Bye Bye Timor-Leste and Hello to the 5th continent - Australia

While my short visit in Timor-Leste I decided not to rest in the first sovereign state of the 21st century for christmas and new years eve and so I looked for flights. I didn't know before, that most of the UN- and NGO-employers are leaving Timor-Leste at this time. 
It looked like the big escape and I was happy to catch the only available flight and this flight was not in direction to South-East-Asia as I expected.......

The destination was...Darwin. Yes, Darwin in the Northern Territories of Australia. I had Australia definitely not on my itenary this time, but I was sure, I will never be so close to Australia as now, so I decided to fly there.


I applied online for a tourist visa and received the confirmation one minute later.

Last picture of Timor-Leste. The airport Presidente Nicolau Lobato.

First view on Australia.

Darwin and the Timor Sea.

Darwin - it looks different to cities I visited the last three months.

landing approach to Darwin

The welcome on Darwin international airport was not as friendly as I expected. Lady "Margarethe" from the Immigration department asked me right after the passport check a lot of questions about my financial situation, although she didn't want to see any account books etc....

It was a weird situation and I wanted to know why she asked me all this questions. I could answer what I want, she didn't ask for any evidence. She told me it is very unusual that somebody is arriving from Timor-Leste with a tourist-visa and so she advised me strongly not to do any work in Australia. Otherwise I have to calculate with an immediately deportation of Australia. 

After this kindly briefing I took the shuttle bus with a more friendly chauffeur then Margarethe, to the city of Darwin. He gave me a short introduction and it was like a city tour with plenty of informations around Darwin.


I checked two hostels, the first one was Chili Backpackers and I escaped immidiately because of the smell in the room which I inspected. I decided to stay in the second one, called Youth Shack Hostel. The hostels are mostly at one place and so it is easy to compare. However the prices are similar, around 23 dollars/night in a four-bed-dorm. Ups, yes it is quite expensive in compare to South-East-Asia and also to the western world. I knew this ahead.


What I didn't know was the extremly high prices for food. Where did you ever pay 12 Australian Dollars for Pad Thai????? Unbelieveable...........

welcome in Australia!