juliet

Also excitingly, I have reached Australia! I arrived in Darwin at about 0430 local time this morning, having been confirmed in my deep hatred of planes. (Cheapass flight = about half an inch of knee room if I sat bolt upright in the distinctly uncomfortable seat. Plus whilst I'm not claustrophobic, I do not like small enclosed spaces, and seats on cheap flights are pretty small and enclosed, never mind the plane itself. Given the option between experiencing that flight again, and experiencing the Horrendous Siam Reap Bus Journey again, I'd be inclined to go for the bus journey.)

However, I got off the shuttle bus at the same place as some sensible people who had pre-booked and thus had hostel staff there to open the place up for them. And me, as a bonus. So have now slept, had breakfast, slept some more, had lunch, and had a look at the SEA. Also I may have seen a bat, or at least a large flying thing that had the sort of wing-edges that bats have, this morning just before sunrise.

Darwin is (you will be amazed to hear) very hot. But there's a nice breeze, and it's less humid than Singapore, and it's now 3 weeks or so since I got to Vietnam and started thinking it was hot, so I'm a bit more acclimatised. This translates into "I still find it incredibly hot and would rather it wasn't, but I don't actually start seeing spots and feeling sick and have to sit down on a regular basis".

My second day in Singapore was also splendid - euphuistica is an fantastic Singapore-guide as well as excellent company. We went up and down the river on a bum-boat, had a little wander round the quay, went to the very good Asian Cultural Museum, and then had afternoon tea at the Fullerton Hotel. Terribly decadent but very very nice - they just keep bringing you scones and sandwiches and little chocolate thingumajigs and more tea! Also there's a chap playing the piano.

I even made it to the post office - special mention here to bluedevi's UK Autumn Care Package, which showered me with dried leaves as soon as I opened it :) (Sadly the leaves had to stay in Singapore as Australia is very pernickety about such things, and quite reasonably so.)

I am now trying to sort out the whole Alice Springs/Uluru thing. I wanted to do a tour with these people, but it looks like getting a bus from Alice Springs to Yulara (the place near Uluru where there are places to stay) independently is between "difficult" and "impossible" - everyone just does tours. (And my time is v limited which makes life more difficult.) These people look like they're going to be the best bet.