March 9 - 10, 2013 - Getting to Australia
At the beginning of the this trip I didnt even have Australia down as a possibility to visit. Seeing as how so many people had good things to say about it and it was the best way to see the Great Barrier Reef, I thought I would give it a try. So on the 9th I left Malaysia and headed towards Cairns, Australia for a 3 day 2 night live aboard SCUBA trip.
The route would be KK, Malaysia to Singapore for a 5 hour layover, to Darwin, Australia, and finally Cairns, Australia. The flight from KK to Singapore was short and easy. And since the Singapore airport has lots and lots to do I thought a 5hr layover would be rather enjoyable. The only thing I had to that was a bit annoying was go through Singapore immigration retrieve my luggage and then check back in with the next airline/flight. I did all the immigration stuff and got around to checking back when Oops, I did it again!
It has happened once before where I was unprepared to enter a country and I did this for Australia too. I had no idea that I needed an Visa before hand to enter Australia. So there I was at the airport check in counter and I had no visa. Thankfully, Australia makes it rather easy to obtain a visa and I could do it all at the Customer Service desk. Whoa, that was a close one. It was one of the those wiping sweat from your forehead moments.
With visa completed I went back through the check in line and actually got to check in! Slept just a bit on the way to Darwin and lil on the way to Cairns. On the plane I met a gentleman that told me to be absolutely sure to declare all the food I had on me else I could be stuck with some serious fines. With this in mind I declared the box of jelly beans I had on me. They were the delicious Jelly Bellies and they were just too good to throw away. Nope! That was the worst choice. Since I had declared the jelly beans I had to have a little interview with a customs officer. This meant waiting in another line, putting my bag through another scanner, opening my bag up, showing him my knife, a swab drug test on my bag, some questions on what I was doing in the country, showing him my SCUBA dive license, etc. He didnt even LOOK at the jelly beans. Geez.
By the time I checked into my hostel in Cairns I was exhausted. All the I did that afternoon was sleep, shower, and go to the grocery store for food stuffs. I had to be up and at the dive shop at 6am so after making myself dinner at the hostel I went back to bed.
What I have learned: You need a visa to get into Australia. Toss the jelly beans when going to Australia.
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