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The Last Night in Australia.
Cairns, 24th February 2002
Last night I went out for a few drinks with the people I'd met when
I'd went diving. They're a fantastic bunch of people and we had a
great night out. What was interesting, is that they were all fellow
travellers and although we all came from different places, had
different backgrounds and were completely different ages, we got on
like we'd known each other for ages.
Matt was a 37 year old, self-employed painter from London. He's done
loads of travelling and he could easily pass as a 20-something with
his laid back & open attitude. Like me, he reckons that everyone on
this planet are equal human beings. Divisions shouldn't be
determined on what country you're from. We're all human and we
should all be able to get on.
Dan is a 22 year old student from Canada. He's not much older than
me and he's taking a break from education to see a bit of the world.
It turned out that he's coming to Bali a few days after me, so we
agreed to meet up out there. I'd told him about the others heading
home, so we've decided that we could meet in Bali, then travel up to
Thailand together. After that though, he's going to stay in Thailand
to do his Dive Master course (a top level scuba qualification) and
I'm going to continue onwards around Asia.
Bebe and Monica are two 20-something Austrian girls. (they speak
AUSTRIAN, not German!) They both really love diving and they're
taking time out to travel & dive. They're also VERY fine and
friendly...I talked more to Bebe and found out that she really loves
Rock & Metal but she was taught to play the accordion when she was
little. Talk about stereotypical images: little, blonde Austrian
girls wearing Lederhosen and playing accordions! She's determined to
learn the guitar or drums when she gets back home though!
Stewart is a 31 year old, self-employed brick layer, originally from
England. But he also has dual permits to live & work in Denmark &
Norway. He's travelled a lot, but he worries about having started
too late, he didn't start travelling until he was in his late 20s. I
told him its never too late, but, like me, he has this urge to fit
as much as possible into his life. He recently cycled all the way up
Vietnam (and couldn't walk for weeks later because of his hard
saddle), so I got lots of tips off him.
Stewart is currently travelling around Oz while living in a Toyota
Lite Ace (yep, the same as our little custard). He lives & sleeps in
the van, taking showers at the public showers on beaches. Now THAT
is real budget travelling. But I guess 4 people couldn't live &
sleep in our van, although Emily would disagree!
Also, on the dive trip there were loads of Japanese people. There
was a bit of a division between the English speakers & the Japanese
speakers. Mainly because the instructors ran parallel classes in
their appropriate languages. The Japanese in one class, the English
speakers in another. All I've got to say though, is that when we did
chat to each other, they are some of the friendliest & nicest people
I've ever met. They also do this fantastic thing when they said
hello or thanked us. They would grab my hand, shake it profusely,
and bow their heads deeply. I really wish I could speak a bit of
Japanese so I could speak with them without them having to make all
the effort.
These were just the people I met when I was aboard the dive vessel.
Travelling really breaks down barriers and lets you meet new people.
Culture & age differences really don't matter. I hope that I do meet
& get to know some of the locals when I go to Asia. Their lives will
be interesting & so much different to mine.
I'm trying my best to learn a bit of Indonesian, Malay, Thai, Khmer,
Lao and Vietnamese so the language barrier isn't so much of a
problem. (I know a lot of the people will speak English as well, but
that's not the point. Travelling is much more fun & better if you at
least try to learn a bit of the local language. The locals love it,
even if you aren't very good. Plus it's a bit arrogant to not even
try the local language and assume they all know English!)
Oh, I also met some people from Brighton, Bournemouth & Locks Heath,
right next to where I live! Communicating with them was pretty easy,
but I couldn't work out why one guy from Brighton supported
Southampton Football Club...strange people you meet in the pub!
So, this brings our time in Australia to a close. It's been
emotional! And here's what we think of Oz, in a nutshell:
HOT! Most of Australia, especially in the summer, is very,
very HOT! Especially for those of us from the UK who are only used
to 24 degrees C summers. Australia can have temperatures of 40
degrees C! You really don't appreciate air conditioning until you
come here. Air conditioning at home would be pointless!
HUGE! Australia is a vast country. The main cities are spread
around the coast with really, really long roads stretching between
them. These roads are very quiet and un-congested, I guess due to
the sheer length of them. There are also huge stretches where you
don't find any sign of life. It's a bit scary sometimes, how long
would it take for an ambulance to get out to you? Australians,
however, think nothing of the large distances between the cities.
For example, Melbourne to Cairns is a bout 3500km. For English
people, that's a majority long journey which would require weeks of
preparation and about a week to do. Ozzies, on the other hand, would
suddenly decide one morning, "I feel like driving from Melbourne to
Cairns", then off they go on one non-stop journey. They think
nothing of spending 24 hours or more on the road!
BIG ENGINES! Back home in England, small cars are very
popular. Because of the price of petrol, many people have engines
sizes between 1.1 and 1.8 litres so that they consume petrol really
slowly. Come over here though, and its a different story. Engines
like 4 litres, 5 litres and bigger are considered normal. They chow
through petrol like nobody's business. But who cares when petrol is
cheap and your car growls really loudly!
MEAT-LOVING! Australians love their meat. Red meat is cheap &
plentiful. Most true Ozzies are brought up on a diet of 3 pork
chops, a juicy 16oz steak, 5 sausages and 2 lamb chops. Per day. And
that's what the women eat. As for the men...
BEER-LOVING (In small amounts)! Ozzies will only drink on two
occasions: When they're thirsty and when they're not! (Thanks to
someone famous for that quote). They will find any excuse to drink,
they love it! Everything can be accompanied by a beer (or 2, or 5).
However, we found it quite funny how the standard drink size is a
pot (about 1/2 pint)! Show that to an English man and he'd laugh!
I can't believe our 2 month adventure in Australia is now over! It's
flown by, but so much has been packed in. But not worries, the
escapades will continue as I step over to Bali tomorrow...
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To know the road ahead, ask those coming back
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