After 1 month in Phuket, it was time to leave and I was ready. Phuket was too crowded and too touristy for me. You couldn’t walk anywhere without people hassling you asking if you want a taxi or massage or a new tailor-made suit or dress every few meters! After a month though, I did discover a few nice local restaurants and nice beaches. Here are a few pictures:
I hope he has the right cable!
Thai language classes have been really interesting. I have learnt a fair bit already although it is kinda information overload! They try and cram a lot of information into a couple of weeks. To start off with, we learnt greetings, a lot of the useful verbs, and basic sentence structure. It does seem to be quite simple in that they don’t use as many words as we do in English which is good! So for example, they would say ‘I go shop’ where we would say ‘I am going to the shop’. That’s like half the number of words!
As we progressed, we learnt how to talk about ourself versus other people, how to say I want and I would like, I can and I cannot, and how to ask questions. They have a word in Thai – mai which has to be said in a rising tone because it can also mean no or new, but said with the correct tone, adding the word to the end of a sentence is how you ask a question. So using the same example, ‘I go shop’ with the word mai at the end means ‘should I go to the shop?’!
The order of the words in the sentences are quite different as well! When describing something, you add the adjectives after the noun so ‘house big white’ instead of ‘big white house’! That actually makes more sense to me. It’s easier to picture what is being described if you have the noun before the adjectives. And then the words can and cannot go after the verb so you would say ‘I go shop cannot’ instead of ‘I cannot go to the shop’. It’s quite different and difficult trying to think in this way instead of just trying to translate the English directly.
The other interesting thing is that it seems that there isn’t a word for yes! You just give a positive response by repeating the verb back if you agree! So ‘do you understand?’ would be answered ‘understand’. ‘Should we eat?’ is answered ‘eat’! ‘Do you want to go to the beach?’ is answered ‘want’, ‘go’, or ‘want go’. All are acceptable in this case. It means you really have to listen to what is being said! Very different to English where we just answer yes or no sometimes without really having listened to the question!
It’s funny how learning someone else’s language changes your perspective. I think we frequently think well they should all just learn English! Like it is easy! I think for us native English speakers, we don’t really realise just how hard our language is to learn! I saw this recently which made me laugh!
After the month at home, I was sad to leave, but ready at the same time. My parents drove me to the airport and it was hard saying goodbye to them, but nowhere near as intense as the 1st time! The 1st time was such a big deal for me, but this time almost felt normal! I’ve been reading a book recently which was actually written by my dad a few years ago. He talks about how when taking a big leap of faith, it can seem so intimidating! But then it just becomes normal for you and you can just do it without thinking. Every time we overcome a challenge or do something we were scared of, we are elevating to a new and higher level of normality. I loved that thought! When I think of all the other things in life that intimidate me, it’s pretty cool to think that one day they could almost just become a normal thing that I do without thinking.
I flew from Heathrow to Bangkok and Bangkok to Phuket, and then took a taxi to my guesthouse in Phuket. I have booked accommodation here for a month for now, and I will just figure out the next step after that. It’s funny I used to be the kind of person that had to have everything planned out! Well at least the next few years anyway! I liked to feel like I was in control and hated uncertainty but now I’m doing the opposite of that – just pretty much going with the flow and waiting to see how things pan out. I plan to do a 2 week foundation course at a Thai language school here. I really want to be able to help the last orphanage I was at here more. But it is difficult at the moment because we can’t even communicate. It looks like a very difficult language though. To be honest, just looking at the letters scares me but I’m going to give it a real go!
The flight home was almost 24 hours! 8 hours from Sydney to Singapore, and then 14 hours from Singapore to London. I arrived in Heathrow on the 20th of December at 4am and sure enough my parents were there waiting for me! It was so good seeing them again! A bit surreal!
We drove back to their house in Southampton where I would be staying. Over the next few days, it was great catching up with all my family, and it was so good being home for Christmas! Me and my younger brother Michael cooked the Christmas dinner together and it was so much fun! One thing I really didn’t appreciate though was the weather! Coming from summer in Australia to winter in the UK, I knew it would be hard readjusting but it was worse than I had imagined! With only a month there though, I tried to make the most of it. It was kinda nice being there but knowing it was just for a month. It made me just enjoy the moment instead of worrying too much about the future and what I was going to do. I had the next step figured out at least and would just take it from there.
In the last month, as the trip nears the end, I have been thinking a lot about going back to the UK and about the future, thinking about what I want to do, and 1 thing is clear, I am not ready to go back! Not even slightly ready! I almost feel like I have just got started. The idea of going back to my old life is just not appealing at all! I’ve been reading a book recently which had some thoughts which I love. It talks about occasionally doing things that seem kinda outrageous to you and the people around you. Surprise yourself sometimes. Don’t let your life get boring and predictable. It made me laugh because that’s exactly how I had been living life until recently, boring and predictable! Playing it safe. And now I was discovering pretty much a new way of living. One filled with adventure and risk taking and unpredictability and fun and just doing what’s on my heart instead of what’s expected of me. It’s quite fitting really that this blog is titled ‘Life starts here’! I love the changes in me and I don’t want it to end here, I just want more of this!
So with a bit of money left over, I decided that I was going to extend the trip. I originally planned to just stay out here and maybe spend a few more months in Asia before coming to Australia, but I didn’t like the idea of being away from my family at Christmas so I decided to go home for Christmas, stay a few weeks and then leave again. I booked my flight back out to Thailand before I left Australia because I knew that once I got back, it would be so easy to just drift back into my old life just because it’s the easy option so I’m going back home, but not to stay.
By the time I got back to Sydney, I had just 1 week left before I had to fly back to London so I tried to fit in as much as I could. I spent 1 morning hanging out in the trendy Surry Hills area and then walked down to Darling Harbour which was beautiful!
I spend a day at Centennial park with my friend and that was also beautiful!
I walked across the Harbour bridge one day and went to the pylon lookout which has some pretty cool views:
I wanted to re-do some of the things I had loved here in my final few days so I did the walk from Bondi beach to Coogee again. It was a perfect day and was so so beautiful. I use that word a lot when talking about Sydney, but it is very fitting! Here are a few pictures:
I also took the ferry over to Manly again in my last few days and just spent a few hours relaxing on the beach there:
I definitely want to spend some more time here. I think moving over here for a year or 2 would be pretty sweet but we’ll see! Watch this space!
I went to check out the farmer’s market here on my last day.
I then packed and got a shuttle to the airport to fly back to Sydney. Luckily there was no flight drama this time around, but the flight itself was definitely somewhat of an experience. Around 15 mins in, we hit some very bad turbulence, the worst I had ever experienced! The plane was being thrown around, and would then drop, then thrown around some more and then drop some more. Everyone started freaking out! Suddenly it was like the ice was broken and we all became friends united in trying to figure out what was happening and if we were going to survive! I wasn’t really too worried, this was the 20th flight I had taken in 6 months and although it was bad, I wasn’t as alarmed as some of the others. One lady started hyperventilating so badly! And because we all had to stay in our seats with our belts fastened, no one could go to check on her. It only lasted around 10 minutes and then the pilot apologised. He described it as clear turbulence and told us that he hadn’t received any warnings about it so couldn’t avoid it. The rest of the flight was uneventful, and I arrived in Sydney an hour later.
I decided to walk up to the lighthouse this morning. It was supposed to be an hour walk and I thought it would be good exercise. It was difficult though, walking uphill the whole way and I was breaking in some new flip flops so my feet were in pain by the time I got to the top. It felt good to get to the top though.
I walked back down and then spent a few hours at the beach before a thunderstorm hit and I was rushing back completely drenched! I headed out to the gig later that the guy I had met in the cafe had told me about. It was just at a bar nearby. At 1st I wasn’t so sure about going on my own. I would never go to a gig on my own back in London but I figured I would give it a try. I wasn’t actually on my own for too long, a guy came and sat with me and we got chatting. He was from Sydney but moved to Byron Bay for a job teaching and he loved it here. He liked how laid back it was compared to the city. I was quite amused about how normal it was to just chat to strangers here! 2 days in a row. He said he lived on a farm nearby and had come out because he had lost electricity during the storm. He was nice and was good company for a few hours but I drew the line when he offered to drive me to the airport the next day!
After the gig, I went to say hi to the guy playing who I had met the previous day. He introduced me to his singer and she was so excited to be chatting to a fellow Londoner! We were talking about our experiences in Australia and how different it was. She was encouraging me to move here for a while which I had already been thinking about! I can get a working holiday visa here as long as it is before I am 30 so I have less than 2 years to decide! It does seem like a cool idea…!
We woke up early the next day and headed out for breakfast together. My friends had to drive back to Dalby after breakfast as some of them were working later that day.
It was sad saying bye to them! Especially because we weren’t sure how long it would be until we saw each other again. I was back to being a solo traveler. I spent a few hours at the beach and then went to check into my new accommodation. I had booked a room through Airbnb where people rent out spare rooms in their houses to visitors. It was my 1st time of using it but I had picked a place with very good reviews so I wasn’t too worried. I found the place and got into my room. It was actually a 4 bedroom self-contained apartment above the owner’s house. It was very nice, with a nice lounge and kitchen. There was just 1 other girl there, a doctor from Ireland and we chatted a bit. She seemed nice. I headed back to the beach, read for a while and went for a walk, and then stopped off at a cafe for a while.
Soon after I had ordered, a man and woman came and sat on the next table. They were both older, and they started chatting to me. They were quite intrigued about my traveling, where I had been and what I had been doing. The guy mentioned that he was playing a gig the following night and the girl singing with him was from London and we would get on so I should come along. Soon after, a couple they were friends with came to join them and the conversation changed dramatically! The guy was an organic farmer and definitely a hippie! Some of the things he was saying were quite funny to me. Talking about how Mother Earth is like a dog with fleas on it and it will only take them for so long before it shakes to get them all off and we are due a shake up soon! And about how the world is just full of greed and it will take another world war for us to start loving each other again! I certainly wasn’t hoping for that! He was talking about some of his ideas to make the organic food market more commercial and get rid of all these American franchises like McDonalds from the country. Because this is Australia and everything here should be Australian! And we don’t need to go to America anymore because America is here! His ideas were pretty extreme to me! One of the ladies there was clearly deep into astrology and was telling him that he was born between the years of the lion and the snake and what that means for his future. I politely excused myself from the conversation and left chuckling inside about how what I thought would be a quiet coffee ended up! I had definitely experienced the hippie side of Byron Bay though! I headed back to the apartment and chatted to my flat mate for a few hours before calling it a night.
We left Dalby very early on the Monday morning so we could make the most of the day there. It was a 4 hour drive to Byron Bay. It’s funny how normal it is to drive long distances here. A 4 hour drive is considered pretty close! I don’t think I realised how big this country was until I got here! I had heard a lot about Byron Bay before I got here. Everyone had described it as hippie-town so I had my expectations but it was actually quite different to what I expected. It was very trendy with lots of cool shops, cafés and restaurants and very pretty. We headed up to the lighthouse which is one of the big attractions here and it was really cool. The views from up there were amazing! Here are a few pictures.
We then checked into the hostel where we were spending the night and then headed out. We wandered around some of the shops here and then headed to the beach where we spent the afternoon. The weather was perfect, sunny but not too hot. Later that evening, we went to a pub for dinner and they had a musical bingo competition so we joined in for a few rounds and I ended up winning one round! So I got a voucher for a free lunch at one of the places here. It was a really fun day.