Thursday, April 26, 2007

Tour to Litchfield National Park and Kakadu National Park

I booked a 4-day combined tour to both Litchfield NP and Kakadu NP for a total pf AU$500 at Chili's Backpackers. The tour was conducted by Kakadu Dreams travel agency.

I went to Litchfield at 7:00 on 23, Apr. It took us, a group of 9, almost 2 hours to get there. There are many beautiful waterfalls in the park. We walked to 3 of them, and swam in the ponds under 2 of the waterfalls. Generally it was a very beautiful place. We came back to Darwin around 7:00 PM. The tour guide gave each of us a voucher to a bar for a free meal. I went to have the dinner with one of my German roommate, Thomas. He's only 20 years old, and he's been in OZ for 8 months. He's left for Broom and latter Perth already.

Next day at the same time, and again 9 members, we got on the 4WD truck to Kakadu. Our driver and guide was Dean. He's a nice guy, he knows a lot about the parks and he's kind of a natural guy, he walked with bare feet quite often, and he's big beard, and dirty jeans.

Kakadu is a even more beautiful place and huge place then Litchfield. A stay for 3 days may better lead you know it better. But unfortunately in the daytime, there are many flies disturbing you everywhere. There are many indigenous art heritages in the park. The indigenous people painted on many big rocks. The paintings were unique and interesting. Dean led us to 2 lookouts. On the lookouts we saw the most beautiful and hugely vast views of Kakadu. It was simply beautiful on the lookouts.

In the evening we went to a campsite and prepared dinner there. The nighttime was very bad with countless mosquitoes everywhere and at every minute attacking you. The insect repellents we have were all useless. The mosquitos were not scared of them at all.

Dean cooked some hot salad, buffalo sausages and kangaroo meat for our dinner. That's the first time I had buffalo and kangaroo. They were both not bad. Kangaroo tasted quite similar to beef to me.

After taking a shower, I went into the tent to sleep. I shared a tent with an English middle-aged man. I think he's arrogant, ignorant and unfriendly. He thoug that it's too hot in the tent, so he simply opened the doord of the tent. But of course the mosquitoes all swarmed into the tent. I really hated that and I also hated him. I took all my stuffs out of the tent, and sat between the tents thinking I might be able to listen to some music with my media player until the dawn. But I was attacked by more mosquitoes. I thought maybe it wouldbe better in the truck, but it was not as well. I didn't sleep all night. The only thing good at that night was that there were so many stars in the sky, and I saw several shotting stars. I never saw so many stars in Taiwan, it was simply beautiful.

On the next day, when my anticipating daytime arrived finally, we went to several waterfalls and swam in some of them just like in Litchfield. However, I think that the waterfalls in Litchfield were more beautiful. And I was so tired because I didn't get any sleep. In the afternoon, I dicided I have to return to Darwin with the other 2-day participants. So I came back to Darwin one day earlier.

There were some nice Dannish and Swiss in our group to Kakadu. I enjoyed a lot talking with them. The 2 Dannish girls were very beautiful and funny. On the way back to Darwin, we learned some of both of our languages. It was fun on the way.

Life in Darwin

I've been in Darwin since last Thursday. The weather is always very very good here. We have a cloudless blue sky and strong sunlight everyday.

Darwin is not a big city, it has a population of only about 100,000. Most of the hostels and hotels are in the city center area. This area is not very large either. It's mainly composed of the blocks between Mitchell St., Smith St., Cavenagh St., and the Esplanade. You can easily take a walk around the whole area in an hour.

There are 2 aupermarkets in the city center. They are Coles and Woolworth. Generally I go to Coles, 'cause I think it's cleaner, to buy water and some food each day. Most shops in Darwin close at around 5:30, except the restaurant and bars. But Coles open until the midnight, so it's convenient to me.

I stay in the Darwin YHA here. There are 8 beds in a room, and a bathroom. My roommates are always composed of people from different countries. There are many Japanese and Europeans. But I don;t meet many Taiwanese here. In my room, there are one German and one Japnaese who have stayed there since my arrival. They're quite friendly. The German is a cook, and he just gets a job at a restaurant of the casino Sky City. The Japanese man is a bit older, he's been in Australia for years, and he had stayed in Briabane for 4 years. During the past week, I have met people from Germany, Japan, Switzerland, Slovenia, and France in my room. I like to talk to them. The most special one I met was from Swiss. He's been traveling for 30 years, and have been to more than 100 countries. He left our room yeaterday to go to New Zealand, and the South America latter.

Life in Darwin is generally not bad., except that the price of food is much more expensive than in Taiwan. I walked around often, the farthest place I walked to is Fannie Bay. It's a walk of an hour away from my hostel. There are beautiful beaches along the way to Fannie Bay, and green and lush plant gardens and museums. I got caught in a museum there, because I didn't know it was tp be closed soon, so suddenly when I was still sitting on the sofa at a gallery in the museum, the lights were turned off and the shutter was pulled down. I was afraid that I might have to spend a night there, but luckily I met the securities, they helped me get out.

One day after I walked to Cullen Bay and strolled on the beach and the bay area, and bought a map at a bookstore, I met a great person who's a Fijian living in Melbourne for more than 7 years already. He then gave me a ride to East Point, and latter latter treated me beer and baramundi and chips at a yacht club's restaurant. The beer and fish were excellent. He told me that the Victoria Bitter beer was the best. We talked a lot during that afternoon. He's a mechanist, and he has been to Taiwan and China for equipment maintenance several times. We really had a great time there. Hope I can meet him when I go to Melbourne.

Saturday, April 21, 2007

First 2 days in Darwin, Australia

I took the plane at 20:20 of 18, Apr. 2007 at Changi Airport to Darwin. The fight of Tiger Airways locates at the Budget Terminal of Changi Airport. You have to take the shuttle bus running between the 1st, 2nd and the budget terminal, or you can ride the taxi. I took a taxi there, just like the night when I arrived. The taxi driver I took when I arrived at Changi was an Indian. I really cannot not understand the accent of the Indian people, I could not understand almost any word he's saying, so I had to tell him that I cannot speak English.

During the way to Darwin, our plane met several turbulences. When we arrived at Darwin Airport, it was almost 2 hours earlier than 2:30 which was scheduled to be our arrival time. So I thought we're having an emergency landing. But it was actually due to the fact that Darwin has a time 1 hour and 30 minutes earlier than in Taiwan and Singapore. I didn't notice that and was so ridiculously worried.

There is always a shuttle bus to the city center from the airport you can take after the arrival of a plane. The fee of the bus is AU$6, you can get a refund from the hostel if stay for more than 2 nights.

I met a Taiwanese girl on the plane. She's also holding a WHV. On the first day of our arrival, we went together to open bank accounts at Westpac, and walked around the city to get familiar with the area. On the 2nd day, we went to buy sim card, and we both chose Boost. And then we went to the office of the Department of Immigration to get our visa stickers which can be attached on our passports. Since then we parted and never meet, maybe will not meet in the future either.

And the rest days in Singapore

Sorry that I cannot get online often. I'm now in Darwin, the internet is as expensive as it is in Singapore. It costs AUD $1 for only 15 minutes.

The stay in Singapore was actually great. I took the very convenient MRT system to many places, namely Singapore Zoo, Night Safari, Jurong Birdpark, Orchard Road, Clark Quay, Chinatown, Little India, and Sentosa etc.

Among those places, I like Sentosa the most. I learned from the Backpackers.tw forum that if you want to go to Sentosa you have to take the MRT to Marina Bay station. Well, that is absolutely not true. The area around Marina Bay was like an industry area, I took the MRT train there and see not many people there, so I wondered why does the popular Sentosa attract so few people. I walked around the station, and at a bus stop I asked so nice guys who seemed like from Malaysia or other South East Asian countries. They didn't speak English well either, but they were very friendly and were kind to tell me that I have to get back to the MRT, take the train to Raffle's Place and switch to the East West Line and get off train at Outram Park station.

After I arrived Outram Park station, I found that there are many tall buildings around there. The World Trade Center was there and so do a big shopping mall. There were many road sings indicating you to the entrance of the cable car station to Sentosa, and the bridge you might be able to walk to Sentosa. I decided to take the cable car. At the ticket booth of the cable car, they also sold several tour packages, I now think none of them is worthy the price. Unfortunately I bought package #1 for more than S$55, and it proved to be really not worthy at all.

On the cable car to Sentosa, you can see the magnificent view of the harbour and both the islands of Singapore and Sentosa. That was a great experience. When I arrived at Sentosa I took a rest at a Subway sandwich store nearby and then went to a butterfly and insect museum which was in cluded in the tour package I bought. It was near the Subway, oh and the toilets were around the corner as well. The museum exhibits some man-made models of insects and a lot of information concerning insects. The best part of it is a big greenhouse containing many trees and other plants, and many many living butterflys. If you're a butterfly lover, you certainly will like the place.

Then I played a utility named the Luge and something I forgot. I have to pay for theticket, basically you have to pay for everything on Sentosa. You have to put on a helmet, and then you ride a little tricycle down the hill. It was fun. Down the hill was a man-made but really great beach. The sand was white and soft, and the coconut trees , the bright sunshine, the blue sky all made it look like a tropical paradise. I hopped into the sea, but due to the fact that I havn't been swimming for years already, so I inhaled some bitter and salty seawater. Then I laid on the beach near some coconut trees. It was totally excellent there.

The buses on Sentosa were free, you can take them to any place in Sentosa. The red line was the best. Buses of the red line had two stories of deck, you can sit on the upper deck to enjoy the sunshine and breeze. I took it to the Underwater World which is a museum just like our marine museum in Pingtong, but much smaller and very corwded with tourists from all over the globe. The only thing worth to see there was the "Sea Angels", a kind of transparent little creature living in cold 2 degrees Celsius ocens like that of the north of Hokkaido, Japan. they're really really cute and beautiful.

Then I went to see the pink dolphin show. The show starts at 3:30 and 4:30. I saw the one at 4:30. I got there at 4:00 and had to wait for more than 30 minutes. I have to say that the show was disappointing. It's short for only like 15 minutes or so, and nothing special at all. The pink-skined dolphins looked weird.

After that I paid S$8 to get on the Merlion tower, it's worth it. The view form the top of the Merlion was magnificent. You see a lot of big boats sailing around the island, the adjacent isles, and the whole city center tall buildings on Singapore island.

In the evening I went to see the "Voice of the Sea" water and light show. On it was so great, that you'll never forget I think. The light and sound effects of the show was so excellent. It's so worth the S$6 ticket.

Besides Sentosa, I like the Singapore Zoo and the Night Safari the most. The zoo is much better than Taipei zoo. And the Night Safari was very special. You better not spend extra money to take the tram in Night Safari. Walking in the 4 routes of Night Safari in the dark evening can meke you feel really special.

All in all, Singapore was a great place to me. I liked it very much. There are lots of things to see and taste there. You can see people of meny races walking along you. You hear many kinds of language, and you can eat so many different cuisines there, and bisically the food is not too pricey. I feel that the Indian people there are all very friendly, much more friendly than the Chinese people there. You'll enjoy talking to them.

And the streets are not always in Singapore. There are places where you can see lots of litters in the street, namely Little India and Geylang, etc. But basically it's a safe and clean place there in Singapore.

Friday, April 13, 2007

Day 1 in Singapore

I'm staying at a hostel named Betel Box right now. I arrived at Singapore late last night, I was beat and didn't want to stay at the airport, the bus and the MRT were of cource out of the work hour, so I took a taxi here. It was almost 2 AM, the hostel has no 24hr check-in, but they let me in and stay in a dorm still. I met one of the staff named Din this morning, he's very friendly. I'll have to transfer to another room latter today.

One thing strange is that I seemed not had gone through the Singapore custom before I leave Terminal 1. I got my passport checked, and then I got my check-in baggage, and I saw a gate with the sign "nothing to declare", I went through it directly without my baggage being checked by anyone, I don't know if this is alright. Hope I won't get into any trouble due to this.