After arriving back in Surfers Paradise, we checked into one of the hostels on the popular backpacker street Peninsular Drive. Since we had already stayed at Backpackers in Paradise, and didn’t really like it we decided to go to The Sleeping Inn. I have to say, it was quite nice. The staff is friendly. There is a pool table, regular events, clean rooms, clean kitchen, and you can even steal a wireless signal if you’re upstairs on the picnic tables.

Since we didn’t book several nights in advance because we didn’t know how long it would take to find an apartment, we were kicked out of the place because it booked up. We then went to Couple of Days. This place was pretty good. It wasn’t as clean, but the two ladies that run the place are very nice. They sell cheap (yes CHEAP in Australia) food at the counter that is pretty good. They are friendly and do what they can to accommodate your needs. Sadly there were a few speed users there while we stayed there and they more or less ruined the experience by staying up all night screaming and annoying the crap out of us. We managed to stay in a double room for $56 a night rather than stay in a dorm.

I do recommend staying at both the places though. Just be careful about advanced bookings as they both do fill up.

After approaching Paspaley Pearls in search for a job as a deckhand, we continued to look for different types of work in Darwin, Australia. Darwin isn’t a very big town, though the party scene there is huge. Since we were living off credit it was essential to find jobs as soon as possible. After Paspaley let us know that there are no certain jobs for at least a few weeks, we had no choice but to fly back to a place where we knew we could easily find work. The Gold Coast. We considered moving to Melbourne. My car, however, was in Surfers Paradise and I would eventually have to get it. Apparently also, the weather isn’t as nice in Melbourne. From what we have heard, Melbourne is very culturally similar to Toronto.

We flew from Darwin with JetStar an inexpensive airline. The flight cost us $256 Australian dollars, but would have been about $50 cheaper, had we booked it more than 24 hours in advance. The prices rise on the weekend as well. We flew over Thursday night leaving Darwin (an hour late) at 2am and arriving in Brisbane at 6. From there we took the extremely good public transportation system to Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast. We then checked into the hostel The Sleeping Inn, but don’t get it twisted. If you sleep in they’ll kick you out.

I love it, but I hate it when Hotmail is down.

Good grief Microsoft

Flying back into Australia, through Singapore from Thailand took a fair toll on my body. I had lost quite a bit of energy and felt sick for the first few days.

After spending literally all of my money in South East Asia, I have come to Darwin to find work. Darwin is located on the north coast of Australia, right in the middle. The climate here is very hot and dry. Actually the weather is the most pleasant I have felt since I left Canada.

Darwin however has no beaches (no swimable beaches). In the dry season May to September sharks are an issue. In the wet season box jellyfish are the danger. Darwin is home to lots of salt water crocodiles too. The hostel that I’m currently residing at (Melaleuca on Mitchell) even has a baby crocodile in the reception. Upstairs at the Melaleuca there is a patio with a swimming area and bar. The atmosphere is very lively.

Darwin is very much a party town. Mitchell St. which is close to the water, holds the majority of the hostels and bars is jumpin’ every night. September is the slowest time of year, as most travelers leave to go south where the weather is warming up.

Pearling is huge industry in Darwin. One of the biggest pearl companies (who sells their pearls to high profile companies like Tiffany & Co.) is Paspaley Pearls. Working as a deckhand is supposed to be a fun and lucrative. While making your application you have to take a health and endurance test as well as get a criminal history check.

The town is small. It is important to have a car while in Darwin. My car is currently in the Gold Coast. I am not exactly sure how I am going to retrieve it just yet, but there are several options. The drive from Gold Coast to Darwin will take ten comfortable driving days.

This is a photo from the deck at Melaleuca looking across Mitchell St.

(Photo Credit: Flickr: Ian’s World Tour)

Leaving from Phuket, Thailand, we flew through Singapore on a budget airline called Tiger Airways, this is by far the cheapest way to get around South East Asia. The Singapore airline flies to parts of Australia, Thailand, India, China, The Phillippines, Macau and Vietnam.

We were able to spend one full day in Singapore, unfortunately all the traveling and party had caught up with me and I didn’t have as much energy as I had hoped to have.

Singapore (one of the worlds few city-states) is by far the cleanest place I have ever been in my life. There is no litter on the streets. Everyone is dressed causal/professional. The shopping there is incredible. Tourism is huge. English is a national language. It is a place that I would absolutely love to go to again. It is a shame I didn’t see more of the city. Singapore is the site of the original (and often imitated) Raffles Hotel.

Our trip has been amazing and other than a few hiccups we really haven’t encountered any major scams or found ourselves in any dangerous situations. Most of the people in Asia are genuinely kind with the exceptions of a few full time scammers. Yesterday we got on our final long distance bus ride from Ko Samui to Phuket. Along the way we were annoyed to find that even though we paid for VIP bus tickets, we were indeed on a local bus which stops about every 6 km to pick up and drop off local people. This adds anywhere from 2-5 hours to your trip. For us it was the latter. Not only did this bus frequently stop for the locals, it never stopped anywhere for us to eat. So we arrived 12 hours later famished, exhausted, and stiff.

I noticed that our bags, though loaded from the same side, were being unloaded from opposites sides of the bus, and mine was a disaster. My day pack was strapped on upside down and backwards, I figured they must have been messing with our bags a lot to access the bushels of onions, boxes of chickens and whatever else the locals were constantly loading on and off at there frequent stops. I was distracted by tuk tuk drivers offering to take Nick and I to a guesthouse. We settled on a very central yet overpriced place and checked in. When I opened my bag to change for dinner, I noticed that all my clothes were rolled into wrinkled balls and generally a huge mess. Again I thought it was from in a rush… So dinner was great, and afterwards we went back to the guesthouse and watched a DVD and eventually I just fell asleep in my clothes.

This morning I woke up and started to look through my stuff. That’s when I noticed what was up. All my medications were sprinkled in my pack, the “secret compartment” where I kept all my Australian banking and Visa info was torn open and scattered throughout my pack, and all the tailor made goods I was keeping in plastic bags were opened. I realized then that some little bastard was sitting in the luggage compartment on the bus going through peoples stuff. I knew my bag wasn’t the only one because I found some other peoples things in it. I checked my jewelry bag first and sure enough all my valuable stuff was gone. People had told me in Cambodia and Vietnam not to wear my jewelry because people would steal it right off me, so I always kept it in my pack. Once I realized that I had been robbed I looked for my passport, which was there. Luckily these a-holes are just pickpocket thieves and not actually intelligent criminals.

Unfortunately there is nothing I can do. The bus company switches your bus so many times that even if they did give you some kind of receipt for your tickets (which they don’t,) they are on another island and don’t even really know what bus company took you there. And had I noticed right away at the bus station, what would the driver have done? Probably laughed at me and said he had no idea what I was talking about. Who knows when the thief got in and out of the luggage compartment, maybe the driver doesn’t even know.

Anyway just a heads up to you all, BUY LOCKS for your zippers. Another thing that may have tipped them off is if your pack looks feminine, there know there is likely jewelry or designer accessories. Those are the only tips I really have. Well, I’m off to enjoy my last day of holiday now, starting with buying new underwear and bras…oh yeah, did I mention? The perverted little bastard stole those too.