Arrived! Day 1 - Darwin

Finally got here. Landed Darwin 16.20 local time Wednesday, only 33C and a bit humid.

Let me rewind a bit as I've done a lot of travelling over the last day or so. Coming in to land at Changi (Singapore) it occurred to me to wonder what you can tell of a place from the plane. Well, the approach to Changi is over water which I always find disconcerting for some reason. I like to see the tarmac we're aiming for. There were lots of boats - container ships, small boats... large numbers of them. And there are all these thin artificial barriers/pontoons poking out everywhere. The land is all green and lush but the very first bit you fly over is a golf course with its universal scarring of bunkers everywhere. Personally, I think golf courses are ugly. 

The airport itself seemed fairly quiet and very clean - we landed at terminal three which I imagine was quite new. However, as with all airports these days it's like a huge shopping outlet with half decent international transport links attached. Terminal two was definitely a bit older, more lived in and, yes, smelly. Both terminals had indoor gardens and koi ponds of which they seem very proud. Some of the koi were huge.

It was all well organised and I didn't have any nasty queueing situations at all. Thinking about it though, yesterday morning at terminal 3 Heathrow was pretty amazing for the speed I got through to departures too. That must mean I'll have an awful journey back. Eventually ;-)

The approach to Darwin was very green and lush with lots of water channels and ponds. Not like my experience of other parts of Australia but this tropical here. There are palm trees and it's hot and humid. The airport is tiny! Changi is pretty big and Heathrow, well nuff said. Again, I sailed through immigration. None of the bag search looking for grains of soil from Richmond Park which might pollute this wonderful place. Perhaps I look too respectable (or old). There was a sniffer dog in baggage reclaim and he's obviously had the full H&S training to enable him to run along the moving conveyor belt while wagging his tail. Labradors always look like they're enjoying themselves.

Having got through immigration so quickly I sussed that it would be ages before the city shuttle bus left because a notice said it would for people arriving on any particular flight (see what I mean about small!). I splashed out on a taxi and found the youth hostel. I'm in a room for 6 which seems mostly to be populated by German girls. You come all this way.... I've been to Coles for some groceries, chatted to another 'more mature' lady (Australian) who's staying here, had my tea, and erm now I'm in the bar, enjoying the wifi. There seems to be a marathon on Fox Sports2 which I think might be Berlin but the sound isn't on. Aha, it's Rotterdam. Half way in 1.02.40.

Anyway, it's about 8.50pm here, so I'll say goodnight and try to sort myself out with some sleep. There is aircon :D

For the football followers, I was going to post a sign from outside the bar. But google+ is taking so long to do whatever it does, I'm going to bed.