Day 81 – Darwin to Singapore.

My final day in Darwin, I checked out just before 10am and put my bag in the storage room. I had 5 hours to fill before I got the airport shuttle at 3pm so first things first, was some breakfast. I walked over the road to Gloria Jeans and got myself some raisin toast (amazing) and some iced tea. The thing I’ve come away loving the most this time from Australia, ok I mean chocolate, is a Cherry Ripe. The packaging describes it as ‘ripe juicy cherries and coconut in old gold rich dark chocolate’ it’s just awesome. I like that and all of the Cadburys Marvellous Creations, the thing with them being new over here is that they are always on offer! Obviously I’ve loved other things but what is more important than chocolate aye? I then popped round the corner to book myself on the airport shuttle.

The weather wasn’t that good but it was still humid so I decided to pop to the Darwin Library to use their free wifi. It upsets me I’ve become one of those people. I finally managed to book my bus from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur; I researched some more on Asia and checked in online for my flight.

I slowly made my way back to Melaleuca to get my bag and made my way over to the transit centre to get my bus. On the way to the airport it started to rain, I think I got the best out of the weather whilst I was in Darwin, which was lucky!

On arrival the queue for check in was a little long and although I checked in online the woman wanted to see my onward flights, I wasn’t quite sure why but I had them on me so it made no difference. I then went through 1 security desk where I was ‘randomly’ chosen to have my bag swabbed, obviously nothing came up so I went through, I then went through another security desk and eventually got to border control, seems like a right nightmare for such a small airport. On the other side there was 1 café/shop, that was it. Finally boarded the plane, which took off on time. Landing in Singapore I gained an hour and a half back, so now I’m only 8 hours different from the UK, which I guess will become 7 on Sunday when the clocks change.

I got the airport shuttle, which dropped me right outside my hostel ‘Matchbox’ in Chinatown which was lovely for £4! I arrived there about half 10 and the room was pretty cool. So I was in a dorm but you get your own little pod to sleep in, even got a towel and the best thing is Singapore has UK plug sockets! YAY! It just means less adapters and also the wifi was pretty quick! I’ll put a photo of the pod below so you can see what I’m talking about, easier than trying to explain it.

Day 80 – Darwin.

Everyone who has stayed in this room seems to be up and out at 8am, I’m not quite sure why as none of them are working in Darwin, clearly I’m missing something! I walked down the high street looking in shops and stuff, I would do more interesting things like go to Kakadu national park for the day but it’s about $200 which is ridiculous plus I spent 3 days looking at Uluru etc and it’ll be pretty similar to that. Everything else to do here is about $30 and I’ve seen crocodiles and other things the last time I was here so I’ve decided to save money and just do the free/cheap things instead. That and treat myself to ice cream of course. Speaking of, for breakfast I went into a café and had a scone with cream and jam for brunch… it was terrible. I don’t really know why I thought it would be as good as home, maybe because the scone looked really good and appealing in the cabinet but I shouldn’t have been fooled!

I made my way down to the lagoon and thought about going into the wave pool but decided against it. Imagine The Pyramids (swimming pool in Portsmouth) mega waves, that’s what it looks like but outside. To make up for my terrible brunch I treated myself to another ice cream from Trampoline.

It all got a bit too much so I cooled off with a drink in The Precinct a pub/bar near the wave pool. I read some more of my book and if you wanted to know I am currently reading ‘Skinny Dip’ by Carl Hiaasen and loving it! I’m already 70% through and I only started it when I arrived in Darwin and will finish it before I leave, tells you how hooked I am!

I went for another lay in the sun before heading back to the hostel and organising my bag so it’s ready for the morning. I chucked out a few tops and I’m still finding it hard to close… WHAT IS THIS?! Basically I blame the Australian Open towel for taking up so much room. That is my problem!

Day 79 – Darwin rainy season.

I woke up quite late, about 11, I think the week of early mornings and lack of sleep has finally caught up on me, surprising as these beds are very squeaky, move a lot and look a bit like you’re in a hospital.

Anyway, I got up and for I guess breakfast but technically lunch I walked a few doors down to a Thai place to grab some food. I went for the classic Pad Thai and oh my god, the portion was massive, so good but it was huge! Once again I made my way down to chill at the lagoon. The reason you can’t swim in the actual sea is because they have a big problem with sharks and at this time of year jellyfish too. On the walk to the lagoon you do walk past some old ruins from world war two when the Japanese bombed the place but the signs kinda just say ‘ohh look, ruins!’ and that’s about it… really informative.

Early afternoon I walked over to Trampoline to grab an ice cream which was awesome! It’s like $4 for 2 flavours and they’re some crazy flavours I’ve never heard of and so Australian, you can even get lamington flavour! Basically chocolate and coconut but still, it’s the thought that counts. Within about an hour of eating this the heavens opened and it was hammering it down, I could see it coming closer so as I was walking away it started to rain which was quite amusing to watch all these people sun bathing start screaming and grabbing there stuff. It was a drop here and there and then BAM! Torrential rain. I sat under a shelter for a while reading my book and waiting for it to die down a little before making my way back.

The best thing about being in hostels is talking to other people who have been to the same places, plan to go to or have been to the places you’re going to. For example this evening I found out there isn’t a train from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur like many websites say, they stopped that about 3 years ago and the overnight bus will get you there about 4am which is very helpful to know as I don’t wanna arrive in KL at 4am! So the plan now is to stay another night in Singapore and get the super early bus to get me to KL for midday which means I can still catch the practise rounds for the F1, happy days!

Day 78 – Darwin, Flix in the wet.

I discovered late yesterday that on a weekend this place basically shuts down. Most shops shut at 1 or 2 on a Saturday afternoon and don’t open at all on a Sunday. Bars and stuff yes but anything else no, so I was at a bit of a loose end. Before I came to Darwin I googled about an outside cinema, as they’re everywhere in Australia, especially in the summer, because of the good weather. I found that although it’s rainy season they were putting on films every Sunday called ‘Flix in the wet’. I watched the trailer for ‘Short term 12’ and thought it looked quite interesting and a ticket to go was only $10 so I thought, why not! I made my way to the Deckchair Cinema which is near the harbour but as I got there I realised I was in the wrong place… obviously it’s rainy season so why would they show the films outside? Silly me! So I made my way back up the long flight of stairs to where my hostel was and about 1 block down was the cinema. Finally in the right place! The film was alright but it had a bit of an abrupt ending, the best bit about the experience was being in an air-conditioned cinema escaping the humidity of outside.

I left the cinema and walked down to the lagoon for a chill in the sun, quick swim and to read my book. When I finished here I made my way back to my hostel because I still had a few hours of internet leftover from the night before so I booked my Singapore and Kuala Lumpur stay and researched about some other things. The most annoying thing about this place is to use the internet you have to sit in the lobby because although you can connect to the wifi in your room the signal doesn’t actually work.

Day 77 – Alice Springs to Darwin.

I needed to check out by 10am but lucky for me the airport shuttle was picking me up at 9.55am. I checked in alright and because it’s only a domestic flight I was even allowed to take my own big water bottle through customs with me which was a bonus! Today I was flying with Qantas and the flight was barely full so I had a whole row to myself, which was awesome! We even got given an inflight mean for a 2 hour flight which I didn’t know I was getting, I’m glad seeing as it cost me an arm and a leg to fly with them, not that I had any other choice seeing as they are the only airline who fly north. I watched The Book Thief on the plane and found the movie dragged and didn’t tell the story anywhere near as good as the book. I didn’t even get to finish the whole film before we landed, 15minutes early I’d like to add!

The shuttle to the city was easy peasy and the guy dropped me right outside. It wasn’t the sunny here but bloody hell was it hot! I’m staying at Melaleuca on Mitchell which is in an awesome location and walking distance to pretty much anything you want to do, bonus points for coles being a 2 second walk across the road. I went for a walk around and down to the waterfront to see the lagoon and wave pool which I’ll go to at some point, it doesn’t look like there is a lot here to do but it’ll be nice to rest after an intense 3 days along with the early starts! I probably walked about 30k in the past 5 days as well as paddle boarding on Monday.