I'm back from Darwin, the capital city of the Northern Territory. It's a quiet place with a population of about 120,000 people, 6 square meters per person. It's very HOT (34-38 degrees) and HUMID (up to 100%) now and I just got darker!!
Lots of Aborigine folks there, and the Aborigine influence appears stronger in Darwin than other parts of Australia. It was bombed 64 times during WWII and Cyclone Tracy on the eve of Christmas in 1974 destroyed 70% of the infrastructure. I'm like a mini wiki...
haha.. heard these information 3 times on local tours.
---below (--- portion) is just for my own future reference, but you can read la--
DAY0:
Boarded plane at 1800+.
DAY1:
Arrived 0005.
My visa has some problems due to my surname. The system just have difficulty processing it. Waited in Darwin International Airport for such a long time before they got it processed. Totally pissed. Went to
NOVOTEL to sleep. Woke up and joined the local tour tub 1/2 day tours which really needed 1 full day (which I didn't have). WWII oil storage tunnels talked about how Darwin was bombed, what the oil storage tunnels were used for and how it was bombed more times than Pearl Harbor but was less famous than it (sis said it was because Pearl harbor was what brought US to war). Went to the Pearling exhibition, it appears Darwin is quite active in the pearling industry and it takes really many many years to form the perfect pearl necklace (imagine the cost attached with it). Due to the lack of time, the last stop was the Museum of Arts and Science, lots of Aborigine art pieces there and also the famous Sweetheart, that ferocious 5.1m saltwater male
croc.
DAY2:
Went to
KAKADU National Park, that place on the World Heritage List. It's really huge and people actually can go on a 3 day tour there. Spent a short while there. FLIES were everywhere due to the weather (remembering Wave Rock). Waving the flies away till hand aches.
Took the Yellow River Cruise (
jim jim creek and the
jim jim falls...
lol). Saw 2
crocs, lots of birds and beautiful scenery. There's the
AUS1000 bird whereby you kill one and you pay for the price of 2 'cause the 2 birds can't live apart from each other. Stop by some termite mounts on the way which I thought were the remnants of the tree the termite tried to finish off. Learnt something new called 'dew point' when I saw all the clouds at a certain height and asked my sis.
DAY3:
Went to
Litchfield National Park. Visited lots of waterfalls. First stop was the termite mounts (again). There's the cathedral termite mounts and the magnetic termite mounts (their mounts face the sun rise/set direction to get maximum sunlight). 2/3 of the termites out of 100+ species eats grass and the other 1/3 chew on wood which is bad enough.
Went to Florence Falls which was not that pretty, the shady creek walk was 1km and took 25 minutes to walk which was the supposedly better alternative to the 400m up the stairs (I beg to differ).
Tolmer Falls was fantastic, the view and the grandeur.
Wangi Falls was calm, has lots of bats up the trees and there was this small fury caterpillar. Buley Rockhole has lots of waterholes and it claims to be a 5 star spa. Saw the green ants which is said to taste like lemon and saw two 4 legged creatures (forgot the name).
DAY4:
Prepared breakfast with mom since we went to
Coles the day before. Had ham, egg, toast, orange juice and cocoa. It's good to get an apartment-styled hotel room. Walked down the esplanade. There's lots of war memorials plagues in the park. Sea breeze was good but weather was hot. How can people do their morning jog out in the hot sun?!
Went to see
crocs in the afternoon. Stopped by to see
Humpty Doo first. Even though it was the wet season (DEC onwards) but since the rain had not arrive yet, the flood plains were not flooded and so it was nothing much. Took a cruise to see the JUMPING crocodiles! The highlight of today's tour. The guide says that jumping is their way of life so it's not something that they are forcing the
crocs to do. The sex of the baby
crocs depends on the temperature of incubation. A small degree allowance means male and the other temperatures equals female. Went by some informative place regarding the wildlife living at the flood plains before heading back.
DAY 5:
Wanted to go to
Aquascene for some fish touching, but it was closed on Monday. Since it was the last day, nothing much was planned. Walked to cinema and after figuring out their rating system (they have a more relax one) and deciding on the movie, we bought tickets to Beowulf. Didn't know what it was about when dad bought the tickets. Had lunch. Took a heritage walk about the city before the movie. Had dinner and headed to the airport. No problem with my visa this time 'cause the officer was experienced enough but dad, bro and sis was not that lucky. They waited and waited before theirs clear. Flew home in 4h20m time.
-----------------------------
Australia (maybe other European countries) serves their hot chocolate with marshmallows which is really pretty cute to go along with the drink. Singapore doesn't.
Their slang and accent is really smooth and curly. They like to say 'yeah' instead of 'yes' and likes to use the word 'reckon' instead of 'think'.
Pictures later.....
Labels: australia, darwin, holiday