This was an odd day, as you all probably know by now there was a volcanic eruption in Iceland which has thrown a lot of ashes into the european skies forcing all the major airports to close. All the airlines a clueless about when they'll be able to operate and take passengers back to Europe.
Aída and myself were meant to take the flight from Darwin to Singapore and from there I would flight to Thailand the following day whereas Aída would take the flight to London and then another one to Tenerife.
As all the airports in London were closed we didn't know whether she should go to Singapore or stay put in Darwin until the situation clears up. According to the news, there were already 7000 people stranded in Singapore without accomodation, all hotels were fully booked since most flights to Europe stop at Singapore and there were no flights to Europe. Luckily I had booked mine one day before the problems started so I had no problem with finding a place to stay in Singapore while I wait for my flight to Thailand.
Alan was having similar problems trying to flight back to London. He was supposed to start working on Monday but the way things were going that wasn't a posibility and the airline had given him a provisional date of 26th of April, i.e. in one week.
So he had to go to the airport to talk to someone there and see what he could do about his flight but the shuttle service to the airport is quite expensive so he decided to find out whether there was a bus to go there, in the meantime I was trying to phone Quantas to find out what was happening about Aída's flight.
After 25 minutes on hold, Alan came back saying there was a bus that would leave him 15 minutes walk from the airport so as nobody was answering the phone (probably half of the world was calling the same number for the same reason we were) so Aída and I decided to tag along with him and go to the airport. It's always better talking to someone face to face.
The trip to the airport was more than we had bargained for. We asked the bus driver whether he could let us know when we got to the our stop. The driver was a nice old chinese man who didn't speak very good english but after repeating the same question 3-4 times in many different ways he managed to understand us.
In order to see the map we were showing him he took his sunglasses off and put the reading glasses on, when we paid for our tickets he took the sunglasses and asked me whether they were mine and I obviously said no but I asked Aída and Alan just in case if they were theirs to what they said no as well, I returned them to the driver and he said...oh! but those are my glasses!! :-?? He forgot what his glasses looked liked? It didn't inspire much confidence...
Then in one of the stops a group of aboriginals boarded the bus and they were all visibly drunk and shouting all the way, so much so that by the time we reached our stop the driver had to get off the bus, walk all around it and get back in through the back door just to let us know that that was our stop, we couldn't hear him with all the noise.
We were supposed to walk for 15 minutes or so according to what we had been told...it turned out we walked for about 30-45 minutes under the scorching midday sun, with our flip-flops (standard shoewear in Australia) and without any water... we walked and walked all along a very busy motorway.
Not exactly a relaxing walk in the woods...
We almost cried when we saw the terminal in the distance
We got inside the nicely air condicioned airport, run straight to the first stand we found and bought a nice and cool drink...the first half a litre went down in lest than 2 minutes...but at least we could talk again. :-)
So we went to practice our newly recovered ability to talk with the lady at the Quantas desk and pretty much told us there was nothing she or us could do at the moment. Aída would have to stay put in Darwin since they don't allow you to flight to Singapore unless you have a connecting flight somewhere outside Europe. Offered to pay her for 2 days accomodation in a nearby hotel but Aída declined prefering to spend her time with the rest of the gang, Sharon, Alan and the Austria team instead of being stuck at an airport hotel for 2 days. As soon as they open the airports in Europe, she would have to either call or go to the airport to get her flights changed.
In order to get back to our hotel there was no argument from anyone when we all decided to get a taxi...there was no way we would be walking back to the bus stop with our flip-flops in the middle of the this punishing sun again...
We made it in time to spend a couple of hours by the gorgeous swimming pool, then we said our farewells and I went back to the airport to catch my flight to Singapore.
After spending 3 months travelling with Aída it's going to feel a bit weird not having her around now. This trip throughout Australia wouldn't have been the same thing without her. She's been a great travel companion and a lot of fun.
Who is going to tell me off now when unadvertely I start walking on a regeneration area instead of walking on the clearly marked path?
or when I start taking pictures from other people's parties?
Who is going to keep me on a leash now?
The flight to Singapore was practically empty, once at the airport I took the train to the city and walked for 10-15 real minutes up to my hotel...
This was the cheapest hotel I could find in Singapore, but I just wanted a place to sleep before taking my flight to Tailand tomorrow.
The room isn't too bad, it's small but big enough for me. Judge by yourself.
I've been in worse places...at least this one is clean which is all I need for one night.
Tomorrow I'll be going back to the airport to take my flight to Phuket (Thailand).
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