9th December:- Darwin - The worlds beer best drinking city....

The flight to Darwin was bang on time. So, here I was in the southern hemisphere. It is actually 21 years, almost to the day that I had last been in Australia. How things had changed. For a start it was much more expensive. The last time it was $2.50 to the £. Now it is similar to the American dollar at around $1.50 to the £ plus the prices have gone up a lot.

I had applied for an 'E' visa. I was a little anxious that things had gone through OK, despite the fact that I had the confirmation email and had boarded the Air Asia flight with no problems. On the website it suggested that you had to pay $20, but I got it for free. I passed through immigration with no problem, just a few questions around where I was going and had I planned to come to Oz. the 'e' visa gives me three months in OZ although I could leave the county and return for another three months within a year if I decided that is what I wanted to do (or if I could afford it)!
Immigration decided to follow the lead of the Bali immigration and stamp my passport from the back. Fuckwits.

In the airport terminal I got some cash from the ATM which gave me $50 notes. I knew that the place I was staying was not far from the airport but had no idea how much it would cost. I saw a change machine and without really reading it put in a $50 note. It was like winning the jackpot... I got $50 in $1 coins, not only that, the poured out all over the floor. Rather embarrassing to say the least.

I had to wait ages for the taxi, eventually though I was on my way. You can imagine my horror as the taxi meter spun round and I ended up paying $25 dollars for the short trip. Once again the taxi driver could not find the hostel. He was reasonable enough to stop the meter at $25 though.

The place I was staying was a youth hostel. As I was leaving at a ridiculous hour in the morning I had opted for a singe room. Even that had cost me $50 for the night. Well over my daily budget. At least when I met up with Matt we were getting free accommodation for a month and then the accommodation charges would be shared.

The room was very very basic, just a bed. No bathroom, that was shared. I had a quick wash a d the. Went out to explore. Darwin has the claim to being the biggest beer drinking city in the world. It was later afternoon and loads of Christmas parties were in full swing. Darwin seems to revolve around Mitchell street, it wasn't long before I was observing people staggering around pissed in the afternoon. I had a couple of beers, even they were significantly more expensive than in Asia. The weather was roasting, after a drink and a wander round ( stopping to purchase some nicorettes as I was going to make a concerted effort to reduce the number of cigarettes I smoked - for budget rather than health purposes).

I headed back to the hostel, fully intending to go out for something to eat later. I never made it....

My flight was at 7:30 in the morning so I needed to be up early. Rather than get a taxi, there was a bus that stopped at the hostel. Even that was $15.

I didn't sleep very well at all, it was so hot, unfortunately it was only about 3:00am when I realised that I had aircon as well as a fan and I was to be picked up at 5:15 for the short trip to the airport. I was up early and the bus was on time for the rather long flight to Sydney.

The bus driver was much too jolly for that time in the morning...