Leaving Sydney, Australia

I woke up early this morning and knew that I could probably bash out a few hours of blog entries even though I couldnt post any due to the erratic internet system that is over here.

Check out of the hotel was at 10am, and I still had to return the keys to the hostel in order to get my key deposit back from that place, so the day was always going to be a bit disjointed, but I figured that a trip to Bondi Beach should be on the cards and I had seen that there were some nice air conditioned hop-on and hop-off tour buses that did a nice roundtrip to the coast which would be just the ticket. A cost of AUD $39 per preson seemed a bit expensive, but then I am fast learning that Australia and Sydney is particular is just a place you cant really do on a budget as everything costs and costs more than it should.

Considering that in Xel-Ha I could do a full day of nature rambling, free food, free drinks, free snorkling equipment, etc, for just a few bucks each it makes me furious that here things are ten times the price and nothing is included, plus the attitude of the people in thr tourist industry is very much I-dont-give-a-shit about being friendly and helpful, they are just doing their job means that between the two I know where I wont be breaking my back to come back again to any time in a hurry.

But that gripe aside, we agreed to go for the tour and of the 17 stops that the Bondi Explorer bus took it only made two photo pit-stops and if no one was getting on or off then it wouldnt even stop for five seconds at each of the other drop off points before continuing on, which made taking clear photos a nightmare.

However we did manage to get out and take a few photos before we made it to Bondi Beach where we hopped off and went down to the beach to take a few snaps and feel the cool breeze on our faces. The waves were not very high, but this did not put off the eager surfers who were paddling out and riding them back in again, and neither did it bother the thousands of sun bathers who were stretched out on towels or under sun desk brolleys.

It is a pain that the whole area, like most of Australia, is a no drinking in public zone, as I cant think of much more refreshing on a hot sunny day by the beach than to enjoy a couple of brewskies ( or ciders in our case ) but the fact that they had signs saying confiscation or heavy fined was enough to put us off finishing off the 6 pack that we had bought the previous night.

Without any swimming stuff or towels, and as my overnight train left was departing from Brisbane in just a few hours, we didnt get to make the most of the time on the beach, but we saw enough to get a taster and I can say that while it was nice it didn't seen any more special than the other beaches I had visited earlier in my travels, so I am happy to say that I was here and thats about it.

In my eagerness to get back and not be late for my train I made us jump back on the Bondi Explorer bus instead of waiting a few minutes to jump on the Bondi-Bendi bus that took a faster and more direct route back to the town centre, but we still got back in plenty of time.

After checking out of the hostel and picking up our bags from the hotel we jumped on the Sydney Explorer bus, included in the same ticket as the Bondi buses, and then after a slight delay we were off to Central Station.

It was weird to see some of the Sydney working girls during the middle of the day out on the same strip as our bus stop and although it might be legal over here, the quailty that we saw on offer was nothing to brag about and we joked that they were all either trannies or old enough to be our mothers, neither being a pleasant thought.

The Sydney explorer bus took us past a few places that I would have wanted to photo if only the bus driver had the kindness to pause for all of a couple of heartbeats, but despite not pushing the bus to the limit on the open roads he too was steadfast that he wasnt going to pause long enough for a photo break anyplace useful.

Halfway down the main street to the Central train station there was being held a street protest against the violence in the Gaza Strip, which has A' calling out Awesome and had her wishing she had the time to jump out and join in, exclaiming that she hadnt been part of a protest in ages and she missed it. Not my kind of sentiments but still I sympathised enough to not mind the ten minute delay that it put into our schedule.

At the train station we had just enough time to grab a quick drink and a chat before my train was leaving at 4:20pm, bound for Brisbane on an overnight trip that due to the recent credit crunch cost me more to book 6 months in advance than if I had just turned up and paid on the day, and equally anoying was that there were plenty of spare seats available. Oh well, you live and you learn.

As I picked up my mini rucksack the strap gave way and came off in my hand, which for some reason put a wry smile on my face and taking a closer examination of it and my jacket, I noticed that the wear and tear was taking its toll on my belongings. Stitching was coming away at the seams, buttons were missing, clips were crushed or broken, zips were losing teeth and all in all my clothes and bag were showing that it was not me alone that was making this trip, and that when I return home it might be an idea to dump or replace pretty much everything, especially as most things were a little old even before I started travelling.

Despite the fact that it was a 13 to 14 hour trip there was no free food or drink on offer, which meant that I had to grab a bite form the lunch car, but to its credit ( or agianst Sydneys ) it was no more expensive here to buy a drinks can or bar of choclate than it had been back in my hostel.

The recliner seats were a boon, but that was about it as it went for luxuries as there was no wifi access, no plug sockets to charge things and worst of all is that during the day they had blinding lights that reflected off the windows making photoing the scenery and wildlife next to impossible and then at night they switched them off so that you could get to sleep, which had the same effect with the lights outside.

This wouldnt have been so bad but it was impossible to stay asleep with the extremely irritating train staff who kept coming up and nudging me awake just to ask me where I got on, where I was getting off, to inform me that food was available in the next carriage or, worst of all, that a person was going to sit next to me, like I gave a rats ass if someone if going to sit next to me or not once I am already asleep !?!

Day three in Sydney, Australia

Day three in Sydney started off better than the last two, as my Chilian friend A' had agreed to come over and meet up with me for a day in Sydney. She actually lives a few hours away by train, but as we have been talking for a few years via the internet it was nice to finally put a face and a voice to a name.

We met up around 11am and then we went for a stroll around the city before decide on what to do, as neither of us were from Sydney, the wealther had chilled to a mild and blustery 18 degrees thus a trip to the beach was out and also the budget for what we I was prepared to do was shrunk from what it would have been just 24 hours earlier.

A trip to Sydney can't be complete without a trip to see the Harbour Bridge or the Opera House, so we chose first to take a wander up to the harbour where we could get a good view of one and a walk around the other. The opera house was smaller than I imagined and without a bright blue sky and from the ocean view it lost some of its magic, but then also it could have been that I just wasn't in the mood for magic right at the moment.

The opera house is still indeed a working playhouse where shows and performances are on throughout the day and night, but at AUD $150 for a cheap seat to watch Madam Butterfly this was out of our league at the moment, so instead we just wandered around the inside lobby and souveneir shop

The harbour bridge was cool to see and I could spot a few of the walkers high up on its roof, doing the walk and I was tempted to except that you have to pay, to go as a group and you need to sign up and wait your turn which always puts me off doing stuff like that.

From here we were not sure where to go next, til A' came up with an idea to take a metro ride high above the streets and see what we can see, and once we found the nearest entrance we spotted that there was a Star Wars museum right near in sydney, right next to the one of the metro entrances and for AUD $24 we could go in and take a wander around. Because of the day, and being over 8 years old, much of the organised activities were closed to us, but it was still great to get up close and see some of the costumes and models that we saw on the screen.

With typical bad Springate luck there was a problem with the video unit where we wanted to watch a documentary about robots ( introduced by C3PO ) but never the less it was with big smiles that we both walked away and made out way to find a place to eat and drink.

Neither of us being Sydney locals we decided to just walk a bit til we found a nice sounding bar where we could grab a cider and smoke outside, which we eventually did for only AUD $6 per beer and while we were chatting and supping a Kiwi traveller came up to us and asked to sit with us and enjoy a fag too, as chair spaces were a bit limited

Following the chat and unexpected company we headed on back down the road a bit to grab a bite to eat as I wanted sea-food and so we found a place where we could eat that had huge starters for AUD $12 which was all about I was prepared to pay.

After here we went to see what the Sydney tower walk was like, but here was a AUD $25 fee just for being up that high plus a further fee if you wanted to do the sky walk, which was just a large clear platform that extended out from the top of the roof which gave you a slightly better access. It may have the best view of Sydney but I just wasnt in the mood and so we skipped that and went on to plan B which was grab some drinks and head on back to the hotel.

Either it was the sun, the alcohol or something but I was still tired at only 8pm and so although we grabbed a 6 pack of drinks we didnt get through more than a couple before I was yawning and unable to keep my eyes open any longer. I felt a bit bad going to sleep so early, but then we had tried to see what was on in the movies, at the theater and nightclubs have never been my thing so really there was not much point in staying awake.

It didnt help that the tv in the room was not working, so in the end we just chatted for a bit and then crashed out.

A second day in Sydney, Australia

That optomism did not last long however as during breakfast I noticed enough cockroaches in the kitchen sink to put me off washing my dishes in their and then on a Fijian tic-tac mint I was foolishly trying to crush with my teeth I managed to crack a tooth in the process, causing a good deal of pain and anguish, and not wanting to let it fester or be done in a backstreet chop shop in Malaysia I decided to get it done right away here in Sydney.

The problem was I had no idea where a good or a cheap dentist was, so I took a wander into the town centre and asked around til I found a place that seemed inexpensive, had decor that did not have crystal chandelliers from the ceiling and no receptionist there, only the dentist herself so I took this to be a good sign. I should have thought that a good, cheap dentist in a city as big as this would be full up and so even at 9am the lack of other patients was a bad sign.

My dentist was a lady from Egypt, something that I was not aware until almost towards the end of the appointment, mainly due to the fact that a face mask and uniform can hide many things. We tried to chat a bit but of course its hard with injections being stuck in you and being asked to open your mouth as wide as possible.

I was a bit surprised when she took me in and said that she could see me right away, but I was still not expecting the shock of the final bill for todays work, which came to AUD $1600, especially as it had only been two teeth she was working on and had only taken a single x-ray, ( and I still am meant to go back for a second session where still will check the recovery of my tooth and then decide on what action to take on the very damaged tooth - all for extra AUD $$$ of course ).

In my ignorance I assumed that my backpackers gold insurance would cover any medical or dental work I would need on my travels, especially as it was the highest level they had, however once I got back to my hostel and called them up it appeared that they will only pay out for extreme emergencies, not routine dental work ( what the fuck did they think I was then ) and more upsetting that I wsa only covered up to £250 worth of work, which was barely enough to cover the initial appointment and x-ray forgetting any actual work done!

Having already paid for the dental work by credit card I realised once I got back that I had been sand bagged both ways, but more upsetting was that having already paid this was the final nail in the coffin that was me staying out until after my May on my trip.

No matter who lent me what, or how much, I can no longer in good concience stay the full time away that I had planned. I have already used up my savings, hit more than one credit card, borrowed a bit from my sisters and each month I stay away my rent isn't quite covering my mortgage, so this last bit of bad news is just too much to take.

I dont mind putting myself into a bit of debt to have this dream come true but there comes a time when I just have to sit and think is it all worth it, and the fact that it will take me at least a few years of frugal living and no holidays just to clear the debt I already have means that I do not want to borrow any more, knowing that it will just mean that I have to go without for longer on my return.

What point is it on having an expensive trip of a lifetime if if then taken me the rest of my entire lifetime to repay all which I had borrowed in order to do it? I have a life back in the UK and when I return I will have to keep paying my mortage and pay the other bills too, so now that I have spent all which I saved up I have to start thinking of what happens when I get back, and that includes wanting other holidays, a wife & children, new clothes, a new job or learning to drive - none of which I will be able to fund any time soon if I dont cut back and make some sacrifices now.

Thus if anyone is independently wealthy and does not care losing a few thousand pounds in the name of letting someone else have some fun then by all means send me some and I will be forever grateful, but if you are expecting to have any of it back anytime before I turn 60 then it will just be another burden to carry when I get back and thus thanks but no thanks!

Thus it was that I contacted the airline and had only more bad news in that they would not let me cancel and get a refund for my flights or even change the dates without picking up even more costs, and the fare for a flight direct to Singapore was AUD $800 ( and a direct flight home was over AUD $1,100 ) so I have little or no choice but to stay the full time in Australia and start cutting back when I reach the far east, being a bit more flexible as these are mostly overland buses and trains, not prebooked and prepaid flights.

The double whammy really took the dam out of my jelly donut so to speak and so in an effort to cheer myself up I walked up to the harbour and thought I'd take some nice photos.

At the harbour was a seaworld and wildlife place, with double entry tickets being around AUD $45 I thought it would be a good thing to cheer myself up with, especially as they said that you could feed the sharks and the Koala's for a bit of an extra fee. Sadly both feedings were at breakfast time only, between 7am and 10am, so having spent 5 hours having my teeth drilled and packed I had missed my chance for this.

So I decided that the aquaworld could wait for another visit and instea I would just take a trip around the wildlife park and learn about some of Australia's slimey, furry and hairy critters. I was not aware that there are more kinds of reptiles in Australia than on any other continent and moreover there are more noctural mammals here day daywalkers, so out in the wilds a daytrip safari makes less sense than a nighttime one.

Knowing that this could well be my only trip to Australia I decided to bite the bullet and pay an extra AUD $35 to have my photo taken with the a Koala, the fee included a DVD of about 8 photos as personally if I am going to pay AUD $20 just for one photo I want to make sure that one crease wont ruin everything for good.

I am not sure if it is the heat, the jetlag, the dental work or the news but after visting the wildlife place then only thing I wanted to do is go back to my hostel, get some food and then get an early night sleep to go forget about things for awhile.

Arghhhhhhhhhhhhh

I just contacted the Australian airline that I am with to see how I
can get to Asia quicker as I am wanting to get back sooner and they
are no help whatsoever.

All the flights are non refundable, non transferable and they wont
even let me cancel the flights and use the combined cost to put
towards a new far from here to Singapore.

I can't afford another seperate flight to reach Singapore, or anywhere
else for that matter, so I am stuffed with just sitting tight and
staying on my original flights and then continuing on through Asia, at
least as far as reaching China is concerned.

I still want to visit Thailand and Cambodia, those two I feel I really
must visit, but after them two the rest are becoming less and less
appealing as the days go on and so I might just skip a few and come
back a month and a half early, if I can.

It just isnt how I expected it to be

I gave it my best shot, I did it my way, I had it all planned out only its gone so pete tong I dont even recognise it any more.

My dentist bill came in as around £800 for emergency treatment, xrays, injections, two fillings, etc, etc, but my insurance wont pay a penny as they claim that it wasnt a true emergency - twin shafting in one day, never good.

I was about to start listing lots of reasons that have gone wrong, but then I realised that although they were all true they are just complaints and obstacles to overcome.

When I was preparing to go travelling around I talked to a lot of people, made a lot of plans and preparations but as it true in all things, life has a way of screwing things up and not being in the UK and a good 12 hours time delay away things are just too hard to try and sort out from abroad.

In my mind I saw traveling around the world to be fun, exciting, adventurous, cool and even kind of sexy, but the truth is far from that.

The only fun is what you make, and when your stuck on buses for 21 hours or airports overnight or in the rain there is only so much fun you can find before it just gets repetetive and boring.

Discovering new places and meeting new people certainly is exciting and adventurous but when things get stolen, lost, corrupted, delayed, broken then they become more like irritations and problems to solve or to avoid in future.

Talking to people and telling stories of all the amazing places you is cool but when those stories are of being stuck indoor because of the rain day after day, week after week then they are far from cool.

Petting Koala bears or holding snakes might be good but when a cockroach the size of a 50 pence piece crawls over your key board or wants to share you breakfast by crawling into your bowl of cornflakes is just getting a little too close to nature for my liking.

When I hear about all the great stage shows to watch it sounded sexy, but when you factor in that none of these places are open at sensible times, they either have huge cover charges or hugely overflated prices for drinks it gets less so and when you are just pestered to part with your cash every few minutes and not left alone to watch the show it peace it loses its appeal.

No one thing is a make or break, but its been like a reality tv show where to make it exciting for the audience the designed has decided to try and throw everything at me one after the other to test my nerve and see if I break, and the point is its stopped being fun, exicting and sexy.

If there was some prize or award at the end of al of it then perhaps it might be worth sucking it up and bullying on, but there isnt and so I am just torturing myself more by staying away when I am not liking it anymore.

Over half my blog hits are from new readers but despite this my blog readership has not increased or exploded as I have continued to travel onward, meaning that most of the people that found my blog didnt like it enough to come back for a second viewing, which does not bode well for hoping to make a book about my exploits when I get back.

I am not sure what I hoped to find by travelling, either in myself or my life, but I dont think that I want to carry on like this and with all the problems and hidden costs involved I no longer have the funds to continue on as I planned so I am now left with cutting short my trip and coming back well before my birthday.

Next thing to do is to cancel many of the remaining flights and see if I can get some sort of refund for them.

I gave it my best, and had a hell of a go at enjoying the first 4 months but I guess maybe i'm not the gun-ho, triple f, carefree, water-off-a-ducks-ass kind of S.O.B. that revels under these kinds of situations or circumstances, I'm just a guy from the UK who wanted to travel and see the world and saw enough to want to come home again.

Day two in Sydney, Australia

Well I haven't wrote about ysterday yet, but I just had to write down that things are going from bad to worse.

This morning a tooth started to break up on me and when I went to the Dentist I ended up spending almost 5 hours, and more than that in hundred pounds, having emergency treatment on two teeth, including xrays, injections, fillings and such, it was not a pleasant morning.

However the worst news was that there was too much work for just one mornings and she was booked up for the next two weeks, and so I have to stay in Sydney for two weeks til my second treatment or else I have to consider trying to find other dentists in the other towns that will carry on the work for me where she left off, not a pleasant thought.

I have no idea if my travel insurance medical will cover it, but if it doesnt then I am major stuffed in a big way. I have to phone them up in a few hours time, when the offices back in the UK are open and see what they can do for me.

Arriving in Sydney, Australia

My flight from Fiji to Sydney was an early morning flight which meant that I had to wake up around 6am, so I set my alarm but the rest of the house must have been unable to sleep as everyone was up and awake before I was and thus at breakfast I was able to say goodbye to Aussie G' and my hosts D' and P'. The two Kiwi's had not returned yet, and neither had the Spaniard, so it was a quieter farewell than I imagined and also L' at the airport had already booked me a taxi so getting to the airport was no hardship.

The taxi driver was an Indian, which was probably why he charged me FD $10 to get to the airport instead of 5, and also he was doubly cheaky in that he stopped to let in another passenger who was going to the airport and charged them as well despite already being booked for the whole journey. It is this kind of overcharging and money grabbing attitute that the Fijians hate as much as the tourists do, and why there is a strong and growing animosity between the native Fijians and the Indian migrants who are coming over, buying up the land, taking the jobs and the shops and raising prices.

At the moment it is just a dislike at the moment, and with the flooding and everything else there is a lot to keep the locals busy and occupied with, but I wonder how long it will be before the peaceful and friendly Fijians have enough and decide to do something about it. A long time I would not doubt as it does not seem in their nature to be angry.

The other thing I must mention before I forget is that Fijians are all Rugby fanatics, playing the sport as much as possible during their offtime and watching every game like it was their last.

The airport at Fiji was almost enough to turn me against the entire place as it was crowded, semi flooded, expensive and very disorganised at times, with only a single announcement that the gate had been changed before boarding commenced. However when I say it commenced, what I should say is that after a lengthy delay the ten airport staff and flight attendents barely managed to get things moving and there seemed no logic or reason for their having several different lines or queues and letting a few from one go before a few from the other, it was quiet mayhem.

I ended up on a flight and switching places with an Australian who for some reason has been seperated from the rest of his family in the seating arrangements despite the flight being only two thirds full, which also angered me as for days people were crying to get out of the country and yet here was a non-full flight taking off!

I don't understand why on a 5 hour flight they chose to wait almost an hour before sticking on the first showing of a movie, why they insist that you have the window blinds up during take off or landing or why they stop the entertainment system almost an hour before touchdown but basically it meant that you couldn't get much sleep or enjoy watching more than one movie as you just get into it when they switch it off minutes before its ending and then leave you bored for another hour.

The airline food was not half bad, but the orange juice drink that came with it was the worst I had ever tasted and I was glad to have a second of normal juice after to wash my mouth out with.

Landing in Sydney was nice enough, not bumpy or anything but after the cloudy but humid medium heat of Fiji I was not expecting the 40 degree no shade heat that I was to experience upon arriving in Australia. Wow, when I say it was hot I mean that I was cooking even in the shade.

After a bit of confusion I managed to find the free shuttle service to my hostel and shared most of the journey with a group of early twenty something brits who had also come over from Fiji and seemed intent of making a loud running commentary of the entire bus ride in, including a few silly / ignorant comments like "there sure are loads of chinese here" - when we were passing through Sydneys China Town!

The hostel seemed nice enough form the outside, except they charged for a key deposit, internet wifi use and their vending machines were AUD $2.40 for a can of coke or a mars bar ... which at almost 2 to 1 is over £1 for a drink or bar or chocolate and certainly not my idea of keeping things cheap and affordable for backpacker tourists. However outside of Chinatown I quickly learned that indeed this is the way in Sydney, everything seems a little overpriced with no good reason.

Unluckily for me the hot and sunny weather that I arrived in did not last as long as it could have and it was cloudy and light showers by early evening, despite it though it was not falling heavy enough to stop me from enjoying a pleasant stroll around my hostel to get my bearing and make a plan for the next day.

A dorm of 8 bunkbeds and lockers requiring a key from reception, and another deposit, slightly dampened my mood at bedtime but other than that it was with optimism that I started my Australian adventure.