After a rather miserable 13 hour bus ride from Perth I am officially in Meekatharra. Look it up...its pretty much the middle of no place Western Australia.
To backtrack, I did spend one day and two nights in Perth which was actually very nice. I decided not to be a bum and spend the whole day in bed after a ten hour trip, so I got out and went on one of those double decker bus tours. I can't say I saw a whole lot of Perth but what I did see I really liked, or maybe it was just the fact that the weather was so similar to Phoenix. No bloody humidity!
And now back to Meekatharra. I am working as a barmaid/hotel room cleaner at the Commercial Hotel. Apparently its the nicest of the three hotels in the town, mostly because its not frequented by aboriginals. Theres a very racist culture here against the aboriginal community but so far I can't see that the aboriginals are doing much to stop it. Its pretty similar to the Native American problem that we have in the states...too much alcohol and sugar. Its really quite sad but it seems that all the government does is throw money at them and send out to the far reaches of Australia so they don't have to bother with them.
Oh well...I worked my first night in the bar last night and it was definitely an eye opening experience. I have to learn all the different types of beers, how to pour a proper "middy", and where all the damn buttons are on the ancient cash register. The plastic over the buttons is so worn you can hardly read any of the descriptions so its sort of a hunt and peck and hope game. I think I did pretty well though considering. Got to chat to alot of the locals...they're a pretty rowdy bunch. Alot of miners and construction workers who are only in the area for a little while and some guys that just live off of the government and spend their money on alcohol. And they sure can drink!
In the mornings I get up and then Amy (the lovely Irish girl I work with) and I get to cleaning the rooms. Its not too bad, just chaning the bed linen if the people are checking out and cleaning the bathrooms and kitchens. Takes about 2 hours and then we're done until either 2 or 6. One of us starts at 2pm and works till 8:30, and the other starts at 6pm and works till close. Apparently close is usually around 10:30 but we're licensed to stay open until midnight and last night we did. It was good for me cause I got more time to learn where everything was and the later people stay the more they drink and the more they drink the more they tip!
Thats really it so far, I'm sure I'll have lots of stories to tell about the characters here in Meekatharra. I promise I'll get some pictures up soon but until then...
Thats the Commerical Hotel on the left hand side next to the grocery store.
Until next time!
Hey! I've been reading ur posts! Seems like an adventure, oh yeah I 'm Helen by the way from the couchsurfing group. I was wondering, how much luggage do you carry around with u?
ReplyDeleteI'm preparing for my australia trip and realized it'd be really inconvient if i had a lot of stuff but then i'd need a lot of stuff, u know what i mean? lol
Ha...yeah I have been carrying one big backpack (like the hiking kind) and then another smaller carryon. The backpack weighs a little under 20kilos (or about 35 pounds). Its quite a bit to carry but I couldn't imagine doing it with less.
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