We spent the morning trying to find somewhere else to stay because I really didn't like the hostel, but there's a festival on and everywhere is fully booked and raising their prices to cash in. We resigned ourselves to the horrible dormitory, with the promise of maybe getting a room to ourselves sometime next week.

But, on the plus side, I'd been offered a very good deal on a night in Raffles when we get to Singapore and Mikey phoned them this morning and booked it all. They asked him how they should address him, which stumped him for a moment, and then said that they could pick us up from wherever we'd be before we came to them: I didn't like the idea of getting collected from a $3-a-night hostel somewhere, so we said we'd make our own way there! Really, really pleased about that, something to look forward to!

We have a week in Darwin, and we've been looking for tris to do without a car and not too much money. We'll probably book something tomorrow. We had lunch in a park and sat in the shade for a bit (it's quite warm, about 90) and then went to Parliament House (so that I could nip to the loo, and ended up staying for an hour or so). They have a very nice library too. It was another modern, bright, efficient-looking place. I asked one of the security guards what teh parliament here does as opposed to the one in Canberra because it looked more impressive than a mere council office, and Mikey and I were treated to a long tale about house building in the tropics and how Darwin might become much more expensive in the next wighteen months. Not the answer I was expecting, but interesting in a strange sort of way.

Quick stop at an internet cafe and then back to the hostel for supper.