All of which means that I'm getting pretty close to giving up on finding a flightless way over. Lou, the other flightless traveller I met here, also gave up and flew to Singapore today.
Anybody have any helpful suggestions?
Monday, April 26, 2010
Running out of options
I'm still in Darwin and close to giving up on getting across to Asia by sea. I've tried freighter companies and they strongly refuse to take any passengers. There is also the option of taking a cruise ship but they are not keen on letting me do one sector of a trip instead of the return-trip and if they do, they ask for payment for the full trip which can be more than $5000 so that's out. The cruises I could find were fully booked up anyway. My last choice is to find a yacht that might be going in that direction and ask if I can come along. I found a website where I can search for yachts but so far there is nothing going in that direction in the near future. There is a yacht race from Darwin to Indonesia in July and I could almost certainly get on one of those, but I'm not sure I want to wait that long because I've been in Australia quite a while already and am keen to start exploring south-east asia. There are a couple of possibilities of yachts in June but again I'm not sure I want to wait that long. They also take quite a while to get across and the captains are more keen on crew who will stay on board and keep sailing around Asia with them, rather than disembarking as soon as we hit Indonesia. I even enquired about chartering a boat but that runs into the thousands of dollar so is also out.
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Not many. Don't try and be a boat person in reverse ... There are some pretty hairy waters around SE Asia too - off the coast of Singapore the piracy is right out of control - so I'd think twice about being on a freighter around there. (And yes, I do sound like a father of two ...)
ReplyDeleteThe yacht is the only choice to have and it needs a lot of patience and courage for a long journey and combat from fierce sea tides and pirates.
ReplyDeletewhat about cycling...
ReplyDeleteSorry lovely, but it doesn't sound good. I have no helpful suggestions for you but don't think you'd be judged if you had to fly. It's only a short distance and it's not like you haven't tried to find a flightless alternative.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you'll be able to find non-plane transport for every other section. Plus, I don't like the sound of those pirates...
Don't give up! You're a genius!
ReplyDeleteLuciano
I suppose it depends how interesting Darwin is ... PS have been posting on religion and the law again, suggest you write a book to clear up the same confusion that never seems to go away in the media.
ReplyDelete