Making the normal abnormal. - Snake Migration

Normal is defined in the dictionary as conforming to the standard or the common type; usual; not abnormal; regular; natural. In the literal sense however Normal is much harder to define and if there is one thing I have learnt from my travels and hosting strangers from around that world it’s that normal is relative to your surroundings. In short, what’s normal for one person may be unimaginable to another.

There is a small creek about an hour out of Darwin which is rich in uniqueness. It connects the wetlands of Kakadu to fresh spring water. As the dry season comes into focus, the wetlands start to recede and everything that called them home leave to find fresh water. This means a plethora of native wildlife heads upstream via this one creek. If you go at the right time you can see snakes, fish, turtles, birds all migrating to a better life.   This creek has been a part of my life in Darwin for as long as I can remember. Back when I was a kid the creek was part of indigenous land and remained unsigned and unnoticed. Huge lizards that once stalked the banks have been decimated by cane toads and it now sports a fancy national park title and the customary “Beware of Crocodiles” sign.

I believe in tourism, much of Darwin relies on the tourist trade, being close proximity to the heritage listed world famous Kakadu national park it really comes with the ‘territory’. But its kind of sad to see such a local treasure now part of the main tourist trail for reasons I don’t understand.

Despite being signed and the road graded there is very little traffic down the area and we had the place to ourselves. I had brought along a mix of locals and travellers to watch the migration that evening. Being a below average wet season the creek was really low so I was expecting to have missed all the fun, the animals having moved on weeks before. Still I was happy to chill drinking beer and talking to my friends.

I was sitting up by the waterfall about 7:45pm watching the tiny fish congregate against the stone bricks trying to make it upstream when I heard the word “Snake!” 

Instantly I rose and made my way to my friend Leigh who pointed a torch into the water, yep that was definitely a snake making its way up-river. So I wade out into the water and grab the first Arafura File Snake of the night. As impressive as it looks for me to walk out in a river on the edge of the estuarine(deadly) crocodile infested waters and pull a wild snake from the depths, it’s really not. The snakes are virtually useless out of the water and they couldn’t bite you even if they wanted to. Plus the water levels are quite low so I was not afraid of running into any reptilian predators. I would not however recommend anyone just jump in the river and catch snakes. Growing up in the NT bush I can identify most snakes on sight, those I am unsure of I would never think of touching. The file snake is quite easily recognisable to me. 

That snake was the first of many and so we sat at the bridge watching them make their way up the river. It was fascinating to watch snake after snake crawl through the small waterfall and over the concrete blocks. I think in total we would have seen approximately 50 snakes in the space of an hour. 

 

Its great for me to share this kind of thing, especially with travellers. To me it’s quite normal but to them it’s a complete out of the ordinary experience and I love to introduce people to the things that are most important to me. Its nice to see their faces light up in amazement. Well it reminds me of the time I first saw the Rocky Mountains driving out of Canada. It was so different and incredible I was awestruck. Of course after living amongst the mountains for nearly two years it lost a little bit of that magic but every time I see something incredible in Nature it enthrals me completely. And that’s what I love to give to others. Its part selfish because when I can share this adventure with someone else and make them happy, then I am happy.

If you are planning to come to Darwin aim for May and let me show you this treasure.

Thailand: The Final Instalment

My sister and I are horrible at travelling together. One huge issue is that she likes to sleep when I am up at the crack of dawn. Thailand was no exception and since I was up hours before the two of them I wasted a good amount of my days doing nothing waiting for them to wake up. Definitely my fault I should have organised to meet them places and entertained myself but I always forgot and since they had no phones I just stayed in my smelly hotel room reading books. I think I also had more faith in them then I should have assuming that they would wake up at somewhat reasonable hours :P

Two days after full moon we made arrangements to head down to another beach. I was up at about 8:30am after getting a good night sleep crashing about 10:30 the night before. Heather and Sam finally crawled out of bed about 11am only after I finally woke them up. I said we should go to the beach and then eat there they decided to eat before meaning we never made it to this beach until 1pm. On my last day on Koh Phanagan  I spent once again doing nothing.

So we go to the beach which is pretty chilled and relaxed, I decided I didn’t feel like an overnight travel to Koh Lanta since I only had a few days left and instead decided on staying at the beach. After arguments with Heather & Sam where all my frustration from the previous few days boiled to the surface, we fought and I ended up staying at the beach and they went back to HaaD Rin. I know now if I do ever travel with those two stoners again I need to make plans for myself during the days and just hang out with them at night because partying is always great with my little sister! (and sam of course)

That night I sat at the bar and got drunk with my Austrian friend and the bar turned into a little party of people. We played drunken celebrity heads that resulted in shots every time you answered the question wrong. I met a German guy who offered to share a bungalow with me since there was no accommodation & I smoked a lot of weed as joints seemed non-stop around the bar. I passed out at some point in the Austrian guys hammock and woke up next morning on the beach watching the waves crashing in. As I gathered my things to get a ride back to Haad Rin I found the German guy “Toby” just chilling on a hammock and we had breakfast together I promised him I would return soon. I went back to Haad Rin to check out of my hotel and found Heather & Sam deciding to take the overnight ferry to Koh Lanta. I packed up my stuff said goodbye and made my way back to the beach. Toby was MIA so I made myself comfortable on his hammock reading my book before he returned. I set myself up in his room and headed down to the bar again.

I booked myself in for Diving at sail rock supposedly one of the best dive sites in that part of Thailand. However I was to be disappointed. Visibility was low, the waves harsh. At one point I was cruising along about 25m deep when I went to get a closer look at some coral next thing I knew I was all alone. I am quite a new diver especially deep see diver, about 18 dives in total so I did start to panic a little. Even though I was close to three huge ships I just felt so alone. I’ve talked about diving before and the immense feeling you get under the water imagine that when you know your 25m deep and you can see perhaps a metre in front of you. I knew in that situation I had to stay still unless I ended up drifting out to sea and if I still hadn’t been discovered by my guide I would gradually surface. It seemed like hours but was probably only five minutes when my guide returned tapping on her tank. If I could have I would have hugged her!!

Other than that my time in north Koh Phanagan was pretty uneventful. I had to catch a plane by Sunday so I caught an overnight ferry/train to Bangkok. From the ferry we had to catch a bus to the train station which was a bit crazy. It was about 40 minutes long and no seats so I sat on the floor in the aisle getting a numb ass. There were three steroid induced German guys who kept asking me stupid questions they had been partying on Haad Rin for an entire month. Thank fuck I never met them. Arriving at the train station I was hanging out with my Austrian friend and some other guy when we got joined by an aussie girl and south African guy. We drank and ate for the two hours till the train left. I got a sleeper train which was nice. But the steroid german guys were right next to me, I even had to kick one of them out of my bed!! Still I had earplugs and settled down to catch some Zzzz.

Arriving in Bangkok I caught a Taxi to Khoa San Road. I found a place to charge my phone and a bar where I could drink. I started up conversation with an Italian guy who was living in Switzerland. It was a fun conversation but I realised I had to make my way to my CS hosts house about an hour away! This is the problem of couch-surfing. I was having such a good random time I could have easily just gotten a room and gone out with the Italian guy but I had already made a commitment so made my way via boat & taxi to my host. This was taxi disaster #2 & #3 The first taxi took me to the wrong place and the second taxi spent half an hour lost driving the same street up and down and then expected me to pay the cost. I refused to pay the extra and jumped out of his cab and ran away hahaha.

My host was a beautiful local Thai couple who took me to a very local restaurant of Thai Hot Pot. The food was insane it was SO good. I couldn’t eat anymore haha. At the end they paid for me which I had a hard time accepting but it is part of Thai culture to look after guests. Their house was nice and cute.

The next morning Kwan took me to a local market where we got breakfast delicious sticky rice and caramel wrapped in banana leaves and some pork satay sticks. I then left to go to the big famous market for a day full of shopping since it was my last day in Bangkok. I got distracted by the animal section it was full of so many obscure animals. At one point I went crazy in front of some reptile tanks only to see after taking a million photos a huge sign that said “NO PHOTOS” Apparently many of the animals are illegal so they don’t like people taking photos. Well that explained the sour looking store holder. After making it home my hosts made me a delicious Thai Green Curry. I went to bed early, completely satisfied.

 

 

The next morning I got up early to get to the airport for Taxi Disaster #4. We went through several tolls and the guy kept taking money off me then I worked it out he took to much and he would return the money. So he starts talking about his medication he needs the money for. I am getting frustrated. Then we get to the airport the cost is something like 300BAHT  and he says that will be 350BAHT.

I’m like are fucking kidding me you already stole maybe 50BAHT off me you get 250BAHT he grins and goes “ok” making me think he stole a lot more money off me. Anyway whatever it was small change to me really and not like I could use the Thai Bahts back in Darwin. So off to my plane and head home to Darwin.

This was written quickly but it’s a few months overdue :P

25 years ago

So apparently today 09/04/2013 is the 25^th anniversary of my arrival in Darwin NT. I guess that would have made me seven and a half years old when we left my home town of Melbourne.

I remember when we first moved here it was a three year plan and I hated that I was leaving my life and friends behind for something completely different.

I guess being seven helps though because it wasn’t long before I fell in love with Darwin and everything it had to offer. Darwin is an acquired taste and most the people who live here aren’t born and in order to become a true local to you have to learn to love every part of it. The drunks, the stifling heat, the cool dry, the humidity, the lack of facilities, the crazy wildlife.

Yep I’m a local.

I was lucky enough that my family embraced Darwin whole-heartedly and I was thrown headfirst into becoming a bogan My father would drive us out to creeks in the middle of the night throwing all kinds of slippery creatures at us. 

I would often wake up in the morning to find the bathtub full of snakes, turtles, crabs etc. Once my dad caught an unknown snake in our backyard. We were pretty used to this he would often drape three metre wild pythons around our necks as we grew up. He put the snake in a fish tank in the living room but there was something different about this one every time you walked past it would strike at you hitting the glass hard. After getting it identified we were all shocked to hear it was a King brown – The Third Deadliest Snake in the World. We used to catch lizards in the backyard name them and creating elaborate homes in random plastic tubs.

But it wasn’t all slimy creatures. On Friday nights we would get fish & chips and head down to the cliffs on Nightcliff shoreline. We would watch the sunset over the jetty. Darwin has some of the best sunsets in the world. And if there was a cyclone incoming us girls would play in the huge waves as they crashed against the rocks. On Thursday nights mum would drag us down to the world famous “Mindil Beach Markets” and we would sit on the beach eating lamb yiros watching the sun fall, finishing the night off with peppermint chocolate chip iceream.

In Darwin no one would go to the city everyone would shop at Casuarina Shopping Centre smack bang in the middle of the suburbs and didn’t matter when you went you would always run into someone you knew. In the dry season we would head out to the National Parks back then Darwin was under developed so we could camp right next to the water and had no bathroom facilities but a small drop toilet. We would blow up inflatable beds and ride them all the way to the bottom of the rapids, the bruises we received all part of the adventure. Sometimes we would pack lunch and walk through the drain pipes in Rapid Creek.

In Darwin you never wished for a white Christmas you always dreamed of a monsoonal Christmas, not to mention there wasn’t anything much better than snuggling deep into your bed on a rainy Sunday morning. As kids we would sit up in the high branches of a mango tree and talk into the early AM.

At night we would climb up on top of the Mormon church taking blankets and pillows talking about everything. I had my first kiss on the roof of that church. My friends would come over after school and I would spend hours playing GoldenEye on the N64. Not to mention the glow bug wars that left us feeling destroyed.

In Darwin it doesn’t matter if you forget your shoes when you go out & the singlet is the preferred clothing. You don’t swim in the ocean from September – May and usually not any time after that. Everyone keeps their jackets at work because the air conditioning is freezing, speaking of freezing anything below 25C is considered cold. If you are supposed to be somewhere at 6pm you leave the house at 6 since everything is five-10 minutes away.

They make us tough up here, dealing with frizzy hair and runny makeup on a daily basis you’d have to be. Do you think if I had grown up in Melbourne I would have been an urban city rat more interested in clothes & money than the wild bush person I am today. Who knows really who can say… all I can say is I love Darwin with all my heart & I will always be a Territorian.

The Lingerer

I now have a false neutral on my profile lets talk about how being a lingerer is not a good thing. 

Its not. Lets understand you are staying in someones house who is letting you stay there out of the goodness of their hearts. If you want to stay longer then you need to communicate this with your host. If they want you out than you shouldn't be complaining or arguing about it you should leave on the date they requested.

My lingerer left this response in a reference to me

Then she went & booked other CSers without consulting me about my plans, which I thought was very inconsiderate & thoughtless as I had to reschedule everything and find last minute lodgings (where places were already fully booked).

So I will start by saying, yep this is true. I invited other couchsurfers without asking him what he was doing. I had no idea what he was doing he never told me what dates he planned to stay at my house just left it open ended. I came to an understanding that he intended to stay nearly two weeks (going on a two day tour in between) after asking my mother if she could drive him to the airport on Saturday. She then came to me whispering

amanda when is leaving he seems to think he is going to be around forever

There was never any communication between me, my mother or my sister on what dates he was supposed to be there. #1 rule of hosting or surfing - Make sure you confirm dates.

This was the extent of our length of stay communication I have copy pasted this from private messages

Lingerer:
 Can you host for a week or longer (although I may be making some side trips during that time and just leaving some luggage behind)?


Me:
as for hosting more than a week we only host up to 7 days after that if surfers want to stay longer we expect contributions of $60 a week to cover water & electricity which is really expensive in Darwin. if you are away on trips its fine to leave luggage and I don't consider time away as part of the seven day limit.

And that's it. No dates were set or asked for. He asked if he could stay longer I said I usually let surfers stay longer than seven days if they pay $60 to cover costs he never confirmed that was ok. After five days surfing with me I became aware my family was not that keen on him so I asked him to leave in two days telling him I had other surfers. 

I don't believe any of the steps I took was my fault except I should have had clear expectations in the beginning. The difference between the lingerer and me is that he is travelling on his own schedule I however have a very set schedule. And most hosts have this. Suggesting that accommodation was booked out in off season is a lie. There is plenty of accommodation in Darwin in March. I checked with some hostels as I found his accusation a bit ludicrous and was informed that yes there was plenty of accommodation. If he didn't want to pay for accommodations he should have asked before booking his flights to Thailand if he could stay at my house until the following Saturday.

Surfers need to take responsibility for their own schedules and not expect to rely on a host EVER you are the traveler not us. Don't Be a Lingerer.

Surfer Quality going down?

I took in another couple from the open Couch Request my preferred way of hosting and as usual had a more than positive experience with them. They cooked a fantastic Italian meal within minutes of walking through the door and were such nice people I was sad our time together was so short.

When my couch is set to yes I am not short of personal couch requests but the quality is less than desired. Shall I share, let's assume it goes descending 1 - 10.Bear in mind I'm just printing one page because I cbf going through everything

#2 was the OCR I was talking about above.
#3 clearly not reading my profile requested a month in advance, I declined and said to ask again in one month
#5 defies my usual rule of over 25 and is a 20yr old German girl but I am very positive about her profile and request.
#6 Another request to far in advance but very personal and nice and someone I would definitely host I asked her to request again 2 weeks prior.

#7  20 year old french girls with nothing in their profile and can't even mention my name in the request. I dislike hosting under 25 european backpackers generally and they must have a very good request/profile to consider them

 #8 I considered hosting her but she requested only a day or two in advance. Also her request pretendeded it was personal when it clearly wasn't. I dislike that kind of message

Why I'd Like to Meet You
You look open mind, easy going and as a local you know the best spot in the city and can show me around a bit if you feel like. Just a general good vibe about your profile. Sweet day! 

really? do you really think that I believe that message was sent just to me. I understand copy paste but please try and at least put my name and maybe ONE sentance of personalisation.

#9 Her entire profile is in Italian. Her references is in Italian. Honestly when you are travelling an english speaking country make the effort to write in english!!!! Or don't request from non-italian speaking hosts!

Also this is why she wants to meet me:

Why I'd Like to Meet You
You are in darwin? Would you be willing to accommodate? If you need more information ask me everything what you want. Also if you want I can give you my contacts for me to know better, perhaps through facebook or skype. We are polite and respectful, we have a great desire to meet new people and to experience a magical trip! Both me and my boyfriend speak Italian and French ... we're not very good with English but want to learn! I hope you understand what I have written!
See you soon!

Sure its nice enough but its not giving me a reason to really choose her.

#10 Also too short notice and another impersonal message. But actually I considered hosting her if I had more notice I probably would have!!!

well....

Fact is a year ago I Ioved to take fresh new profiles and was full of positive experiences but now I can see the surfer quality is so diluted I am much more ruthless in my decisions. And since that my quality of surfer (except that one crazy guy) has been impeccable. I no longer accept requests from new profiles unless the request & profile is absolutely outstanding. I need at least one reference to choose my surfers and they can't just be generic "X was a good guest clean and friendly"

If a surfer is a GREAT surfer than say that in the reference now I often choose my surfers based on the glowing references. And vice versa as a surfer be personal about your references. In this destroyed community we need that extra information to make the right choices. I am somewhat guilty now of choosing surfers who have something in their references about their cooking haha. And people who host are also considered more carefully.

So do I believe the surfer quality has gone down? No, I still think there are incredible couchsurfers out there and will continue to be for at least a year but with the increasing number of sexual predators & freeloaders flooding the system this will become less and less and eventually these good people will migrate to other websites and the new potential awesome people will be flooded with negative experiences and give up before they ever experience the true magic of couchsurfing. Soon the community will just be left with those grim few who hold on wishing for a better way. There is no sustainability with the current model and the destruction of community built with love by volunteers is evidence of a failed corporation.

Soon all that will be left on couchsurfing is 5 million 20 year old couchsurfers.

I got an abusive email

Well sadly I can't post the email here since its private & will end up with me being kicked out of CS although I kind of want to be kicked out of CS lately.

I can however write my reply.

Dear Angry Guest,

Perhaps you should report me since it is in your opinion that I have behaved very non ambassador-like.

If you do recall I did talk to you face to face about leaving two days early every extra cost incurred with your tour was your own choice not of my doing. If you were happy to stay in a hostel I don't understand why you spent the money to change the tour. You argued and attempted to manipulate me into letting you stay even asking "How many surfers?" you then went to my mother and mentioned it to her despite my decision already been made. As a surfer that kind of behavior is inexcusable and I suggest you actually take critical advice because it sounds from several people who have since contacted me that my reference to you is perfectly justified. They were just scared of retaliation but I hope now with my reference there more people are not afraid to speak up. Or perhaps you learn that something you are doing is not right. Attempting to bully me will not fly I stand by my decision and your very hateful email just inspires me more. I wish I had believed your negative it seems you are the one unable to take criticism not me.

I think you fail to realise that your reference speaks more about you than it does about me So I don't mind if you leave it there, I don't mind the abusive emails. I know I am right. There is a reason my references are glowing and not just two lines of generics.

Take a deep look inside and look at how you approach couchsurfing.

Amanda 

The Kindness Boomarang

I won't lie to you, every time I hear these words about the difference I made in someone's world it makes me smile inside to know I was the one who made that difference.

I spent a large part of my life relatively selfish, I was more interested in video games than making a difference. I was never a bad person but I was never the kind of person that I wanted to be. Lately I am focusing on at least one selfless act a day. Sometimes the acts are small and unnoticed sometimes people notice. I don't care so much who sees what I do, I know that each time I do something good for someone they might be inspired to do something good for someone else.