Imam Vanuatu and Hello Australia
Well… it was a bit sad to leave Vanuatu but all vacation end sooner or later. Two last pics from there (not sure where the pics are that I made from the plane leaving Tanna). The first one is a landing plane and the second one is Jimmy, my buddy on the shore dives. 🙂
Left Tanna early in the morning and when I arrived in Port Vila I was told that my room was not ready and that check-in was at 2 PM – which was nearly 4 hours away. They didn’t only NOT make any effort to give me a room earlier than that (which is what most hotels do) – my room was not ready at 2 PM either and I am sure they heard that I was seriously pissed off at that time. Since they made me wait nearly 4 hours in the lobby (with all my carry-on luggage I didn’t want to walk into Port Vila) there wasn’t a lot I could do once I finally was in my room. I only walked to the supermarket to get some water and my first chocolate bar in three weeks… 😉 By then it had started to rain a bit and the day was nearly over anyway so I stayed in my room till it was time for dinner. There were a few more people at dinner and it took some time till I could flag someone down to take my order. After about 20 minutes someone else came to ask me if I had ordered and I said ‚Yes, but nothing is coming…‘ So she asked for my drink order and at least I got that one after another 5 minutes. Took another half an hour till they brought me TWO pizzas. Since I had ordered only one (and couldn’t even eat that one entirely) I sent the second one back to the kitchen… they waiter told me it was a ‚order one – get two‘-offer… but they didn’t tell me until serving so I couldn’t tell them that I didn’t want two… Maybe I should have ordered and paid 1/2 pizza and get an entire one… 😀 😉
After a restless night I felt like crap when I got up at 4 AM. My transport got me at 5 AM and we drove to the airport in the rain. I am happy for the people in Vanuatu that they finally got some rain after a 7 months-drought.
And at 7 AM I had to say IMAM (Good bye) and TANKYU TUMAS (thank you very much) to Vanuatu.
My intention had been to rest a bit during the 3.5 h-flight to Sydney but that didn’t happen. Two kids in front of me that the dad didn’t have under control and next to me two members of a family of 4 who kept switching seats so they made me get up and let them pass all the time. I arrived in Sydney exhausted…
Once I got into my room I was happy again though. I am not staying in a hotel here but in a serviced residence, meaning it is like a hotel but I have a kitchen, washer and dryer in my room (actually desperately need the later today). When I got online I had a message that the boat-dives that I had scheduled for today had to be cancelled due to weather conditions. Which is said but it gives me a ‚day off‘ to settle in and get clean clothes again.
I had planned on meeting my friend Vanessa in the afternoon and so I agreed on a meeting point with her and we went to the chinese garden. It was much more interesting there than both of us had thought. I had been there in my first visit to Sydney in 2004 (?) and didn’t remember that there was a lot of wildlife in there. Vanessa was happy with the iguanas we found there (actually she is the reptile-whisperer… 😉 ) and there were a lot of birds, fish, turtle (water) etc. We found little red sculptures too – the first one was a snake and Vanessa at some point realized that they were for the chinese horoscope. So I went in search for the tiger (I am a tiger 😀 ) and finally found it. We spent nearly two hours in there and had a wonderful time. It was really great to see Vanessa again. After we parted ways I went back to my appartment and was nearly too tired to go and buy something to eat but finally did because I hadn’t eaten since breakfast on the plane… Asleep by 9 PM and got some rest… now a day off and probably better start my washing. It is supposed to be a warm day today and I might go to Manly beach to enjoy it.
