From the Red Centre to the Top End to Singapore

What I forgot to mention last time is that along the way we picked up 12 new passengers (4 @ Erlunda and 8 @ Uluru Airport). Anyway. After Uluru sunset we had a nice dinner, campfire and much warmer sleep (without mice crawling over me in the swag). Since it is winter down here we could even sleep in till 5.30 for Uluru sunrise. Very nice. To enjoy that one we did the basewalk around Uluru (10k, very flat, slightly boring) and headed to the information centre to soak up some local Aboriginal culture. We got a free 1 hour guided walk along some sacret sites at Uluru with an Aboriginal lady called Sarah (and an interpreter because Sarah doesn't speak English). Very interesting! Time to drive to my all time favourite spot in the Red Centre: Kings Canyon! Well just the base camp in the afternoon and after another lovely swag sleep we did the 3 hour hike (with Heart attack Hill actually feeling as a piece of cake after all the other hikes that we'd done on the tour). Beautiful hike, such a varied landscape and easy to walk along! If you'd only had 1 day at the Red Centre than this is the place to go, not Uluru!
Unfortunately this also meant it was time to head to Alice Springs in the afternoon :'( The end of the tour had come....but not before the hilarious 'Weetbix challenge'! We had to eat a dry weetbix (type of cereal thing here in Oz) asap without anything to drink. That is like eating 5 beschuiten without water....quite a challenge...but I beat our tourguide (an Ozzie, although he might have let me win)! The hostel in Alice (Alice Lodge) was fine: free internet and free breakfast! The room was minuscule though... we had our farewel dinner at Annie's Place (just like 5 years ago) and headed into town later on, with us die hards going to the casino until the wee hours. What a great party : D
Saturday lunchtime I met up with Toni (whom I met 4 years ago in Darwin when we were flatmates for a few weeks), so good to see her again! We had lunch at the botanical gardens, walked to the lookouts there, explored town, had coffee and enjoyed free card tricks performed by a very cute local working for that coffee bar. A quick grocery stop and Toni was off to dinner with colleagues and I headed to bed for much needed sleep. We met up again on Sunday morning and decided to leave Alice behind and headed bush! We checked out Simpson's gap, Emily's and Jessie's Gap and enjoyed a lovely lunch in town. Time to pick up my stuff and the lovely Toni drove me all the way to the airport. So great to see her again and what a great way to spent time in Alice. Thanks my friend!!!!!!
I actually flew from one friend to the other: Ben picked me up from Darwin airport and we headed to the Mindil Markets for a bite to eat. Katie was still in Perth for a conference, so it was just him and me for the first day. Great to see each other again and catch up (they got married in Nov on Koh Samui). On Monday it was a public holiday in the Northern Territory and the Darwin Cup (horse races) were on. Since Ben had never been there and they are leaving at the end of the year we kind of had to go there  ;-) Lisette (whom I met in Sydney and Cairns) was also in Darwin so the 3 of us got dressed up (really chique) and mingled with the locals while drinking pink bubbly :) We picked Katie up in the afternoon and enjoyed a lovely meal at the Gingerbread House (without Lisette). The next morning Lisette took the bus to Palmerston and Ben, Lisette and I headed to Litchfield National Park (poor Katie had to work). We visited Buley Rockhole and Florence Falls and ended the day with a lovely icecream at the local town Batchelor. Great to relax, chat and tan. Oh and another funny quote from this one: we met a lady in the morning. After we chatted for about 20 min the topic of age came up. She asked me how old I was and after I answered 29 she blurted out: oh so your biological clock must be ticking now, how about kids? Uhm...what??? No it is not ticking!!!! Crazy.
In the evening I headed to town with Lisette and enjoyed a cheap Domino's pizza (cheap Tuesday). On Wednesday Katie was 'sick' from work and so we headed to the Darwin Wildlife Park and spent about 4 lovely hours staring at all the beautiful animals (lots of birds, lizards, turtles, rays, fish, snakes,dingo's etc). A lovely Subway sandwich was munched away at Berry Springs after which it was time to head home. In the evening we went out to Manoli's Greek restaurant in Darwin. Lovely!!!! Yesterday (Thursday) was already my last day in Darwin :'( Katie had a few appointments in town, so I could do some souvenir shopping in CBD! We headed to Nightcliff for lunch (a massive burger) and chilled at the East Point Reserve, overlooking Lake Alexander. Beautiful and lots of time to chat away. Katie dropped me off at the airport so I could head to Singapore. I will miss Oz soooo much and all the lovely people there. A huge thanks to Ben and Katie and 2013 is in the agenda! I will show you guys all around the Netherlands (will buy a Lonely Planet to find out what tourists normally do haha)!!!
Our flight was slightly delayed, but all went well and finally at 23.30 I was at the hostel! It is a very nice one (see expensive = quality in this case). Good location, free internet, free sumptuous breakfast, enough space in the room, free locker, in CBD and very quiet : D
This morning it took me a while to kick myself in the butt and head out. I always freak out a little in Asia (where to go, how to get there, so many people etc), but I finally had a plan: Little India first, then Orchard Road for some shopping (and much needed airconditioning) and the Botanical Gardens. And so I did. It was a long day (8.5 hours) but worth it. I got slightly sunburned on my shoulders (left the sunscreen in Darwin), but had great excercise (I walked 15km at least in 30+ degrees C and 80% humidity or something crazy like that). I was also a bit naughty and bought 2 pairs of Adidas shoes (nice sneakers and new trainers). They were very cheap though... but I really don't know how to get it all in the big suitcase without grossly exceeding the 20kg luggage limit. I'll deal with that later ahum. To help a bit I chucked out my old trainers (not that old, I bought them at the end of my NZ trip, but they are worn down with all the walking here). Tomorrow I will head to Chinatown and walk around there. And that's it. I was planning to go to the Zoo, but can't really be bothered in this heat. I'll just veg out on the couch, read my book and mentally prepare for the day after: the big trip home!