The Wanderings of busman7

All is not bad in the land down under, as I have mentioned Perth & Adelaide are pretty nice cities, Alice Springs still remains sensible despite all the tourists mainly because it is the agricultural  hub for a vast area of the Outback so there is still enough local industry to keep a balance. Kununurra is pretty cool & laid back & Brisbane has a Hop-on-off bus so it can’t be all bad, any city with Hop-on-off bus service is worth investigating.

A hot air balloon ride over the Outback is an absolutely amazing experience, should be on everyone’s “Bucket List”, kind of makes the whole trip down under worth while.

OZ is also a great place for the younger backpackers to replenish their finances so they can keep traveling, have met some that have been on the road 3 or more years & make their travel money in the farm fields of Australia picking crops.

Found out today that even though the red seats on Saturday’s Indian Pacific from Sydney to Adelaide show, unavailable online, by going to the station they magically become available so have one reserved along with one Monday on the Overland to Melbourne so I will be able to complete my Australian tour as planned (mostly).

Touring Brisbane tomorrow & the Hop-on-off bus pass even includes using the river cats, which should be interesting. Then going to stretch my luck again & ride the “Hound Dog” back north a bit to catch a look at the Great Barrier Reef for a couple days before heading to Sydney & the train rides.

Checked the weather in Tasmania & it’s pretty cool so think I will just take the ferry over one night & back the next, cheaper than a room anyway, to wrap up my OZ experience. Think if I had to do it over again I would have gone up the west coast from Perth to Broome & then on to Darwin. Would have been more interesting than the train ride across the Nullarbor Plain.

By the time I leave I will have traveled 136 hrs on the Grey Hound Dog, 101 hrs by train, the best part of an hr in the basket of a balloon + various side trips so even though I found some things to rant about & it was EXPENSIVE it was an experience!

Oh yeah the Brisbane City Backpackers is a pretty neat place to stay!

Trivia for today is that Burger King is called Hungry Jacks here.

Since leaving on my RTW last August 19, over 9 months ago & having traveled many many miles by plane, train, ship, taxi, tuk tuk, elephant, camel & all forms of buses from tourist coaches, chicken buses, local Burmese buses, Toyota Land Cruisers in Tibet & crazy Thais driving 12 passenger Toyota vans,  even a 38 hr trip on an old coach from Deli to Kathmandu I never had any concerns for my safety while traveling until I started traveling on Australian Greyhound buses!

Having been involved in the transportation industry for around 45 years, owning my own bus line for 25 of those + being a driver trainer qualified by the MTO to do driver examination tests I have some idea of what I am talking about.

Now while Greyhound is technically operating to the letter of the laws, regarding hours of work, which are  made by simple serpents (which explains a lot), they are NOT applying any common sense to their implementation. An example is that on the run from Darwin to Broome, a trip that takes 52 hrs return over 3 days, they operate it with 2 drivers but instead of switching every 4 hrs, each driver runs 12 hrs straight. Now this may be all right for the first 12 hr day shift but as anyone who has ever driven at night knows that last hour before daylight is a bitch so why have a driver that has been driving all night try to stay awake when there is another rested one available? Because they don’t give a damn about their passengers is why! Oh did I mention that upon arriving at Tennant Creek at 1:30 am they wake everyone up & make them exit the bus to sit in a deserted terminal with NO services while the driver delivers the mail (can’t have that rif-raf around the post office you know), after all the passengers are mostly indigenous people & back-packers so it doesn’t matter any way!

Had a driver this morning who was falling asleep but was too stupid to stop & walk around the bus a couple times to revive a bit & spent the last 5 miles running on the rumble strip & the wrong side of the road before almost sideswiping a parked pickup a couple blocks from the terminal. Also on the trip out of Broome the bus traveled 22 1/2 hrs before a stop longer than 10 minutes for a meal break which really gives the drivers time for a good meal so they can safely do their job not to mention a complete disregard for the passengers.

I won’t even mention the lack of intelligence of the terminal staff & ticket agents other than the fact that they can’t walk & chew gum at the same time, which is why I ended up in Brisbane instead of Townsville (at least it got me out of Tennant Creek a day early & closer to the Sydney Airport.

Yep Greyhound Australia is the perfect example of what happens when the bigger is better syndrome has been in place for a few years & the competition eliminated, everything reduced to the lowest common denominator & common sense is blown away in the wind!

Won’t get into the trains which have a token car for the peasant class & the other 25 for people with more money than brains. See what transpires tomorrow (every thing turns into a pumpkin from Friday at about 5:00 pm until late Monday morning) when I try to book a seat? May just end up booking an early flight out OZ as am not impressed with the country at this point in time.

Knowing what I know now wish I had spent an extra month in Indonesia & just skipped OZ & NZ!!

But that’s what travel is all about. Experiencing the good the bad & the ugly!

New that once I left Darwin & headed back to the Outback things would improve & I was right, it’s back to normal, for Australia, expensive but nice people again. So would advise just go straight to Knunurra from Alice Springs & forget Darwin.

Take a countryside tour, something NOT offered in Darwin, & see what a bit of water does for agriculture. Check out the Sandalwood plantations & get a look at another different side of OZ.

Arrived in Broome, have a couple hrs wait for the shuttle from the hostel at the beach to pick me up so at McDonalds where the free WiFi has decided to take a vacation for a bit & the staff is so slow they might as well be on vacation also, guess that’s just the way it works around here. OK the bus from the hostel never showed up at least not 1/2 hr after they said it would so went to the tourist info center where the Greyhound drops off & found another within walking distance of the stop.

Power outlet in the room doesn’t work & management couldn’t care less so am getting more than a bit fed up with paying exorbrient prices for piss poor service in tourist areas & once I hit Townsville that’s all there is so afraid will be using up my passes for bus & train travel but not spending time in the rip-off tourist traps full of surly proprietors in touron areas!

Bus left at 5:25 pm last night & there was nothing open any where along the way until we hit Broome this morning, talk about rolling the sidewalks early!

So the place you were looking forward to seeing turns out to totally suck & has absolutely no redeeming values. Welcome to Darwin the a$$hole of Australia (IMHO), others opinions may differ.

From what I have seen Darwin is just a rip-off tourist trap with surly inhabitants, including the Greyhound driver (the only not nice bus driver I have encountered) & the food prices  are outrageous, $16.00 for the same breakfast that was $11.00 (overpriced at that) on the road yesterday. NO hop-on-off bus & the only 1/2 day city tour offered sucks unless you are into museums & art galleries. It’s also HOT & HUMID but worse than Bangkok  at the same temps & a whole herd of tourists that for some strange reason seem to like it.

Oh well have booked the 07:15 Dog out in the morning, had to book at a travel agent because it’s office is closed on weekends, only in OZ eh! Speaking of booking the hostels here refuse to book ahead for, neither would the agent that issued my bus ticket. Seems getting the most amount of money for the least amount of effort is the rule in Darwin, Damn I miss SE Asia where they know how to treat people without over charging (except in major tourist areas & then within reason).

In light of the Darwin experience I have had a slight plan change, so shall stick to the outback for a bit. A day in Kununurra, where the Sultan of Brunei has his cattle station, over to Broome for a day then back track through Katherine to Tennant Creek  where will take another days break as bus to Mount Isa only goes every second day then on to Townsville on the tourist coast.

Depending on how many stops I then have left on my pass & the touron level, think it will be a quick trip down the coast to Sydney to catch the Indian Pacific back to Adelaide, The Overlander to Melbourne where depending on weather in Tasmania & cost of getting there it will either be there or on to NZ.

The Ghan is just The Indian Pacific with a different name that travels North & South instead of East & West they are identical in equipment & service with the only problem being only one non-sleeper car on each train with sleepers being ridicously expensive. No seats on The Ghan tomorrow so have to take the Grey Dog to Darwin.

Uluru is this big red rock out in the desert 470+ km from Alice & I really can’t see what all the fuss is about, the only saving grace of the trip was the salad & cold cut lunch served with wine in the bus parking lot at sunset.

That said the sunrise balloon trip at Alice Springs was awesome!! Followed, of course, by the obligatory Champaign toast at the landing spot in the Outback

Can add Kangaroo, Camel, Emu & Crocodile to the list of different foods I have tried.

Alice Springs is not only an expensive tourist town but also the hub of much of the Northern Territory & the Outback so once you get past the tourist thing you have a down to earth town where I could live if I were 20 yrs younger & could put up with the crazy prices (did I mention that I got spoiled by the cheap cost of living in Bangkok).

Alice is also home to the Flying Doctor service & The School of the Air which serves 133 students living in an area of over 1,000,000 sq kms. Shall check out the Transportation museum showing the advent of the road train also the Kenworth section then across the road to the museum of the original Ghan railroad, flew over a portion of the original narrow gauge track in the balloon yesterday.

At 19:00 it’ll be bye bye to the Alice as the “Dog” heads north to Darwin.

Trivia; Alice Springs is only 125 km NW of the geographic centre of Australia, It’s roughly 1500 km to both Adelaide & Darwin. Kangaroos & camels are both considered pests.

Perth is a really nice city very green as the Swan River runs through it on it’s way to the Indian Ocean at Freemantle which is another cool place to visit. Both are very tourist friendly with Free buses & in Adelaide also a Free tram through the tourist areas.

Some good tours in both areas, they aren’t cheap but the quality is good & the drivers/guides are excellent, the best I have encountered so far. Canadian operators could take some lessons from them.

There are 2 major problems with both cities, they roll the sidewalks up early, 6 pm in Perth & 9-10 in Adelaide & they are expensive for everything. Oh yeah in spite of being in the area of SE Asia OZ is westernized so you have the same retarded politicians causing the same problems as in North America.

Adelaide is also drier & usually has water restrictions but due to an unusually wet winter last year they are lifted now. Water is the reason that the majority or the population lives around the coast with the dry center being only sparsely populated.

This has to be the best train so far, super comfortable seats, loads of legroom (only 48 passengers per car & quiet. First leg to Kalgoorlie arrived 15 minutes early.

First part the country was pretty rough then it flattened out into a plain with lots of farms growing grain & a few sheep. Stopped at Kalgoorlie, a gold mining town where we were offered a short but interesting 1 1/2 hr tour that took in the open pit mine.

Next morning woke up to flat scrub land which later gave way to only sagebrush type vegetation with no trees or bushes. We had 1/2 hr to investigate the, nearly ghost town of Cook, only a few railway employees left there, which is just over the 1/2 way point between Perth & Adelaide.

Later on in the day we had a bit of excitement & free entertainment from a lady that apparently was off her meds & was hooting & hollering at other passengers, she apparently had a dislike for the few Asian travelers aboard, so the crew found other seats for those in the car that wanted. She eventually fell asleep & was removed from the train by police when we arrived at a larger town 5 hrs later.

07:30 on the third day we arrived in Adelaide to sweater wearing temps, it’s late fall here in South Australia & a 1 1/2 hr time difference from Perth, later warmed up to a nice fall day. Checked out the city on the free bus yesterday & taking a tour of the surrounding countryside today before catching the Ghan to Alice Springs tomorrow afternoon.

Finally in “The Land Down Under”, Perth is OK but cold & expensive compared to SE Asia. Doing a tour of the local area down the river to Freemantle tomorrow, booked on the India Pacific to Adelaide Wed then the Gahn to Alice Springs Sun.

Australia is nice to see but SE Asia has spoiled me & miss it already, Oh well 5 months & I will be back.

Posting a few pics of OZ.

Took a boat cruise down the Swan River to Fremantle today which was pretty cool, both in sights & weather. There is no shortage of money in this area, judging by the amount of expensive yachts on the river & the million dollar+ homes. Of course the indigenous people you see in the downtown area show an entirely different side  of the story.

A bit of trivia I learned, Fremantle Harbor &  Singapore are only 3 1/2 days away by ship.

Off across the western desert  to Adelaide tomorrow.

Well the best part of my SE Asia visit came at the end with Indonesia where my time was way too short. The people there were super & I stayed off the tourist track until Bali where I managed to keep it low key sticking to Lovina on the north side. Met a great lady there but had to leave before hardly getting to know her.

Don’t know what all the talk about safety was unless it was just your normal crimes of opportunity like pickpockets, purse snatchers & such which you have to be more wary of than most places but never felt unsafe otherwise.

Spent a night in Singapore which is EXPENSIVE, a Singapore Sling at Raffles Hotel came to a total of $29.45 Singapore ($21.83 CAD) with service charge & GST, didn’t hurt the sales to tourists though as they were selling them steadily & the hotel is amazing with the rooms going for $500+/ night. A quart of Tiger beer $6.00 S but the taxis were still cheap.

After 6 months + 2 days in SE Asia the big ole Qantas Airbus 330 flew me away to Oz where might just as well be back in North America & the culture shock is already setting in as I am missing the way of life I became accustomed to. So at this point in time busman is not a happy camper in the land down under where everyone speaks English. It’s just NOT right!!!

Must visit Antigua once more on my way back but have the feeling that SE Asia is going to win out & that when I get back to Ontario it will merely be  just to wrap up my affairs, finish selling the rest of my possessions there, say goodbye to friends & family.

Most likely when I board that BA flight back to London where I will get my 15 month visa to Thailand, it will be a one way trip. A term teaching in Thailand for the experience then get on ajarn & check out the available positions in Indonesia, sounds like a good plan to me! ):

Six months in SE Asia sure changes a person!!

So you want to get off the tourist trail & experience life as a local?

I found the perfect solution, just book yourself a “Klasse Economik” ticket on a Pelni ship & there you go. That is what I did to get from Pontianak to Jakarta, a 38 hour trip which cost me a total of 238,000 Rupiah ($26.00 CAD) which included 2 nights accommodation & meals however a mattress was an extra 5000 Ru ($0.56 CAD).

Actually pretty good as the bunk space was elevated a couple feet off the floor & you had about a 5ft x 7ft space with overhead storage (the Korean ferry I was on you had to  sleep & sit on the floor in economy). Only about 80 people per cabin + there was a TV but did have to share 2 squat toilets & 2 shower stalls with the adjoining cabin, think the women had a couple extra stalls. Meals were pretty heavy on the rice & cabbage & pretty light on the meat but we got 5 of them so can’t complain for the cost.

Utterly amazing how the Asians manage to stay so clean in the heat & under those conditions, heck if that many westerners were in similar conditions you wouldn’t be able to stand the stink (Asians don’t sweat near as much as we do) in the place but here there was none. Also the kids are a whole lot better behaved than the spoiled brat western version.

Only real annoyance was the load speaker announcement at 4am calling the Muslims to prayer!

Of course being the only white person on the ship I did manage to attract the attention of the only Indonesian on board that could speak enough English to carry on a limited conversation with, so I now have another email address of a new acquaintance in Jakarta. By the  time we disembarked there was another half dozen people that new the odd word of English I had exchanged a few words with that shook my hand & wished me well in my travels.

Pretty cool way to enter the capitol city of an island nation, by ship with the good wishes of people I had never seen 38 hrs before. Too bad my time is so limited that I will only have 2 or 3 days (depending on what flight out I can get) in Bali, while the rest will be taken up getting there. Three days lost on the ship as it never got in until 02:00 on the 30th (9 hrs late) instead of the afternoon of the 29th, overnight in Jakarta then 13 hrs on the train to  Surabaya (3 hrs late), overnight then a 7 hr train ride (only 45 min late this time) to Banyuwangi where I will catch the ferry in the morning to Bali then a bus to the Lovina Beaches at Kalibuk.

That went pretty well, a 5 min taxi ride from Manyar Garden Hotel, an excellent cheap place to spend the night, followed by about 1/2 hr on the ferry, a 5 min motorcycle taxi ride to  the local bus terminal then a 2 1/2 hr bus trip & here I am at the beach in Bali after only 6 days travel from Borneo. Got my plane ticket to Singapore on line for 30% less than the local travel agent wanted for the same flight which leaves at noon, taxi arranged to the airport that morning so I can spend another night here in my 100,000 Rupiah ($11.28 CAD).

Indonesia from the little bit I have seen seems to be a country of contrasts with a few very well off, another few middle class & lots of poor. Some things modern & some old as they use the iron buffalo to till the rice paddies but still cut & thresh it by hand. However while riding the good rail system that at every longer stop they were checking the wheel bearing temps which is a practice I only noticed on the Trans-Siberian but no where else, not even the much touted (though I can’t figure out why) Euro rail system.

Won’t even begin to scratch the surface of the wonders of Indonesia in my limited time here & can only recommend anyone planning a visit here or anywhere else in SE Asia to allow a minimum of a month per country, 2 is better, heck I spent over 2 1/2 mos in Bangkok alone.

Now it’s chill time in Bali until Friday when I leave for a night in Singapore before flying off to OZ!