In between time we have actually ridden 50km in Singapore, taken a week off in Bali, returned to Singapore and then flown to Darwin, where the bike was due to arrive on the 20th August so we could resume our trip.
Plans...
During our return stopover in Singapore we enjoyed an expensive Martini on a ship perched on some hotel towers. What's all this about global warming and rising sea level? We flew overnight on what must be one of the worst ever cheap flights amongst a colourful crowd (many different colours of ink over large parts of the body shown off by the wearing of baggy singlets: that went for the men too) arriving at just after 0600 on the 21st, having been delayed on take-off due to a faulty air conditioning system. Darwin is thoughtful. Never before had we seen neat little boxes on the walls of toilets for used syringes.
We headed to the beach straight away. Isn't that what you do in the tropics! OK it was a bit early in the morning, but we had nothing else to do and needed to waste a fair bit of time before our room was available at 1400. Not many people on the beach at that time of the morning and even fewer in the water, yet it was lovely. On leaving we saw the notice about 'no swimming' due to the deadly box jelly fish. "Take vinegar with you and rush to hospital"
As you know we found Singapore expensive and not just the ship shape Martinis. Australia, or Darwin is a further notch up the scale. We have tried to stay in our budget and ended up in backpackers hostels. Umhh. Breakfast and wi-fi extra and key deposits and you don't get clean towels every day but instead we get free loud, repetitive music from the roof top above. And this for significantly more than in central Bangkok where we had everything.
Malaysia to Singapore was difficult, but writing about it helped. It's going to take a few weeks before we can write about getting going in Darwin. All that we can say is that the vessel, don't call them boats or ships, hadn't arrived when we got there. There were some difficulties with the paperwork too. It took until the 27th for the shipping company to be sure that the bike was actually in Australia, but this didn't mean being allowed to ride it. It's just not like sending a parcel via the Post Office, even though there is plenty of space on the bike to stick a big stamp on.
In mathematics you have the double negative making a positive. In this particular aspect of' life the negatives did not cancel themselves out and it all just got worse. So we have started to formulate our own equation that one day might be up there with Einstein's:
Anality + Incompetence + jobsworth + burocracy + time zone difference + internal company politics + lack of leadership and a clear responsibility chain + cultural differences + lack of awareness + inability to judge consequences of actions = one very big mess waiting to happen.
Company takeovers don't seem to have helped either.
It became pretty clear that we would not have the bike for the weekend and the prospects of spending it in Darwin at our 'abode' were not joyous. It is quite possible that Darwin is smaller population wise than Darwen. So we took the weekend off after saying Hello to the Customs people, the Quarantine people, the unpacking agents and the vehicle conformity and registration people. All these wonderful people unable to help us until customs clearance had been given to move the container 1.5km from the wharf to the unpacking and inspection area.
So we drove our hired car to Kakadu National Park and saw some gigantic termites mounds, amazing looking birds, crocodiles by the dozen and Aboriginal rock art amongst other things; a well needed escape.
We then returned to the fray and spent three and a half days extracting the bike. We spent a lot of time in Darwin, but in the end didn't see that much of the little there is to see. The Harley was beckoning.
To try and keep on schedule we have an awful lot of riding to do in a very short time and we will see little of Australia apart from Darwin, Sydney and the 'road'. A road race once again...
We prepared this on Wednesday night, the day before Francoise's birthday. We were actually reunited proper, i.e. we could turn the ignition key on Thursday lunchtime. We are now in the outback where it seems that wireless, wired, telex or post has not yet penetrated and the pigeons have been eaten by the hawks.
More later...
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