After a short (2.5 hour) flight on Sunday evening, we arrived in Darwin and checked in a lovely 4 star hotel. We're bored of hostels and so decided to blow the budget on a nice, sizable room with good facilities.
Oh, would that it were...
In fact we'd pre-booked a room in the Melaleuca Lodge hostel. The Lonely Planet said it was a good hostel (and the YHA my sister recommended was fully booked). However, it's being bulldozed to make room for a better hostel in the future, and the new management are content to run it into the ground. The facilities are dreadful, and what's worse is that management don't give a hoot about complaints. They have no interest in improving the place (or even in keeping it functional) and we are in no bargaining position having pre-paid, and with all the other hostels having no double rooms. Grah! Sometimes I hate travelling.
This experience is a shame, as Darwin is a nice city. Hot though (over 30 degrees, and this is the middle of winter!) Today, after I'd stopped seething with anger about the hostel (and the chance of me turning big and green had subsided) we went for a walk around. We explored the really nice parliament building, went to a good pre-loved bookshop, and later went on a historical walking tour. We're shattered now, and have been seeking out air conditioning all day.
I don't want to go back to that horrible hostel. : (