It’s fun doing crazy things every now and then. The latest crazy thing I did was to go on a 3D2N trip to Darwin. A Jetstar promotion ran end of last year offered free tickets. All we had to do was to pay for airport taxes and surcharges and I took the bait.
Darwin is the capital of Australia’s Northern Territory and the largest city in this sparsely populated region. It is the smallest, wettest and most northernly of the Australian capital cities, with close proximity to South East Asia. In this city, the main tourists attractions have something to do with nature and crocodiles. It may be not sound sexy and exciting but we had a enjoyable jam-packed 2 days.
Weather in Darwin is hot and humid most months of the year. Best time to visit is between May to October which is the dry season with warm days and cool nights as compared to the other months. The temperature ranges from 21 degC during the night to 32 degC during the day.
Do click through the links for the individual places of interest / accommodation for more photos and details.
Day 1:
We arrived in Darwin in the early hours of the morning, just past 5am after a smooth flight.
To save on transport cost and considering there will not be much to do at that hour, we waited till quarter to 6 before walking out to take public bus. It took around 10mins to reach Charles Eaton Drive bus stop.
Waiting for bus in such early hours, the streets were quiet but there were frequent taxis passing by the stop. We must have looked a sight with our backpacks standing on the pavement as a passenger in a taxi stopped to check if we were ok!
Tip: Do not follow Google Map to Charles Eaton Drive bus stop. There is no footpath for half of the route. Instead, we walked towards the Airport’s Long Stay Savers Carpark before turning right to reach the stop, with footpath most of the way, except for a short 50m or so.
On board bus service no. 3, which heads north to Casuarina Interchange, instead of South-West to City Centre.
The Woolsworth supermarket in Casuarina Square opens from 7am and a good way to spend time while waiting for the next bus. This may sound like madness but this was just one of eight trips to a supermarket we made in 2 days!
Dropped off our backpacks at H on Mitchell Street Apartment Hotel, more on the hotel in a separate post.
We visited to Parap Village Saturday Market and had its famous Mary’s laksa for breakfast. There are many choices on the menu, from vegetarian to seafood or various meats. I chose its ‘Special – the Lot’. At A$10, it is a hearty bowl of rice vermicelli in spicy creamy based soup with pork, wanton, crab sticks, prawns, vegetables etc. Due to Darwin’s proximity to Asia and its population demographics, much of the food here is Asian cuisine. Walking around, you would observe that most of the other food stalls are selling Asian cuisine. There are also fresh produce on sale, as well as clothing, handicrafts, soaps, etc.
Tip: There are free shuttle buses running from Darwin City to Parap at regular intervals.
The Darwin Italian Festival was into its fourth year. Held at the Civic Park near Waterfront, the one-day event featured performances from 12pm to 10pm, cooking demos, exhibits symbolising Italian culture and many Italian food stalls. This year, the star performers hail from Sansepolcro in Tuscany, Italy, traditional Italian flag throwers with their Flag Show Italia.
Tea break at the McCafe downtown.
In the later part of the afternoon, we visited Crocosaurus Cove, the crocodile themed attraction in City Centre. Darwin is famous for its national parks and saltwater crocodiles. We are not going to any national park but we ain’t going to miss seeing some crocs. Feeding baby crocs was one of the memorable things we did there. This was a free activity, in which visitors get a chance to feed the crocs after the afternoon Feeding Show.
We ate at Hungry Jacks Smith Street, a drive-through with small dine in area located next to a petrol station. Hungry Jacks is the Australian franchise of Burger King fast food chain. I tried their hash brown burger with fries and frozen cola set (A$8.75).
We ended the evening with a walk along Esplanade.
Day 2:
We had been wanting to participate in fun walks overseas, so this was an event we did not want to miss. Mother’s Day Classic is the largest community fundraising event for Breast Cancer research in Australia. It takes place in many places across the country on the same day. The event is relatively simple and no frills as compared to charity or fun runs in Singapore. Just one professional photographer, no road markers or elaborate setup.
There were booths selling foodstuff with proceeds going to charity; one giving away free donuts with a donation box. Had my sausage bread breakfast here at A$2 with proceeds going to the fundraising effort. The route for the first part of the walk was along the road while the second part brought us through a short stretch of George Brown Darwin Botanic Gardens and scenic Mindil Beach.
My first overseas race number and medallion, together with a rose given by my dearest girl for Mother’s Day (yes, I brought it with me to Darwin!)
Darwin Waterfront Precinct is a tourist area with restaurants, a wave pool and man-made beaches, located a 5-mins walk from Darwin CBD (Central Business District).
Mother’s Day celebration seems to be a really commercialised event, with many F&B outlets offering Mother’s Day specials. And at Darwin Waterfront, there was a Mother’s Day Saltwater Craft Fair with many gift ideas for mums.
We had lunch at Snapper Rocks, a new eatery along Darwin Waterfront, chosen partly because of their prices. Lunch orders are only taken after 12pm, so we sat and waited with a drink each, while watching the crowd at Saltwater Craft Fair.
Top left-right: Ginger Beer (A$9), Crocodile Bao (A$16); Bottom left-right: Barra Bao (A$16), Chips (A$9). The fusion mains of salt and pepper crocodile with sriracha mayo and slaw and battered local barra with wasabi mayo and slaw in soft-white steam bun are creative, but I would prefer the meat with their tasty hand-cut chips though.
WWII oil tunnel is an intriguing attraction. These oil tunnels were built at a present cost of A$75 million dollars but were never put to use during the World War. There was an attempt to use it thereafter but many leakages were found that it became not practical to be put to use.
Next up, a museum visit. Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin has a respectable collection though as extensive as I expected. Due to devastation by Cyclone Tracy in 1974, some of the earlier collections were lost.
Mindil Beach Sunset Market is vibrant with over 200 specialty stalls and food vendors. It runs on every Thursday and Sunday during the dry months of April to October.
The food choices are mostly Asian cuisine with stalls selling Sri Lankan curries, laksa, Chinese roast meat rice and Thai paw paw salad. There are a handful of vendors who even bring their live kitchen to the market with chefs cooking up a storm in the background while food is being sold in front.
We snacked on half a dozen of fresh oysters with lemon, at A$13.50. Totally satisfying.
As the sky gradually turned darker, more and more people started streaming in. Families and friends brought along picnic mat and lounge chairs as they watch live performances on stage and the sun set over the horizon.
We chose to have our dinner at Amazing Thailand, a restaurant rated 4/5 by fellow travellers on TripAdvisor.
Bottom left to right: Tom Yum seafood soup (A$16), Amazing Thailand’s version of the most popular Thai soup which I find it a tad bit too sweet; Pad Thai with seafood, rice stick noodles stir-fried with egg, tofu and bean sprouts (A$19)
Day 3:
Flight home at 6am in the morning.
*****************************************
Total expenditure
Air Ticket: $180
Electronic Travel Authority (ETA): $20
Accommodation: $108
Meals: $80
Transport: $25.00
Admission: $32.40 + $8.50
Others: $45 (registration for the 4km walk)
Total: $500
We paid only 2 admissions fees this time round. The more expensive one for Crocosaurus Cove cost A$32.40/adult, after a 10% discount.
Tip: Grab a travel guide book or pamphlet for Crocosaurus Cove to get the discount effortlessly. Remember it’s one pamphlet per pax.
*****************************************
Transport
Darwin does not have any commuter rail system within the city. It does have a good public bus system. If you are traveling there on Good Friday and Christmas Day, tough luck as there is no bus service on these 2 days. A full day ticket cost A$7, while a 3-hour ticket cost A$3, both are value-for-money options depending on your travel plans.
From Darwin International Airport to City Centre,
- 1. Darwin City Airport Shuttle Service operates 24 hours and cost $24 per pax per way. The shuttle services provides pick-up and set-down from all Darwin CBD hotels and accommodation houses. The service operates from the front door of Darwin International Airport so boarding is easy. The tricky part is the limited pick-up time for morning flights. Buses run hourly from 11am to 1am. Thereafter, there are only 2 other buses at 5.30am/5.45am and 6.45am on certain days.
- 2. Darwin Buslink Service operates from stops near the airport. The nearest stop is around 5mins walk away at Charles Eaton Drive, heading to Casuarina Bus Interchange. The following 2 links provide useful information courtesy of Northern Territory Government of Australia website: Bus Network Map, Timing for bus service no 3.
- 3. Taxi which costs around A$30 per way, which was also what we paid on our way to airport for our return flight