Three Countries in Two Days

     We left Alice Springs just before noon on Friday, headed for Darwin, F. and I sporting our new backpacks. Upon arrival, we found lockers to dump our bags and took the shuttle down to the Darwin waterfront, which was nice enough, looking quite brand new actually and not particularly crowded, with no vendors. I was expecting something like Halifax waterfront I suppose, but they have the Mindl Market in Darwin at Mindl beach so I guess that’s where the markets focus. In any event, was sure nice to see the ocean again – the East Timor Sea. It was rather hot though, so didn’t spend much time in the sun as I felt a burn coming on. F. even took off her jumper aka hoodie. We did a tour of the waterfront before sourcing a pub, found a nice one and got on the pints of Carlton Draught… and people watching. There was some kind of a fundraiser going on in the common space next to the pub – everyone was dressed in santa suits in the smouldering heat…pant pant…I was hot just watching them. Then they started doing Zoomba…even funnier. We ordered some food, had a nice meal and then were so tired we headed back to the airport to spend the night as we had a very early morning flight to Bali, country number two.
     The night in the airport was pretty damned uncomfortable for the most part as they had hardly any seating and other than the carpet, nowhere to lie down. I managed to score some prime real estate with a couple of love seats when a big family got up to board their flight, so we both caught a few winks there, but then the announcements started for the upcoming flights. I was ready to punch someone by the time our flight boarded – so loud! Then we were off and jetting out of the country. We managed to find ourselves on a less than full flight with several empty rows of seats – bonus! F. came and got me, having to startle me out of sleep with several shouts and finger flicks to wake me up and put me onto the empty seat rows where we were able to stretch out. I actually caught a couple of hours sleep on the seats which was so very needed by that point.
     We arrived in Bali at 6am, and found they had even LESS seating there and we couldn’t check our bags until 2 hours before our flights, which was about noon to check in, and with a 2 hour time difference, it was HOURS AND HOURS. We did find a nice smoking room/café where they had nice couches so I bought a few drinks and curled up on the couch there for a bit, reading. By the time we finally got to check our bags, we were OVER the Bali airport. Less than impressed with the extra costs of stopping over in Bali though – we had to pay $29 for a visa, and another $20 for an airport tax which I think was a little ridiculous given we didn’t leave the airport. The visa is a cool sticker in my passport, but a total rip off for simply changing planes and the airport was a crappy one to hang out in for hours and hours. Of course this wasn't without incident as well - we found that our bank cards did not work in the one ATM that was before the visa check point, so I had to leave my passport with them and go find another bank machine - thankfully there was an ANZ (my aussie bank) around the corner - took out 200,000 something or others, went back and got my passport back and back to the visa purchase counter, only to find out I needed 235,000 so back out through the visa check counter, leave my passport again, back to the bank machine - couldn't find my wallet - SHIT. Then found the wallet, got the rest out, went back through the check point, picked up my passport, back to the purchase counter, got my visa, then back to find someone to give me an immigration card as I was asleep when they handed them out on the plane, then back to the visa check point, fingerprints and photo taken, and THEN we were finally through. At least I didn't do what F. did and mixed up her zeros, took out 1,000,000 so had MORE than she needed. All part of the adventure but we were certainly ready to move on to country number three…
     The flight from Bali to Kuala Lumpur was uneventful, although there was a scary moment when I found myself seated in the same row as one of two babies on the flight…dammit. She was wailing too, but soon settled down when the flight took off, thankfully. We were on the tarmac forever though and because I couldn’t put my seat back and was so very tired, my head kept dropping forward like a chicken until I could finally tilt the chair after takeoff. Enter country number three.

on the Darwin Waterfront

Zoomba Santas

Darwin Sunset at the waterfront

sunrise over the ocean from the plane to Bali

Balinese currency

handy to have a hose there

pretty flowers in the airport bathrooms

chocolate and tobacco?

nice longneck beers in Bali

long neck beers in Kuala Lumpur

hotel kitty

Malasian Ringits

F.'s in the 7/11 for another long neck

Thankfully F. knew her way around KL as she had just been through here last year and we were staying at the same hotel – Tune Hotels, right at the airport, you could see it from the arrivals exit. We paid our one ringit though and took the shuttle as it was rather hot and muggy and one ringit is about 25 cents…quick drive to the hotel, checked in, and settled into our tiny rooms – not much bigger than the double bed, but clean, comfy, and our own bathrooms. A shower was in order after slogging for 2 days in airports, sweltering in the heat (I was anyway). We took our showered bodies downstairs to the open common area of the complex, overlooking the airport and parking lots, nice tall alcove with chairs, 7/11 and two restaurants bordering it. We drank some local beers in longnecks, and got ourselves some local food – I had dim sum for the first time, quite tasty. And just as we finished up, the winds came in with a tropical storm and down came the rains…we were ready for bed anyhow, so here I sit in my tiny room, listening to the tropical storm sweep through and dump some rain on the city. Early rise tomorrow – flight at 6:50am, so we have to be at the check-in by about 5am…thankfully there is a shuttle every 15 minutes, so no big deal! Now I’m going to settle into my $20 hotel room. A/C and towel are extras 5 ringits for the towel, I think 15 for the air con…so worth it! So nice to stretch out again on a nice bed after bumming around airports for the last 36 hours…country number four tomorrow!