Met up with Yvonne at the airport and onto the shuttle bus for town.
Thanks to the Darwin Show public holiday on Friday, pretty much every hotel in town was booked out, and pretty much every shop was shut!
We've been staying in a lovely little motel called the Asti, which looks like it must have pre-dated Cyclone Tracy, even if the owners haven't done any maintenance on the place since then... Rach wasn't impressed... a situation that wasn't helped by a nasty turn of "Broome Belly", which she brought with her.
Friday night dinner plans were dashed as we took Rach back to the hotel for a little R'n'R'n'R - Ralph, Rest and Recovery ! She's going to kill me for writing this :-)
Anyway, by Saturday all was right again, so we wandered back down to the Esplanade and jumped on the courtesy bus out to Casuarina shopping centre. It's worth jumping on the bus at the Novotel or Saville, as once it fills up (about 20 people), it's another hour before the next bus.
Failing that, it only costs a couple of $$ on the public bus to get around anyway...
After some restrained retail therapy, it was back into town and after a bit of a rest we "hit the town".
The "Thailicious" restaurant in Mitchell St was great - we got a groovy little table with cushions on the floor upstairs and sat down for a nice Thai meal (even if it did cost about 20 times what we'd have paid in Thailand!)
Sunday morning, we walked down to Aquascene in Doctor's Gully for the fish feeding. Amazing!
We weren't expecting to be too excited by a few fish swimming up to take some bread crusts, but it was great. As well as seemingly thousands of large diamond-backed mullet and catfish, there were schools of huge milkfish and even the odd jack and cod. Caitlin had a ball!
Thought we'd wander over to the Casino for lunch, but when we arrived we found that there was a 2 hour wait for lunch... bloody Darwin Show and Races again! Not to be deterred, we went for a wander around, past a monitor/goanna around the pool garden that must have been a metre and a half long! Down into the Aqua gaming lounge, for coffee and cake and a quick flutter on the pokies... Yvonne managed to ring up 1300 credits on a 1c/bet machine!
Unfortunately, kids aren't really welcome in 99% of the Casino, so we set off elsewhere for lunch.
Cullen Bay was pretty quiet, but we found a few cafes down around the marina, which is a pretty but perhaps sterile environment. Seafood specials at the "Bella Amore" cafe, which were nice, but a bit small - "Yots" next door looked like a better bet if you're after something more substantial.
Sunday night, we headed down to the Mindil Beach Night Markets. For anyone who hasn't been along, the range of food on offer is fantastic, and worth the visit alone. Along with the usual mix of cheap and tacky souvenirs and weird and wacky performers, there were some great musicians who kept Caitlin dancing non-stop, and begging for CDs afterward!
One more day in Darwin, and then we're off at 3.15am Tuesday morning.
Arriving Singapore 6.20am at the new Budget Terminal,
Once we arrive in Singapore, I'll upload a few photos and log another update.
Til then...
Steve.
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