The Final Chapter!

---

I arrived in Melbourne after a very short (only 3 hrs) flight at 10:30pm, and in true backpacker style, decided to sleep in the airport that night. Didn’t see the point in paying for a bed for the night plus the shuttle bus fare to the city, when, if I waited until the morning, I could get reimbursed. (This is the kind of thing backpackers take advantage of.) My plan didn’t go as well as I’d hoped. The airport made very loud, hourly announcements, so sleeping was pretty difficult, but there was a coffee shop open all night so I did get to drink lots of coffee. Spent the next three days looking for jobs and handing out CV’s to local restaurants and shops.

Melbourne hostels are quite a bit more expensive than up north, so I was in a dorm of 16 this time, the biggest so far. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it’d be though. People are generally quite considerate in hostel dorms, especially the larger ones. (I always thought it’d be worse to stay in large rooms but it tends to be the opposite.) As a treat for not sleeping the previous night, I thought I’d have some tea and tim tams in bed, but got a bit carried away and spilt tea on my bed.

On the 3^rd day I got a call from one of the jobs I’d applied for, telemarketing, to go in for an interview the next morning. Telemarketing goes against my principles. I hate at home when people ring you up and try to sell you things, but over here a job’s a job. After being woken up by the fire alarm at half seven, followed by a huge surge of people bee-lining for the free breakfast available, I went for my interview. Had the interview and went back that afternoon for training. They weren’t going to pay us for our 3 day probation period, just commission for every sale we made, and the next day I found out why. Spent the evening at Queen Square nightmarkets, where there were live bands playing, lots of food & drink stalls as well as the usual markets stalls. There was a great atmosphere, so many people all crammed in together.

Had to find another hostel for that night as they were kicking out 200 people for reburbishing. (It was a 700 bed hostel.) For once my indecisiveness paid off. I was debating about how long to stay/what type of room I wanted whilst on the phone to another hostel. She said she’d give me a special rate so long as I stayed for 2 nights. I got my own room for $27–bargain. This was the cheapest hostel in Melbourne anyway (the rooms are like compartments, the walls don’t go all the way up to the ceiling so you can hear the noise of the entire floor). I still used the communal bathrooms, but it was luxury after having shared dorms for nearly 4 months.

I lasted 2 hours of my first day before I walked out, followed by another couple of people too. We worked normal working hours so the majority of people you ring are at work. I rang constantly for 2 hours and only spoke to 2 people, both of whom were pretty rude and hung up on me (can’t blame them as I do the same thing at home). Have realised though I am definitely not suited to an office job. I get too restless and fidgety sitting on my bum for too long and didn’t like having headphones squashing my ears for so long either. After the probation period we had to make a minimum of 3 sales per day which was starting to seem like an impossible task. There was no way I was going to be able to stick it out for a week, let alone 2 months, so walked out at lunchtime. Spent the rest of the day at St Kilda beach.

After much deliberating I decided I would go home. I’d done what I’d come out to do (see the East Coast) and although I didn’t necessarily want to leave, it was getting harder to not have anything to do every day (I’d already said I would only spend so much money this trip otherwise I could have travelled the rest of Australia). As finding work was difficult (having no experience in anything other than radiography was a bit of a problem) I made the decision to go home, but with the intentions of coming back one day to see the rest of the country.

Spoke to the flight centre that evening having already been told that to change my flights was very expensive at short notice (I figured I’d just have to do some on-call once back at work rather than keep giving my shifts away), I got a pleasant surprise when (for some reason) the next week would be a lot cheaper. Booked my flights to leave Oz the following week, going via Singapore for 3 days. I’d arrive home early on Sunday 26th Feb (Mum was very excited!) Saturday I met a friend (a girl from my Fraser Island trip, bumped into her on the street in Melbourne) for late morning coffee which turned out to be a whole day of fun at the beach with a couple of her other friends also, playing frizby in the sea, collecting free stuff from the promotion and games stalls that were along the promenade that weekend, and a BBQ with amazing kangaroo steaks (what would be my last Aussie BBQ, so it had to be a good one). Then went to watch penguins, smallest ones in the world–so cute. Saw about six waddling along the beach and up onto the rocks. I was so excited, first ones I’d ever seen except in the zoo obviously. Was hoping to see Meagan before I left, she was trying to arrange a day down the Great Ocean Road on Harley Davidsons for us with some of her friends, but they couldn’t fit it in in time unfortunately.

Needed to do something cool for my last days in Oz though so booked a 2 day trip down the Great Ocean Road anyway. Monday morning got picked up at 7am for my last Aussie adventure. This would be my only trip that I couldn’t take photos, so would just have to try and remember instead (one girl on my bus said she’d email me her photos so fingers crossed she remembers). Weather was brilliant to start with. When we reached the Great Ocean Road the sun was shining and the view was amazing (I love it when the sun glistens on the ocean and gives that sparkle). First place we stopped at was Bells Beach, a major surf place (although we didn’t see any surfers–disappointing). It then started to rain a bit and that was the last of the sunshine. I loved the drive along the coast (despite the clouds). It reminded me of my road trip, San Fransisco to Las Vegas with Linz & Sam (the Pacific Highway I think that is in which case it was designed by the same person). The Great Ocean Road took 14 years to build and was built by returning soldiers after WW1 in exchange for 3 meals a day and accommodation, no wages (my interesting fact of the day!). We also stopped at Cape Otway Lighthouse, Australia’s oldest lighthouse with fantastic views of the Southern Ocean, and drove through koala land (where lots of koalas sit in the trees all along the road). I was the only one staying over night so was dropped off at a place called Princetown (in the middle of nowhere). As we pulled into Princetown our tour guide played “Jolene” on her ipod. Apparently she’d been waiting all day to play it (that’s the second time I’ve had my song played for me, also in the hostel reception at Hervey Bay on youtube). Never known anyone else have it on their ipod before. My “chill out time” was spent at the beach 20 mins walk away. Had such a cool time. The beach was about ½ mile long and I was the only person there, so of course I wrote my name in the sand and “claimed” the beach (for that night anyway. It had washed away the following day when I went to check). The currents were too strong to swim there but I was perfectly happy walking along the river to where it met the ocean (stood in the river mouth feeling the pull of the water around my feet), strolling along the gorgeous, biscotti coloured beach and around the rock pools before relaxing with my book. I was also the only person staying in the hostel which was very strange having always had lots of people around for 4 months, but got to enjoy chilling on the sofa with a DVD (was like being back home again). Got picked up after lunch for the rest of the trip. A different tour guide this time, but when she collected me she also put “Jolene” on her ipod for my welcome song (that makes 3!). She later had some wicked jingles she played us about Australia. The best one was about accidentally getting killed in Australia with all the dangerous snakes, jelly fish, sharks etc (gonna have to see if I can find that one on youtube when I get home).

We visited Loch Ard Gorge (where the ship Loch Ard was shipwrecked & sank) and the 12 Apostles. Both places had beautiful multi-coloured cliffs and as the sun was shining again at this point the views were magnificent along the coastline. We ended the day at Gibson’s Steps (the gateway to the 12 Apostles) where again there were very strong currents so couldn’t swim, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to put my feet in the Southern Ocean (it was very cold). As the wind and currents were against each other there was a beautiful mish mash of white water breaking in all directions. Was stunning. I could have stood there watching for hours (I do love being at the beach and just watching, it’s so relaxing and peaceful).

My last morning in Australia was spent buying some last minute souvenirs and then sitting by the river with a tim tam frappacino enjoying the glorious sunshine. A perfect ending!

The 7 ½ hr flight over to Singapore went quite quickly. I was on the Qantas Airbus again and this time it seemed massive after recently being on a small domestic (easy jet size) flight. First day went off exploring the city and found Chinatown and the marina. Singapore’s definitely a wealthy country with some amazing architecture. They are really creative with their building designs. There is a stunning hotel, Marina Bay Sands, that is 3 separate towers and on top sits a large boat joining them all together. It costs about $500 to stay there, but if you do you have access to the roof top “boat” and you can also walk around the perimeter with magnificent views of the city. For the rest of us that can’t afford to stay there, you can only go to a tiny area of the “boat”, but that does look out to sea. It’s still a fantastic view and looks like a scene from Pearl Harbour with a couple hundred boats all moored there and lots of islands in the distance. Had lunch in Chinatown where a very oriental version of Blue Tango played across the food hall.

Singapore has lots of high rise buildings in the heart of the city, but once you get further out, particularly towards Little India where I stayed, there are lots of narrow streets with crammed in restaurants, shops & hostels. I went on a scooter tour of the city that evening. It was so much fun. Four of us went along with our guide and got to be big kids for 5 hours (I originally thought the scooter would be the same as the one I went on in Oz but it was a push along one that you see all the kids on these days – so much better!) The guide took us through back streets and to interesting places we’d never have found otherwise. No trip would be complete without me injuring myself, so trying to be clever and swapping legs whilst moving (it was pretty tiring work, we had a lot of ground to cover), I fell off and landed in the road with a cut knee and bruised thumb (the opposite side to when I fell in the Blue Mountains, just to make it even). We stopped for dinner in this amazing outdoor food market for satay. Lots of different meat /fish on skewers, BBQ’d and served with satay sauce, rice cakes and BBQ’d veg. So good! There were several different stalls serving the same thing trying to grab your custom once you arrived (“may the best man win” type thing). After dinner we scootered along to the marina (outside the “boat” hotel) to watch a spectacular water and light show. 10 mins of fountains and laser beams from various angles to make a short story from birth, growing up and falling in love, to getting old and watching the family grow, with Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World” playing along with it. It was so well done, it was like watching an outdoor TV screen. The detail was just amazing. Once the show had finished, behind the viewing platform was a whirlpool that came on, a huge bowl that drained into a pool in the adjacent shopping centre with a river that flowed along the length of the shops. We stood watching for a while, mezmerised before we had to go back to the hostel. It was such a good evening (and it was a free tour which made it even better). I just wish I had had my camera, but a couple on the tour took loads of photos, so hopefully I’ll get some from them.

The next day I went to the Botanic Gardens where they have the National Orchid Garden. It was so pretty with some gorgeous colours. There’s even one in the celebrity section called Princess Diana. I spent that evening back at the marina again but this time saw the water and lights display from the opposite side of the bay. Even though you don’t see the story being told (you can still hear the music), the lasers illuminate all the buildings that were behind me the previous night so didn’t see. It was still amazing just to watch that. There was also a live band playing at the marina that night, The Lost Hat, who were a bit like Gogol Bordello (mostly instrumental with some funky instruments), so spent the rest of the night listening to them.

For my last day in Singapore I went back to the Botanic Gardens (I really liked it there) and walked around the rest of the gardens that I didn’t do the previous day. They have one called the Evolution Garden which was interesting. As you walk around the garden you walk through time from when plants were first on Earth and how they looked back then, all the way to the present day with the current tropical rainforests. While I was in there, some 4 legged creature walked across the path right in front of me, coming out from the trees so it made me jump. Don’t know what it was though, it looked like a cross between a croc and a lizard (it certainly had a lizard tongue anyway) and was about 1 ½ metres long. Obviously wasn’t dangerous otherwise it wouldn’t have been there, but no-one was around to ask what it was.

Decided I couldn’t stay in Little India without a curry, so went on a search for somewhere for dinner. It wasn’t great. It was very cheap though so I guess you get what you pay for. Only disappointing meal in 4 months so not bad at all. Started off by eating a very hot chilli by accident so wasn’t a great start to the meal, and then the meat was pretty much just bone (maybe that’s how curry comes in India and I’m just spoiled with English curry, not sure).

On the way to the airport later we drove through Little India, and the place had really come to life. There were people everywhere walking out in front of cars and selling things on the streets. (I’m told that’s pretty much what India’s like). It was bursting with culture and had a great atmosphere. Don’t think I’d like driving there though, even I’d run out of patience!

Elaine had told me about the different gardens and rainforests you can go to at Singapore airport, so got there a bit early and got the skytrain across to T2 to go the butterfly garden. I was a little disappointed there weren’t as many in there as I was expecting, so went across to T3 to the orchid garden. By the time I’d found it I didn’t think I had enough time to go in so just went back to T1 ready for my departure (stopping at subway for the most amazing sandwich on parmesan and oregano bread. Hoping that’s now also available in England and not just a Singapore thing as it was so good).

The 14hr flight back home departed an hour late as someone decided she was unwell just as they were closing the doors, so she had to get off and her luggage located and removed. The flight went fairly quickly considering it’s the longest stint I’ve done (I think all the greyhound buses have made me appreciate the luxury of legroom and being able to get up and walk around).

I can’t believe I was away for just over 4 months, it went by so quickly. I absolutely loved Australia and definitely want to go back at some point. Still need to see Perth and Ayers Rock. My favourite places were Sydney and the Gold Coast. The lifestyle is so different over there. Everyone was so relaxed and laid back and I loved that there were so many people out of an evening in the parks or on the beach, just chilling with friends having BBQs or families out enjoying the heat. If I’d sorted out my certificates and was actually doing radiography out there I definitely wouldn’t have wanted to come home early and would probably have wanted to stay the whole year of my visa. I had some awesome experiences and met some great people, some of them I’ll keep in touch with and see again. It may have taken me a couple of years to actually decide to go but I’m so glad I did. It’s an experience that I’ll never forget (hopefully not anyway!).

---