had built the train in your day, weren't they still using camels?!!!!!!!!!!! God, these aul' wans an' their travel tales...!!!