Friday 11 November 2011

The mining town of Isa

Twenty-eight hours bus ride away, I was hoping Mount Isa was going to be worth it! Far into the Australian outback, far away from anything; I travelled through deserts and endless nothingness within an ocassional stop in some middle of nowhere town.

When I got on the bus I couldn't believe my ears when the driver explained for what felt like ten minutes about the dangers of leaving your feet in the aisle and how your trip could be ruined if you were caused an injury in this way. They really are thorough about things out here!

While on the bus I spoke to one women who was enquiring about whether a seat was taken to which I replied "I think a man is sitting there." Little did I know that that even the simplist of sentences was going to be hard for someone to understand out here.

"What a mam?"
"No a man"
"A nun?"
"No a man, a male!"
"Ohhh a maaaaan!"

Jesus, this is going to be fun.

Thank god, it was only one silly women on a bus that my accent made hard work for or this could have been a hard couple of months!

Mount Isa is a funny old place. Bigger than the places I stopped at en route (thank god!) but as lively as a bush in the outback. NOTHING happens here.

Its so quite, people do puzzles at the hostel... for fun!

On the plus though it is one of the best places to save money, as there's literally nothing to spend your wages on! There's one cinema, but the hostel has so many films there's not even any reason to go!

I found work at a bar/restaurant in one of the hotels in the town. Suprisingly it actually gets really quite busy and I do enjoy it a lot.

The only thing about this place is that it feels, in the words of Dylan Moran describing Oz, like "its located three-quarter of a mile from the surface of the sun, with people audibly crackling as they walk down the street!" I couldn't have put it better myself! This place is hot, with a capital H!... and the storms at night, I've never seen storms like it in my life! Amazing to watch, but so so loud! One lightening rod cracked only three streets away the other night and I heard it clearer than any lightening i've heard in my life... popping and cracking as it bolted toward the ground.

As dull as it sounds, i'm actually quite enjoying the quite life, at least for the time being... its some much needed time out, and i'm sure i'll be heading on to some crazy times once again once I leave this place!

The start of my adventures 'Down Under'!

A sad goodbye and two flights later I arrived on Saturday October 15th in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

I changed flights in Darwin, in the north west of Australia and while waiting for my connection I saw a newspaper with the headline "Armed boy, 13, caught towing a donkey"... and I though 'What the hell kind of country is this!'

Australia was a huge dose of the reality that I'd been missing out on for the past few months.

Things were almost 'normal' again. Ok, many of these 'normal' things were still so different to life back in England, but I felt like I'd just returned back to civilistation after being in some alternate reality where stress didn't (well almost didn't!) exist. And this reality hit hard when I realised how goddam expensive Oz is! If i'd arrived from England it would have been not so bad, but after Bali where I paid 20p for a bottle of water, I almost fainted at the thought of paying two quid!

No wonder the wages are so good, you need good wages to keep you off the streets. I was gonna have to get me a job, and fast!

In the hostel I made friend with an English boy from my dorm called Raj, and soon enough we spent everyday together for the next week and a half we were in Brisbane. When I met him I knew there was something strangley familiar about him but I couldn't put my finger on it and then it clicked... he unmistakeably we identical in everything but sex to my friend Emily! We definetely clicked and it was gresat to have another good friend :)

Brisbane is a nice city and I spent my days wandering around the galleries and museums, as well as looking for jobs of course.

Me and Raj had also made friends with a group of French people: Sebastien, Kevin, Euan and Mayol and were helping Sebastien and Kevin with their English everyday. This friendship also worked the other way and helped me little with my french!

One of the most entertaining things so far about Australia though has been defintely been the language! Never in my life before have I heard the phases "Fuck me dead!" or "Fuck me Tracy!"... but more on this later.

Another thing I've noticed about Australia is that EVERYTHING tastes different. Whatever I try to make, It doesn't matter if it comes from a tin or I make it from scatch, it just doesn't taste right!..somethig else I have to get used to!

I was struggling to find a job in Brisbane having a lack of experience behind a bar, so I opened up to the idea of working anywhere that I could find work. Within a week and a half I left the city and headed far out into the outback of Queensland to the mining town of Mount Isa and what a strange place this turned out to be.

So where next, Australia?!

Faced with the reality that not too far in the distant future I would have to go home, back to cold and wintery England, where I have no house or job, I figured why the rush?!

However with the main opposing factor being the lack of cash- there seemed one prety good answer to that: Australia!

Me and Merel had discussed the possibilty of going to Oz and the more we talked about it the more I liked the sound of it. Eventually I knew I had to make a decision and so I decided yes!

I was so far round the world already... why not just go that little bit further, and who knew when I've had the opportunity to go again. I thought I might as well go while I have no comitments back home whatsoever. I just made perfect sense, so I went fo it!

I applied for my visa online and had it confirmed with the same day and booked my flight to Brisbane and I was all set!

The thought of going to Oz was so exciting. Not only was I going somewhere new once again, but this was a place I never dreamed I actually get to.

I planned to stay for a few months maybe, make some money and head back to Asia. However I was well aware that all plans are subject to change, although I didn't quite anticipate how much they were going to change!

Within a week of arriving I'd been in touch with STA travel about changing my flight date, but apparently a ticket I was told was valid for twelve months was actually only valid for six. So now I had two options: go home or buy a new flight. This decision was the easiest I think I've ever made. Now I have the freedom to stay in Oz for as long as I want so why not stay he for the length of my visa and actually see some of Oz!

So as much as I miss all my friends and family, I guess I'll be seeing you all next October!

Suprisingly enough my mum's response was "I knew this would happen!" haha, and my dad is fully supportive of my decision too which is the best outcome I could have hoped for!

Let's hope I've made the right choice, but i'm already pretty sure I'm going to ave one hell of a year!

"Bali Holiday"

Life continues in much the same way so much so its really hard to distinguish one day from another. The concept of days and dates has gotten as difficult as ever. Days are spent at the beach with whoever is hanging out there that day and evenings at the night market with the occasional night spent in the one and only Apache!

Apache can only be described as a shrine to Bob Marley. A regaee club tucked behind the clubs on the main street- Legian- in Kuta, its where all our friends go every time they go out. Keching, one of the guys that sometimes comes to the beach, is the singer of the band who play there most nights. He has a wonderful singing voice which really adds to the comforting feel of Apache. The club is decorated with large picture of Bob, and of course is decorated in yellow, green and red! I will forever have fond memories of this place and the many good nights I spent in there.
Any night in Apache is definetly not complete without the local spirit of choice though: Arak. More vile than straight vodka, Arak is thankfully diluted mostly in a concotion in what is known as Jungle Juice, which everyone passes around with a shot glass- continuing with the sharing culture of indonesia.

To mix things up a bit I decided to take one of the guys, Gangan, up on his offer to take me to one of the temples at Uluwatu, which has also become the name which the whole area in the south of Bali has become known. About 45 minutes drive on a scooter and we arrive at the Uluwatu temple. In my experince temples have always been serene places to visit, a nice place to gather your thoughts and admire the beautiful architechture and learn something about the religion. However this was a place where you have to make sure you tie everything down and be on guard- this was a place with very mischeivious monkies! Literally two minutes after I walked into the temple ground I had a angry looked beast of a monkey charge towards me going straight for my feet! While I tried to kick him away and hold on to my flip flop I was hitting him with my other one!... there was no way I was going to loose my shoes to this thing! After sucessfully battling with the monkey (and hitting one for the first time in my life.. and with a flip flop!) me and Gangan wandered around the temple and admired the views of the bays below which were breath-taking.
The water was such a clear torquise, swirled in patterns with the crashing waves looking as if it had been tie-dyed.
Unfortunetly after the calming views of the tides, even though I tried my bst to afford the hairy robbers, one flew out of nowhere landing on my head and grabbed my sunglasses straight off my face and continuted to mock me by sitting on a wall wearing them until he got bored and snapped them in half. They were in pretty bad condition anyways, I guess he just saved me a job throwing them away!

After the temple and my attack of the apes, we headed to a couple of different beaches, one I dont know the name of but is concealed within a cave and another called Padang Padang where we grabbed some freshly cooked cooked and sat on the sand and ate before we headed back to Kuta via Gangan's cousins house.

Sometime when travelling a place can easily just pass by as another place you've been, another thing to tick off you 'seen there, done that' list but its an amazing feeling when you visit somewhere that really stands out to you and brings a kind of happiness and contentment you can really feel within, and for me Bali has done this. Even more so when I visited the small town of Ubud.

Ubud, made internationally famous by the book and film 'Eat. Pray. Love,' is a gorgeous rich green leafy town renown for its strong cultural and arty influence. Everywhere you go in Ubud there are budding artists selling there paintings- most showing enormous talent. Its a great pleasure to be able to walk along the streets and peer in the shops just to look at their work. Its a beautiful place and I can easily understand why some people choose to come here to live, even if it isn't the most lively happening place.

The second time I visited Ubud with Wawan, I went to the Antonio Blanco museum, a man that is known as 'The Bali Dali.' And this fits him perfectly. Orginally an Italian man, Blanco lives in the town of Ubud and this beautiful gallery stands within a garden, home to allsorts of strange and wonderful birds, houses his many many works of art. As with many artists a lot of his work focuses on the female form but also he has painted many weird and wonderful paintings aswell.

(Ubud also is famous for it's 'monkey forest'.. which lends its name t the famous 'Monkey Forest Road'... but after the events at Uluwatu,I decided to stayt clear of the monkeys as I'd rather hold on to my specs and flip flops!)

Before long it was time for my friend Merel to head back to Holland and leave Bali. The night before she left we headed to a lovely little bar situated on the beach lit up with laterns and softly glowing globes used as tables. The setting was beautiful but a bar on the beach can have it draw backs
"Oh the tides coming in!... Oh no no its really coming in!!!"... and the tide can become a problem washing the chairs away into the sea! Luckily we managed to grab our things before we were washed away too and ran further away from the tide! Within a few days Phillip also left (only to return again less than two weeks later mind you!)

Before i knew it a month has gone by and its time to leave, but I couldn't leave this place without doing the one thing that Bali is world renown for, and that is surfing!

Unfortunetely I have the worst fear of water and tides which is quite a disadvantage in surfing!!!... so at first I was terrified, and poor Rachman had his work cut out! Through his percivierence he got me into the water and into the waves. Within the hour I was standing on the board and caugh my first surf successfully! He is a wonderful teacher and I owe him a lot, not only did he get me in the water (finally!) he helped me overcome my fear and even managed to teach me a thing or two! Now not only do I want to return to amazing Bali, but I really want to surf again :)

Just before I was to leave there was one last thing that I was to experience properly for the first time, and that was an earthquake. On the Thursday morning at around 11:20am there was a quake just southwest of Bali which was felt in Kuta which measured between 6 and 6.8 on the scale (sources vary) but to me it felt like the world was about to fall down. At the time I was with Wawan in my room, and I'm so glad he was with me, otherwise I wouldn't have known what to do. Thankfully it didn't cause much damage, but it certainly scared the hell out of me (not that I let on to him!) and I can surely say thats an experience I rather not have again!

I was sure gonna miss this place, and the closer it got to me leaving the more I realised how much I loved it.

I would like to thank Rachman, Adan,Sonny, August, Mama, Wawan, Gangan, Okky, Dee, Sunny, Gungun, Bohno, Keching, Gil, Natale, Sarah, Edwin, Ahmed, Johnny X2 and of course Philipp and Merel (and anyone I've missed!) for really making Bali feel like a home from home. The month I spent there and all the good times (in and out of Apache!) will forever be in my memories :)... and I shall definetely being returning, in the not so distant future!