We came into port in Darwin around noon today. In spite of rain in the forecast, the weather was sunny and beautiful (though hot) most of the day. We wanted to be off the ship for a while, even though I’m still somewhat on the puny side.
view from our balcony in port
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| inside Darwin Cruise Terminal |
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| sign going through security |
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| partial view of harbor from ship |
So we decided to just take an uber to the mall across town and pick up a few items. I’ll admit, it pretty much wore me out. In other words, I can’t share much about our experiences here but I’ll at least say a little about Darwin.
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| inside Casuarina Square Mall |
building mural
better view of port mural
As we drove through the city, I saw a number of murals painted on buildings but they were too hard to capture from the back seat of a moving car (except for this one). I also noticed that the sides of the streets were nicely landscaped and there was no trash or graffiti as you see in some cities. Unfortunately, I only took a handful of photos today.
But much like the other places we’ve visited in Australia, Darwin is a busy city with a beachy, tropical vibe. It is home to a very diverse cultural mix of people with many Indigenous Australians, Asian and Europeans. One thing that stood out to me was seeing so many Indigenous Australians, who make up 35% of the Darwin population. As a first-time visitor, I noticed that many have distinctive physical features such as skin tone, hair texture, different facial and body features that reflect their heritage and are different from what we’re accustomed to seeing in the U.S. It was a new experience for me to recognize and appreciate these differences as part of the region’s identity. In our limited interactions, we found people to be friendly and welcoming.
The other part of our day was taken up with getting all the right paperwork to enter Indonesia. It’s no easy thing to get into Indonesia, even if for only one day. The government must know if our visa was arranged by the purser’s department or if we arranged for our visa independently. We must show physical proof of a yellow fever vaccination and fill out an Indonesia Arrival Card which includes pretty much everything there is to know about us - our legal names, nationality, birthdays, passport numbers with expiration date and contact information. We must declare exactly what we are bringing in (in my case, I declared a purse). Also how we arrived (by sea), what kind of vessel (cruise ship), name of ship (Oceania Vista), how many travelers are with us and the purpose of our visit. All of this along with a completed Health and Quarantine Declaration. Whew! When Ronnie taught at the Institute of Technology in Indonesia back in 2012, we were also finger printed at the police station!
It's Saturday night on the ship as I write this and tonight we’ll set our clocks back 1½ hour. So tomorrow we’ll be 13 hours ahead of home. Soon we’ll be on the exact opposite side of the world!
Barbara: I had to go look at my Google Earth to see exactly where this was in the North. I remember when I lived on Okinawa, there was a ship sent from Okinawa with bulldozers and a big crane there because they have a cyclone. I was in charge of children's clothes donations and toys. I was told they evacuated everyone in the city - imagine! I am glad to see it is rebuilt and beautiful and modern. You must be there in the dry season? They should get monsoons there, I think. The mall "leaves" from the ceiling are lovely. I like the murals! I read a book about this area, it was full of pirates-Chinese, Indonesian-and Dutch traders who were not much nicer. I will spend some time plotting your course in Indonesia today. It is such a fascinating country. I always hoped to go to Java. We are committing to the Global Missions Project for our travel time as long as we can. This year we have Romania, and he has 2 trips to Guatemala. Next year, we hope to go to Paraguay. We are working with local musicians and churches, it is tiring, hard work and we love it.
ReplyDeleteYes, they definitely have cyclones there. One of our uber drivers was telling us about Cyclone Tracy that destroyed 80% of the city on Christmas eve or day in 1974! I think we are here at the end of their rainy season. We had a huge rain storm later in the afternoon and it was still raining when we went to dinner last night. Indonesian immigration officials are already on the ship now (joined us yesterday). We're having to re-do some of our Indonesian paperwork from yesterday because the website would only let us show ourselves entering the country on the 19th and we'll be entering on the 20th. Plus, I was truthful and answered the question about what countries I've visited in the past 21 days and it came back saying "history from an infected country". I have a 6 hour excursion booked and paid for tomorrow, so I hope they aren't going to balk at letting me in!
ReplyDeleteBarb: Oh My! They should have warned you about the possibility of not betting you enter Indonesia before you took that excursion, unless it just happened.
ReplyDeleteIndonesia was on our original itinerary so we were forewarned. Thankfully the ship took care of our Indonesian visa since we're on the ATW. We had the yellow fever vaccine back in 2022 and it's a "one and done" deal. The only one we had to get this time was a typhoid booster.
DeleteDid I tell you Brittany and her family live in Brisbane, AU. They'll be in Australia 3 years July 5. We plan to go at the end of this year. The twins are seniors this year.
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