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!

Next Stop...UK

After spending a day at the cricket and getting sunburnt I left Brisbane, a train to the Gold Coast and a night stop over before my flight to Kuala Lumpur. I spent an hour wandering around looking for a bed with the world's heaviest rucksack before finally finding a hostel next to the airport. All other accommodation I'd found was expensive beach side villas, but next time I would pay the money and stay there, the hostel was horrendous, I think my one night's stay in there made me ill. Hoever it was close to the airport (as in you can see the runway through the window) so it was an easy flight out in the morning.

I got to KL, watched Villa draw with Man Utd in a sports bar, found a downtrodden hotel called The Emerald, which compared to the hostel seemed like The Hilton. It turned out that hostel was in a place called Sun Plaza which is around the corner from Times Square, the main shopping centre in the city, it even has an indoor theme park! I went up the Petronas twin towers, which were at one point the tallest buildings on the planet, but after 3 days I'd had enough, it was time to head north to Thailand. All I'd heard about KL was that it was a place to stop over, no more then a couple of days, and that proved right.

I flew to Phuket Thailand from KL (the airport is nowhere near KL by the way! it's a one hour coach, I recommend the air-bus operated by air asia) and spent 5 days chilling out on Patonga beach. Met some cool Aussies from Perth, who I'd like to meet again once I return to Oz. From there I headed up to Ko Samui, where I met my Dad for a night, we're heading out of Bangkok next week so a meet up was inevitable. We spent a night at an Irish bar watching a live band that were pretty sensational. Sensational enough to make me want to get my guitar out of the loft once I get home.

I'm now in Ko phangan, the full moon island again, meeting up with old pals before getting the bus from hell up to BKK on Monday. I fly home on Wednesday, the plane lands a week next sunday or something, and I'll do the x-mas new year thing with my family aaaaahhhhh...

I'm also going to try and get some writing done, and dust of the old guitars whilst getting to as many villa games as possible.

Keep on trucking!

Bauer, Storms and Villa

Well we're now settled in our new house. We go Grocery shopping, play X-Box (yes we bought one) and finally sleep in 2 different rooms. Our housemate Dave is, thankfully, a cool guy. Brad intends to stay here until at least February, I however, will be leaving this Saturday, after just a month. I will be back in Mid January though, if I successfully negotiate putting a hold on my room. My planned trip to Asia, and then England has been brought forward as flights in December are classed as 'high season' and are about twice the price. So I sorted a flight to Kuala Lumpur out of the Brisbane Gold Coast Airport on Saturday 23rd November. I need to make my way to Bangkok for the 11th December, meaning I have just over 2 weeks to negotiate parts of Asia that I haven't done yet, and maybe pop in to see some old friends.

Due to the earlier trip to Asia, I have put off Job seeking until January. There was no point getting trained up just to have to quit after a couple of weeks. With regards recent activities, well the Melbourne Cup was held last week and this was a horse race that pretty much halted the nation. You couldn't walk the street without seeing a temporary betting booth, and not being averse to placing a bet or 2 I found a horse called Bauer who was 10/1. Being a fan of 24 I felt this was a no brainer, however I didn't put it on each way so only a 1st place finish would do.

That's right, my horse is the one at the bottom, he lost by a 'nose'. I would have won 200 dollars had he been a little longer in the face, so to speak.  In other news, We bumped into Paddy, a guy we had a fair few drinks with in Bangkok the other day, it really is a small world. I'm probably heading to the Gabba to watch Australia v New Zealand on Thursday, should be interesting, if it goes ahead that is. Last night there was the worst storm to hit the area for 25 years. People died, a train was derailed, and there was a massive loss of power, one of the loudest storms I've ever heard.

On Saturday I went to the Pig and Whistle in the city centre to watch Villa play Arsenal, we played well, won comfortably and I was able to rub it in the faces of several Arsenal fans who claim that we aren't good enough to finish above them. 

So this time next week I'll be revisiting Asia before heading back to England to catch up with friends and family over Xmas and new year, before starting up in Brisbane again in Jan. 2009 will hopefully involve trips to the Pacific islands, Queenstown, New Zealand, and parts of Australia we haven't seen yet.

I'll end this blog by saying 'stay tuned' like I normally do.

Stay tuned!

Settling in Brisbane

Well a few things have happened since I last blogged. Since Brad arrived, we sorted out a trip from Brisbane down to Byron Bay. We actually met an American guy called Matt who was heading down with his girlfriend and decided to hitch a ride with him a few days later. We spent a week in Byron, the beach is pretty spectacular but a little windy. Byron was enjoyable but after a week of chilling out we decided that we needed to settle in Brisbane and earn some money.

We're currently staying in a cheap motel in Kangaroo Point (yes it's a real place!), just outside Brisbane. It's right near the Gabba, the famous Ozzy cricket stadium. Finding a house or apartment ends up cheaper per week then even the cheapest Motel, so that's what we did. We saw a place advertised in Maurooka, just 4 miles from the city centre. It's essentially the lower level of a house, with its own front door, bathroom, lounge and kitchen. There are 3 bedrooms though, which means me and Brad will be living with a guy named Dave. What's he like? You'll find out soon! We move in this Sunday.

In addition to a house we have applied to a few agencies for jobs. Brad found an IT job and started this week. I had some formal clothes sent over here (thanks mum!), so couldn't get a job as fast as Brad but something should transpire soon (he says).

I sorted out some flights too. I'll be headed to Thailand in December before heading back to England for christmas then returning to Thailand. By Mid January I should be back in Oz and working again, on and off until my visa ends in June. I'm looking forward to seeing my friends in Thailand as well as my family in England after spending what will have been 6 months in Australia and New Zealand and nearly 9 months on the road altogether.

With regards what me and Brad are getting up to, we are now the masters of public transport here, and know the city very well. We have deviated from playing pool to playing snooker and are actually getting quite good! Saturday nights are spent watching premier league football, and on one occasion ended with a trip to the casino. We haven't yet experienced a night out at China town, where there's a number of night clubs, but that will happen soon.

This last week I've actually met a couple of fairly well known people. In our snooker club we met the ex Villa goalkeeper Mark Bosnich and the rest of the Fox sports team, out for a few (dozen) drinks after covering the Australia v Qatar game which was played in Brisbane, had we known it was played locally we'd have gone, but nevertheless meeting Bozzy was quite cool. I also saw that the author Matthew Reilly was doing a talk and book signing at a local library. In Thailand I picked up one of his books from the second hand book shelf in one of the hotels. Since reading it I've read all 9 of his books, and meeting him was quite a privilege.

That's about all for now, more updates on the apartment and jobs soon!

Recovering from New Zealand

I'm currently sat in Brisbane awaiting the next part of my trip to begin. We're headed south down the coast to Byron Bay to enjoy the sun for a week or so, then we have to find jobs. Working until December should allow us to spend Christmas and new year at some exotic location, though we're not sure where yet. I'll keep you posted what work I end up doing.

Since my post in New Zealand I participated in horse riding (another first) through a forest in the Bay of Islands, north NZ, then did 1 final bungee on my final day, back in Auckland. By now we've become bungee pro's, so we went for something different. Sam went backwards, and I went backwards feet first for what was probably the scariest jump of them all off the Auckland Harbor bridge. Well, maybe not as bad as the 134 metre Nevis, that was just insane.

So after 4 bungees, a canyon swing, a skydive, caving, jetboating, an assault course, a swoop, lugeing, a glacier climb, a ride on a horse and a famous Queenstown Fergburger, I feel like I've done it all. We met some great people along the way. The way the kiwi buses work mean you will be with the same people for large chunks of the trip, and as such get to know them quite well. But part of travelling involves moving on to a new location, no matter how much you enjoyed the last one. If you stay in the same place the whole time, then you aren't actually travelling are you?

The next few months could go 2 ways, I could find a job, be disciplined, save some money and prolong my trip. Or I could be lazy, not get a job and be home before christmas. Lets see how it goes.

New Zealand

What a country! The kiwi experience has probably been the best part of my tour so far. Me and my brother started out in Christchurch before heading across to Westport where we participated in our first activity called jetboating. It basically involved being driven down a river at extremely fast speeds and getting very wet. From there we headed to the Franz Josef Glacier and spent a day climbing up it. The glacier is pictured left. We then did a skydive over the fox glacier which was nearby. 45 seconds of freefall then a 5 minute parachute ride is definitely one of the most amazing things I've done.

Then we headed to Queenstown via lake Wannaka where we did 3 bungee jumps and a canyon swing. The first bungee we did was the world's first commercial bungee, 43 metres off a bridge. Then we did the Nevis, which was 3 times as high. The final one was known as 'the ledge' and involved running and jumping off a high point over Queenstown. This one is pictured below.

The canyon swing is similar to a bungee, except you swing rather then bounce. I chose to go off the edge on a chair. The video is on youtube at this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThCfFQqfDCoThe guys are famous for making the plunge as scary as possible....

We then left queenstown and headed up to Wellington via Christchurch and a place called Kaikoura. The north island is very different to the south in terms of scenery. In Taupo and Rotorua we experienced natural hot springs, it's like climbing into a hot bath, this is due to all the volcanic activity which occurs on the north island. We did an adult assault course, a 'swoop' which is also like a bungee but involves going front first and swooping like a bird at 100 miles per hour. We then participated in lugeing. This involves driving sleds with wheels down very big hills at high speeds. A couple of nights ago we got to experience Maori culture by spending a night at one of their villages and seeing their famous war dance, the haka, as well as an all you can eat buffet. We also went caving which involves abseiling, a zip line, rafting and getting extremely wet, great fun.

I'm currently in Aukland with the trip nearly over. We head north to the bay of islands and then back down to auckland for our flights to england and oz respectively. I've met some great people on this leg of the tour but in oz I'll link up with my ex-travelling partner Brad where we will hit the east coast. I can't believe how much we've done in the last 3 weeks, and neither can my credit card. Still 3 days of kiwi to experience to go and I'll try to make the most of it.

Bundaberg

A few weeks ago in Tully I had a few Bundaberg and Cokes, Bundy is a very popular rum down in this part of the world. I didn't know then that it was also an Australian Town. A town which I am now currently staying in. After a couple of weeks of not getting work in Tully, I headed down the coast to an area which due to receiving much less rain, was looking for fruit pickers and could get them an instant start.

Although Bundaberg has an aiport, the cheapest way to get down was on the coach, via the city of Townsville, and the town of Mackay. Upon arriving in Bundaberg after 14 hours on a coach spread across 2 days, I realised it was 3am and all the hostels were closed. A few of us fell asleep at a picnic table outside the bus station until the sun rose and I was able to check in. The hostel I'm staying at is currently housing 3 other Aston Villa fans, all eager for the season start and the start of a ritual involving watching our team at the small hours of the morning. We have the Ozzy equivalent to Sky here and Fox sports shows most of the Premier league games.

As for work, the hostel also acts as an agency for its stayees (for want of a better word) and the day after checking in I was picking zucchinis (aka corguettes) at 7 in the morning. The first day I finished at 2.30 and was asleep in front of the TV by 3 o clock. The work here is erratic, you can work 9 hours 1 day and none the next. It can also be quite profitable if there is alot of fruit out there and you're paid in bulk. My room mate has seen a 3000 dollar weekly pay cheque belonging to another guy at the hostel, purely because he worked 7 days and there was alot to be picked. At the moment I'm on hourly as there isn't enough fruit to be picked to justify being paid 'by the bucket'.

There's plenty to be picked down here, strawberries, mangoes, sweet potatoes, corguettes, capsicums amongst them. The work is mindless, gets you fit, gets you a tan and contrubutes towards a visa extension. The main reason most people are working out here is to earn a second year on their visa. This is something I would like to have as an option, but doubt I will require as my current visa takes me to June 2009. At the moment I'm just trying to make some money that'll prolong my trip out here as I'd like to see Ayers Rock, Western Australia as well as Whitsundays, Fraser Island and New Zealand. The latter 2 I will be visiting at the end of the month. I intend to stay here 2 more weeks earning as much as I can before blowing my earnings on a trip to Fraser Island and then embark on the kiwi experience. That then brings me to the end of September, by that point my fellow traveller Brad should be back on the tour after his brief return to the UK and I'll decide what to do next. Office work in Brisbane (just south of Bundaberg) is said to earn good money for a traveller like me, and that could help me see some of the places I mentioned earlier, as well as a possible trip to the pacific islands. There's just too much to see down here, it's a metter of choosing wisely as you'll never see it all.

My next blog will probably be from New Zealand where I'll be joined by my brother Sam, stay tuned!