Around the world in 365 days

I got a job...finally!!

2009-06-13T03:57:00.000-07:00

Its true!!

After 3 months without a job, I have finally landed myself a nice cushy little number!

I am currently working for a huge mining company here in Australia, doing computers, well, not really doing computers, but being involved in people getting upgraded computers. The company is upgarding everyone to Windows Vista so need helpers to go around and make sure everything is working fine on their systems. Thats where I come in.

Its a pretty handy job. Decent money too. I've already stocked up on crates of beer and have booked a day trip to Rottnest Island.

Next stop is Transformers 2 with the Gold Pass, which basically means you get to watch the movie in a huge comfy chair, with a table beside you that gets stocked up with champagne when you need it!! Its 3 times the price of a regualr ticket but what the hell, I've been living crap for 3 months now! I deserve it! And it'll get the missus off my back for a while too!! :D

I got my second visa!

2009-05-07T06:35:00.000-07:00

Today I got an email from the immigration department telling me I got me second working holiday visa! I'm so excited!

I cant believe this. I was nervous for the last week but today I am so happy! This means I'll be able to spend another year in Australia, maybe go up to the Whitsundays again, see what Melbourne is like. Maybe take in Ayers rock and a few other places! I'm so happy!

All I need now is a job to fund all this travelling!! :D

Still no job

2009-03-25T19:33:00.000-07:00

I still have no job.

I've been looking every day since I left my last job, but still I can't find anything. It's not that I'm not getting interviews for jobs that I applied for, its that there are no jobs that match what I'm looking for!

I did get a phone call yesterday about 1 job I applied for. She rang me and asked what visa I had. I told her I had a Working Holiday Visa and she said "oh...well we're looking for people on permanent visas, or residents. bye" and that was that.

I dont think I'll work again in Perth.

Bed Bugs

2009-03-17T00:00:00.000-07:00

We have bed bugs!!

We've been living in this new house in Northbridge for 2 weeks now, and over the last week or so, we've been noticing an increasing number of bites on our arms, legs, and torso.

We initially thought they were mosquito bites, but after showing them to a friend, they said they were bed bug bites. So we tok off all the bed clothes and checked the mattress and base for any signs of bed bugs, and sure enough we found some of the little F*ckers!!

They're bigger than I thought. They're like baby cockroaches, or brown woodlice.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cimex_lectularius.jpg

Heres a little youtube video showing one in action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfKCcSPCOQo

More info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedbug

They're such a pain in the ass. Between myself and AnneMarie, we must have about a hundred bites on us. :(

holy crap! Everyone is going home!

2009-03-02T20:59:00.001-08:00

Oh my god!

I just got word that Christy, Dave and Nikki are going home to Ireland! This is mental! They spent the last week down south planting trees for a horrible farmer. They were meant to stay for a month at least but came home after a week. Now, because they've given up on finding a job, they've all decided to go home! This is a pity! I hate seeing people going home early because they run out of money or can't find a job. It especially bad in this case because I work for a company who specialise in getting people, with trades, jobs in mines! These mines are also in rural areas so would count towards the 3 months rural work needed for the 2nd year visa!! Also, my new landlord said he put the word out that he knows people looking for carpentry work in Perth. I reckon they could have had jobs in a week or two easy!

Even after I told Christy this he still decided he was going. He has his flights booked and paid for. Dave and Nikki changed theirs yesterday. Now, Ciara is considering changing her flights too! Donna is still in Sydney, Jeremie is gone off to some island a few hours flight north, so that leaves myself and AnneMarie in Perth by ourselves.

The reason they came back up from the outback soon was because the farmer guy they worked for was a right dickhead. He was shouting abuse at them all the time, using woeful language, and calling them all names. He also didnt pay them the correct hourly rate, and charged them 35 dollars for bed and board instead of 10 dollars that he was meant to charge. What an idiot! It was back breaking work, not made any easier by him. They all came back with their hands covered in huge blisters all over. I doubt its something they'll forget too soon, for all the wrong reasons!

Christy said he'll probably try come back to Australia in a couple of years and make a proper go of Australia. Hopefully he'll get the visa. In the meantime, I'll have to get used to having that many less friends over here!

Its a sad day. :(

Moving house

2009-03-02T20:49:00.000-08:00

Yesterday afternoon, we moved to our new place in Northbridge. We were paying 425 dollars a week in our last place so the new rent of 290 a week is a lot easier for us, especially with AnneMarie still out of work.

We spent all yesterday (bank holiday monday) packing and moving with the help of Christy. It took us 3 runs to get all our stuff moved! How did we manage to pick up all this excess baggage! In Thailand I had the one rucksack and carry on, now we had about 6 or 7 bags!!

Anyway, the new house is nice. Its 3 bedroom, like the last place, but a little smaller. It has all the essentials, ie 50 inch sony plasma television, Sony Playstation 3, and Microsoft Xbox out the back. Well, maybe not the bare essentials, but enough to get by!! :D

The house has a nice living room, with actual real life sofas (something that was missing from the last place!!) and the back garden has concrete and brick tiles leading up to the converted garage. The landlord has it converted into an outdoor lounge room. with sofas down either side of the coffee table, and a TV, DVD player and XBOX in the cabinet. Perfect for warm summer weekends when friends come over for a beer! :D

The problem now is, yesterday was a Bank holiday (Labour Day) so I wasnt working. Monday is also the day I submit my timesheet in work! As a result, I never submitted it! I didnt even think about it until I was getting into bed after 10! Cue a scramble to get my laptop out and mail my Agency rep about getting my timesheet approved. My boss and agency are located over the east of the country so they didnt have the Bank holiday and were all working, hence why the submmission date was still in effect. I don't think its fair that they don't take into account other states public holiday. Now I don't have enough for next weeks rent! Hopefully I'll get paid this Thursday.....else we might be moving again!!

Midnight at the Casualty Ward

2009-02-28T22:26:00.000-08:00

Last night, I brought AnneMarie into Hospital.

She was sore all last night and pretty much all week, but last night it just got really bad. We were out for dinner with my aunt and uncle (owners of Bayview House) who were over visiting Perth for a holiday, and afterwards we came home. AnneMarie was still in pain after all the pain killers she took so we decided that she needed to go to hospital. Last year she had an abscess that had to get operated on, and it seems it has returned. Although, it never really healed to be honest.

We went into casualty at about 1am. We saw the nurse soon enough and he took down her symptoms and told us to go see the other lady behind the glass window, who took down contact details and personal information. This was all in the space of about 15 minutes so we figured we'd be seen to fairly fast.

Unfortunately, more and more people came in after us with more severe injuries. We could see the ambulance pull up, bringing in people who had been in car crashes, or fights, or that had broken bones and heart attacks. Fair enough, they were worse off. It would still be nice to get home to a bed though, especially since I had work in the morning.

After a few more hours, we were called in. It was about 4.30am. AnneMarie was put into the bed and the on call doctor looked at it. She decided it needed to be operated on. She could have drained it there and then and sent us home, but she didn't want to, for some reason.

After another hour, the surgical consult came around and he said he'd operate in a few hours. I had been drinking a few too many beers so was starting to sober up at this stage. Unfortunately, the on-set of the hangover, and lack of sleep forced me into getting sick in the toilet in the Casualty ward, within earshot of all the sick people! I even woke some women up with my sick noises!! oops! :(

Anyway, I went home for some sleep at about 6am and called work telling them I won't be in today and explained the situation.

AnneMarie sent me a text when I woke up. She was moved into a ward to await the operation. However, it didn't go ahead as planned. They said they'd operate early Friday morning, but then said Friday evening. She was in pain all this time so I wasn't happy.

Friday evening came and they said they can't operate yet. She hadn't eaten since the dinner the previous night so they gave her some jelly, fruit and a small sandwich to keep her going until the morning, when she was promised the operation again.

Next morning, still no sign of the operation. I was in visiting her again. I spent most of the 2 days beside her keeping her company. She was still in pain.

Eventually, that evening she was brought in, about 6pm. She was waiting for half an hour and then went into theatre. 45 minutes later she got the nurse to phone me to tell me to come back in, as she was out of the operation. It only took about half an hour!

Anyway, she has to stay in overnight. Hopefully she'll be home soon enough.

The problem now is, if she can't move her right arm coz of the abscess, how is she meant to do rural work to get our 2nd year visa? Will I be home in the 365 days stated in this blog title? Or will I get to stay a little longer??? I honestly don't know...

Barrack Obama in - George Bush out

2009-01-20T23:26:00.000-08:00

To celebrate the induction of President Barrack Obama, I have decided to clear out my Bush back catalogue and post a final list of Bush-isms, ie dumb things Bush said during his presidency, and a few from when he was governor. Lets hope Obama delivers on his promised changes, and we don't see some Obama-isms making their way into the media!

See below for Bush-isms.

ON HIMSELF
"They misunderestimated me."Bentonville, Arkansas, 6 November, 2000
''I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believeand what I believe - I believe what I believe is right." Rome, 22July, 2001
"There's an old saying in Tennessee - I know it's in Texas, probablyin Tennessee - that says, fool me once, shame on... shame on you. Foolme - you can't get fooled again."Nashville, Tennessee, 17 September, 2002
"There's no question that the minute I got elected, the storm cloudson the horizon were getting nearly directly overhead."Washington DC, 11 May, 2001
"I want to thank my friend, Senator Bill Frist, for joining us today.He married a Texas girl, I want you to know. Karyn is with us. A WestTexas girl, just like me."Nashville, Tennessee, 27 May, 2004

FOREIGN AFFAIRS
"For a century and a half now, America and Japan have formed one ofthe great and enduring alliances of modern times."Tokyo, 18 February, 2002
"The war on terror involves Saddam Hussein because of the nature ofSaddam Hussein, the history of Saddam Hussein, and his willingness toterrorise himself."Grand Rapids, Michigan, 29 January, 2003
"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They neverstop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, andneither do we." Washington DC, 5 August, 2004
"I think war is a dangerous place."Washington DC, 7 May, 2003
"The ambassador and the general were briefing me on the - the vastmajority of Iraqis want to live in a peaceful, free world. And we willfind these people and we will bring them to justice."Washington DC, 27 October, 2003
"Free societies are hopeful societies. And free societies will beallies against these hateful few who have no conscience, who kill atthe whim of a hat."Washington DC, 17 September, 2004
"You know, one of the hardest parts of my job is to connect Iraq tothe war on terror."CBS News, Washington DC, 6 September, 2006

EDUCATION
"Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?"Florence, South Carolina, 11 January, 2000
"Reading is the basics for all learning."Reston, Virginia, 28 March, 2000
"As governor of Texas, I have set high standards for our publicschools, and I have met those standards."CNN, 30 August, 2000
"You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass aliteracy test.''Townsend, Tennessee, 21 February, 2001

ECONOMICS
"I understand small business growth. I was one."New York Daily News, 19 February, 2000
"It's clearly a budget. It's got a lot of numbers in it."Reuters, 5 May, 2000
"I do remain confident in Linda. She'll make a fine Labour Secretary.From what I've read in the press accounts, she's perfectly qualified."Austin, Texas, 8 January, 2001
"First, let me make it very clear, poor people aren't necessarilykillers. Just because you happen to be not rich doesn't mean you'rewilling to kill."Washington DC, 19 May, 2003

HEALTHCARE
"I don't think we need to be subliminable about the differencesbetween our views on prescription drugs."Orlando, Florida, 12 September, 2000
"Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB/GYN'saren't able to practice their love with women all across the country."Poplar Bluff, Missouri, 6 September, 2004

TECHNOLOGY
"Will the highways on the internet become more few?"Concord, New Hampshire, 29 January, 2000
"It would be a mistake for the United States Senate to allow any kindof human cloning to come out of that chamber."Washington DC, 10 April, 2002
"Information is moving. You know, nightly news is one way, of course,but it's also moving through the blogosphere and through theInternets."Washington DC, 2 May, 2007

OUT OF LEFT FIELD
"I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully."Saginaw, Michigan, 29 September, 2000
"Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream."LaCrosse, Wisconsin, 18 October, 2000
"Those who enter the country illegally violate the law."Tucson, Arizona, 28 November, 2005
"That's George Washington, the first president, of course. Theinteresting thing about him is that I read three - three or four booksabout him last year. Isn't that interesting?"Speaking to reporter Kai Diekmann, Washington DC, 5 May, 2006

ON GOVERNING
"I have a different vision of leadership. A leadership is someone who brings people together."Bartlett, Tennessee, 18 August, 2000
"I'm the decider, and I decide what is best."Washington DC, 18 April, 2006
"And truth of the matter is, a lot of reports in Washington are neverread by anybody. To show you how important this one is, I read it, and[Tony Blair] read it."On the publication of the Baker-Hamilton Report, Washington DC, 7 December, 2006
"All I can tell you is when the governor calls, I answer his phone."San Diego, California, 25 October, 2007
"I'll be long gone before some smart person ever figures out whathappened inside this Oval Office."Washington DC, 12 May, 2008

lol

We got a house

2009-01-19T20:12:00.000-08:00

We got a house!

After spending a week in the hostel, paying 400 dollars for the week, we found a nice new house, for 425 a week. I suppose its pricey but the house has a nice big king size bed, a flat screen TV in every room with all the Foxtel channels and a big flat screen in the main room. The house is really nice too, and has a nice little seating area in the back garden, with a picnic bench, and another telly with Setanta Sports! Brilliant! Now I can finally watch the premiership and see Irish 6 nations matches. Its located on Palmerston St., right across the park from Rosie O'Gradys pub.

The problem though, with neither of us having a job is, how much longer can we keep up paying this rent. The rent in Syndey was 290 a week and we were both working. Hopefully I can get a job soon.

The landlord is mad in the head too. He was driving us around all the houses he has in Northbridge, along with another couple, and he came across like a right little Del Boy! Hes obviously had experience selling these houses before!!

Incidentally, we ended up meeting up with the couple again for a few beers after. At least thats someone we know in Perth now that we can go for a few pints with when the situation calls for it! :D

Perth

2009-01-13T20:05:00.000-08:00

So we arrived in Perth Yesterday.

First impressions, its really nice. Like Cairns except bigger! We are living in a place called Northbridge and staying in a hostel called the Britannia on William Street. The hostel has no air conditioning and we had to ask reception for a spare fan, but I suppose a bed is a bed. It just would have been nicer if we werent melting the whole time in this hot weather!

We arrived in Perth after midday anyway, and decided to celebrate with a cheeky quick pint. We went to the nearest pub, The Brass Monkey, wher I got a pint and AnneMarie got a bottle of Corona. 17 dollars it came to!!!! 17 dollars! We were told Perth was more expensive than Sydney and this is out first taste of that. We had out drink and moved on.

We looked into a few sites we might want to go visit while we are here. Kings Park is meant to be real nice, and Perth has its own zoo, so that'll definately be on the cards at some stage.

Northbridge seems to be the backpacker hub of Perth. You won't see much Aussies here! And I can see why its become the hub, since its just full of bars and clubs, hostels and restaurants. This will be our home for the next while so hopefully it'll be as fun as Sydney.

I sold my bike

2009-01-10T20:03:00.000-08:00

Well, after having it for about 4 months since Brisbane, I had to sell my bike.

You see, as we are going to Perth, I can hardly take it on the plane with me, and it'd be a waste to just leave it there in the Terraces.

So I threw up and ad on Gumtree and got a few bites. One guy came to see the bike and took it after a quick test cycle.

I sold it for 325 dollars, including the helmet, lights and lock. I think he got a good deal, considering 4 months ago it cost me 600 dollars, and I've barely ridden it since then!

I set up a website - www.dingostew.com

2008-12-03T22:50:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure if this has anything to do with travelling, but its my blog and I can post what I want to! :D

I have just set up a website, using a company called Strike Data (an excellent cheap web hosting service) at www.dingostew.com if anyone is interested. Its an online web forum that people can come to chat and leave messages and discuss anything on their mind. Its just a bit of fun but I'll see how it goes. I might even try make money off it by sticking google ads on the site and hope people click on them!! I'm sure I'll make hundreds of cents if i'm lucky!

The site has a number of sections. There is:

All the sections a site could need!

Anyway, have a look at the site. Sign up if you want, and leave a few messages. Spread the word too, if you can.

Thanks,
Eoin

Halloween in Sydney

2008-10-31T22:52:00.000-07:00

Our first Halloween in Sydney. I say "first", coz I'm starting to entertain the possibility of staying longer than the initial 1 year visa. This will involve 3 months working in the outback pickign fruit or working on a farm, so its not nice work, but its compulsory so....

Anyway, it was halloween last night. Australians love dressing up so everyone around town was up for it and dressed up in all sorts of cool and funky costumes. AnneMarie was dressed up as a bumble bee, and I was dressed up as a musketeer. AnneMarie bought her costume in a costume shop in Newtown, but I just got random bits around Woolworths and K-Mart and when I put them together, I closely resembled a musketerr, so I figured "Hey, I may as well go with it!".

Everyone in the terraces was dressed up. We started off at a house party in one of the houses and went out into Sydney City afterwards. I met up with an old friend of mine from school and his little brother. It was good fun. The rest of the Terraces ended up in there too so there was a lot of us there.

Ater,we went home and had a few beers in the house. Waing up this morning was a killer. I dunno what it is about Austalia, but the hangovers are a LOT worse than Ireland!!! :D

The Sydney Terraces

2008-10-19T22:36:00.000-07:00

So, we've been living in Sydney about a month. The Terraces are great craic.

We've gotten to know the lads from number 17. When we moved here first, there was 2 girls who were moving home. They were absolutely mad! Drinking all the time. It was some laugh. They used to come down to our house and offer me drink to ply guitar up at their house party, which I duly obliged! :D

But unfortunately, they left after about 2 weeks. We've still been going up to number 17 anyway to the boys. They're some drinkers! The whole area is full of alcos, but 17 is the main party house on the street. There doesn't seem to be any rules! Walls do be kicked in, ceilings do be punched through, doors knocked off their hinges. It's a great laugh!

We're getting to know the area well enough now and have started venturing up to Newtown to a couple of the bars. The place is full of lesbians and brothels! What more can you want!

Rabobank

2008-10-15T01:10:00.000-07:00

So, I started my new job today. I am working for Rabobank in Daring Park Tower, beside Darling Harbour.

The job is an IT helpdesk job. This means I sit at my desk taking calls all day from people having problems with their computers. The majority of the calls come from rural areas, but we also get a lot of calls from people in the building. This can break the monotomy of sitting down all day as you can walk down and fix the problem in person. I've done helpdesk jobs before and the main thing I hated about it was tht you sat down all day on your ass. At least this job I can walk around a bit.

The building is nice. It's part of Darling Park Tower, with Price Waterhouse Cooper, and IBM. I think Google has an office in there somewhere too. I'm on the 17th floor so I can see everywhere in the city. I'm also overlooking the Maritime museum in Cockle Bay Wharf, so I can see a warship and a submarine semi-submerged in the bay from out my window. The kitchen also has a big plasma telly with all the Foxtel channels, which is nice for watching premiership highlights. I've still yet to see a full 90 minutes of soccer since I left Ireland! I doubt I'll get to see any in work, but at least I might get to see more highlights.

The people are nice too. My boss is Irish, from Kilkenny and there's a few other Irish people floating around the office. Should be good for the free office beers after work every Friday! :D

Luna Park

2008-10-11T20:20:00.000-07:00

Today we went to Luna Park Amusement Park just on Darling Harbour.

It was good fun. They had all the usual stuff you'd expect from a small carnival. teacups, dodge ems, whirly-go-rounds and what not. We played a few of the side attractions, and won some teddy bears. I won a huge gorilla teddy and AnneMarie won a small teddy (which is how it happened, regardless if she says it was the other way around ;))

There also seemed to be some ball on, as there was a lot of people dressed in evening wear going into one of the bars/restaurants in the park itself. It was either an early christmas party of someone won the lotto or something!

There was also a cool performing act we saw there. There was an old guy, about 71, up on a huge pole, about 70 feet in the air balancing on his hands, and sswaying the pole from side to side. I had seen him on the news a few days earlier. Hes the oldest performer in Australia, I think it said. He was very good.

Anyway, after that we had our fill of the park and headed home back across the Sydney Harbour Bridge and home. The park isnt bad for a small park. Good for a day out.

I got a job!

2008-10-08T01:06:00.000-07:00

I finally got a job!

I went for an interview with Transfield for the HelpDesk role, but didn't think it went that well, so the girl from the agency arranged to meet with me face to face and work on my interview skills after my other interview for Rabobank. So after the Rabo interview, I came down the lift, walked out of the building, walked up the street towards the agency and 2 minutes later I got a call offering me the Rabobank job that I had just interviewed for!

Apparently, straight after the interview my new boss phoned the other agency and said straight away that I have the job. They tried calling me back to tell me but couldn't get through to me. I later figured out this was because there was no phone coverage in the lift! So then he phoned me back 2 minutes later when I was outside informing me of my new job! Brilliant!

I start next Wednesday (15th) :D

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs...not!

2008-10-05T01:03:00.000-07:00

So, I still haven't got a job yet.

I've had a few rejections and some people saying they won't hire me because I'm a backpacker and only on a holiday visa, and they're looking for someone more long term. Pain in the ass.

I have a couple of more interviews coming up this week so hopefully something comes up.

The first one is with Transfield in Sydney for a HelpDesk role, and the 2nd is for RaboBank in Darling Park for a desktop role. I'm hoping for that one. Its more money, and basically a better job. I've done enough of sitting on my ass answering phones so at least in that job I wont be confined to my chair.

Lets see how things go...

Getting a job in Sydney

2008-09-29T00:57:00.000-07:00

We're starting to get really low on cash at the moment. I would have been broke a couple of weeks ago if it wasn't for Anne-Marie coming over with her life savigns to blow on me! :D

So, to remedy this lack of disposable cash, we've been forced to get one of those "job" things. You know them things that force you to get up early and pay attention and exert effort into what you'r edoing? Yeah, well we've all had to try get one of those.

I've been applying online to a number of job websites here in Sydney. I've applied mainly to IT jopbs, but if I can't get an IT job, I may be forced to look elsewhere, like in a pub or restaurant or supermarket. Hopefully I'll get an IT role though. If not, I'll then also need to get an RSA (Responsible Supply of Alcohol) card. These cost about 60 dollars and you've to sit through 4 hours of powerpoint presentations to get it, and nobody will hire you without one. Not officially anyway! :p

The girls going away party

2008-09-25T19:37:00.000-07:00

The 2 girls from number 17, ,Donna and Karen (Karn-age), are going home in a few days so they had 1 last big bash before they went.

These girls are gas. At any given time of the day they'll be going into all the houses, drunk off their faces, full of energy, and getting people to come party with them! They are the life and soul of tge whole street.

But alas, they're going back to Kildare.

The night was fun, as expected. We started off in the terraces having beers, and a bit of a sing song with me guitar. Then when everyone was suitably drunk, we went to the Side bar in town. More drinking ensued and it got pretty messy! Then afterwards, back home to the terraces for more beer and fun.

Myself and Anne-Marie went to bed and left them continue to party. Next morning, their rooms looked like a bomb went off. Bodies all over the place, mattresses and sheets everywhere, beer bottles here, bags of goon there!! haha nothing less than you'd expect from the Terraces!

Unfortunately, the girls go home now in the next few days. They'll be packing today. Its gonna be a lot quieter without them.

Party in 17

2008-09-21T19:44:00.000-07:00

There was a party last night in number 17! This seems to be the main party house in the street. The lads in it are great craic. Our first day in Sydney, we ended up down there within 10 minutes with me guitar singin a song for the already drunk household, in exchange for a few beers! ;)

Anyway, there was a party last night up there. The whole street was there. They opened up the garage and put all the spare chairs they could find in there, as well as a table for the food. They had cooked a BBQ and had enough food for everyone! It was really cool. I'd say there was easily 35 people crammed into that garage! Great way to get to know people! After a while, the party started to spread out, since the police came knocking on the door and asked us to keep it down! (This was to be something we'd get used to over time!)

Some people went into the house, the rest went out the back to the communal grass area. The grass area is really cool. There are benches out back and some lights so its the perfect outdoor sitting room for drinking and having fun!

It pretty cool. Everyone was just sitting around drinking, and getting along. Good first party in the Terraces I'd say.

First week in Sydney

2008-09-20T00:30:00.000-07:00

So we've settled into our new house. Myself and Anne-Marie are in number 25 on the street, Ciara and Donna are in number 24, and Dave and Nikki are in 25. Christy is still floating about somewhere. There was no more free rooms on the street so he's staying the hostel down the street, which is owned by the same people. When I say he' staying there, I mean he was told he has a room there, but he's still actually sleeping out of the back of the van! We still have them for another 2 weeks so he's fine. Although, the guys in the office told us that another room in number 24 will be empty next week, and the other room will also have 1 bed so myself and Anne-Marie will move into the room with 2 beds, and Christy can share with the guy thats in the other room. Sorted! :D

I'm starting to get used to this place now. We live right beside the bus stop where we can get a bus right into the centre of the city. We went in to see the Opera House. I felt like such a tourist! But it was good. After seeing the opera house on Tv from the opposite side of the world, it was good to finally be here in person! From the opera house, you had agreat view across the river and of the harbour bridge. Yuo can actually do a walk across the harbour bridge, but it takes 3 hours and theres no toilet break! Haha, that might put us off doing it, but it'd still be fun to do it! We'll see how we get on in the future.

So, now we're settled, we need to figure out how to get ourselves a job! To the jobsites I go....

Sydney - Bout frickin time!!

2008-09-14T23:38:00.000-07:00

Haha about frickin time is right! While I absolutely loved travelling down the east coast, I longed for a bed that wasn't in the back of a van! And with AnneMarie over, I doubt we'd fit in the back of the van with Christy!!

We got a house in the Sydney Terraces. A row of 10 houses, and a few more around the corner, that were inhabited solely by Irish backpackers/alcoholics! Rent is $145 a week. Its a decent enough place. Has all the mod cons you need. TV, Oven, filthy microwave, washing machine, dryer :D.

I reckon the reason it was a party street was coz there's literally nothing else to do in the area. Theres a small shopping centre, 2 pubs, and thats it. Theres a small town a few minutes walk up the road called Newtown. This has a few nightclubs. It has a huge gay scene. Lesbians everywhere! This would've been so good if they were good lookin....but they weren't, unfortunately!! :p

The place seems cool though. There's a communal grass area out the back with a BBQ. Really nice.

Oh, and the houses are directly under a flight path, and it near the airport, so the planes get pretty low over our heads, especially when the Airbus A380 flies a few metres over the house!! They start at 6:30am and stop at 11:30pm. Handy for whe nya wanna get up early, but not so handy when ya've been up early and want sleep before 11pm! :p

We'll see how it goes. First port of call....getting a job!

Brisbane - The Return

2008-09-08T23:37:00.000-07:00

After returning to Brisbane, I was staying in my brothers apartment beside The Ekka. I had my own room, with an inflatable bed to sleep on. Slight improvement on the camper van, I must admit.

The reason I was back in Brisbane was because Anne-Marie was finally arriving in Australia. She was travelling direct from Dublin to Brisbane. Well, not direct, there was a few stopovers. She was flying from Dublin to London, London to Singapore, and then Singapore to Brisbane. She was sick with a cold so it was gonna be a long flight for her. The worst part probably being stuck beside Ronan Keating and his missus on the plane to London while her face was all puffy and with a runny nose. Bad for most people, but worse when you're sick!! :D

So over she came, nearly a full whole days travelling. It was early Wednesday moning Brisbane time when she landed, and I was waiting there at the arrivals hall. I had been excited about her coming over. I had not seen here since June 25th, when I left Ireland. 3 months is a long time in this situation! So when she didn't show after nearly an hour, I began to worry! The last contact I had with her was in Singapore....when she got mysteriously cut off. I hoped it was her credit, but when she didn't show, my mind began to wonder if something else had happened. After another few minutes, she finally popped her head out into arrivals. Apparently she was looking for her bag, and the guy sitting beside her on the plane had unknowingly left his bag in Singapore! Bad luck, but he got it eventually.

So out she came, with about 400 bags in tow :p. 3 months of talking on the phone, and online about how we can't wait to each other, and here we are. I gave her a great big hug and kiss and I took he bags and brought her to the taxi, and back to my brothers. We had booked a hotel for the few days we would be here, instead of sleeping on my brothers inflatable single bed. The hotel was right in the city. We went exploring around the valley, the mall, and the city for a few days. She seemed to like it, but after 4 days, we had to get our flight to Sydney to join back up with the rest of them, who had gone ahead and secured accomodation for us.

Train from Coffs Harbour to Brisbane

2008-09-08T19:49:00.000-07:00

So I had to get the train from Coffs Harbour, with my intended destination of Brisbane. Unfortunately, there was some sort of rail works so the train only brought me some of the way. I had to transfer and get a bus the rest of the way.

The train took about 5 or 6 hours, and then the bus a further 5 hours. I bought about 12 bottles of Carlton cold to do me the journey (what I thought was a 10 hour train journey) but unfortunately some old granny sat beside me and there was a family across from me, so I didn't feel like getting sh*t faced drunk! Hopefully they'd get off soon so I could start drinkin and pass some of the time!!!

Unfortunately for me, they stayed all the way. Even more unfortunate was that, even though the bus only had a few people on it, there is a no drinking policy on all Australian buses, punishable by a 3000 dollar fine. Ah well, I'll jsut have to carry them with me until Brisbane. Its not as if 12 bottles are heavy...

Eventually, I arrived in Brisbane. My brother met me off the bus with his friend and off we went to the nearest bar! Some things never change! :D

Coffs Harbour

2008-09-07T23:37:00.000-07:00

The next stop long the line was a small little town called Coffs Harbour. It is situated halfway between Brisbane and Sydney. Its a nice place, with a small enough population.We arrived here out of a need for somewhere to stay. It was getting late so we needed to set up camp at the next place we came to on the highway. What we found was a pleasant surprise! Its these small towns that are the highlight of travelling the east coast.

Theres pretty much one main road in Coffs Harbour. Everything stems from this road. We drove in on this road and went looking for a caravan park. We asked directions in a garage and we got given 2 options. We could pay for the nice caravan park down by the water, or we could park up by the forest up the hill for free. Needless to say, as we are free and easy backpackers, we chose....the caravan park with its nice electricity, TV room and all mod cons!! Haha, you'd hardly expect us to live without electricity for a night???

So we checked into the caravan park anyway. Got settled, and went to explore the place. As it turned out, we ended up exactly where the guy in the garage said we could stay for free. It was up in a kind of viewing area that you can park in, then walk through the forest only to come out the far side at a really nice secluded beach. We went into the forest and thought we were lost, until we met an old woman walking through the forest alone. She told us the beach was only a few minutes walk further down through the forest. She was right. A few minutes later, the forest opened up onto this gorgeous private beach. There was only maybe 10 people on it, including the 6 of us, and it stretched for about a kilometre. We had a dip, got a bit of sun, and headed back through the forest to our vans, still parked back up the far side of the hill.

It was getting late and the light was starting to fade. Throughout our journey, we have always kept an ear out for any dangerous wild animals lurking in the bushes beside our vans. A few times we've heard things, including up in Port Douglas when we had the infamous Crocodile incident, mistaking water for a crocodile, only to see Christy dive into the van, pushing the girls out of the way to get there! So Coffs Harbour was no different. As we were finishing up, we heard some rustling in the bushes. Not big enough to be human, but still big enough to be dangerous. We listened on as it got louder and louder, closer and closer. Noises sound a lot scarier when you're in a strange country, where nearly everything is either poisonous, or dangerous to humans, and you haven't a clue how to tell the difference.

The noise got closer. We still had no clue what it was, only that it was big! We got the torches out. We even tried throwing stuff into the trees to either scare it off, or flush it out so we could see what it was. Everything went quiet. Did we scare it away? Did we kill it with out leftover ham sandwiches? Neither! The noise returned, this time only a few metres away in the bushes. After a few more seconds everthing became clear. As the noise veered towards an opening in the bushes, we saw a figure. It was about6 foot tall, and definately not human. As it came out behind the bushes, we saw standing in front of us, a 6 foot odd tall......bird!! Yes, it was an emu or an ostrich, or cassaworie or something like that. It was cool to see such a creature in the wild, but still an anti-climax that it wasn't a vicious croc, or massive snake or something cool and dangerous that could have killed us!! Ah well, maybe next time!

We returned for the night to the caravan park, and the next morning, we would go our separate ways. AnneMaries flight landed in a few days, and I needed to get back to Brisbane to meet her at the airport. About midday, I was dropped off at the train station, and they all headed on to Sydney.

The train didn't actually leave until after 3pm, so I had a few hours to kill. I decided to explore the town, and I found a nice nature reserve over by the sea. It was a steep climb with my bag on my back, but I made it. Theres a viewing area on the far side that I sat for a while. I managed to spot several schools of dolphins, which was amazing, as well as seeing a hump back whale off in the distance. I had seen both dolphins and whales before, but never from such a vantage point. Definately one of the highlights of my trip!

I went for a bit more exploring, had some food, then caught the train to Brisbane. My brother said he'd meet me off it so I had a point of contact once I got to Brisbane.

Byron Bay

2008-09-06T23:36:00.000-07:00

We pulled up in Byron Bay today. From what we heard it was meant to be similar to Nimbin, in the way that it was very relaxed, and the population has a penchant for locally grown weed!

We arrived in the afternoon. Myself and Christy were a little behind the rest so we arranged to meet up with them in one of the car parks by the sea. By the time we arrived, we could tell it was a big tourist attraction, especially compared to Nimbin. It was nice and clean, and really small, and the whole town was full of visiting campers, ranging from Wicked Vans drivers like ourselves, to full winnabagos driven by middle aged couples.

The town itself was just like any regular small town we encountered. It had its coffee shops, its supermarkets, few pubs etc. The only difference really being the locals. They had managed to combine the "hippy" lifestyle of Nimbin, with a more civilised, more mainstream lifestyle, probably due to the good surf experinced there, which brough all sorts of people to the town, and obviously you can't really surf too well if you're half baked all the time! Not safely anyway! :p

The beaches were nice, the town was nice and its most famous atraction, the lighthouse, was worth the few dollars entry fee into the car park! The lighthouse was situated at the cliffhead up atop the hill. From here, you can see for miles out into the sea. This is good whale watching country, as wel as for watching dolphins. I can see why, as it is surrounded by water on nearly all sides. You've got about a 300 degree view of the water.

We had a look around, took some photos, and headed back, but not before seeing what we thought was a snake. We thought we saw out first snake of the whole trip...but alas, as we got closer, we saw it had legs. Just another salamander, or whatever they're called! :p

We headed back to town after a while to look for accomodation. The place seemed quite busy so hopefully we could get accomodation without too much hassle. We went back to the road and start asking in a few places. They were all full. We even had trouble finding parking around the town. We wanted to stay here the night so we probably would have found a spot on the side of the road somewhere if we were stuck. After all, we were in camper vans, so we may as well get some use out of them. Luckily, we found a caravan park a few minutes out of Byron Town. We stayed there the night and headed off in the morning. Byron was a nice little town but we decided to head on down the highway, and see where it took us...

Nimbin

2008-09-05T23:36:00.000-07:00

Nimbin - what can I say. If there was ever a strong argument against legalising cannabis....this is it!

I've been to Amsterdam and I have seen first hand the marijuana culture over there. Nimbin is similar. As far as I know, its not legal here, but the police just turn a blind eye. The place is full of stoners and hippys who's lives seem to revolve around smoking weed, weed history, and uhh....I forget....wait....what?

The town itself is one street, fairly run down. It is way out in the middle of the mountains about 2 hours drive from anywhere remotely recognised as civilisation. People flock to the place based purely on its reputation for good weed. The visitors stand out like a bar of soap in a pile of cow dung, owing to the lack of "Free the Weed" or "Dont drink and drive, smoke weed and fly" t-shirts. Walking along the street, I saw a man sitting on a stool outside the marijuana museum (a thinly disguised hash shop with a few "the history of..." posters, and Jimi Hendrix pictures) who was smoking a pipe. He must have been pushing 70. The mans arms were stick thin, his flesh loosely hanging, his hands shaking, and in between coughing he would take another smoke of his pipe. I got the impression that this guy had been sitting there since his younger days, and had probably been stoned ever since! These people grow their own product, and make money from selling to the tourists. I didn't like the place. It was populated with the people I hate the most....that is, people who overly promote hash as this wonderous substance that is completely harmless, and wear "Weedboy" t-shirts made from hemp! I was surrounded by them. It was nasty. Of the few locals I spoke to, the only ones that were nice to you, were selling some form of hash brownie, or cheap weed. The ones that werent selling simply came across as idiots.

We bought a sampling of the local produce anyway, and tried it out later back in the camper vans. Dave rolled a pure weed joint for Donna, and she was on the floor after about 5 minutes. The rest of them smoked regular joints with tobacco mixed in, after seing what happened to our guinea pig!

After the 1 night there, we all agreed that was enough, and made our way out of the town. Onwards to Byron Bay. Hopefully it will be a better experience...

Surfers Paradise

2008-09-03T21:51:00.001-07:00

The night before we left Brisbane, I had gone out for a few beers. I ended up returning to the caravan park at 7am. We left at 9am, and I had gotten an hour sleep. Christy woke me up and I was still quite drunk. Not a good start to a road trip.

Luckily, I slept for literally the whole trip down to Surfers Paradise. The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was the Q1 building. The whole place was full of skyscrapers, but he Q1 building is the tallest in Australia so stood out a bit more. My first impression of the place was that, even though the buildings were big, the streets were small. It was a very tight little town. We drove around a bit to get our bearings, and got separated as usual, and found each other again and then went to look for a caravan park. We found a nice little spot near to the water and checked in. We got a spot together, and funnily enough, right beside the german backpackers that we were beside in the Brisbane caravan park! We seem to keep meeting people again the further south we go.

We went exploring, once we checked in. The town itself was within walking distance, and was pretty small. The beach was really nice, as was the esplanade and beach front. Even though it seemed like a nice, affluent place, I still got the feeling that it was quite tacky. My sister describes it as "Ballymun in the sun", which is how she also describes the Canary Islands and Spains holiday resorts. I think its quite accurate.

After our first night there, the heavens opened and it rained for our remaining 2 days, with the exception of the time it took us to walk outside, get a taxi, and get to the nearest pub for the organised pub crawl we signed up for. As soon as we got indoors....rain again. Very heavy rain! Luckily it didn't last long, as the walks in between pubs would have been very unpleasant.

The pub crawl itself was nothing special. It was basically what it said on the tin. The organisers basically just brough us to about 5 or 6 different bars, and left us alone to ourselves, with the exception of one party game, which was pretty crap actually. Nothing like the old party games back in Scraggs Alley in Carlow during Rag Week!

So, after a few days in Surfers Paradise, after having not seen a single surfer the whole time I was there, we departed. I suppose its one of those places you have to see once. Unfortunately, it didn't live up to all the hype. Admittedly, all the hype coming from its name! :p

Nimbin, here we come...

Goodbye Brisbane

2008-09-02T21:50:00.000-07:00

So, its time to leave Brisbane.

I had a good time here, seen the sights, met the people, and eh....did some shopping.

We checked out at 10am from Newmarket Gardens. I had been out the night before and got home at 7am. Christy woke me at 9am and I was still drunk but my hangover had also kicked in with great vengeance and force, due to lack of sleep! I hopped in the van and hoped for a bit of sleep along the Bruce Highway on our way to Surfers Paradise.

Unfortunately, our plan of staying here a month and working had not come to fruition, so we left before Anne-Marie had arrived. I had promised I'd meet her there so she wasn't happy when I told her we'd left!

I was going to have to return to Brisbane, most likely alone.....but I didn't mind, as I knew it'd be a bit of fun.

Ayway, it was goodbye to Brisbane (for the moment) and Hello Surfers Paradise!!

Brisbane

2008-08-30T21:50:00.000-07:00

After experiencing a couple of nights out in both the city and the valley, I felt I'd seen all I could see of Brisbane.

Coincidentally enough, my parents arrived in Brisbane 2 days after us, and were staying with my brother, who works and lives here. I went to see some sights with my parents, such as the koala sanctuary, and well....thats it. All there is to do is go shopping in Queen st mall, or go drinking...

Contrary to this, we decided to stay here for a month or so, and get jobs. This also suited me as Anne-Marie decided to come over to Australia and come travelling with us, and this would mean we would be in Brisbane when she arrived here so I could pick her up at the airport.

I applied for some jobs, as did the others, but Dave was the only person to get a job. He went out for one day...and then didn't go back! Haha.

While here I also bought a bicycle. I did some cycling at home and craved a bike so had it in my mind I wanted one. I went looking around town and bought a Giant Rock in a Giant store for 450AUD, but then had to buy a helmet, lights and lock, which put the price up to 600AUD. Hmmm, not a very wise decision, considering we were getting low on cash!

The plan was to lock it up outside the van at night, and then put it in the back while we were driving, which actually worked out fine. Funnily enough, it was the same bike as I had back home, except a newer model. I liked it. I also went for a few cycles on it around Brisbane. Firstly, I had to cycle it home, which was fun, especially considering I didn't actually know the way so kinda had to wing it. I then went on a few cycles around the caravan park and surrounding areas. I got adventourous one day and went a way I'd never been before....big mistake!! I got lost and was cycling around for a long time before I found a postman who gave me directions! I arrived home covered in sweat, probably after losing around a kilo. That place is full of hills!

I had a bit of fun anyway in Brisbane. The casino was cool, the Brisbane lookout was cool, and the bars were cool. My brother also brought me to a few restaurants around so I'd say I seen enough of Brisbane.....for now!

Christys Birthday - Fri, 22nd Aug 08

2008-08-22T21:20:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Christys 24th birthday. Christy is one of the people I'm travelling with.

The day started off the same as usual. Crawling out of bed, bit of breakfast, and planning for the day. My parents wanted to meet up for dinner before they flew home to Ireland so I had to get that out of the way first, before any beer related activities could commence!

We went to Breakfast Creek hotel for a nice steak dinner at about 7pm, then I headed off into town to meet the rest of them, while accidentally forgetting to say goodbye to my parents!! What a cabbage! I jsut jumped into the front seat of the taxi and went. It wasnt until a few minutes into the taxi journey that I realised I won't see them again for 10 months!! Oops! :(

Anyway, the festivities started in Mick O'Malleys Irish pub, in Queen St Mall. We had a few there, watched a live band, then headed onto our next port of call......Showgirls Strip Club!

It was only around the corner from O'Malleys so we walked up the mall towards it. Christy went off to buy cigarettes, so while we were waiting, I got talking to the girl on the door. I was wearing my black bomber jacket so while I was standing at the door talking, it looked like I was working security. Wish I got a photo of that now....

Anyway, we told her it was Christys birthday and she informed us that we can get him a private lapdance from any of the girls, or, as se recommended, we could get him a stage show, which basically entailsW dragging him up on stage in front of the whole club, and getting a lapdance lasting 4 songs! We talked about it and decided we'd get him the lapdance anyway, since its his birthday and all.

So, we went inside, paid the 15 dollars, and had a few beers. I went up to the supervisor lady and asked her about the previously mentioned "services", and she told me more about the stage show, so in the end I opted for that......best 100 dollars spent EVER!!! :D

Christy is a timid enough bloke so the girls were worried he wouldn't go up on stage, but when the time came, we all pushed him up. The "show" started with her taking off his top, and sitting him on a chair on the revolving podium. She began teasing him, as strippers are known to do, and got fully naked pretty fast! The look on his face was priceless. Unfortunately, they wouldn't let us take any photos! Bummer! But the show went on. She eventually got him down to his boxers and had hom on the floor, on the chair, up against one of the poles!! It was hilarious! She then got a scissors and sneakily cut off his boxers! The poor chap was completely starkers in front of a club of maybe 60 dirty pervy men! Lets just say it'll be a birthday he'll never forget!! haha, oh and afterwards, she brought him backstage to get dressed in the ladies dressing room, where he was telling us all the girls were just walking around completely starkers too. Brillaint!! haha.

So, as we were leaving, I was stopped as I still had half a bottle of beer left, which I wasn't allowed take outside. I got talking to the American girl on the desk and the security guy, who I lied to and said I'd done security work in Dublin, and who said to come back on Tuesday and he'll see about getting me a job working security there!! Haha brilliant!! Watch this space....

Oh and the rest of the night was pretty tame in comparison. Just so ya know, we didn't actually spend the whole night in the stripclub, we actually went clubbing afterwards, though it wasn't great. I'm yet to find a niteclub here that I like.

Arrive: Brisbane

2008-08-16T22:15:00.000-07:00

So we arrived in Brisbane. My first impression is that its very eh....city like! There's not many parks or beaches or anything stereotypically Australian, or even consistent with what we've seen so far on the east coast. It'll be interesting to see how things go here....

We drove around for a bit, following Dave and getting lost as usual, until we found a petrol station with a guy who gave us directions to a caravan park. A place called Newmarket Gardens. We headed straight there so we could get settled and then go exploring!!

The price was decent enough, and it had wireless so that suited me perfect! We settled in and headed down around town. Now, according to my brother, there are 2 main parts to Brisbane. The City itself, and the Valley. The Valley seems to be where all the messyness goes on. All the main night spots are there, where as the sort of grown up clubs are in the city!

Other than that, theres the Brisbane Lookout, the river tour on the boat, and I think thats it. I know there's a few other places of interest, but none that suited six travelling, beer hungry Irish tourists!! We had found a nice Irish bar called Mick O'Mallets in Queen St Mall. This was to be our first port of call on the majority of our nights out in Briss-vegas!

More driving

2008-08-14T01:33:00.000-07:00

So, we left Hervey Bay and Fraser Island behind, and continued our long journey south, and embarked on what would be our longest session of driving since we got the vans.

We drove through Proserpine and Mackay before it started to get dark, so we decided to stop off at the next place we came too. This seemed like a bad idea when we turned up at a place called Marlborough. This was basically a small little "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" town, as I called it, whos population doubled when we strolled into town. In order to actually get to the place, we had to drive down a pitch black dirt track, passed signs of "bridge out - detour this way" signs and also a random set of trains tracks (which Christy decided to feckin stop the van slap bang in the middle of!!). These things combined with the fact that all 3 of us had gotten separated had started to send a chill through each of our spines. Imagine it, lost in the middle of an isolated town, that we haven't told anyone we were going to, since we didn't actually know the name of it until the following day when we were leaving, and also that we hadn't a clue of its geographical location, other than its in Queensland somewhere between Hervey Bay and Brisbane!

We broke through into the town from the detour along the backroads and felt like all 35 of the local eyeballs were staring at us. 3 camper vans emblazened with all sorts of funky lookin graffitti tend to stand out in tiny little towns. Basically, the "town" is literally one street, maybe 100 metres long. It had a pub and a few houses. That was it. We asked a local if there was a caravan park, not expecting much luck, and were told we can park up behind the pub. We had a look but it was too tight a space for 3 vans to fit so we drive up around the corner and asked in the petrol station and out of pure dumb luck, there was a really good caravan park literally right across the road...the road being the Bruce/Pacific Highway that we've been driving along all day! What we thought was a totally solated backward town, was in fact just off the bruce highway and surrounded by a pretty densely populated area! I we had've taken the next exit off the highway, we would have ended up where we were now!

We stayed there in the caravan park the night for roughly 9 dollars each, and headed off the next morning. I picked up the new Offspring album in that garage. Wasn't great...:p

So off we went again. Rockhampton, Bundaberg, stopping in Maryborough to pick up some tourist information brochures, and found out that Australia Zoo was just a few hours down the road, as was a big fish world amusement park. Myself, Christy, Dave and Nikki went to Waterworld, while Donna and Ciara went to Australia zoo. On the way down, we stopped off at a Toys R Us and picked up the biggest super soaker they sold, as back in Maryborough, Dave and Nikki had bought small little water guns in a newsagent to destroy us with water. This resulted in a full length water war (which stretched from Maryborough to Brisbane!) which actually started when I flung the contents of a 2 litre bottle of water out the campervan window at the girls, followed shortly by the bottle itself! When we purchased the super soaker, we did it as stealthily as possibe. We picked up a bit of speed and made some distance between us and "Pacman" (corresponding to the design on the side of Dae & Nikkis van). Just enough distance, in fact, for us to go into the nearest toy shop and buy a super soaker!!

So we returned to the van after the purchase, just as they pulled up beside us. I had to stash the gun up my jumper. We then headed on down the road again with them still unaware of our purchase. During our many pitstops/pullovers, Dave pulled up beside us to talk through our windows. This was when they found out about our new weapon in the form of litres of high pressure water in their respective eyes!! The look on their soaking wet faces was worth the 50 dollars I spent on the gun, but it also stepped up the stakes a bit. Water bombs were bought, and mid-motorway high-speed water fights ensued. Yes it ws dangerous, but hell it was fun! And sure isnt that the impotant thing!!

At the next garage stop, me and Christy cornered Dave in the toilets when he went in to use the facilities. Lucky for him, hes a lot quicker on his feet than he looks! When we got back to the van, we saw Nikki messing with it. As it turned out, she had placed some form of cream, like suncream or some woman sustance, in the handle of the van. Luckily I noticed this as Christy was about to open the van.

We drove on again passed Rainbow Beach, Gympie, and Noosa heads, before we drive past Australia Zoo just before Beerwah. The girls had gone into there, but it was late by the time we got there so we headed on to the waterworld, which was open later, and was jsut a better option at that time of the afternoon.

We drove back up towards the zoo afterwards, where we met the girls again and parked about a kilometre down from Australia zoo. This was so we could get an early start and a full day in the zoo, which inceidentally was really cool. It had some huge crocs, and all sorts of weird creatures, including the super smelly koalas, and giant turtles. cassowaries, snakes, alligators, elephants, tigers, and pretty much everything else ya'd expect! I'd recommend it to anyone in the area. The croc shows are pretty cool too!

While we were in the zoo, the girls drove on, as they'd been there yesterday, and we followed them down at about 4pm. They had gotten to a place called Redcliffe. Last stop before Brisbane.

We found a nice little car park beside the surf club to park for the night. The gates were locked at 11pm, and didnt open til 7am, but that was fine by us, since we were staying the night, and wouldnt even be awake by 6am when they re-opened. We could see Brisbane across the water. One more night and we'd have some form of relative stability, accomodation-wise.

Fraser Island and Hervey Bay

2008-08-13T22:14:00.000-07:00

We got here in the late afternoon and immediately got lost! Haha, it seems a daily occurance that anywhere we drive to we get separated from each other and spend about an hour texting and ringing to try find out where the hell we are!

Luckily, along our aimless driving trying to find the others, we found a nice little caravan park close enough to the water. It had nice facilities and they gave us a nice little corner to ourselves for our camper vans.

Back inside in the bar/restaurant, we ran into a dublin couple who we'd bumped into back in Airlie Beach. They were travelling down the east coast by bus, and had a 14 hour bus journey to get here. It only took us a few hours!! Apparently the bus goes all over the place! Remind me never to get a bus over here!! Thats as long as our flight from Thailand to Australia!!

Luckily, the lady at reception was able to hook us up with a deal to go to Fraser Island. We'd be picked up in the morning in a big 4-wheel drive heavy duty bus that would drive us to the boat, and would also act as out transport on the island too. The bus driver was pretty eccentric. I suppose thats part of the job description, as he was also there to entertain 50 or so people on his bus!

We got over to the island anyway, and the bus drive off the boat directly onto the beach, and off into the jungle! The early part of the tour was the driver telling us all about the local plants and trees etc etc...which was quite boring. The only entertaing part was the numerous mounds and hills which sent the bus almost airborne. We got flung out of our seats and if it weren't for the seat belts, we would hve all been splattered on the floor! I was loving it! It was like a rollercoaster!

We finally got through to the middle, where there was a lake, slap bang in the middle of the mountain side on the island. He explained it was there because the rain water gets stuck and doesnt go through the sand, or something like that. We went off looking for snakes while the girls stayed to clean their jewellery and exfoliate in the sand, which incidentally was the same sand from the Whitsundays (99.98% silica). Needless to say, we didn't see any snakes! :(

We left the lake and went to the backpackers resort in the centre of the island where we got fed. It was a nice little place, powered entirely by solar power. As its a national park, they cant really be building powerlines etc on the island, so solar power is their only option. The toilets were "natural toilets" too, as there wasnt really a sewer system on the island. Nasty business, but ya'd get used to it easily enough.

After we had our grub, we went on again in our big bus, this time to 74-mile beach. This was the main attraction of the island. The beach was actually only 54 miles long apparently (what a ripoff!), but it had a shipwreck and they ran a service where you could get in a small plane and fly the island for 70 dollars. The girls went for it but we stayed in the bus.

The beach was nice. The shipwreck was cool, and we also saw some clearwater river that you could walk up, with little or no chance of a crocodile biting your ass off!! It was fun.

After seeing the rest of the landmarks on the beach, it was back to the backpackers resort to clean the bus, then off we went again into the depths of the jungle. We stopped off for tea/coffee and muffins in amongst the trees where our bus driver partook in a Q&A session with us. After a few minutes we boarded the bus and headed back to the beach to await the boat. All in all, we enjoyed the island. Nice scenery. Nice tour. Its some thing I'd do again anyway.

On the way back, we saw dolphins doing tricks in the wild, which had everyone on the boat interested. They were jumping out of the water and doing back flips and stuff. Definately one of the highlights of Fraser Island.

Anyway, we got back to the caravan park and checked out the following morning. It was gonna be a long drive to Brisbane, so we left early and got back on Bruce.....more driving ensues.

The Whitsundays and Airlie Beach

2008-08-09T22:13:00.000-07:00

A few hundred miles south of Cairns is a nice little seaside resort of Airlie Beach. Its basically one street with a load of shops, travel agents, and a few pubs/clubs.

The main purpose of this place, from a backpackers point of view is The Whitsundays. These are a group of islands that are supposed to have one of the nicest views on the east coast....so says their local tourist bureau!!

Our first job here was to scope out the trips and deals the local offices were offering. We looked up and down and eventually found one we wanted. There was an option for an overnight or 2/3 day trip, but on the advice of a friend who had done that before, we opted for the same day round trip.

We went out early in the morning and had the option for some scuba diving/snorkelling with the barrier reef fishes. We then drove around to another island and went up a trail. This trail led to a viewing spot of the whole of Whitehaven Beach (the main beach on the main island, ie the main tourist attraction). This was the view we were told about. I was actually impressed. The view was really nice. I'm not really into this sort of stuff, but honestly it was actually a really nice view, and well worth the trek through the island. We got our photos taken by the guide, and took a few of our own, and headed back down the trail. We got back on the boat and headed around the island and on to Whitehaven Beach.

Apparently the sand on this beach is made from 99.8% silica from a crack in the water or something. The guide was telling us about tectonic plates under the water that rub together and thats where the sand comes from. She also said you can exfoliate and clean your jewellery with the sand.....hmmm, ye, where's the bar??

We stayed on the beach for an hour or so and then headed back. We saw some turtles too, which was very cool. I'd never seen any before so it was an experience.

We stayed in Airlie Beach another day or 2 and then decided to leave. I actually liked it here. Definately one of my favourite places of the holiday so far. Hopefully I can return here again, maybe with Anne-Marie once we get settled with jobs and, more importantly, cash!!

So anyway, off we went, further south, joining up with our companion Bruce (the highway) down to our next stop, Hervey Bay. Home of Fraser Island!

Goodbye Cairns!!

2008-08-07T22:12:00.000-07:00

So today we said goodbye to Cairns, our first port of call here in Australia.

We had plenty of fun, I met family I hadn't seen in a few years, and met more family who I hadn't seen in 15/20 years!!!

We seen the pubs, clubs, restaurants, beaches, backpacker spots, did a skydive, got some photos, memories and pretty much did everything we could. We even secured our beds for the next 2 months in the form of our Wicked camper vans! What more could ya want? Maybe Alf from Home and Away being your personal tour guide......we can all dream!! haha

So off south we went in our camper vans. Next stop along the Bruce Highway: Airlie Beach and the Whitsundays...

Back to Cairns - The Asylum

2008-08-05T22:10:00.000-07:00

After we had travelled the north, around Port Douglas and its surrounding areas, we headed back down south, to our ultimate destination of Sydney.

We got back to Cairns again after a few hours driving and set about getting somewhere to stay for the night. We found a place around the corner from our first hostel called The Asylum. We realised how aptly named it was after a few minutes talking to the staff. The place was run quite well, but the staff were obviously all crazy!! Haha, they were really nice and are obviously well up for a good time but the only way to describe them is CRAZY!! They obviously enjoy their job and have a good time. Another thing about the people over herein Oz, they're really nice and friendly, and eveyone seems genuinely happy. I'm impressed!

The reason we had come back to stay in Cairns, was my brother. He left Ireland last February, and was going to be in Cairns that day, so we came back so I could meet up with him, and my parents. We had a look around that day, went for a bit of shopping, had a pint of two, then said our goodbyes in the shopping centre, and set off once again on our trip.

My parents were in Oz for a month in total, so I would see my parents and brother again in Brisbane....

Port Douglas - The camper van journey begins

2008-08-02T22:09:00.000-07:00

So, we've done our skydive, saw Cairns, attended our first Ozzie BBQ and had our introduction to Australian life, now its time to break loose, and see what we can find on the road!!

On our last day in Cairns, we picekd up our Wicked Campers from the depot. We got a taxi from town out there, bags in tow, just like back in Thailand. Only this time was our last, because once we pick up our mobile abodes, we can throw our bags in there, and never have to worry about lugging them around....until October 4th anyway.

So, we arrived at the Wicked depot, and saw nearly 100 very cool looking vans, complete with individual, unique body paint. There was a queue. We had seen lots of these Wicked Campers around Cairns so knew they were popular. We waited nearly an hour until finally we were given our vans. Myself and Christy were given "Old Man River", named after an Australian Singer, the 2 girls were given "Pinky & The Brain", and Dave and Nikki got "Pacman". Our first impressions were good. They weren't the most luxurious of vehicles, but our excitement made us overlook that fact, and we weren't long in jumping in and setting off on our way.

The vans are actually quite nice. They have a kitchen, complete with oven and fridge, and theres also wardrobes, living room, a nice sofa and a double bed. Hmmm, sounds good on paper, but I'll elaborate. The van consists of a worktop counter (the "kitchen") in the back, with gas stove (the "oven") and cooler box (the "fridge"). Then in the middle is where it gets really interesting!! It has wooden compartments in the bottom (the "wardrobe") and a middle section that folds out to form a table (the "living room"). Either side of the table, there are cushions (the "sofa") for sitting at the table. At night, the table comes down and the flat cushions go over the wardrobes and forms a soft-ish base for lying on (the "double bed"). Still though, its adequate for what we need!!

So anyway, we stocked up on supplies, said our goodbyes to Cairns, and headed north to Port douglas.

We took the Bruce Highway north, for a few hours. Its a straight road so nothing major to write home about here. There was some decent scenery, but I didn't get to see any crocodiles in any of the creeks, or kangaroos leaping through fields!! Boring!

Port Douglas seemed like a nice place. We drive into the town and there was nice restaurants, and a few bars lining the streets. I got the impression that this area was more affluent than Cairns, evident by the abundance of yachts, and yacht club, and basically a lot of sailing/yacht ownership related shops and restauraunts.

We found a car park next to the yacht club to park. We decided to stay there for the night, after we had a quick look around the town. There wasn't really much for backpackers there. Just expensive restaurants and expensive shops! We settled for a crate of Carlton Cold beer and dinner back at the van. I think I had noodles that night. Very posh!!

We were getting a lot of attention from people, curious as to where we got the vans, and who painted them etc. We had to tell a lot of people our story, ie Irish, and travelling for the year around Oz. Despite the locals friendliness, I couldn't shake the feeling that we were an unwelcome eyesore, on the pristine face that is their affluent town. After all, if you spent a lot of money buying a nice house in a nice area, you don't want some smelly backpackers coming in and messing the place up! I was half expecting some of the locals to tell us this, or even for the police to come along and ask us to move on.....but neither happened. Maybe I'm just being self-conscious on my first day as an itinerant!

Anyway, we slept there the night, with no problems and travelled further north the next day.

The skydive

2008-08-01T22:08:00.000-07:00

While staying in Gilligans, we decided to book a skydive....why? Haha, why indeed!!

We opted for the 14000ft dive, which is the highest you can jump from in Australia, apparently.

The jump itself cost 245dollars, and you could get the DVD for an extra 99dollars, which brought the total up to 344dollars. Pricey, but we'll see if its worth it!!

The morning of the dive, we got picked up around 8am and driven about an hour south of Cairns to a small airstrip. We drive through miles of sugar cane and some decent enough scenery to get there. There wasn't much conversation in the van on the way out, I assume due to nerves, and maybe a bit of tiredness from the lack of a lie in since Bangkok!

We arrived out there around 10am I think, and went into a little house they had beside the airstrip. There we got kitted out in our skydiving outfits and got strapped up.

The nerves were starting to kick in at this stage! None of us had ever jumped out of a plane before so didn't know what to expect. We were all paired up and told who we'd be jumping with. They came over to us and start filming the intro to the DVD, which was basically me standing there saying hello and talking about the skydive. Afterwards, we walked over to the plane in all our gear and decided what the jump order would be, ie who's going first!! Dave volunteered to go first, followed by Nikki, and then I was last. I had to get into the plane first. It was a tight squeeze. It was about 1 metre x 2 metres, with 8 people in it!!

The plane start moving, and the nerves got worse!! I kept thinking will I be able to go ahead with this, or will I freeze and look like a great big gooseberry in front of everyone! The Plane took off.

We began climbing and circling the drop zone...basically, a field adjacent to the airstrip. After 4000ft, one of the guys just jumped out. From what I gather, he was in training and doing jumps to get his dive hours up to become an instructor. When he jumped, it seemed totally natural and easy. He just jumped out and let gravity does the rest of the work! Easy!! Eh, or maybe not...

We kept climbing and climbing. Higher and higher. The instructor kept saying 5 minutes....then 3 minutes, 2 minutes, and then 1 minute to jump!! Squeaky bum time!!

After 15 minutes or so, we reached the drop zone. The door opened again. I looked out the window....it was high!! Dave was first to stop out, and then in a second, he was gone!! Nikki looked so scared, it was funny! She was up next. In a split second, she was gone too. I was next!! Holy crap!! The nerves hit me!! I moved out to the side of the plane and made the first mistake....I LOOKED DOWN!!! Sitting on the edge of that plane was so scary, but such a buzz!! If there was any time I would bottle it, it would be now!! I had to jump! I wanted to jump, but it felt so unnatural!! I couldnt bring myself to jump out of a plane!! It was crazy!! After a few seconds of my mind racing, I went for it!! I leant forward and just went for it!! I jumped right out of that plane, it was amazing!!! We went from 0-320kph in 3 seconds flat!! I couldn't breathe! I couldn't hear! The noise of the air whizing past my ears was deafening! The instructor had told us if we find it hard to breathe, its because our lungs are already full of air, and to shout or scream to clear the air out!! I let out an almighty "woooooooh!" and was back in the game! This was brilliant!! 14000ft and falling. I could see everything!! Then I couldn't breathe again!! Haha, with another yell, I was good to go again!! We kept falling and falling! It was such a rush! Like the feeling you get going over a bump in a car, except all the time!!! The freefall was 60 seconds long, but seemed much longer! The instructor kept telling me to wave to the camera!! At 320kph, its not as easy as it sounds!!

After the 60 seconds, the chute opened. With a bit of a jerk, we slowed down and began to float down, nice and peacefully....well, relatively speaking!! We were still going fast enough....well, I suppose any speed is fast when you're falling out of the sky! But once the chute opened, it went dead quiet. The instructor start chatting away to me. He was showing me the reef, the mountains, basically everything! Suddenly, I felt something open on my straps!! Then a second one went!! I "calmly enquired" what it was that opened. He told me not to worry, and that he opened them. They were just extra straps ya need for the freefall, to make sure you're attached properly when the chute opens!! Phew!! Haha.

We kept on our 6 minute descent anyway, and soon we were able to make out peoples faces. I even saw an eagle flying below us. It was great.

It was now that the instructor told me to get into my landing position. From what I've seen on TV, people land on their feet, with a bit of a run or whatever. In tandem however, you land on your ass! Yes, you land on your ass! The reasoning behind this was basically that if I land on my feet, and he comes in behind me, basically he'll snap my legs! Right so, I'll land on me ass!!

We did one last lap of the landing area and picked our landing spot. Lower and lower, almost there, I lifted up my legs, and we landed gently on the grass. I was down!! And still in 1 piece too!! What a rush!! Well worth the 300 dollars!

Next up was Donna and Ciara. We watched them dive from the field. Everything was going fine until Ciaras parachute opened. It was tangled!!! They went into a spin and lost control! After a few seconds, they ditched the chute and went onto the backup chute. Luckily, it opened! Thank god! She didn't even notice until the instructor pointed at the chute floating off in the distance and told her what had happened!! Brown trouser time!

Anyway, everyone landed safely, we had a great time, and we headed back to Cairns, once we got out of our straps etc.

Later that day, we collected the DVDs and sat in Gilligans, huddled around Daves DVD player, watching the DVDs and laughing at how scared we all looked!! Good times!! :D

See the video of my skydive here.

Gilligans hostel, Cairns

2008-07-31T22:05:00.000-07:00

After a few days in NJoy!, we headed back to Grafton St to get a room in Gilligans. This place is a 5 star hostel! Its brilliant! It has everything...a bar, niteclub restaurant, washing machines, dryers, nice little water feature, internet, lounge area, with a big screen TV and bean bags, tourist office, which we booked a skydive in, and basically all the facilities are clean and of a high quality!

We got an 8 bed dorm so we shared with 2 other people when we were there. The place is right slap bang in the centre of town, so its perfect for walking to the bars, or shopping centre. Theres a lot of people cycling around here. The whole place is flat and in blocks so its easy to get around. A bike would be perfect for getting around. I might see if I can pick up a cheap one somewhere....

Maybe its just that we've only come from Thailand, but the thing that strikes me about this place is how clean and tidy it is. Obviously its miles away from Thailand, but compare it to Ireland and its just a really nice place! Hopefully the rest of Australia is like this....which reminds me. We're planning on getting camper vans to drive down the whole east coast to Sydney. Better start looking soon!!

Finally, we arrive in Oz!!

2008-07-28T22:03:00.000-07:00

Yes, I can't believe it! We're actuall in Australia!! I'm expecting to see kangaroos running freely through the streets, guys wrestling crocs at every turn, and a koala in every tree!! Eh, not quite!

We flew into Sydney airport, and got our connecting flight to Cairns. We got a taxi into town and set about getting accomodation. The taxi man was nice and friendly and dropped us off at a place called Gilligans. We went in. No vacancys! This place was recommended by my Aunt and Uncle, who run a B&B in Cairns so we were kinda relying on this place. We searched around and managed to find another place 10 minutes walk up the road called NJoy!. It was decent enough. The first 2 nights myself and Christy shared with a slovenian couple, then we got our own room after that, until Gilligans had vacancies.

We began to explore the area (ie we went to the nearest Irish bar) and scope out the sights (FYI, there are a lot of very good looking women here!! ;)).

We actually had to sort our bank acounts out, so we made our way to the shopping centre, where the first person we spoke to was from Ireland (they're everywhere), and made our way to the ANZ bank. It didn't take long to sort out our funds, and back out to the shopping centre we went, ready to try out this new EFTPOS thingy we've been hearing so much about.....turns out its just a laser card! Haha.

On our 2nd night there, we were invited up to my Aunt and Uncles place for a BBQ. My parents happened to be in Oz also, and were actually staying with them for a while, so were all had a big BBQ, including my other Aunt and Uncle and 2 cousins, who I havent seen since we were 4 or so!! The older, Ian, came out drinking with us and showed us the sights, ie the good bars!! He also had a friend who worked in Gilligans so was able to come back to our room and hang out.

We went to PJ O'Briens most nights, and it was a lot of fun. Afterwards, we'd go to the Woolshed and stay there the night. Good times.

Photos

Back to Bangkok

2008-07-23T22:00:00.000-07:00

Today we said goodbye to Koh Pha-Ngan. Possibly the best place we've been so far on the holiday. Cookies had the nicest view, and nicest fruit salad with yoghurt, The Masons Arms had the nicest roast beef and gravy dinners, as well as lovely staff, and it also had the Full Moon Party. I'm yet to let loose and go on a mad one, based on a mix between lack of sleep, lack of comfort, and the incident on Phi Phi island involving my toe! Maybe thats why I didn't enjoy the Full Moon Party as much as I was expecting. It was fun though, just not as much as the hype would have you believe, in our experience.

So we said goodbye to the staff at The Masons Arms and actually got a lift off one of the barmenand got on the boat away from the island. We were told we were going back to the mainland, but we went to Koh Samui to pick up more people, and then headed on to the mainland. The was full to the brim so there was no seats inside. We had to stay out in the sun for over 2 hours. I got badly burnt on my face, arms and legs, even though I kept applying factor 50!! Dave also forgot to put suncream on his legs so developed a nice pair of red leggings later in the day.

When we finally got to the mainland, we were ushered onto a bus. This bus was to drive us about an hour to the train station. It was fairly straight forward, however, a bolt of lightning struck across the street from us!! It was so cool. The noise off it! It hit a telegraph pole on the side of the road. I'd never seen lightning up close and personal like that, and I don't intend on seeing it that close again any time soon!! Scary!

We arrived at the train station anyway, and boarded out train. It was cramped enough but we got by. Once the train had begun its journey, we started to relax. A guy came around taking orders for dinner in an hour or so, and then breakfast at 6am, just before we arrive in Bangkok. You paid in advance, and he basically woke you up for breakfast. Neither the dinner nor breakfast was anything special, but for 200baht (less than 4 euro), what do you expect!

After dinner, it was getting "late"! Not late for us, but late for the locals. We were wondering how we were goign to get any sleep on the uncomfortable, cramped chairs, until a guy came around with a metal rod and start fiddling with something above our heads. Suddenly, a bed folded down from above, and he then converted the chair we were sitting on to another bed!! So we had bunk beds! Fair enough. I got top bunk.

We were having a few beers and watching a film on my laptop when we were told to turn it off, as 10pm was the curfew time where there was no noise allowed afterwards. There was police on the train so we decided not to argue! The beds were actually decent enough, and we got a relatively good sleep.

We were woken at 6am for breakfast, and got into Bangkok after 7. A taxi man was waiting for us outside the station and took us to our hotel. This would be our home until we fly to Oz. After our experience with this place the first time, the plan was to just sit in our rooms with a few beers, watch telly, and relax. Haha this was not the case. We ended up every night in the MBK, a huge shopping centre with hundreds of shops, restaurants and a cinema. We even went back to Khaosan Road to revisit all the old spots!! Back to the Irish bars, the horrible street vendors, the smell of urine from every alleyway, the anorexic cats, the pushy stripclub guys trying toget you into ping pong shows, or offering you ladies! Haha how we missed this place! It was fun going back the one night but I wouldn't like to be surrounded by it all the time, with no escape, like the last time in Sawasdee Inn.

We stayed here anyway until the 26th, and it was off to Australia with us!! It felt like we were in Thailand for a year and we'd never get to Oz, but here we were in the airport!! Finally!! Civilised society awaits!!

Photos

Muay Thai Boxing

2008-07-21T22:17:00.000-07:00

Tonight we went to see some Thai Boxing, or Muay Thai as its known over here. The surprise of the night was an Irish guy fighting in his first fight, against a local who has 50+ fights under his belt. I predicted a thrashing by the local and expected to see the Irish guy knocked unconscious after 5 seconds.....I was wrong! The Irish guy kicked the living jaysus out of the local. He had him knocked out in the first round! What a debut fight.

There was about 5 or 6 fights on the bill, including the Koh Pha-Ngan champion versus the Koh Samui champion! This was the headlining fight. The Samui guy won in the end. At least the local champ didn't get injured like a couple of the other fighters. One guy possibly broke his arm, another dropped holding his kdneys after he got a swift kick...actually that was the Irish guy who kicked him. I'd say your man will be pissing blookd for a week!! Nasty!

Anyway, see the photos here.

Full Moon Party, Koh Pha-Ngan

2008-07-19T22:27:00.000-07:00

Wooh! So, finally we got to go to the Full Moon party. We'd been waiting for this for ages!! We had originally booked this island until the 19th, as we were told the full moon was on the 17th, but it changed due to a Buddhist holiday or something!

We had to ring the travel people in Bangkok and get them to change everything. In the end, we sacrificed going to Koh Samui so we could stay a little longer here.

We started off our partying on the island a few days before. There was a pool party in one of the beach resorts. It was packed and we destroyed ourselves with glow in the dark flourescent paint!! This stuff does NOT come off your clothes!! We ruined some nice clothes that night, but it was worth it!

On the 19th, we went back to Haad Rin for the full moon party. We went early enough and crammed into the back of the "taxi", which is basically a pickup truck with a metal roof on the back. They managed to squeeze about 11 people in this, including the people hanging off the back like binmen!! Dangerous! Especially when going up and down winding mountain roads!! One slip and you're off!!

So we arrived in one piece anyway. We start drinking straight away. We had a look up and down the beach and it was packed!! It was like sardines on a beach! The girls got designs painted on their legs, back, faces, basically anywhere with exposed flesh!

The festivities went on until 9am or so. There wasnt actually much to it, apart from masses of people getting drunk on a beach. Sure, we met some nice people, and got chatting to all kinds of people from all kinds of places, but that was basically it. The party relies more on the atmosphere generated by the people more than anything else. All the resorts along the beach had different DJs, playing different genres of music (No rock!!), but other than the face painters and food stalls, everything fun was generated by the people. I stayed until 9am or so then left. The rest of them had gradually gone home so I was last one leaving. There was only 1 place still going at that time and I was starting to sober up.

The funniest thing we saw all night was a very very drunk couple fumbling about the sand in front of us, obviously forgetting where they were, and the bloke was trying to get a little action on the beach! They were too drunk and werent able, so they got up and left. It was all very random....but funny!!

Something that strikes me over in Thailand is the amount of Irish people. Not just in Koh Pha-Ngan, but everywhere we went was absolutely packed full of Irish! It was amazing.

Anyway, despite everything I said, we still had a good time at the party. We had a day to recover and then it was off to the mainland to get an overnight train to Bangkok.

Not looking forward to going back there.....

Photos and Donnas photos from her bebo

Koh Pha-Ngan

2008-07-11T21:56:00.000-07:00

So after Krabi, we headed to Koh Pha-Ngan.....Home of the world famous Full Moon parties in Haad Rin Beach at the south of the island. We were expecting a lot from this.

We arrived on the boat anyway, and didn't get collected, as we had come to expect from everywhere else. Instead, we just got the nearest taxi. He brought us up to our resort, Cookies Bungalows, on the west of the island. It was about 20 minutes drive.

It was dark, and the taxi man start bringing us up mountains and down little small roads. We had to trust he'd take us to Cookies....and he did. We pulled up to a quaint little place by the beach and checked into our shacks! There was a little restaurant that we had a beer or two before bed, and checked the place out. It seemed like a relaxing place with a lovely view.

Next morning, we checked the place out more thoroughly. This place is absolutely gorgeous! The view was honestly the nicest one I've ever seen! For example, check out the view from our room or the view from the restaurant. This is my favourite place in Thailand by far!

The food here is really good too. They do a lovely fruit salad with yoghurt! Nicest thing I've ever tasted. The bill gets paid weekly here, so they basically get your shack number, and ad things to the tab until Friday, when you settle the bill. Everything here is so relaxing. They have little cushions that open up into mini chairs that you sit on the floor on. Its definately a place I'd come back to. However, we ended up leaving Cookies after a few days. The girls found a big tarantula sized spider in their cabin, and we found a huge lizard and a rat in ours. I would have been happy enough to stay but majority rules and we left.

We went about a mile down the road and came across an English pub called The Masons Arms. It was basically a road, with jungle each side, then a clearing, and then this pristine acre or two with nice grass, a red brick footpath, and then a big white English pub that stood out like a sore thumb. We went in and had a few beers, while looking at our maps to see if we could find somewhere for the night. It was already after 8, and pitch dark so our chances were dwindling by the minute. We rang a few places but everywhere seemed booked out...mainly due to the 10,000 travellers converging on the island for the Full Moon Party in a few days!

Luckily, we got talking to someone at the bar who happened to know soeone renting houses literally across the street from this pub. She had 3 spare chalets, which can hold 2 people in each! Perfect! We had a look at them and they were really nice. This would be our home for our remaining time on the island.

The chalets were next to a beach....I call it a beach, but it was in actual fact just where the sea met the land. It was nasty. There was a foamy substance on the edge of the water, and dead fish, conoms, bits of rubbish, tin cans etc all washed up. As I walked further up, I could see another resort. I went in for a look and was promptly confronted by their guard dog. This was the middle of the day, and he start barking at me quite aggressively. I decided to leave.....

So, we went over to the Masons Arms every day for food and drinks and got to know the staff there. They were really friendly, and used to take the piss out of my accent. I ordered a sprite every time I went in, and they found it hilarious in my Dublin accent! So every time I walked in, I'd hear "Sproite! Sproite!" from one of the Thai bar staff! It was funny!

One of the barmen showed us where to go for Thai Boxing matches, as there was an Irish guy, from Bray, fighting in his first fight the next night. He drove us there, for free. The locals in Thailand are actually really friendly and nice people. It was not what I was expecting. In saying that though, the taxi folk are the opposite! An absolute pain in the hole!!

Oh, and another thing. The place is full of guard dogs, so don't go walking around after dark or they'll attack you! Vicious little buggers!! Mself and Christy went for a walk and got barked at (not bitten), the girls got cornered by 2 sets of dogs either side of a bridge they were walkign across. They had to climb up it to escape! Another girl we met got bitten while sitting on the beach. They just went for her for no reason!! Crazy! She had to get tetnus injections and a few others. Thank god for mopeds, otherwise we would have been stranded.

Photos here.

The Snake guy

2008-07-10T03:18:00.000-07:00

OH my god!

We went to see a snake show today!! It was cool!!!

The guy basically took us around what was a mini zoo for about 15 minutes, before bringing us to a ring, with chairs around the edge. On the far side, was 3 boxes....containing snakes!! We had seen lots of snakes around in cages, but these ones were gonna be let loose right in front of us!! Uh oh!!

The guy took out a baby king cobra from the first box and start messing with it. He was picking it up, and swinging it around, and kissing it and basically taking the piss out of it!! Oh, until it bit him on the neck!! Yeah, I'd say he didn't like that at all!! Ah no, he was grand. The snake is only dangerous to small children. Apparently, us adults can withstand the poison...apparently!

After that, he moved onto box number 2....an even BIGGER Snake!! He basically did the same with the first one, and took the piss out of it!!

The best part was after that. He took 3 snakes out of the big box!! He was totally taking the piss out of them!! haha it was great!!! Basically, he'd run over to one, and make it do stuff, like bite his hair or kiss him or whatever, then he'd run around and do it to another, all the while the other 2 would be trying to bite him! Finally, when he was finished, he picked them up with his bare hands, to show us how good he was at handling them.....only, there was 3 snakes and like the majority of us, he only has 2 hands. Dilemma dilemma...or so we thought. He went around and snook up behind the 3rd snake and picked him up with his mouth, without the snake noticing him!! It was so cool!! I have videos of it I'll try put up later, but for now, you can check it out in the photos below:

Photos from Krabi

Onwards to Krabi

2008-07-09T03:08:00.000-07:00

Today we got the boat to Krabi. It took, I think, around 90 minutes. I slept for most of it.

We arrived in Krabi and it seemed a nice quaint little island. We got picked up, as usual, by a taxi man at the port. He drove us to our next temporary home, a place called Tip Anda. On first glance, it seemed OK, but after staying there, the name TIP Anda seems eerily suitable for the place!!

The rooms were practically outdoor! They were little wooden shacks with no air-conditioning, no TV, no fridge, and no separate beds!!! With me and Christy sharing a room, that kinda becomes a problem!! We had to ask for a separate bed for the room, which they thankfully supplied. It wasn't comfortable, it was full of cockroaches, but the weather and the view were really nice. Sitting out on the porch was really nice. I did some of my blog just sitting out, typing away in the sun. It was nice...if a bit too quiet.

Thats the thing about Krabi. Its nice....but it has no nightlife or cinemas or anywhere for a group of twentysomethings to entertain themselves! We only plan on staying here another day anyway, then its onwards to Koh Pha-Ngan, where we will have the full moon party and all sorts of shenanigans to busy ourselves with!

Oh, and I went to the doctor today. He said nothing was broken in my toe or foot, and that I had just sprained my toe, foot and calf. Thats a relief!!

Photos from Krabi

Limpy Joe

2008-07-07T03:02:00.000-07:00

Ok, so my toe is still really sore! What do ya expect when ya rip the toenail half off and it starts bleeding!! By the way, its still bleeding. Not much, but its still bleeding! I need to go to the doctor!!

I went to the chemist. I got some anti-bacterial wash, some cleaning gel and a bandage. I've been walking around town all day and it is sore!! I can't walk fast at all!! It takes me about an hour to do a 15 minute walk, so its very frustrating!

I actually ran into a friend of mine from Dublin who I hadn't seen in a while. She told me there is a hospital on the island, that is actually quite good, and really cheap!! Unfortunately, we are leaving the island in the morning so I havent got time to go, for fear of being kept in over-night and missing my boat in the morning.

Seriously though, this limp is so bad!! My calf muscle is gone too!! I pulled it last night so I can literally barely walk! Its so frustrating!! I'm never drinking again!!!

Photos from Phi Phi

Phi Phi and the TOE!

2008-07-06T02:54:00.000-07:00

Hmmmm, ok. I have a not so nice blog to report here.

After another night out in Phi Phi, we ended up at the Hippies Bar again. It was just me and Christy and he went home early. So I decided to stay and talk to the people we were chatting to. One thing led to another, and I ended up getting way too drunk! I even start partaking in drinking contests with some Americans at the bar (I won, dont worry), however, that is the last thing I remember.

I woke up this morning, on my bathroom floor, with no recollection of how I got there. I remember bring in the bar, then I woke up thinking I was "still" lying down in the middle of the street. I emphasise "still" because that confuses me. I assumed I was still lying there, but have no recollection of lying down there in the first place, so what I assume happened was, I got really drunk, went home, fel over, decided to go asleep.

Now, what Christy had told me later that day was that around 10am there was a knock on the door that woke him up. It was an Autralian girl, with a member of staff....and me! Apparently, she found me lying in the jungle and brought me home!! This scared the crap out of me! I have no intention of drinking ever again!

Oh, and I havent mentioned the worst part!! When I woke up, I was covered in blood!! When I fell over (I cant remember falling but I must have) it seems I lifted my big toenail back,. At the moment, it is hanging off, with blood underneath it, and it is quite sore. I better go to the doctor, though I'm afraid he might have to take it off!!

Needless to say, I spent that whole day in bed.

Haven't they ever heard of cycle lanes??

2008-07-05T03:09:00.000-07:00

That last nite in phuket was cool!! Got shitfaced and went to Rock City again. There was a few different bands on including a Kiss tribute band. After a few more beers, the singer start putting the microphone out to the audience for us to sing the words. Nobody was singing so I took it upon myself to liven everyone up! I ran up to the stage, grabbed the mic, and sang the rest of the song on him!! The song was Rock n Roll All Nite. Some people might recognise it from Guitar Hero 3! It was cool. I was amazing! Didnt get any photos though. Ragin!!

So, next day, we had to GET THE BOAT to Phi Phi island. It took 2.5 hours or so and was an absolute killer!! There was people getting sick all over the place. Everywhere you look, people are availing of the complimentar sickbag! Luckily however, I didn't...thank jaysus!

At the moment, we've been on this island the last couple of days. The place is amazing. There's an irish bar (where is there not?) but its crap. Its an Irish "themed" pub, rather than an actual Irish bar. We were the only Irish in there.

We went on a pub crawl last night. Free bucket of whiskey and coke between midnight and ten past midnight in Tiger bar. Jaysus, once that kicked in, that was the end of it! I turned up at the hotel room this mornin covered in sand, soaked from head to toe. My phone is broken, and I have a big cut down my leg. How it got there is anyones guess! We went to the Hippy Bar on the opposite side of the island. I had to walk back from the Hippy bar in my borrowed flip flops. Not an easy task, for me! I didn't have my runners as I had ruined them earlier on in the night on the other beach party after I jumped thruough a hoop of fire and landed in the ocean. That was fun, but it destroyed my only pair of runners with water and sand. I was some sight to behold this morning at breakfast, still shitfaced, getting breakfast in the hotel. I got a big mountain of food (a far cry from Burger King on Grafton St after a night out) still while soaking wet!!

Something I noticed over here is the large number of Irish people. I knew there'd be some...just not this much!!

The hotel is lovely anyway. Nice little bungalows, surrounded by green plants and lizards and sorts of other local wildlife! I could have sworn I even heard a cow! MOOO!!!

I have to go get some grub now and probably go back out again. We've been out every nite since we left Dublin with the exception of the whole day we missed while travelling from Bangkok to Phuket. I honestly haven't a clue what day it is these days!! There's no structure, just drinkin', eatin', sleepin', and drinkin...ITS GREAT!!

The massage ladies here are funny too. You walk passed and they'll say "massage? massage? sexy man, massage?". It's funnier in person when you can hear it in their accent! Oh, and the vehicle of choice on the island is bicycle. They fly up the skinny paths at you and nearly knock you over!! All the warning you receive is, if you're lucky, a bicycle bell. If they're not equipped with one, they'll say "beep beep". Not 100% safe. Haven't they ever heard of cycle lanes???

Phuket rocks!

2008-07-01T02:59:00.000-07:00

Phuket rocks! I've met some very interesting "ladies". There was me fave, Di Di, who I bumped into the other nite. She was a lovely friendly girl! Had a bit of a husky voice, but she assured me it was coz she hadnt got much sleep from working nights. i asked her what she worked as and she said something about Bangkok. I think she said she works in a bank office in Bangkok. I'm not sure. She was tellin me all about Phi Phi (pronounced pee pee) and she said she loves Phi Phi. That's promising! I also asked her if she likes to swim in Phi Phi....she said yes! I can't swim, but for some reason felt the need to ask the question! The weird thing though, she had a lump in her throat that looked like an adams apple......it wasnt though. She had gotten a throat infection...obviously related to the husky voice she got from working late and not getting much sleep. Nice girl though.

Another nice lady offered me a massage while I was going to Subway for a sandwich! Very nice of her. She was nice and friendly and came up and gave me a hug and didn't want to let go! Ahh, so friendly! Since she didn't want to let go, I had to grab her by the arm and we skipped down the road after Christy, who had headed on to Subway. So, then i was gettin more hungry so said my goodbyes...but she was so friendly she jumped on my back. I didnt know what to do....so i gave her a jockeyback down the road. She was a big girl for such a little girl though. Luckily, she couldnt run that fast so I dropped her on her back and was able to outrun her!! lol, I think I deserved my Subway Club Sandwich!

Subway seems to be a focal point for all the weirdos, however. On the way back from subway last nite, this other lady came up to me and opened her hotpants and showed me her "shaven haven" while saying "pussy! pussy!" in order to prove, unlike Di Di, that she was an actual lady! I was suitably impressed by her tidyness, and obvious attention to personal grooming, but as a gentleman, I declined. Suddenly, from the corner of my eye, I spotted my massage friend from the other night. She tried to run after me again so I had to scarper quickly back to the hotel! Got a nice sandwich, got some exercise....what more do ya need?!?! Oh, the free drink in the rock bar from 9pm-11pm earlier in the night!! That was class.

Phuket

2008-06-30T02:49:00.000-07:00

The lads booked all our travel for the rest of the month one morning in Bangkok, while I was sleeping, so I havent a clue about where we're going for te next month. I'm sure I'll pick it up on the way...

In Phuket now. We took a 14 hour bus journey to get here.

Right, so the plan was for the travel reps to meet us at the hotel at half 5. We got there at 5, just in case! Eventually, they turned up at 6, brought us literally 100metres around the corner to the bus station, which we were unaware of, to wait another hour, maybe 2 for our magical "VIP" bus to Phuket. So, after waiting over 2 hours, we then we had an 11 hour bus journey through the night, with very little hope of getting any sleep, only to be dropped off in some shitehole of a restaurant at the side of a road, to wait for another hour for a minibus to take us to a tourist office......so we could wait another 2 hours for another foookin bus, which would take us to an hour away from where we're goin, so we'd have to get 2 taxis (6 of us) to the hotel...out of our own pocket!! We didnt agree to this! I feel like we're being taken advantage of so they can get more money out of us! I don't like being in the middle of Thailand somewhere, with our fate in the hands of these people. We tried talking to them in the tourist office about the situation. We told them we were not happy and this is not what we signed up for! So, the lady in the office informs us that she can get a driver to drive us all the way to our hotel in Phuket....for 600baht each. Pain in the sack that we have to pay extra. I dont see what the point in booking these things, payin for them, then bein told we've to pay more!! Bangkok is a kip! Thank god Phuket seems 234234% nicer so far...but will that last....?

also, im constantly hungry!! just had spag bol and chips and now im super starvin again!! like i had them maybe 20 mins ago!! wats goin on!!

Drunk in a Bangkok toilet

2008-06-29T02:43:00.000-07:00

As I type this, im sittin on the crapper in a shitty bangkok hitel.

bangkok smells, its dirry, its cheap, its un-hygenic, the beer is cheap, the hookers are plenty, the locals are smelly.....but boy is it fun!!!

first nite, we came over after the 13hr flight or whatever.

land in the bangkok airport. taxi man takes us then halfway across thir M50, we get t othe toll bridge, he goes thru, then stops. heres where i frist get scared of bum rape. turns out he was stoppin to ask directions coz he didnt know where he was goin. he brouht us to the wrong place too in the end. had to get a local to show us. bags were heavy. so we get here anyway. go on the beer. i get shitfaced. them lot went asleep, i went solo. got shitfaced. even more!! al the locals start bein super nice to me to get money off me. i ended up gettin a full tour of the city for 5baht. google it. its like 20c. fo an hour. he brought me to a shop too to buy beer then while i bought a suit he got me ice and put it in me bag of cans so they'd stay cold. was cool. so ye, we went to all these sacred temples and churches. i saw a few monks. i was shitfaced, as i am now. havin a poo. a number 2. how are you. dont sniff glue.

so anyway, ye i was on the beeer the whole nite and met random ppl and start givin them abuse. hookers grabbed me cock, i told them to get the boat. next day, i actually got a boat. we saw some decrepid places. it was shit. cant trust this place. feel me bum is always on the table anytime we turn down an alleyway. place smelly.im tryin to think of a good thing about this place.............its cheap. thats it! nearly got rowdy wit a texan. me mate was hammered and was tryin to squeeze passed his chair so basically picked up the chair so he had to stand up so the texan was all like "thats not cool" and all this so anyway, im leavin and he walks out wit us. when they were gettin up to leave, me mate sorta apologised and hadshake and pat on the back. the yank says to me "man, i totally wiped a load of shit in that guys back!!" so im like " eh thats me BEST mate EVER!!" wit some extra exaggeration. like fair enough, i only met him like 2 days ago but still. so the yank was like "oh crap" so im like "eh either ur a liar or ur gonna get bet!"...lol so then he goes ".......im a liar!". i lol'd and he walked off. was gas. that was 2nite tho. lemme think bout last nite.

oh ye it all blends in. i've totally lost track of what day it is and time and all that. i also have a new number. 08-4664-1885. tho im too wasted to remember the diallin code so someone google it for me.

let me think wat else.

oh, theres wild cats all over the place. not normal cats, but skinny diseased lookin scrawny fookers. our alleyway leadin into our hotel seems to be the local toilet too. smell of piss off it. not sure if its the cats or the locals handlin the street side food stalls or what! nearly got in a fight with the tuk tuk drivers today too. lucky there was 6 of u and 3 of them! thats all i can say!

oh and all the locals speak irish too!! its gas!! brilliant!! oh and i insulted a belgian and a german and a 34yr old english fella whpo kept speakin like h was black!! the abuse i gave him! WAF!!

i'll think of more stuff to update yis wit. cant rememer it all. there'll be no pics for ages either. i've 250 photos. 750mb!! not a chance of gettin upploaded

so anyway, 22k in baht for everything for rest of month except beer money!!!! breakfast, din dins, accomodation, travel.....all paid for.

beach tomorrow. gonna be amazin. oz on 25th july. flyin to sydeny but not stayin. turns out we've a connecting flight straight to cairns so im gonna be miles away from me mates and me parents, who booked flights to see me in sydney. lol ooops!
so 10hr bus journey 2moro, before paradise. cant wait! i hate bangkok. it smells! bring on oz.....please!!!

oh when i was drunk, the tuk tuk man brought me all over the palce and made me buy a suit for 400euro. best ever suit but dunno how im gonna get it on the plane!!! lovely tho. i wa so wasted and the tailors in the shop start givin me free beer!! lucky gits!! i jsut put their kids thru college!!! lolzers, nite.

ps thank FOOOOOOOOOk for air conditioning!! like seriously, i just go into shops and pretend to look around just coz they have A/C!! serious. its lovely.

First stop: Bangkok

2008-06-27T00:32:00.000-07:00

So, after a 14 our flight, we finally arrive in Bangkok. I've never been outside Europe before, so I haven't a clue what to expect. All I have to go on is what I've seen on TV, ie mopeds, smog, sweat and filth....I wasn't wrong!

We touch down in Bangkok International Airport and head towards Arrivals. The airport is amazing! Glass all around, with a luxurious garden inside with well kept trees and exotic plants! Ya woldn't get this in Ireland!! I'm impressed!

We finally make it outside, after going through a very cultural airport! This is where rality hits! There is literally people everywhere clammering to get our business, be it taxi, or tour of the city! We had already been nabbed by a taxi service inside so we had our "VIP Taxi limo" waiting for us when we got there. All our hopes of a fancy drive to our plush hotel vanished when a grey Hiace van pulled up and some local man started shouting at us for our bags. He loaded them into the back and herded us into the back. Luckily it had air conditioning!

We told him we were going to the Sawasdee Inn on Khaosan Road and we were on our way.

About halfway there, it came to light that he didn't know where this hotel was! We had to stop at a toll bridge to ask the local Police there. After a few minutes he came out, looked at a map, and we set off again. Around 20 minutes later, we were dropped at a hotel in the middle of Bangkok. The lady there was nice, and the locals seemed friendly. The lady was quite helpful and told us that in fact this was not our hotel, but ours was only down the road, but she'd take us there. So off we set, bags on our backs, down the road to what seems like their Grafton St! We spot an Irish bar! We'll be in there later, we agree!!

The lady stops halfway down the street and points down an alleyway. We seen a sign above it saying "Sawasdee Inn". We're home, it seems!

We walk down the alley. Its full of cats.....well, not cats as we know them, but more like rat cats! They're scrawny diseased looking yokes! Not nice at all! But we get to reception anyway. Not impressed. We check in, get to the rooms....not impressed! The rooms were horrible! The bathrooms were small! You could have a shower while sitting on the toilet, while brushing your teeth in the sink....but not with tap water, coz that will give you diarhoea!! I miss Ireland already!

We'll go exploring tonight. Hopefully first impressions can be changed...

June 25th 2008: The departure

2008-06-25T01:19:00.000-07:00

So, the day is here! The day I have to say goodbye to eoinzy conrizzle, and say hello to Eoin Conroy, some bloke travelling the world! Boring!

I woke up this morning, with Anne-Marie beside me. She can't believe the time has flew in so fast. There was so much we didn't get to do. Now, I'm off for a year, with no idea where I'll be in a year! She's the same! Today sees the end of us as a couple. The prospect of an organised break-up is daunting, as well as confusing and perplexing. This is un-chartered territory for both of us. When we met, we both knew I was going away, so purposely tried not to get attached, but "unfortunately" we did! How can I handle a break up on a day I've to say goodbye to my family, my friends, and my whole life!! It wont be easy!

First stop that morning was to go get my hair cut! I'll be travelling for a month so thats the last thing I want to worry about! Heat and long hair do not go together!

Next, I had to go up to my mothers creche to say goodbye to her. It was hard, but had to be done. I also phoned my father, who was busy in work with a safety inspector so couldnt meet in person. In the back of my mind I knew all these goodbyes were leading up to the one that I never thought I'd be saying!

After a few last minute errands, I took my bag and got the bus into town and stopped into Anne-Maries place. We had intended to say goodbye here in the privacy of her apartment, but we wanted to squeeze every last second out of each other that we could, so she said she'd come to the airport with me and we'd say goodbye when we were forced to by the anti-cupid that is Aer Lingus flight FR137 to London Heathrow!!

On the bus to the airport, I was taking a few last snaps of Dublin on my camera. I don't know why. Maybe just for sentimental value.

When we got to the airport, everyone else was inside. We met them near the escalator to departures, where the tears were flowing and we got introduced to everyone elses parents. After what seemed like hours of goodbyes, we were finally ready to check-in. Luckily, everyone could still come with us to check-in. Another extra few minutes.......

As we walked down the escalator, I knew the time to say goodbye to Anne-Marie was getting closer by the second. We had both agreed to stay strong because neither of us could handle anything emotional at this time. Everyone had to stay behind the barrier while we queued. Last time I checked in here, we went straight onto the place from here. This would be the last time I would see Anne-Marie. With so many lumps in our throats, I dont know how we got to say a single last word to each other, but we did. In a room surrounded by hundreds of people queueing, you have to try maintain at least a little decorum. I achieved this by going into a nearly meditative state. How she handled it, I dont know.

So after a long queue, we finally checked in. I could still see her. Her eyes were welling up, as were mine. Is this the last time we lock eyes? It can't be!!

Luckily, it was not. It turns out we have to go through security in another part of the building. We would get another whole 5 minutes together!! It may not seem like much, but there and then, it seemed like an eternity. As I queued up to go through security, I kept turning to look at her. As I got nearer the front of the queue, both of us grew weaker and weaker, and let out a few more tears. She broke down. I did too. What did I get myself into!! She found all this too much, and had to leave! The last I saw of her was her turning around one last time to look at me, teary eyed, as she left the terminal building. I started crying again. This is the saddest I've been in years!

The rest of the day doesnt seem interesting, but suffice it to say, we flew to London Heathrow, stayed an hour or 2, then got our connecting, 14 hour, flight to Bangkok.

It begins....

Nearly time

2008-06-24T01:06:00.000-07:00

So, I have had my going away parties. I have said goodbye to as many people as possible. I have sorted my visa, flights, spending money, passport, and basically done everything....except pack!

Ahhh, I hate packing!!

Luckily, this is where the lovely Anne-Marie comes in! They say that behind every great man, there's a great woman (so if she's a great woman, does that make me a great man?)! Over the last few days, she has literally dragged me shopping to buy bum bags, plug adaptors, sunscreen, electric shavers, etc etc...basically everything I could need! She has also packed all my clothes for me! Legend!!

So, as it stands now, on the eve of my "Trip of Destiny", thanks to Anne-Marie, I am ready! I'm not 100% happy I have to leave, but this trip is something I have to do! I kow I'll regret it later in life, when I'm tied down to a mortgage, with a few sprogs running around so this has to be done! I have been saying for years I want to do this, and I am now leass than 24 hours away from doing it......and yet, still no butteflies! :(

Getting close

2008-06-23T00:51:00.000-07:00

The time is nearly upon me. Still, very little excitement! There must be something really wrong with me!

I have a few going away parties organised in anticipation of my departure. There are 2 Saturday nights left before I go, and both will be taken advantage of!!!

The first, just me and a few friends out in Dublin town. We ended up in The Village. Somehow, one of the boys blagged a pass for all of us to the "VIP" Section. It was a nice little area upstairs, over-looking the DJ on stage, with leather wrap-around sofas, and a private bar. Quite nice.

The 2nd party there was a lot more people. We went for a meal in The Hard Rock Cafe in Temple Bar. There was about 15 of us there. Afterwards, we went in search of a Japanese Karaoke bar, but unfortunately it was full, so we went around to corner to Ri Ra, where we were joined by a few more friends. I was wearing my suit out that night. However, Kelly decided to buy me a pair of speedos as a going away present. So, combined with a few beers, and a little peer pressure, it wasn't long before I had the speedos on over my suit! Superman, eat your heart out! I can say this though.....I looked amazing!!

2 weeks to go

2008-06-11T00:31:00.000-07:00

2 weeks to go.....
I don't think it has kicked in yet. I am going on an around the world trip in 2 weeks.....and I am feeling very very.......meh!

Is there something wrong with me? Surely most people would be barely able to contain their excitement at going on a trip of a lifetime around the world for a year! Not me! I suspect it's because I've known I'm going on this trip since maybe 9 months ago, so the novelty has kind of worn off. Maybe.

Maybe it is because I am enjoying life at the moment. Free and easy, no commitments. A sexy girlfriend. A shed load of cash in the bank. Basically everything I need, which will be taken away from me in 2 weeks!

At the moment, I'm wary of Thailand. We will be goin to Bangkok, Phuket, Phi Phi, Krabe, Koh Pan-Ngan and Koh Samui, before returning to Bangkok for our flight to Oz. With the exception of Phuket, word on the street is that the hospitals are below standard. At home, I am 5 minutes from Tallaght Hospital. Over in Thailand, I will not know where anything is, should something happen.

Also, the water. You can't drink the water! I've been on holidays to, say, Gran Canaria for 2 weeks where you cannot drink the water. It was horrible trying to brush your teeth! I have a month of this ahead of me! Not to mention living out of a suitcase! Yeah, fair enough, I'm going back-packing for a year, but still, I like the comforts of civilised society!

Oh, and one more thing. We will be island hopping for most of the month. This is fine for someone who can, for example....eh, swim!! Yes, you heard it, I will be living on islands, surrounded by oceans, living in hotels with swimming pools, going on boat trips with snorkelling, and kayaking...and I can't swim! lol, what am I getting myself in for.....

The saving grace!

2008-06-04T00:22:00.000-07:00

So I've had no luck with a job. I've been to meet a few recruitment agents, all of whom told me they had loads of IT jobs (lol I even got asked to be a recruiter by one flirtatious lady, coz apparently I was so brilliant that she'd love to have me working with her), but alas, nothing has materialised.

I have decided to go with Plan B.

While talking with a friend of mine, who works in a bank, I was informed that she could get me a loan of 5000euro the next morning! She'd fast track it through so I would have it in plenty of time. She is my saving grace!!

So, after a weekend to think it over, I decided to take the loan. I had the 5k in my bank the next morning! I kept checking my balance online just to look at it! It was great!! I just wont think of next year when I have to actually pay it back!!

So whats left to do now? I have transferred that 5k over to my Australian bank account, for spending money over there, and kept 1000 euro for spending in Thailand. Anyone I've spoken to has told me thats more than adequate for a month in Thailand. Lets hope they're right!

The Trip of Destiny: First hiccup

2008-05-16T00:16:00.000-07:00

Well, I have hit my first stumbling block on this trip, over a month before I'm due to even leave!!

I have been let go from my job!!!

I was relying on the extra months pay to get me enough cash to travel, but unless I get a job soon, I dont think I will have enough cash to get me through the month in Thailand, and then the time in Australia before I'm settled down enough to start looking for a job!

Let me explain, briefly, about my being let go...
I was let go due to my bad timekeeping. There is a lot of cutbacks going on, and I kept turning up late, so the day after I handed in my letter of resignation, I became another victim of the cutbacks, and was let go on the Friday afternoon, just before clocking off time!! Ain't that a kick in the balls!!

Apparently, the following Monday the management team called a staff meeting to clarify that I was indeed sacked because of my timekeeping, and not because of the rumours which had been circulating, based mainly on.....hmmmm, quick edit here...better not say!!
(also, word of advice......Don't get super drunk at the Christmas party and make a holy show of yourself. It may come back to haunt you!)

So, this leaves me with just over a month before I go, and not enough money to allow me to go!! If I don't go, I lose out on the €2500 that I paid for the trip, and also let down the people I am meant to be travelling with!

What to do, what to do.....

eoinzy conrizzle in The Trip of Destiny

2008-05-05T23:56:00.000-07:00

Hi folks,
Well, this is the first posting in my new blog. I've never done a blog before, but decided to create this one so people can follow my antics on my around the world trip of destiny!!

The trip commences on June 25th 2008, and I will not be back in lovely Ireland until roughly June 25th 2009.

The trip will take in Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, and the USA. I expect to have roughly 8000 euro to do the travelling, which will be further subsidised by working in Australia. I have applied for a 1 year working holiday visa from VisaFirst so that will allow me to work for no more than 6 months in any 1 company, though I dont see that as being a problem since I'll be travelling most of the time!

So, sit back, have a read of my stories, and feel free to leave comments.

Thanks,
Eoin

(Note: These posts were created beforehand on a different site, but I copied them here, so the dates will be off for the first few)