First day in Broome!

Today Matt and I woke up at 4:30 am!!! Andrew picked us up and took us to the airport. We arrived and made it through check in and security within 15 minutes!! No troubles with Matt and his explosive chemical traces. YAY! We brought breakfast with us to the airport. We were supposed to leave at 7:00am but we waited an extra 15 minutes for 3 people that didn’t show up. I wish American airlines would do that! Just in case I’m ever running late. The airplane was very chilly. Everyone was wearing sweatshirts and bundled up in blankets. We arrived in Broome, located in the north west corner of Australia, at 9:30 am to 100 degree heat with about 90% humidity. It was a little bit of a shock. Matt was pretty darn excited though. Not because of the weather but because we arrived at a small airport and he got to exit from the back of the plane onto the tarmac. We grabbed a taxi and it drove us for about 1 minute and 9 seconds to Broome’s Last Resort (the hostel we are staying at). I guess we could have walked it. Our room was not going to be ready for another 2 hours.

So we put on our “bathers” (swim suits) and jumped into the pool! It was absolutely AMAZING!!! We met a guy named James. He was more than happy to show us around the place and tell us about his adventures. He also took us to the grocery store so we could buy food for lunch. It was pretty cool to walk into a store with only our bathers on and James didn’t even wear shoes! The best part is, it is NORMAL. Nobody stared or thought anything about it. We learned that the local population is just like another other city in the fact that we are on the side of town where most are underprivileged and we got to see it first hand on our walk. This will come into play later for dinner. We also learned that items in the grocery store are more expensive because Broome is considered to be a remote location. There are also fewer items in the grocery store for the same reason. We made it back and stored all of our stuff in one of the 4 refrigerators in the kitchen. Had lunch and then swam some more, and more, and more. We met a few more backpackers traveling through. Some are from France and Austria others are Aussies from the east coast. Matt and I enjoyed some air-conditioned time in our red room watching The Big Bang episodes.

Our room is RED. All of the walls, trim, and ceiling are red. It contains a full bed and an air conditioner. That is it.

Here is a pic of the pool. It has a waterfall in it too!

Here is the cabana beside the pool. There is SHADE, tables, and 2 hammocks.

Here is the community kitchen. There are 4 refrigerators and a freezer that are not shown. But all of the pots and pans and cooking things are community. There is even a sign that states "If you are caught NOT washing dishes, you will be evicted on the spot" I think it is great. They should have one of those signs for all college apartments to help end roommate arguments.

Also, here's the bar. not too fancy, but it did the trick, all the backpackers loved the prices, about $5 per beer! Usually, $7-$8 was the norm.

We were supposed to go out to dinner and to see the stairway to the moon with some friends. The stairway to the moon is a natural optical illusion (like the northern lights) where reflections off of the tidal pools create a staircase image up to the moon. Unfortunately, a storm rolled in about 4:30pm. It rained for 30 minutes, but brought in enough clouds to ruin the effect. So our friends called and canceled.

Instead, Matt and I went out to a place called Matso’s for dinner. We had to take a taxi there even though it was only 6 blocks away because it is dangerous to walk on this side of town. The cab driver told us a story on the way over that a girl fell victim to an attempted rape 1 block from the restaurant. YIKES!

So Matso’s is a local brewery (Matt’s choice). We had the Ocean and Earth platter for 2. It came with VERY fresh Salmon, spiced prawns (shrimp), herbed chicken, and very raw kangaroo. They offered beer made with spicy chilies in it and another with mango in it. Neither of which Matt tried. Something about a spicy beer and he is allergic to mangos. So Matt tried a local porter beer instead. It was all pretty tasty. At the beginning I snuck away “to the bathroom” and talked to our waiter and had him bring out some chocolate cake for dessert as a part of Matt’s birthday celebration. Yes his birthday was yesterday (Aussie time) but it is today US time. So we dragged it out. His cake came with a flower shaped sparkler on top. And he was surprised. We took a taxi back to the hostel and bought internet $10 for 4 hours (anytime use) so we could post this blog. We are going to get up early to go Kayaking (since we didn’t get to at Penguin Island).