Western Bali

Now closer to the main Indonesian island of Java, we were in Islamic territory. We had to cover up even in the hotel here, though in the car on the way there I was just in a tank top, and when we stopped for petrol and stayed in the car I got some very big stares! It was in the hotel that night that I heard my first ever Islamic call to prayer. I thought it sounded rather peaceful and comforting!

The next morning we went straight to get the ferry, which was a tiny wooden motor boat, to an island for some snorkelling. Wow. It was actually even more amazing than the Great Barrier Reef! The water was crystal clear, and further out, in the deep, a beautiful turquoise. There were more types of fish here than in Australia by about a hundred times! I even saw giant clams!.....A big blue starfish, the fish in the tank with a scar from Finding Nemo, Nemo himself in his little plant that he lives in. There was a big scary fish, about a metre long, shaped like a pencil with a big pointed noise, giant teeth and glaring eyes! I swam up to it and had a look for a while, but then I got scared and swam off as quick as I could! There were smaller long pointy, silver fish, bigger, darker fish on the drop off, lots of cute coupled fish swimming around in pairs, so many luminous colours! We got called back after a couple of hours, but again I just wanted to spend forever in the water.

Back on the shore, our group leader, the local guides and I got some bin liners to pick up the rubbish on the beach. There was so much of it, it was really sad. You can see bags in the water when you are snorkelling, a ridiculous amount of flip flops, lots of polystyrene, and so much medical waste! It wasn't very nice, but I did feel like I was giving my bit back to the country. Although more rubbish will be washed up on the shore with the next tide, it acts as an education to the local people, which is the important thing. Some of them were helping, so it was obviously working to some extent!

After another delicious, banana leaf packed lunch, we went to see the island temple. On the way we saw a great deer with massive antlers that barked.....yes barked....at us. The first part of the temple was dedicated to Brahma and guarded by a statue of a crocodile, which was interesting as you don't get crocs in Bali! Then there was a Buddhist temple in the middle of the Hindu temples. And then just to confuse things even further, the new Hindu temple that was being built featured Chinese coins as part of it's decoration. Bali is an interesting mix!

I was thinking on the ferry back - it would be nice if the sea wasn't so salty...then I discovered strawberry Fanta. It is the best drink. Ever.

Mt. Batur

Our next stop for the night was at Kedisan, a small town at the base of Mt. Batur. I slept most the journey there bar one stop at a beautiful lookout point down to the town with the volcano in the background. We were the only ones there, as it was a small passing point at the side of the road, but all of a sudden we were surrounded by hawkers, who had come out of nowhere on their motorbikes! They kept asking again and again if we would like to see their wares and wouldn't take no for an answer, giving prices that got lower and lower, then asking what we wanted to pay. It was so annoying, that in the end we just gave up and got back in the car. However, before giving up, we managed to locate the path we would be taking up the mountain the next day... it looked STEEP!

Once we arrived in the hotel for the night I realised, much to my dismay, that it was absolutely freezing. In Bali. Quite crazy, but I suppose we were in mountain territory now. I wasn't looking forward to the temperature at the top at sunrise. Then just a few hours later, at 3am, we were out of bed into an even deeper cold to begin our climb.

We had two local guides and two water boys who would accompany us to the top. Lots of the guides came up to chat before we started off, asking our name, where we were from, the usual sort of thing. One guide, on finding out that I was called Annie, and my friend was called Chloe, burst out laughing, saying, "So, Annie and Chloe? Annie and Chloe!" then ran off. Very strange. Our two guides that came with us however were great fun, laughing and joking about the whole time. We thought that one of them way called Norman, which amused us quite a bit seeing as he was a local Balinese, but later found out it was "Nyoman". He was so lovely, always smiling, always helping us out, holding people's hands on the scary bits. He was very informative and really helped make the trip what it was.

We started the walk in the pitch dark, and it remained like this until we were almost at the top. At first the path was very flat, but with lots of big volcanic rocks to trip over. Fortunately we all had torches to see where we were putting our feet. As the slope began to steepen, I soon warmed up, and my 50 layers were all tied round my waist. I hadn't had time to eat breakfast before we left and a mixture of this and the fact that my body was being exerted before I'd even woken up, made me start to feel quite sick. Luckily some of the older members of the group were already struggling, so we were soon stopping to rest, and I could bring my supply of chocolate brownies out.

The guide leading us stopped at the shrine, half way up the mountain, to pray and light incense. It felt quite atmospheric and mysterious watching this in the dark, on a mountain, at 4am!

As the path went on, it got steeper and steeper, until we were climbing up the mountain using our hands to pull ourselves up. A couple of times when the shorter ones of us couldn't reach, the guides, who were in fact mountain goats, had to pull us up. We had by this point split into two groups, with those struggling in the second group. Apparently the guide of the other group held one lady's hand the entire way up, as she was scared of falling on the steep climb. My dad had repeatedly told me that I would find this immensely difficult, but really I was quite comfortable climbing it, and found it thoroughly enjoyable.

When we finally made it to the top of the volcano, there was a man selling tea and rice - a warm respite to the freezing cold morning, which I was not designed for. I also bought a coke off my drinks boy. These kids aren't paid, but climb the mountain with you, helping out along the way, in the hope that you will buy a drink off them at the end - so despite the fact that I didn't really want it, I bought it anyways for his effort. There were about 10 other people who had climbed the mountain up there. Other residents of the top of Mt. Batur included two very friendly dogs. I gave them my hard boiled egg, even peeling it for them, but apparently they can peel eggs themselves!

All morning the mountain was shrouded in cloud, apart from a brief few minutes, right at sunrise, when it cleared to reveal the spectacular view for us. You could see the sparkling lake, the lush green fields and forests; you could even see as far as a mountain all the way on the next island of Lombok!

After we felt like we could stand up again, we walked on to peer down the massive crater. Once a year this crater is used for animal sacrifice to appease the god of the volcano - where they throw down a cow and a few chickens that the community buys together as a whole.

Then we walked round the other side of the mountain, where there was steam coming from the rocks around us, and when the cloud cleared we could see steam coming out of a more recent crater below. If you put your hand to the rocks they felt so nice and warm - I was tempted to sit on one, but it was perhaps a little too hot for that! Instead we dug a hole and cooked a banana in it!

Finally, we started the descent. Below us we could see the black larva field, then where it was green the land was in swirling formations, that we later found out had been streams of larva - the volcano last erupted in about 2000. Our guide pointed out lots of temples on the way down devoted to the god of the volcano. At one point the ground was all made of ash, it was like being on a sand dune. So we ran down it, which was loads of fun, if a little scary - running down a really steep and high mountain and all! Then we saw the path we walked up....it was so long and steep! Everyone was very glad we had done it in the dark so we hadn't been able to see that!

We walked back to where we started through vegetable plantations that we also hadn't been able to see in the dark. There was chilli, sweet potato, white potato, sweetcorn, tomatoes....and peanuts - which apparently aren't a nut at all, but in fact a vegetable.

There was a great sense of satisfaction that it was all over, and we complemented this with a trip to some paradisaical hot springs, where I got a bizarre bright red free drink. It wasn't tomato juice, and it wasn't blood. This is where I had my first (and possibly best) Nasi Goreng, which I liked so much that I had it again for dinner! The water in the hot springs was so hot that I had to get out to cool off in the 40 degree heat! But it was incredibly relaxing, and sent us to sleep for the long car drive to the West.

Journey to and in Sideman

We drove slowly through the beautiful countryside and fascinating small villages to Sideman. The villages were lined with sweet stalls, drinks stalls and statue stalls. The Balinese obviously must eat a lot of sweets and fill their houses with a lot of statues, as none of these villages were tourist areas at all! I also noticed the IMMENSE amount of dogs just wondering around the street, totally ignoring the cars and bikes. There were a lot of chickens wondering around as well, and I even noticed on a couple of occasions, ducks being herded! Yes, herded - like sheep. There was an option to go on bike, but most of us didn't take it. The driving in Bali is crazy, we probably would have died. Plus, I noticed that the locals all rode motorbike, it was only foreigners who were crazy enough to ride a push bike in the heat.

About half way there we stopped at a Monkey Forest temple. This was, as is probably quite obvious, a temple, in a forest, with loads of monkeys. This was the first temple I went in in Bali, and the first thing we learnt was, of course, the rules. We had to wear a sarong and a sash - to seperate the evil bottom half of our body from the good top half. Also no women on their periods were allowed in, but they were pretty trusting with this one.

So about the monkeys - there were HUNDREDS, everywhere. They were very cheeky, and we had been emphatically warned about them trying to steal things, but we weren't prepared for them to jump on our heads! As I sat down at one point a monkey came and sat on my lap. He was quite a friendly monkey though, so I fed him a banana. He was very, very cute. Some people didn't find them so cute (so I don't really know what they were doing there in the first place). One Indonesian man had a monkey jump on him and was so terrified he was running around screaming. The look on his face was just hilarious.

There was one monkey inhaling a can of lighter gas....

Our next stop on the way to Sideman was at a sweat shop. I never realised how much work goes in to weaving just a sarong and how complicated it is! It is actually really clever - they dye the thread, which is all stretched out over a wooden frame, by dotting different colours in seemingly random places, by hand. Then the thread is woven on some big crazy machine, worked by a peddle, that makes a loud clacking sound and then the dyed thread mysteriously ends up in a predesigned pattern! Crazy. This particular place had won government awards for its designs.

The women seemed to be working in very good conditions, they were all very chatty and smiley, though it must be a very monotonous job. I was happy to notice they were all of working age. However, you have to bear in mind that this was a sweat shop open to tourists, so it would obviously want to create a good impression and may not reflect the usual working conditions in other places.

The hotel we stayed in, in Sideman was set in the most stunning location. It consisted of bungalows owned by foreigners (though not in full as that is illegal) as holiday homes. When they are not in use the hotel lets them out to visitors. We had an excellent one, with a gorgeous view of rice fields, jungle, and a big volcano - Mt. Agung - in the background. It was very cute, like a little mini house. Our bathroom was outside with a tall wall attaching it to the house. It was a shower, toilet and fishpond rolled into one!

The next day we walked through the rice paddies and vegetable fields - they do a crop rotation of them all every so often. It was all quite clever and the irrigation system for the rice was pretty impressive! Though maybe I'm very easily impressed by these things, being very much a city girl. All the farmers would stop to say hello, with the biggest smile on their faces. The little kids in the streets would run up and follow us shouting "hello!" and grinning when we shouted it back. A couple of children even ran up and asked me to take a photo of them. So I did and showed them, they were enthralled by it! It was quite good really, our guide asked us to print off any photos we took of the locals and send them to her so she can give them to them. This is especially good for the children, as their parents would otherwise have no pictures of them growing up, so it is much appreciated. Everyone was so friendly and excited that we were visiting their community. We had a local guide for the walk as well. He was very sweet, if a little shy about speaking in English. We learnt that today was his first wedding anniversary with his wife, who was pregnant, and waiting at home for him to have a celebratory lunch.

As we were walking up a very steep slope through the forest (or rather stopped to rest on our way up the slope) I noticed a rather interesting looking mosquito, with black and white stripes, so I thought I would point it out to everyone. "Oh yes," our guide happily said, "they're the ones that carry dengue fever." Ah dear. DEET time.

When we got the the top of this massive slope we stopped for drinks at a small stall and one of our group bought some cigarette papers. They were crazy - thicker than writing paper, sugar coated, and with no sticky bit, so you had to hold them together while you smoked the cigarette.

Then we went to another temple. Inside, there were lots of women making rice cakes for an upcoming festival. They were all very happy to have us visiting them and to show us what they were doing, even though they didn't speak any English. I wanted to take a photo, but I felt too rude to ask, as traditionally it is considered to be stealing part of one's soul.

The temple was from the 16th century, but the buildings and statues had been replaced and renovated throughout time. It was on top of a massive hill (which we had spent the day slowly getting up) and so had an amazing view. There were all seperate temples within the temple for the different gods of sea, wind, sun, etc. The Balinese actually believe in only one god - but these were all different manifestations of that same god. The main temple had eleven rooves, all symbolising something, but I can't remember what! Though despite my lack of memory, I found it very interesting to learn about Hinduism, because, as I then realised, I know hardly anything! The temple was beautiful and there was such a sense of peace about it that it made Hinduism a very endearing religion, and the Balinese lifestye seem very ideallic.

At this point, before I forget, I have to mention the offerings that are all over the floor in the whole of Bali, just randomly in the street and everywhere! They were little palm leaf baskets filled with rice, flowers and incense. They were placed on the floor to appease the evil spirits, and up high for the good spirits. Everyone in Bali put them out, even in the hotels and bars.

On our walk back to Sideman we stopped by a river for lunch. We went swimming and was told it was fine for us to do so in our bikinis, but soon noticed a LOT of people standing on a bridge above us, staring. I wasn't sure if they were staring because we were strange foreigners, or if it was because we were in bikinis. It was so hot though and the river was so nice and cool that to be honest I couldn't care less. And after the refreshing swim we had an amazing packed lunch that the drivers wife had cooked us and wrapped up individually in banana leaves. It was such delicious food! Curry flavoured noodles AND rice, turmeric tofu, tempe, and amazing sweetcorn fritters. It was so lovely of his wife to do this for us, though I'm sure she probably gets paid for it.

Ubud

So I left Sanur for Ubud to begin my trip around the island, and even the taxi journey up there was more fascinating than Sanur. The major thing that stood out to me was the election campaign posters lining the roads. They were just like the ones in HK, except there were about 50 different candidates. My favourite was a guy in an army-style, roofless jeep, grinning, with his arms up in the air as if to say "Whatever". My second favourite was a guy with a yellow mohawk. I have to point out this was for the Indonesian general election!



Ubud itself is lovely. Much more upmarket and chilled out than Sanur, where there is so much hassle that I felt uncomfortable going out in the street, making it a chore to leave the hotel. The place I was staying in here was set in tranquil, tropical gardens, where you feel totally alone. It creates the impression that you are in your own, giant Balinese palace. If you take the time to sit and look around you, you begin to notice the intricate stone carvings of nonsensical animals. It was the calmest view imaginable, yet it was a jungle of sound - hundreds of insects chirping away, the hidden gardener chopping at the hedges, a girl singing nearby, a cockrel crowing(!), some kids making tarzan noises, people manually building something, laughter..... It was nice to just sit for a while and listen.



Later in the day I met with the group that I was due to go on my trip with, there were only six of us in total. Two of the people were American diplomats - there lives sounded fascinating. They work as politcal officers to improve human rights and have been stationed in countries such as Afhganistan, Bangladesh, Thailand.... from everything they were telling me it sounding exactly like my perfect job! Maybe a possible result of my intended International Relations/Peace Studies masters in Japan...?



Another person on the trip was Chloe, a girl the same age as me who I shared a room with. She had just been travelling in Australia as well, and turns out we both knew some of the same people in Byron Bay! Such a small world! Also, she happens to be in Bangkok on the same dates as me, so we are meeting up again there.



That night we all went to a night market. It was kind of funny - the drive there was the first sense I really had of being in Asia, it felt like I had come home. The market itself was a bit like a Hong Kong market, except no where near as packed and so much more chilled out. It was all locals apart from us. Here was the first place I realised my love of Asian food - I had an excellent meal of these veggie tempura type things. No idea what was in them other than that the were vegetarian, but they were delicious! And all for about 30 US cents. The market's speciality was suckling pig.

The next day we walked through the nearby countryside, surrounded by rice fields. It was so beautiful, like a picturebook. A kind of bizarre thing was though, that the small path was dotted with art galleries, but there were no tourists to buy the art. Perhaps the send it to Ubud to be sold.

At the beginning of the walk we saw a traditional (rich person) Balinese house. Each room in the house had a different function and needed to be facing a different direction according to its function; but the great thing was that every room could also be used for sleeping. The house was beautiful, with such detailed carving everywhere in wood and gold. The most striking feature, I thought, was the two statues of what appeared to the Western eye to be demons guarding the door from evil. There was also a pet dog that sang.

Througout the day our local guide would tell us all the relevent traditions of Hinduism to what we were seeing. There are several major ceremonies throughout life, one being tooth filing, and they all seem quite focused on purity. We were appropriately standing under a great Banyan tree while the guide was giving is longest talk on the ceremonies - this tree is holy to Hindus - and the guide, who was lovely, made what at the time was a rather amusing joke (though I think it was more amusing for him to be telling it as he couldn't speak much English, so it was rather sweet, whereas if i told it, it would have been quite cheesy). The joke was that in Hinduism they have a holy tree - the Banyan tree, in America they have a Holy-wood. The guide also, much to my entertainment, frenquently used the phrase: "Take a chill pill, man."

One thing I started to learn in Ubud - all chips in Bali are so tasty!!!

So after that tasty chip lunch, we went shopping in the market. They were shouting out that though shoes were 1000IDR...thats 10 US cents... which of course was incredibly cheap and worth getting some. However when I actually went to buy a pair, they changed their price to 100,000, so it was just a trick to reel people in. However I did get a good bargain on a pair of light trousers which I needed for more conservative areas, but the woman didn't seem to happy about selling them for such a low price, so I felt a bit bad afterwards! Thinking about it now though, I reckon it was all an act.

I should really talk about the people in Ubud, as they were absolutely lovely. I ended up spending a while talking to the hotel staff, and just random people on street corners! They were all really curious about us, loving to ask questions about where we were from, what we did for a living, our family. They were so sweet and unlike other places where you never really talk to hotel staff, these guys would just come and socialise with you.

In the evening we went to see a traditional dance, which was in three parts. The first dance had a dramatic chorus of about 60 men, chanting noises throughout, such as a very fast "tukka tukka tukka" and something sounding a bit like "ketchup". At first it was a bit confusing as the two main, male characters were played by girls, but we soon figured this out! The costumes were a show in themselves. They were so extravagent with lots of gold - very beautiful. The bad guys were all played by older men in masks. It was a typical story of a princess being kidnapped and her rescue - all very lively and dramatic.

The second dance was done by two very long girls in a trance, dancing with their eyes closed. Every so often they would collapse and have to be picked up by the nearest female background-chanters. They were perfectly in time with each other, but apparently they aren't taught the dance at all - the spirit of the goddess goes within them and dances using their bodies. At the end a priest revives them using incense and holy water.

The final dance was somewhat disturbing! It started with a big fire being made out of coconut shells and the all traditional petrol! Then a guy came along riding a toy horse and ran straight through the middle of the fire! He carried on like this for about fifteen minutes, kicking the fire about and running across the burning coals barefoot! All the time he is in a trance with his eyes closed. With the little girls I didn't believe the trance, however this was so....incredible I'm not so sure anymore. He was in a total frenzy. In the end two people had to catch him and hold him down while the priest revived him in the same manner as the little girls. That was the end of the show....but I noticed the guy who had been running through the fire just sat in the same place where he had been revived, not moving and looking like he was going to be sick for about half an hour afterwards. He was really not in a good state at all, it was quite worrying!

After that intense start of the evening we headed to a local Balinese lady's house for dinner - a friend of our group leader. She had cooked a big buffet for us and it was delicious! There was lots of coconut involved. I was very pleasantly surprised, the fussy eater that I am, that on trying everything vegetarian I loved it all and ate until I couldn't move!

Arrival in Bali....

Sanur: I'm sitting on my "large balcony designed for luxury living" in my Bali hotel room, overlooking the pagoda roofing, tropical gardens and lagoon-like pool. The smell of incense drifts through the air and the only thing I hear is the traditional Balinese gamelan music playing somewhere in the distance - it seems to belong with the view, as though it was the music of nature. Occasionally the peace is broken when a bat flutters around me, but this too belongs perfectly.



My first day in Bali went as follows (repeated about every two metres down the street):

Local guy: Hello, how are you?
Me: I'm good thankyou.
Local: Where are you from?
Me: Hong Kong. (Just to be confusing.)
Local: But you don't look like you're from Hong Kong?
Me: No, my family are English.
Local: Ohhh. There are many English in Hong Kong?
Me: Yes, lots.
Local: Can I know your name?
Me: Yes, it's An-nie.
Local: Honey?
Me: No, An-nie.
Local: An-nie.
Me: And your name?
Local: I am so-and-so.
Me: So-and-so?
Local: Yes, so-and-so. How old are you Annie?
Me: I am twenty-two.
Local: Twenty-three?
Me: No, no, twenty-two.
Local: Twenty-two, ohhh, I am twenty-six. Do you have a boyfriend Annie?
Me: (lying) Yes, I do.
Local: How many boyfriends?
Me: Just the one!
Local: Would you like another one.
Me: No, I'm fine with the one I've got, thankyou.
Local: Where is your boyfriend?
Me: He is back at the hotel.
Local: You don't want a Balinese boyfriend as well?
Me: I don't think my boyfriend would be too happen with that....
Local: Oh, what are you doing tomorrow?
Me: I'm not sure yet.
Local: Would you like to come with me tomorrow? I have a taxi. For you it is free.
Me: No I'm sorry, thankyou.
Local: We could go on a trip? The volcano? Ubud? Kuta?
Me: I'm sorry, I can't.
Local: Maybe you like to go swimming, we could go swimming?
Me: No, I'm sorry.
Local: Oh ok. You are very beautiful. I like you Annie.
Me: Oh, thankyou.
Local: Where are you going now?
Me: Back to my hotel.
Local: Oh ok, maybe I can see you again sometime.
Me: Maybe....
Local: Ok, goodbye Annie, you are very beautiful!
Me: Thankyou! Goodbye!

I have to point out this was done with beaming smiles and in a most friendly nature. It was not at all agressive or sleazy.

A bit of a disaster....

It started with those useless cookers in the hostel. A place could get shut down for them, just for the safety of normal people, so god help all the poor idiots like me with no coordination, severe difficulties with perception and no damn common sense. Of course I ended up burning myself. It was inevitable. And it hurt. Really hurt. So much that after the initial thirty seconds of shock, I broke out into a sweat, an intense heat overcame me and my vision became that of a barely-able-to-stand drunk. I managed to stagger to the toilet before completely blacking out, collapsed into a heap on the floor and poured the contents of my stomach into the toilet bowl. THAT is how much it hurt.

And that was a sign of things to come. Despite the fact that it lost me the use of one hand and caused a ridiculous (and literally sickening) amount of pain, this was not my really problem of the day. My bank balance was. Five pounds. Five measly pounds. Not even enough to get out the cash point! Certainly not enough to pay for my visa into Indonesia (which I needed that day) or my hotel.

So there I was, sitting at the airport in Darwin, thoroughly expecting to be deported from Bali before I'd even made it out the airport. It was really quite typical of me to be in this situation, and a serious flaw that I need to work on. On this occasion however, it happened that money does grow on trees after all....

However, I still showed all signs that things were dire, when after eating the airplane meal I found myself contently thinking: "Wow, that was delicious! Best food I've eaten in ages!" and scraping up every last crumb.

Darwin wasn't too bad afterall....

I mentioned the writers that I was staying in my Darwin room with. Well they had a group of writer friends, all stayingin our hostel, all awesome people. So we sat around the whole time, sipping drink and discussing modern literature. Soon enough, the conversation turned to one man, of whom I am the biggest fan - and turns out so were they! - the late journalist, Hunter S Thompson. These guys were great. Any Thompson fans are automatically great, but these guys were a great laugh as well. I suppose it takes a certain type of person to be a Thompson fan, but they seemed to really share my life values and....and well we just really clicked. These were my kind of people. One of them even reminded me of Thompson - maybe it was the clothes that did it: his aviator sunglasses teemed with a proper collered shirt and shorts. Or maybe he did have that essense that only a super cool, permanently intoxicated, eccentric journalist could have. Anywyas these people really seemed to inspire me, as I haven't stopped writing since. Also, I quite took a liking to one of them.

We all had a very crazy night out - involving lots of goon, 3am swimming pool antics, pants landing on security guards faces....and far more hilarious events, but as much as I'm itching to write about it all, I don't feel the world is quiet ready to hear about it! It sure showed me that Darwin can give you a damn good time though, despite my initial dislike of the place!

Thought on leaving home....

I'd been put in a room in Darwin with two writers - both very nice people. For the girl, this is the first tmie she has left her home town of Perth for any significant period of time, and she had written a piece on how it made her feel. This made me think about what it meant to me - sending myself off, alone, into the unknown world - and realised that my feelings must be very different to hers.

I don't really feel like I'm out of my comfort zone. Every bed feels like my own bed. I feel at home everywhere I go. In fact, I feel like I'm more at home and more in my comfort zone leading the life of a nomad. This kind of life truly is where I belong.

First Impressions of Darwin

Now don't get me wrong - I'm all for debauchery, but at first I thought Darwin was HORRIBLE. I wrote my thoughts stated here when I had just got back to my room after sitting on the pavement for an hour because some dumbass set the fire alarm off by smoking in their room. That time I spent on the pavement really created a strong first image of the town.

The first thing I noticed about Darwin was the difference in the type of backpacker. Where before it had always been more female, all my age, and very chatty, now it was predominantly male, thirties - think builder tan, the kind of tattoos you would expect to find on a sailor, tank tops, and a general look of someone you do not want to mess with - this was the main kind of inhabitant of Darwin, so it seemed. Most people appeared to be workers and stuck to their already formed friendship groups.

So I decided to have a look around town to see if Darwin had anything better to offer. It didn't, to put it simply. It was however the first time an Aborigine person spoke to me, previously they have remained very secluded. He was very friendly, and I felt kinda bad that I didn't have the cigarette he asked for.

Back to the hostel and Darwin's scummyness: As I was cooking dinner, I soon learnt that the nobs for the hobs weren't working - it was a case of some being permanently on and some being permanently off! Fair enough, as long as I could still get my dinner cooked I didn't care too much at that point, but it did cross my mind that places get shut down for less fire hazards!

Shortly after this, though thankfully after I'd finished my dinner (otherwise I would have been going no where!) the fire alarm goes off. So everyone leaves the building in what must have been the most lethargic evacuation of all time and the fire brigade comes. I overheard some of the more permanent residents complain about how this happens every night. From observing some of the people in the street however I learnt that three more days here was probably three more days too much (so I thought at the time). It was half nine in the evening, some people that had miraculously made it out the hostel were passed out on the pavement, some lying in the road even, with the traffic being diverted round them! Others were falling about all over the place and trying to drag the unconscious bodies down the street. As I said earlier, I'm all for debauchery, but overhearing people's conversations pushed me into the understanding of the place: "When I was last arrested....", "Oh yeah, this guy who the police tasered the other night....", "When I was charged with assault the other week....", "Who are those guys on the other side of the road? Do you think they want to fight?...."

First impressions of Darwin: This was a city of nothing to do, nothing to see, and full of annoying, scummy people. A bit of a dump, to say the least..... I ended up having a hell of a lot of fun in the end!

Music in Australia

1) Circular Quay, Sydney - Aborigine, complete with warpaint, playing a digeridoo to a trance beat background

2) Red Hot Chilli Pepper obsession, followed by Silverchair who seemingly still exist!

3) On the Nimbin tour Douggie played the most memorable song from the Sacrid Spirits - Canadian Red Indian soundtrack that my family seem obsessed with in Canada

4) Travelling Wilburies - End of the Line came on the radio on the Eungella rainforest tour - my first ever favourite song

5) Steady as she Goes!

The Outback!

From Cairns I flew to Alice Springs and what a different world! The two places are possibly as opposite as you can get. Cairns is tropical, Alice Springs is desert. Cairns is an impersonal city, Alice Springs is very small-town.


I was staying in a hostel called Annie's Place - chosen of course because it shared its name with me. As I came through security at the airport there was a desk for the hostels, and when I told the staff from Annie's Place that my name was Annie, they were incredibly excited. I have to talk a little bit about this hostel before I go on to my outback trip, as apart from the Arts Factory in Byron Bay, this was the best place I have stayed so far. The rooms were spacious, the people were super friendly - everyone says hello or chats to you if you are in the same place for more than a few seconds! There is a nice pool, and every night by the pool, a film is projected onto a large screen so everyone from the hostel sits round the pool and watches a movie under the stars. The bar is good, the food is cheap, the reception is extremely helpful.


When I first arrived at Annie's place, I was told they had to cancel the outback tour that I was booked on, as there wasn't enough people. So I was upgraded to another tour. To begin with I was a bit disappointed. The tour I had booked was real rough bush living, whereas the new one was "luxury camping". I have no objection to luxury, just for the record, but I thought that the other tour would be more of an experience. Also, I knew that the new tour would have more old people and less partying - and I was right, but it also had less drama and more interesting things to learn about the outback. After finishing the trip, I don't think that I lost out on any experience - we still cooked our dinner on a bonfire, drove off road, ran away from scary bugs, and all that jazz! Only this way I slept well at night and had a decent shower in the mornings!


The tour guide was excellent, he was like a walking encyclopedia on the area. We learnt about the Aboriginal traditions of the area, the explorers who *tried* to conquer the area, all the local nature and wildlife, the current social situation, the geology....everything! Funny thing about the guide though, is that I soon found out he was a Hong Kong Permanent Resident! Now if this wasn't funny enough (no one you meet travelling is from Hong Kong!), when I asked about what he was doing in HK, I soon found out he had been the manager of Club 97! This wasn't one of my most frequented places, but I certainly had been there a good few times! What a small world!


So anyways,as we know the Aboriginal people were here in Australia long before the British, but they were not indigenous to Australia. However, no one is quite sure how they got here. Back a very long time ago (don't ask me when, as I have a terrible tendency not to listen) the channel of sea between the top of Australia and the bottom of Papua New Guinea was so narrow that you could see across it when standing on top of the mountains in P N G - that they came across here is one theory. Another, is that certain peoples from Africa mastered lengthy sea travel, thousands (and thousands) of years before anyone else, then totally abandoned the knowledge.


Well somehow they got there, and then maintained the same ancient lifestyle, until the whiteman came along. A lifestyle consisting of the men hunting and protecting, and the women gathering foods and looking after children. Their laws were based around the will of the spirits and ancient legends of the land. Then we came along and ruined everything. We (and I say "we" unfortunately as a white person) introduced alcohol. Europeans had been getting used to this poison for as far as history remembers, and our bodies contain enzymes specially to digest it. Aborigines hadn't had the chance to adapt in this way and so, lacking this all important enzyme, did not take well to alcohol. It made them violent and incapable. They soon became alcoholics and their old way of life was destroyed.


Nowadays we appear to have two "types" of Aborigine. The bush Aborigine - untouched by alcohol, protected by national parks and still living in a mostly traditional way - though these are few. The city Aborigines are the ones we come into contact with, and sadly the ones who give white Australians their opinions of the race. Every white Australian I have met, as open minded as they have seemed, as soon as the topic of Aborigines comes up - speaks of them like animals. This really surprised me. So the stereotypical city Aborigine that has gained this reputation is the alcoholic, living off dole money, lying around in parks and sending the violent crime statistics soaring. It is a very sad state of affairs, and it is, in fact, all our fault.


The first place we stopped on our trip was a camel farm. Australia now has plague amounts of camels, so many that it even exports them to Saudi Arabia, because apparently the camels in Australia are better than in their original country. In the first place they came over from Afghanistan as labour animals, much better at coping in the arid climate than say horses. When the railways they were building were finished, they were released into the wild.


At this camel farm there was also a pet dingo, as tame and friendly as any household pet dog. So I sat and stroked him for a while.... and fed him a few sneaky crisps.


Next stop was a cattle station/gas station/cafe/art gallery. These places are dotted about all over the outback, with comforting signs outside saying "Last stop for infinite kilometres". So you don't really have a choice but to stop at them. They create a sense of being a very small dot in a boundless wilderness. And wilderness it was indeed. All you could see, as far as the horizon, was yellow sand, or perhaps sometimes red sand, with the odd dried up shrub meagerly poking its head up every so often. Oh and of course the flies. The damn pesky flies. Within 30 seconds of stepping outdoors you have at least 50 swarming round your face, desperately trying to get in your mouth, up your nose, in your ears, on your eyeballs.... to suck at all your juicy moisture. And they are unrelentless, no matter how many times you bat them out the way, they will be back for more instantly. Luckily we had fly nets to prevent them penetrating our many facial holes, but they were still as annoying as hell.


To add to our sense of isolation we were told about all the explorers who tried to conquer this land, failed, wondered round for months lost and after draining their supplies, died, bodies never to be found. Hopefully this would not be us.

In the afternoon we came to a gorge amidst lots of big, giant, red rocks. It really was like nothing I had ever seen before. These rocks resembled giant heads sticking out of the sand, and the story goes that these heads were the spirits of warriors who were captured after a war between two tribes. Once prisoners, they were forced to dig great holes in the sand, then made to stand in the holes, where they were buried, with just their heads left poking out for the likes of dingos and crazy insects to have their way with. On this delightful tale we walked through the gorge, took lots of pictures, then headed to a sunset viewing point of Ayers Rock, where we would scoff our way through numerous packets of crackers and refresh our hard days work with some wine.

Now Ayers Rock, or Uluru, is a bit of a wonder really. It's this enormous red blob of rock in the middle of absolutely nothing. No mountain range or anything, it just stands there, on its own, in the middle of the desert. Pretty bizarre. Apparently it is just the same as the surrounding land, but denser; so where the rest of the land has been eroded by weather, this great blob remains. Also, it was once 90 degrees the other way up, but fell over one day to the position we now know it to be in AND something like 80% of it is underground....like an iceberg....

The following morning we got up at stupid-o-clock in the morning for a sunset walk around the rock. A walk which is possibly, I think, the most beautiful few hours of my life - the many changing colours of the rock as the sun slowly rose, the silhouettes of the scattered trees, the sky of a million colours and clouds glowing in the newly born sun. Then of course the sunrise itself. It was then I realised that I had in fact never seen a sunrise before in my life. It was pretty spectacular. I was amazed how after about an hour of the sky slowly changing colour, the movement of the sun over the horizon happened in seconds. So fast you could see it moving through the sky. Needless to say, I took a lot of photos.

After this we met up with our guide again,who took us to the most sacred spots of Uluru to learn its legends. The main story concerns a certain snake named Kuinya, who journeyed to Uluru to lay her eggs. At the time, a tribe of another type of snake was living in the area, a tribe with whom Kuinya's nephew happened to be in trouble. One day, the nephew was cornered by the warriors of this tribe and killed. Kuinya came as soon as she heard - her path can still be seen today in great black snake trails across the rock. Alas she was too late! Her nephew was dead, and only one enemy warrior remained to mock her. Crying, she asked why had he killed her nephew, but the warrior just laughed at her. So she picked up some sand from the ground and, chanting a curse, threw it at the warriors feet. Now all the trees on the ground where the warrior stood are poisoned, and still now the Aboriginal people will not eat from them. But still the warrior laughed, so she hit him over the head with her stick - this can be seen as a great crack in the rock, with a blood stain trickling out. Still the warrior mocked her, so she it him one more fatal time, revenging her nephew - this strike can be seen by an even larger crack in the rock.

This story I have just told is merely the children's version, to hear the full version of all the legends we must first be initiated into the tribe - a process involving withstanding great amounts of pain, and which frankly just isn't going to happen.

We then went to the area's main waterhole (which was somewhat lacking in water) and to see Aboriginal cave drawings.

By this time we were pretty exhausted and had miserably given in to the flies, so were pretty glad of the four hour coach trip to our next camp. It is amazing what things please you in certain situations.

That night we built a big bonfire and cooked our dinner on it whilst listening to Rolph Harris' greatest hits....which was all very well for the first couple of songs....

I'm sure it's not hard to think that Rolph Harris plus exhaustion made it an early night, and we were up before dawn again the next morning for our big canyon climb. However this would not be before the most terrifying experience of my life ever. I was relatively please with the showers at this place, as they had been totally clean and insect free - that is until some numbskull obviously left the door open over night. So I came in, just before dawn, to find the three most heart-stoppingly horrendous being known to mankind. Giant, mutant, alien crickets. Bigger than me. Well, perhaps not, but without exaggeration, they were at least as long as my foot, and almost as wide, with a hard, black, shiny shell, and crazy pincers....or legs....or antennae....I didn't stay long enough to find out. I didn't care how much I smelt, or how rugged I looked, I was NOT sharing my shower with these things!

So, smelly and unwashed, I arrived at King's Canyon and found myself face to face with the sign: "Trail moderate, with strenuous start. Do not attempt in intense heat." I then glanced at the daily temperature chart: "Today's heat rating falls into the category of: Very Dangerous." "Ah", I thought. At this point hald the group dropped out. When the guide told us about the recent death count of people falling off the edge of the trail, half the remaining group dropped out. For me it wasn't an option, so I began the "strenuous" beginning. Before long, my heart was beating out of my chest, sweat was pouring down my face and I was pretty sure that I knew what having an asthma attack must be like, but I looked around me and saw everyone else suffering just as badly. so I crawled on, content that I wasn't dying alone, if a little jealous that the guys next to me were tall enough to be able to lift themselves from one rock to the other without using their hands. But I scrambled on determind, and next thing I knew I was one of the first at the top, with the rest a few minute behind and in a much worse state! This surprised me somewhat, as I don't claim to ever do any exercise, but I guess I have been spending a lot of time lately walking a great deal, so maybe I'm fitter than I thought!

Once at the top we walked for about four hours, probably a highlight of my Australia trip. We were presented with spectacular views and dizzying heights - for those of us stupid enough to stand on the edge of the cliff and look down. As we walked, our guide showed us plants for making suncream, plants for making glue; plants you can eat, plants you really shouldn't! We met a very friendly lizard who let us pick him up! And we even went to the place where part of Priscilla Queen of the Desert was filmed.

Now I'm generally not particulatly interested in rocks - for some reason I used to collect them as a kid, but don't ask me why now! - but just this once, the rocks actually were interesting. Every so often, we would notice a rippling effect in the rocks. Apparently these are left over indentations from water, a VERY long time ago, when there was no ice on the North Pole, so the water level was much higher, and right in the middle of Australia was a great big sea! This is actually not me making stuff up. We also saw jellyfish fossils!

About half way through this walk, we came to a sunken oasis - deep pools of glistening blue water, surrounded by beautiful green plants. An unexpected respite to the endless rocks and sand. This place was called the Garden of Eden, and it just so happens I had an apple in my bag, which I thought rather appropriate to eat here.

Eventually I made it to te end of the trail, as did the rest of the group, and it was an awesome sense of achievement, as it had been far from easy, but so spectacular that it was well worth it. A funny thing though - in the heat and I guess from exerting myself a lot further than usual, my fingers had swollen up to a ridiculous size, and the tips had gone completely numb! I found this highly entertaining for the hour or so it lasted!