Australia’s Backpacker Circuit
The trip so far has been a nice mix of hostel and home: I’ve spent a fair portion of the time alone or with people I know at their houses; I’ve spent a bit at hostels – in Bondi, in Broome, and now here in Darwin.
The backpacker culture is funny. It’s one that laments its dwindling finances, eats mi-goreng noodles (sixty cents to the package!), and then buys fifty dollars worth of beer in one night at the pub. This morning, I listened to some Brit kids at the hostel have the following conversation:
“What’d you do last night?”
“Went to so and so club and then went to this and that club.”
“You got drunk.”
“It’s Darwin. What else is there to do besides drink?”
It’s a common conversation; just replace “Darwin” with whatever Australian city you find yourself in. Usually the conversation is preceded or followed by, “Dude, I got so wasted last night, spent sixty dollars somewhere.”
It would be difficult to say that most backpackers here are on some inner journey, seeking some sort of answer. They seem to be trying to forget it all in the bottom of a pint glass.
There’s also a certain Australian backpacker trail that flees the winter in the south, moves north by road and campervan and ends in Darwin, mostly because it’s the closest jumping off point to Bali. Amongst the backpackers, Australia is the work-ground and Bali the play-ground.
Darwin is inundated with campervans for sale: the backpackers migrate up here then try to sell the vans and find cheap flights to Southeast Asia, where they go treat themselves after months of work and budget living in Australia.
To be honest, I want to go to Southeast Asia too, after spending June on the East Coast of the US – two weddings and some Appalachian Trail hiking in between! – and a bit of time with the folks, free-loading and then camping in Yosemite.
Because the thing is, I haven’t been job-free in California yet. In the span of five days, I finished my job, we packed up the apartment, put it in storage, drove to L.A. and I got on a flight. I hardly took a deep breath and for the first month here in Australia, I simply felt like I was on an extended holiday. I’m eager to travel in California, and to experience life not packed in to the two day weekend – to spend time in Yosemite, to spend time at Harbin, and, maybe even some time at the library or Arbor, continuing work on the novel, which has fizzled since I left Perth.