Heading Home

I'm still not sure why I can't change the settings on this page to english, unless you're fluent in thai, there's no way to tell when I last blogged. Serves me right for registering this blog in Bangkok I guess. Oh it seems I mentioned it being Good Friday, so this is therefore my first blog since easter, not sure when that was though. Alot has happened since then.

Firstly me and John went to Australia Zoo, home of the Irwins. Remember Steve? Got stabbed by a stingray in 2006, his wife now runs the place (she waved at me!), it isn't really a zoo per se, as I hardly saw a single cage. No, most of the animals are kept in enclosures, given plenty of room and appear quite happy. Kangaroo heaven was a highlight for me, it's essentially a field full of kangaroos you can go up to, stroke, feed, and have your photo taken with (by the way, check out my flickr page for photos of this and everything else I've mentioned) There's also a photo of me with a Koala bear, but it's on John's camera and I'm awaiting a copy.

Then we went to byron bay with the people we met up with on Fraser island. Much fun was had by all, but it also signalled the end the trip for many. Afterwards, people headed home or to other countries, only John stayed in Australia, headed down to Sydney, so i decided to get as much done as I could before i myself left.

First of all, I booked a trip out of Alice Springs, which is in the Northern territory, to Ayers Rock and the surrounding areas, I figured you can't come to Australia without seeing Uluru, as it is known by the locals. However the cheapest flights were out of Melbourne, so I decided to kill 2 birds with 1 stone, I flew there. Melbourne is a cool city, the temp dropped from around 26 degrees in Brisbane to around 14 in Melbourne which was a shock to the system, but after adjusting I booked the neighbours tour, for my sins, photos of me on Ramsey Street are also on my flickr page.

After Melbourne I flew to Alice Springs, where it was hot again, thankfully not too hot, in the height of summer it can reach 52 degrees in the outback, making a 10 minute walk virtually impossible. The temperature enabled us to walk around Uluru and up kings canyon, seeing some other sights along the way in what was a 3 day tour. One of the best parts was sleeping in a 'swag' which is essentially an outdoor sleeping bag, in the 2 campsites we stayed at. Due to lack of light pollution you could see thousands of stars and the milky way itself. Quite amazing.

From Melbourne I decided to fly to possibly my favourite place over the last 14 months, Queenstown, New Zealand. I found a cheap flight which returned via Sydney, enabling me to meet up wkith a few familiar faces and again see the city I landed in and met my Dad back in June 2008. Back to Queenstown though, I had my fingers crossed for an early ski-fields opening maybe enabling me to try out snowboarding, but no such luck. I did the Nevis Arc while I was there, which is a 40 metre drop followed by a 300 metre swing, the largest of its kind in the world. Perhaps more terrifying then the jump though, was the weigh-in. I found out I've put on 6 kilos (that's nearly a stone) in the 8 months since i last did a bungee. First stop when back in England, the gym.

After an extremely messy pub crawl on my last night in NZ, I left Queenstown and headed to Sydney, then onto Brisbane where I currently have another 4 days until flying home via Kuala Lumpur. Even if i did have a job, my visa ends in June, meaning that my only work experience here has been fruit picking. It's been great fun though, and definitely not the last time I'll visit this land. Having visited: Cairns, The Great Barrier Reef, Townsville, Bundaberg, Fraser Island, Noosa, Sunshine Coast, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Byron Bay, Sydney, Melbourne, Alice Springs and Ayers Rock, I have still missed out alot that the country has to offer.

My last trip will be on Monday to the XXXX Brewery, to witness where they make the stuff responsible for the extra 6 kilos of weight my now portly figure is carrying, then back to the uk where my three pronged plan of attack goes something like this:

Job
Car
Gym

Flickr photo page:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25243091@N08/

Still in Oz

Well the job search didn't go well, and I moved out of my house. So I'm kind of in limbo at the moment, but loving it!

First, jobs. There is apparently an economic crisis going on which means the world has no money, or something. Basically its a bad time to do job hunting. There's nothing available similiar to what I did in England, the only jobs going on fruit picking, which I've done, enjoyed but won't do again. There's also work available in door to door sales or telemarketing, which I've sworn I would never do, out of principle. Theres the possibility of working at the casino here in Brisbane, or working for AJ Hackett the adventure company, both of which I'm exploring. It could well be that I end up flying home alot sooner then I'd planned, so I'm living it up while I can.

Moving out of the house and into the hostel was a decision fuelled by many factors, I had been considering it mainly for financial reasons, the last train or bus to the house from the city was 12.30, and I often had to get taxis back, financially for me, it's better to be in the city. Then there was the falling out with the landlord who claimed I woke him up on a couple of occasions, well it's a shame your walls are paper thin, mate. Enjoy that 120 dollars a week you're NOT going to be getting for a fair while. I left amicably though, hand shakes etc, so there was no real bad blood. I'm much more at home here in the city, if I do get a job, finding a place nearby shouldn't be a problem.



















Brad is still there though, do I feel bad for leaving him behind? Not really, he decided to move out too, in a month when he flies home to England. In a repeat of last year when he stayed in Thailand because of a lady, he's now flying to England because of one, love eh? Mine and Brad's experiences of oz have been pretty different, in landing a good IT job he hasn't really been 'living it up'. He has though, been making mega bucks, whilst I've been spending mega bucks. He should be pretty set once he gets back the the uk.



The last 3 days me and a mate went to Fraser island (home of the dingo, pictured), an amazing place and met more people on the tour who we're going out with this weekend. Today being good friday, there is no alcohol being sold which I found strange, but there's a 'bring your own' party on the roof of the hostel tonight which we'll probably attend.

Fraser was stunning, it's a few hours north of Brisbane and is the largest sand island in the world, it has no roads, everything is 'off road' and requires a 4x4 vehicle to get around. Theres photos of it on my flickr site. http://www.flickr.com/photos/25243091@N08/

Sincemy last post me and Brad have attended 2 concerts, one was dance oriented and the other was the V 'rock' festival. We got to see Snow Patrol, Razorlight, The Killers, The Kaiser Chiefs, Madness and Duffy. Ricky Wilson, from the Kaisers came into the crowd during one song and we managed to crowd surf him! Cool stuff.

So the next few days are going to determine what the rest of my trip will entail, it could even involve a trip to New Zealand. Or I could be in England next week, who knows, the latter is pretty doubtful though.

Back in Oz

Praise the Lord, I'm back in Oz, it was a close call though. The month I spent in Thailand was great fun, but it was important I left. Partying every night for an extended period can take it out of you, both financially and mentally. Brad compared Ko Phangan to the island from the tv show Lost, in that you can never leave it. It eats you up and doesn't even give you the satisfaction of spitting you out. It's safe to say, that after 3 visits there over the past 10 months and a total of 11 weeks spent there along with its neighbouring island of Ko Samui, that I won't be returning.

Yes, you meet cool people, yes you have a great time, yes resort managers offer you a room for your trainers, yes you can wake up on a beach at midday sunburnt without any clue where you are, but there's only so much craziness you can take before you begin to go crazy yourself. I saw a Canadian guy drink beer from a dog bowl which still had old bits of dog food in it and I hardly batted an eyelid. I saw a woman crash her moped and complain of having a broken back and it barely came up in conversation that night. A woman was murdered on the beach less then a mile from my resort while I was there too, but according to the locals, murder is a common thing, being as the island is ran by the mafia. The night I left I saw a girl crying her eyes out rolling around in the sand with a hapless boyfriend asking me what to do to help her through what he called 'a bad trip'. Too much craziness, I'd recommend the full moon party, maybe a max 1 week stay, but then get out of there. Don't make the mistake of making friends there and settling, the island is just too insane. I delayed leaving by 1 day, which meant I had a 1 day overstay on my visa, which results in a 500 baht (10 pound) fine. Luckily for me, the immigration guy either missed it, or let me off.

I'm now happy to be back in my house in Brisbane. It took 2 flights to get here, from Phuket to KL and then to Brissy. I've had a week to acclimatise, and am now beginning searching for a casual job to keep the money ticking over.

Me and Brad have a few plans, one is to go to the coast every other weekend. Last time I was here we were unaware of how useful our location was, it's pretty much halfway between the coast and the city. The gold coast will be a great place to top up my tan, and maybe do some bodyboarding in one of the most shark infested parts of the world. Yes, the Brisbane coast is home to Great White Sharks, I'm told there are nets in place though, which is comforting.

We also aim to go to a festival next month and possibly Melbourne for the F1 grand prix. We aim to do a road trip once we've saved some money, possibly to Perth on the West coast. In the meantime it's a matter of playing snooker and going out every friday and saturday night and recovering on sundays. We aim to get a  5-a-side football team going to help us keep in shape too.

Since I got here it's basically been raining every day, which is crazy as the one place that could actually do with rain, Victoria, isn't getting any. The fires there have now claimed their 200th life. This is the worst natural disaster in Australian history, the whole country is doing everything they can to support the cause, with many collections being made to help the victims. Hard to believe the fire has been raging for over a week now.

Anyway, come June I'll have to leave as my visa will expire, it'll be onto New Zealand then I reckon, Brad's mentioned a trip back to the UK much in the same vein as mine, we'll have to see what happens there, either way, he gets 4 months longer here then I do, due to entering the country 4 months after I did.

I'll update again with how my job search is going, but I think I'll sign out for now. Cheers!

Back on the Road

After spending a great xmas and new year back in Enlgand going to Christmas parties, New Year parties, and as many villa games as I could attend, I am now back on the road in Thailand. The aim is to get to Oz and start working by the end of January. I spent a week in Bangkok where i met some great people and got to see some of the sights outside of the famous khao San road. The aim was to fly to Oz from Thailand's capital but the pull of a full moon party brought me back to Ko Pha Ngan for the third time!

This time I feel like a local, I'm mates with alot of the people that run businesses over here and am 'in' with the local crowd, in addition to that, I can be a tourist too and do all the partying we're renowned for. I currently drink alot with a swedish guy called John, and occasionally indulge in a game called 'beat the barman' which can have disastrous results in terms of my wallet and my liver. No more of that, I think.

Quote of the year so far by the way: 'that dog looks like a snake'. No hidden meaning, it was just a dog that looked like a snake. Also, an example of how ridiculous the island is, was earlier when I wasn't suprised when the head of the resort I'm staying him offered me 3 free nights stay in the best room here in exchange for my trainers. Shoes can be used as currency over here apparently. 3 nights by the way comes to about 40-45 pounds and these trainers were a christmas present so no dice I'm afraid!

Its going to be hard to leave this island, there is a guy here who has been here for 5 months and only meant to come for 5 days. I don't want to be that guy. Maybe I'll be back here again later this year when me and Brad do a tour of thailand's surrounding countries.

Next blog will be from Oz hopefully!