Back to Darwin

I managed to get back to Darwin again this weekend, after some minor transport adventures in Israel. There is a very nice, new train line that runs from Beersheva to Tel Aviv, and then you can transfer to a line that goes right to the front door of the airport. Easy, right? And if you catch the connection just right, you can do it all in under 2 hours. So, I had arranged one ride to Beersheva in time to get me to the train station with enough time to get to the airport the necessary 3 hours before my flight left (Israeli security can take a while). Pacho was going to return the rental car he got to pick up his parents at the airport a couple of days before. Unfortunately, they couldn't resist the lure of the Dead Sea, so had decided to get up at 5:30 in the morning to go for a float. Too early for me, so I decided to just take the bus. No problem, done this before many times. Just before getting on the bus, I got a call from Berry - apparently his son had just called from up north complaining that the train lines to Beersheva were blocked, and no trains were running.

So, on to plan two - I'd just take the bus from Beersheva to the Tel Aviv train station, then catch the train to the airport. Still simple, right? Well, it was Friday (the first day of the weekend), and there were a whole trainload of people trying to get to Tel Aviv. When I got to the bay for the bus to Tel Aviv, there were about 200 people looking eager to get on the bus, most of them soldiers. That bus runs every half hour, and there are two separate buses that run the same route, so I figured I'd just work on positioning myself for the next one. Now, Israelis are, how shall I put it, rather aggressive in the way they line up for the bus. No that doesn't really do justice to what I saw. I think English football fans would be shocked at how aggressive things get trying to get on the bus, particularly the ones on Friday when the train line is out of service. So I watched one bus fill with people (mostly soldiers - somehow they are more adept at shoving their way through a mob), then another, then another and a fourth. Somehow, in defiance of most laws of physics and mathematics, the crowd wasn't getting any smaller, but I did manage to get myself positioned in the prime spot: directly in front of where the luggage bay door would be, and as close to the entrance door as possible. So the next bus came, I shoved aside some soldiers, and crammed my suitcase into the luggage bin, and joined the mob trying to actually get on the bus. It is quite an experience to be in a mob of soldiers, pushing to get through a small door that has steep steps just on the other side of it. I managed to avoid most of the rifle barrels, though there was one ammo clip that managed to lodge itself into my rib cage. After about 10 minutes of getting shoved inexorably toward the door, I finally made it onto the bus.

Unfortunately, this particular bus driver must have had some sour hummus for breakfast because, unlike all of the other bus drivers in the country, he refused to allow people onto the bus unless there was a nice, empty seat waiting. Well, the little old lady two people in front of me (I have no idea how she made it through the mob in one piece) got the last seat. After some hebrew abuse by the bus driver, the soldier in front of me explained "no room, we have to go". So we got off, plowed back through the now somewhat disgruntled, but somewhat dispersed mob and retrieved our bags from the luggage compartment. I'm not sure how the bus could have been full, because there certainly wasn't much luggage left when we all got done retrieving our bags. Anyway, after missing 6 busses (3 sets of 2), with no obvious guarantee that I would make it onto the next, I started getting a bit worried that I'd never make it to the airport.

Fortunately, there is always a taxi around when you least want to pay for one. So I hailed a taxi, and for a mere 300 shekels (about US$70), I got a comfortable ride right to the front door of the airport. There are some advantages to having a country small enough to take a taxi halfway across the length of it.

The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful. I breezed through security faster than ever, and was through all of the various checks in about an hour. So I had a bit of a nap next to the very serene fountain in the middle of the terminal. At least Ben Gurion airport is quite a pleasant airport to hang around in for a couple of hours. Then 5 hours to London, 2 hours in Heathrow, and 12 1/2 hours to Singapore, where I had a nice shower and a massage, along with some nice green curry chicken. I did manage to get several hours of sleep on the plane - just enough that when I started watching a movie (Jarhead), I got about 3/4 of the way through it by the time we landed. Nothing more frustrating than seeing 3/4 of a decent movie, that isn't quite good enough to justify going out and paying to see the whole thing again so you can see the last 20 minutes of it. I did make it all the way through "Good night and good luck" though, which is an excellent movie. So after the relaxation in Singapore, I got back on the plane for the last 4 1/2 hours to Darwin. Turns out that Qantas has On Demand movies, so I got to fast forward through the first 1 1/2 hours of Jarhead, and saw the rest. Then another movie (Amores Perros) and it was 4:30 in the morning and we were landing in Darwin. (note for those who read my last rant about overseas flights - I missed another 2 nights of sleep on this leg. That brings my total to 6 nights lost on this trip. I think I'll be asleep for the rest of May to recover). I slept most of Sunday, and am now trying to get back onto some sort of reasonable sleep schedule. Since it is now almost 2:30am, I think it is safe to say I'm failing miserably. At least the weather has been nice sice I've been back...