A Recent Trip Home
Once again I am in Maningrida running physical activity sessions at the school here. This means I have some time to write another blog post which will also be the final post I will be writing in this blog.
Just 2 weeks back I was in Singapore for a whopping 10 days!. Its the longest I have ever stayed in Singapore since moving in January 2016. How I ended up in Singapore was a bit of a tale. To cut to the chase, a trip to Bali was cancelled due to the series of earthquakes in that region. My friends decided to change their destination to Phuket and since I was travelling from Darwin, last minute flight changes were not an option for me. However my clever wife suggested that I still travel to Bali and then fly to Singapore. As an obedient husband, I followed my spousal instructions without divergence.
So I ended in Singapore and no one knew. That was the fun part. For those who know me, you would know I love pulling pranks and surprising the people around me. The first surprise went to my parents who were instructed to stay at home to receive a DHL parcel on my behalf. Little did they realise that the delivery dude was going to look a lot like their son. So the surprises went around and it was honestly great to be close to people I have known for so many years.
We have lived in Darwin for almost 3 years now. At this point of writing it is actually 2 years 8 months which means I know the Darwin lifestyle fairly well. Its a rather small place so it shouldn't take most people to get up to speed with life here. I have said a few times already that I am ready to move on from Darwin. Personally, I feel a big part of it comes from not owning a home. Maybe its that Singaporean in me who has been brought up always living in our own home (99 years or not) so having to rent a place makes me feel unsettled and unrooted.
There are so many things to love about Darwin. It is really a place which allows you to be closer to nature. Spectacular sunsets, beaches all around, waterfalls and bathing holes, billabongs and rivers teeming with life, spectacular rock formations and landscapes etc. For the adventurer, it is truly spectacular. Its an idyllic life here if you have few demands and are happy to head to work, do your bit and then enjoy the 4.30pm office closure by heading to the beach or sipping some wine from the comfort of your home. Its a small population which means we almost always bump into someone familiar. Transportation is stress-free as most of us can afford a car here and drive around through peaceful roads.
Living in Darwin has given me time and space to focus on photography. But as an after thought, I also understand that while I was living in Singapore, I was too distracted by my friends and family gatherings and late night teh tariks that prevented me from pursuing photography. So truly it is a reflection of my choices rather than the lack of time. So I guess the real benefit is that there is lesser distraction.
Apart from that, I enjoy the culture where I can pretty much walk up to anyone and have a conversation or randomly join a bunch of dudes playing football. So as I have said, its been time well spent in Darwin and we have made some fabulous friends. If you one of our Darwin friends and are reading this, you know who you are!
Now living in Darwin has its own set of challenges as well. Some of them are things like price of food, availability and cost of flights to anywhere, lack of curry sauce in Macs (just kidding), housing affordability and options, distance from Darwin to anywhere else etc I guess every place will come with its own set of challenges. But for what its been worth, this Darwin adventure has been life-changing and eye-opening. To anyone who is wondering if they should move away from Singapore or not, I would say "Please do!" Its not that its better or anything like that. But its an experience to live and work in another country especially for a very sheltered couple like Sang and I who spent all of our initial 30 years in living in Singapore. And it does not have to be Darwin or Australia, any move to anywhere else would be a life-changing experience. So with that I come to the end of my final post in this blog.
A new chapter will begin next year although it remains to be seen what it might look like. We still have not gotten our PR so if that means we move back to Singapore, then so be it. Thank you to everyone who have followed this blog closely or sporadically even.
Cheers,
Navin
Just 2 weeks back I was in Singapore for a whopping 10 days!. Its the longest I have ever stayed in Singapore since moving in January 2016. How I ended up in Singapore was a bit of a tale. To cut to the chase, a trip to Bali was cancelled due to the series of earthquakes in that region. My friends decided to change their destination to Phuket and since I was travelling from Darwin, last minute flight changes were not an option for me. However my clever wife suggested that I still travel to Bali and then fly to Singapore. As an obedient husband, I followed my spousal instructions without divergence.
So I ended in Singapore and no one knew. That was the fun part. For those who know me, you would know I love pulling pranks and surprising the people around me. The first surprise went to my parents who were instructed to stay at home to receive a DHL parcel on my behalf. Little did they realise that the delivery dude was going to look a lot like their son. So the surprises went around and it was honestly great to be close to people I have known for so many years.
We have lived in Darwin for almost 3 years now. At this point of writing it is actually 2 years 8 months which means I know the Darwin lifestyle fairly well. Its a rather small place so it shouldn't take most people to get up to speed with life here. I have said a few times already that I am ready to move on from Darwin. Personally, I feel a big part of it comes from not owning a home. Maybe its that Singaporean in me who has been brought up always living in our own home (99 years or not) so having to rent a place makes me feel unsettled and unrooted.
There are so many things to love about Darwin. It is really a place which allows you to be closer to nature. Spectacular sunsets, beaches all around, waterfalls and bathing holes, billabongs and rivers teeming with life, spectacular rock formations and landscapes etc. For the adventurer, it is truly spectacular. Its an idyllic life here if you have few demands and are happy to head to work, do your bit and then enjoy the 4.30pm office closure by heading to the beach or sipping some wine from the comfort of your home. Its a small population which means we almost always bump into someone familiar. Transportation is stress-free as most of us can afford a car here and drive around through peaceful roads.
Living in Darwin has given me time and space to focus on photography. But as an after thought, I also understand that while I was living in Singapore, I was too distracted by my friends and family gatherings and late night teh tariks that prevented me from pursuing photography. So truly it is a reflection of my choices rather than the lack of time. So I guess the real benefit is that there is lesser distraction.
Apart from that, I enjoy the culture where I can pretty much walk up to anyone and have a conversation or randomly join a bunch of dudes playing football. So as I have said, its been time well spent in Darwin and we have made some fabulous friends. If you one of our Darwin friends and are reading this, you know who you are!
Now living in Darwin has its own set of challenges as well. Some of them are things like price of food, availability and cost of flights to anywhere, lack of curry sauce in Macs (just kidding), housing affordability and options, distance from Darwin to anywhere else etc I guess every place will come with its own set of challenges. But for what its been worth, this Darwin adventure has been life-changing and eye-opening. To anyone who is wondering if they should move away from Singapore or not, I would say "Please do!" Its not that its better or anything like that. But its an experience to live and work in another country especially for a very sheltered couple like Sang and I who spent all of our initial 30 years in living in Singapore. And it does not have to be Darwin or Australia, any move to anywhere else would be a life-changing experience. So with that I come to the end of my final post in this blog.
A new chapter will begin next year although it remains to be seen what it might look like. We still have not gotten our PR so if that means we move back to Singapore, then so be it. Thank you to everyone who have followed this blog closely or sporadically even.
Cheers,
Navin
Is there more information? It's very interesting. Can you recommend me?
ReplyDeleteufabet