Surviving Alice Springs: Night Fever

If you're moving to Alice Springs you may be concerned that there is a lack of entertainment options. Of course, the options are a fair bit smaller than your usual major city, but they are there, and they are fun. In the name of science, my husband and I hit Alice Springs at the weekend to see if it was possible to have a great night out in this small town. An empty wallet, tragic photos and raging hangovers the next day suggest that it is in fact possible!

First stop for the night was dinner at Sporties. It sounds like it would be an amazing sports bar, but it's actually a restaurant. Everything was absolutely divine. The people serving us were all lovely, and oh my god the food was incredible!

Yeah, I maybe kinda forgot to take a picture and started eating it.

That there fine specimen was the deliciously named "Beef and Bugs". Scotch Fillet and Moreton Bay Bugs with Rosemary and chilli. At $39.90 it was probably the most expensive meal on the menu, and you know what? Worth every cent. I'm drooling right now when I think about how amazing it tasted. A word of warning though, they under-cook their steaks, so if you're a person who can't stand blood, you may want to order yours very, very well done. My only other gripe? Sporties did not have the AFL on when we got there! It was odd, but soon rectified.

Next on our list was Uncles Tavern. Cheap beer, pool tables and some rocking old school pub music. My inner bogan was pretty happy here! At $11 for a schooner of Carlton Dry and a stubby of Jack Daniels, things could have gotten very messy had we stayed. Sadly, they were only showing the free to air AFL, so I demanded we move on to the next pub in hopes that they would be showing the West Coast vs Hawks game.

Just down the road is the Rock Bar. It's a backpacker haven, with cheap specials, awesome staff and Facebook status updates that always make me wanna hit the pub -- not that it's too hard to get me pumped for booze! However, I'm pretty dirty on this place right now. They were showing the West Coast game! And then, in the ultimate insult, they turned it off in favour of rubgy. Rugby! I was so horrified that we decided it was time to hit up the next establishment on our list.

Of all the things to photograph, why this? 

Oh, Monte's, you are amazing. Lots of seating, both inside and out. Awesome, quirky decorations such as mannequins, unicorns, chandeliers and life sized marching toys. Your staff were awesome and your beers were very hipster. The Leffe Blonde with Captain Morgan shots did a real number on my lovely husband. Needless to say, we were pretty messy by this stage and so this place definitely gets the seal of approval. (Eden, if you're reading this, sorry for thinking you were telling me you were eating and we should look away, when really you were just introducing yourself. I totally understand why you were quick to leave!)

We ended the night at the Casino. I could write an entire post just dedicated to my love of Lasseters. Sports bar, nightclub, awesome outdoor seating, gambling and cheap booze. What's not to love? We even stayed the night there this time around, which was a very wise decision -- mostly because when it came time for bed, we could barely walk, let alone co-ordinate ourselves enough to organise a taxi.

Long story short, we went out in Alice Springs and didn't get stabbed, mugged or murdered. In fact, people pretty much avoided us, probably because my husband was wearing his "Fear Hogger" World of Warcraft T-shirt. We managed to make a few friends for the night, and had we stayed away from the Roulette Wheel, it probably wouldn't have been too rough on the wallet. It was a good night indeed!

Now, let's hope the other photos on my phone never see the light of day EVER...

Surviving Alice Springs - Size, Shopping and Safety

Alice Springs: Not flat like I had imagined.

I've been living here in Alice Springs for just shy of two years, and while I haven't exactly integrated myself into the social scene, I have learned a lot of things that would really have helped me prepare myself when we first arrived.

Alice Springs is Small

The last census had the Alice Springs population at 26,188. The downside is that the census does not include the significant American population that also resides here, thanks to the base. Either way, Alice Springs is still classed as a town and the infrastructure shows that.

• If you've got kids and are hoping to get them into child care, the waiting list is infinitely long. Some places have even closed their waiting lists entirely. It means there's a strong market for home day-care and babysitting, if you're looking for alternative income. 
• There is no private hospital, just the one over-worked public hospital. However, there are quite a few doctor surgeries, and I've never had to deal with long waits to get an appointment.
• The rental market here is fiercely competitive -- and pricey. If you're moving here by choice, many employers offer housing incentives. 
• Petrol is also pricey, and not just because of the sheer distance tankers have to travel to get here. We use special, low aroma petrol to discourage petrol sniffing. 

There are no Mega Malls in Alice Springs


Seeing as there are less than 30,000 people here and we're 1,500km away from the nearest capital city, shopping leaves a lot to be desired. We have the basics such as K-Mart, Target, Harvey Norman, Coles, Woolworths, etc, as well as quite a few smaller franchises, but the layout is terrible and they're scattered all over the CBD. K-mart is open til 9pm weeknights, and Coles and Woolies are open til midnight. Coles also do online ordering and home delivery. Seven day trading does exist, but it seems that only the bigger franchises take advantage of it.

Not illegal, but definitely restricted.

The sale of alcohol is a bit of a grey area, and if you're like me, your Google search confused the hell out of you about what can and can't be done with booze in Alice Springs. Let me bust some myths for you.

• If you're after a goon bag or some fortified wine, you can only buy them between 6pm and 8pm. You're also limited to two per person.
• You have to present your ID no matter what you're buying or how old you look. This gets scanned into a database to make sure you're not bottle-o hopping and getting more than your quota of goon.
• The limits only apply to cask wine and port. Want 10 bottles of vodka and four cartons of VB? Knock yourself out. 
• Besides liquor stores attached to a grocery shop (These are not open on Sundays), most bottle-o's are open 7 days a week. They don't open until 2pm on weekdays and are shut by 9pm.
• If you're planning on a camping adventure, there are a LOT of places around here that fall under the Northern Territory National Emergency Response laws. That means it's all kinds of illegal to take any form of booze or porn into these areas. 

Safety First

There's no point in lying or sugar coating it. Alice Springs has a lot of social issues (Issues that I'm totally not qualified to explain) that make walking around at night a pretty stupid thing to do. The crime rate here is absurd. Racism is rampant on many fronts. Basically, some people here can be real dicks. Remember to lock your doors at night and don't go walking down dark alleys. If you've ever thought of taking up self defence, I highly recommend it. My husband runs IJJF Jui Jitsu classes twice a week, which are great for people who are purely looking to protect themselves and their loved ones, as opposed to just beating the crap out of people in a competition environment.  

It's not all doom and gloom though! My jaw has almost healed up, and to celebrate, my next installment of Surviving Alice Springs will revolve around my favourite spots to eat, drink and be merry at. I like that my blog is giving me an excuse to go out wining and dining!

If you have any questions, feel free to hit me up in the comments, or check me out on Facebook or Twitter.