Melting

There is a Hooter’s in Singapore. I walked past it my second night there, and stopped and did a double-take. Pushing aside the temptation for spicy chicken wings, I passed the girls in bright orange shorts spinning hoola-hoops to try and attract customers, which seemed to be working as the bar was full of people, foreigners and Asians alike, families sitting alongside groups of businessmen. It confirmed my initial reaction to Singapore; that is was not quite Asia, not quite the West, but languishing somewhere in between. [read on]

As many people warned me, 3 months is just not enough time to do all of Australia, though I did try my best to see the things I wanted to most. My friend Lora had 4 1/2 months, did everything she wanted to except Tasmania, spent almost 3 weeks in Darwin, so that seems like a good amount of time to do “everything.” My 2 1/2 weeks at the sheep station would otherwise have been used on the East Coast probably, but I wouldn’t trade in that experience for a few more beach days. I’ll have plenty of those coming up. Doing the drive from Perth to Darwin, I would say you need at least a month to not go insane. Any less than that, and you will be exhausted, trying to go from place to place with no rest in between. Add more if you intend to visit the Kimberley. [read on]

My last week in Australia was a fairly busy, and expensive one. After spending a large amount of time lounging around Darwin, I realized that I needed to go to Ayer's Rock, or Uluru as it is known to the ... [Continue reading this entry]

(It is May 14th today, Happy Mother's Day!) We have been in Darwin and the surrounding area for 12 days now. Lora and I arrived here "on schedule" on May 3rd, tired but happy that we made the whole trip on ... [Continue reading this entry]

(After a two week self-imposed computer hiatus, I have added more pictures to my smugmug homepage.)

Our initial arrival in Broome proved to be anticlimatic. Lora and I settled into what turned out to be a really good hostel, The Kimberley Club, which ... [Continue reading this entry]