It is fair to say that I am enjoying Australia so far. Perth is a great place and so incredibly relaxing after the mayhem that is Asia. Since arriving I have gone on an evening cruise down the Swan River to Fremantle. A ludicrously expensive and extravagant evening that I can’t afford to replicate, and one that only came about as I decided to splash out for my first night in Oz. The cruise included a great dinner and something that I hadn’t realised when I bought the ticket – an open bar.
I was sat at a table with Dave, an Aussie that has been backpacking around his own country.
Between us we took full advantage of the open bar, demolishing large jugs of beer. It was actually the first time that I had drank more then three pints in over a year. After the boat, we decided to stay out and ended up in a bar next to my hotel.
Now, I really don’t want to stereotype Aussies… But I’m going to. At one point in the bar, the band that were playing gave a shout out to Crocodile Dundee and launched into an AC/DC medley. I just started laughing at the absurdity of it, and turned back to my beer.
This morning, I woke up with an alcohol related fuzzy head for the first time in a year.
I’m sure it was co-incidental. I had a fairly early start walking down to the jetty to take a tour out to an area of land known as The Pinnacles. On the way we stopped off at a nature park, where I stroked koala’s, a wombat and fed kangaroos. Later we drove 4×4 trucks over sand dunes and went sandboarding. Tomorrow morning I’ll be heading to the Perth Arena and spending the day watching the Hopman Tennis Tournament. In the evening I’ll hopefully be meeting up with Dave and we’ll find a bar to see in the New Year.
I can’t be getting drunk though, as I have an 8am flight to Darwin. I’m only in Darwin for a day as I then spend nearly three days on The Ghan which crosses the entire continent from North to South and ends up in Adelaide. The travel doesn’t stop there as I’m supposed to be on an overnight bus to Melbourne arriving at 6:50am. Looking at that now, it seems an insane schedule. I’m going to see if I can get a flight from Adelaide and a roof for the night in Melbourne. It’ll cost, but it has just occurred to me that I won’t have a proper bed until the 6th night of the year if I stick with my current schedule.
I have a ton of photos that I want to post, but I have a slight problem – internet access. My hotel here in Perth doesn’t have free internet. Instead they ask for $5 for 2 hours access. Something I’m refusing to pay. I’ve got a SIM card and 500mb of data for my phone. But that needs to last for the month and photos will eat that quickly and its $30 to refresh. So any photo updates will have to wait until Darwin, or possibly even later if I can’t get a connection then. You’ve got to love capitalism haven’t you? In Malaysia I could get a SIM card unlimited broadband and tethering for about £5 a week. Even in the cheapest hostels, no matter which country, free wi-fi was offered. It may not always be reliable, but it was there.
Now I’m back in a Western country, it seems that net access is both limited and expensive and its kind of annoying!
DigiDonkey 