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!

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!