Darwin, Northern Territories, Australia: Happy Halloween! Because we're across the dateline from you, it's 'tomorrow' here. We were here maybe 10 years ago, when we rolled in on the transcontinentaal train called "the Ghan" from Adelaide. That was back in the days when we lectured on ships.
In the interim this far northern town has modernized a great deal. When we were last here there were no high rises, now there are quite a few. The downtown has gone from the largest town in an underdeveloped region to a modern city, the difference is startling and positive.
Locals call this region the "Top End." Having casual or snarky nicknames for everything is a Australian trait, for example redheads are called "Blue" and girls are "sheilas."
We are sitting in a modern air conditioned mall using the City of Darwin's free WiFi, which is quite good. Darwin isn''t a backwater any more, although all the modernization doesn't change the fact that the outdoors is hot and humid.
You know you're in the tropics when, in a clean men's room, you look down and see a roach crawling around in daylight prospecting for food. It reminds me of Guam.
I assumed when we docked in Sydney a few days ago and swapped out roughly 600 pax for an equal number of new ones - many Oz residents - that the ship would become noisier and more alcoholic. I was wrong. By the time Australians reach retirement age they calm down and become almost indistinguishable from retirement age Americans, except for the speech accent which can be tough to decode sometimes.
We go from here to Komodo Island and Bali, both in Indonesia, then back to an Oz port (Exmouth?) on its northwest 'shoulder.' The sea has been so calm the last couple of days we are feeling no ship motion at all.
