But it's not all doom and gloom by any means...
It's goodbye Australia and hello Asia as I enter my seventh and final chapter of this adventure. Destination Bali is the first stop and I swear its been the promise of this holiday that's kept us going through the darker times of Melbourne. Those days and nights when I thought I was going to throw a plate of steak in George's face and then smash it over his head feel long gone and my time out here in paradise feels all the sweeter knowing that it's my hard work and his money that are going to pay for the months ahead.
It was a pretty emotional taxi journey out through the CBD to the airport, we passed Tina's old office and even the door of the Eureka Tower which is the tallest building in the southern hemisphere and where we had our first night out. Fitting really, ending where it all started in a way.
Arriving at the airport we were suddenly aware that this was it and hopefully all our planning was going to pay off for a smooth journey. Alas this was not to be...it turned out to be an absolute stress buster and i'm surprised we didn't explode with what happened! We were at check in when the red lipped Virgin ground staff lady promptly informed us that we needed an onward ticket out from Indonesia to board the flight and get into the country...ARGHHHH!!! (This happened to us in NZ too so you would have thought we'd learned our lesson).
We were already running late and were last to check in anyway so this was not good news. We made a mad dash to the internet computers and kicked off the annoying kids playing on them to get onto Air Asia's site and book a flight FAST. It was so stressful and all in RP currency so didn't make sense, everything was in millions!
We chose a date, booked it and finally thought the drama was over but then realised we couldn't print the itinery out as evidence. After haggling with the Virgin Blue staff to print it out we realised they'd only e-mailed through an insurance policy, not the actual ticket...DOUBLE ARGH!!!!
In the end a nice lad checked us in despite thinking we hadn't actually booked a flight as the flight number was different to the usual Air Asia number so we thought we'd been conned. It was his 2nd last day so luckily he didn't give a f*** but in theory he shouldn't have let us on. Then we ran flat out to the gate and into our seats, which amazingly were together and we even had a spare one next to us. The flight went fine although we were on edge the whole time about not being allowed into the country at customs because of our dodgy Air Asia booking!
Anyway we got in and that's all that counts so now i'm pleased to say i'm typing this from the hotel 'pool beds' feeling very relaxed and sun soaked. I'm not sure what it is about the two of us but Tina and I seem to have this ability to attract good things at the moment and have had all sorts of benefits/unexpected goodies thrown our way. On check in we were instantly upgraded to the luxury villa that comes complete with private pool, loungers and 'relax couch' area, there's a beautiful four poster bed complete with muslin drapes which is gorgeously romantic not that we need it (!) and even a......BATH! I haven't had access to a bath since I left England which is, yes, a year and 3 months ago, hence my excitement.
On our first dinner out we got chatting to the matre'd who turned out to be a part time tour operator too who could help us out with trips, not only that, he just happened to have a pair of VIP tickets to club night happening the following Friday which he gave to us, random!
Our first few days have been typically jam packed and although we both just want to lie by the pool and veg out we're both struggling with turning off our in-built OCD compulsions, the need to see and do everything that there is on offer. Our hotel is based near the beach on the border of Legian and Seminyak which is a great location as it's far enough away from Kuta (the mental tourist hub) to be peaceful yet in the heart of everything.
It's now day 4 and the first time we've just got up and done nothing, the first couple of days we both went crazy by trying to buy everything on offer in Kuta. The cheap prices and combination of markets and holiday vibe have proven deadly and my purse is noticeably emptier than it was just a few days ago....however I am wearing a couple of nice silver rings and a new bikini now though ;)
On Saturday night god knows how it happened but yet again I managed to utilise my contacts from The Terrace and got us two free tickets to the infamous Ku De Ta White party. Ku De Ta is one of those swanky club/bars on the beach which hike up drink prices to shocking amounts yet get away with it for being such a great venue.
The white party was the bars 10 year anniversary party and tickets on were sale for over a 1,000,000 rupier each, that's about 80 quid. Through the power of strategic emailing and skype I got in touch with a club owner back in Melbourne who then got in touch with his 'Bali contact' who then met up with us to get us in.
It was an epic night and had some of the best house music i've ever heard being played for 6 hours straight, amazing!
Yesterday Tina and I managed to get ourselves away from the coastal areas and inland via a minibus to Ubud. A fairly
touristy but much more rural village that's well known for its silver jewellery and a sacred monkey forest sanctuary. The journey up there was great, I just switched on the ipod and zoned out to my tunes while watching the scenery change from moped infested roads to shimmering paddy fields.
We had a fun day haggling for things, sipping beers with incredible views out over the farmland and wandering around a very 3rd world style market. We even checked out the monkey forest (something i'm surprised Tina agreed too although very relunctant!) and watched them steal food from people and cause all sorts of havoc. It was cool seeing the baby monkeys only a meter or so away from us but not so cool when the mummy beared her teeth and looked like she was about to rip the flesh off our bones.
Talking of haggling, it's something I should mention just because of how hirlarious the situations have been when we're doing it. The poor Balinese locals don't have a chance when we let loose on them and it's fair to say our tactics of bullying/begging/yelling at them seems to be working a treat. Sunglasses also seem to have become a bit of a running joke out here. Every stall, and I mean EVERY stall sells hundreds of fake Ray Bans, they're everywhere! Tina and I have this thing where we get lured into the shops by the pretty colours and then spend hours looking at pairs. A few nights ago things got a bit hysterical when we got a taxi into Kuta to go out for dinner and both ended up coming back to the hotel with 2 extra pairs of shades and NO dinner, thus taking my total to 8 pairs. It's actually ridiculous.
Apparently we both now have Balinese boyfriends, both who run sunglasses stalls and who want to take us for a ride on their mopeds hahahahahaha.
Right, think that's probably enough for now?! If you've made it this far then thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy the installments to come. Bali really is beautiful, this is my first time in Asia but it's everything I hoped it would be, I love it here. I'm sure the stories will get more and more random...........
Wednesday 25 August 2010
Neighbours...actually more of a case of Home and Away?
I can't believe it, I started writing this Melbourne blog in my 7th week, then it was the 17th week and before I knew it I was hanging up my Aussie hat, leaving the country after a year of amazingness and I never did get around to finishing it.
Well here it is in its full glory AND if things couldn't get any better, i've had a little play on the new template designer and freshened up the design and everything! Wow.
Soooooo...17 weeks on and yes, Michelle and I were still in Melbourne, working like busy bees and storing away the honey money for the next chapter of the adventure which felt long overdue. Saving I find relatively easy, saving on Australia's minimum wage of $15 an hour was not so easy... especially when we found ourselves living in the 'suburb to be seen in' along with Danni Minogue, her new beau and baby.
When Tina and I first arrived in Melbourne (for the 2nd time) on April 15th our first port of call was getting a taxi to Dylan and Lynn's house in South Yarra. Dylan and Lynn are mates of Ants (my bro) who left London and made the move to Australia themselves in 2008. They put us up in their new place for 4 days when we made a flying visit in February and offered to house the homeless again if we needed it.
Not one to take an offer lightly it was only a matter of time before I was banging off a facebook message letting them know our flight details and asking for the spare key to be left under the back door! We just needed a place while we found our feet and sorted out new jobs and accommodation so we're very thankful to them for that and probably saved about $300 in hostel fees.
One key piece of advice i'd give to potential travelling buddies is make sure you have the same priorities because it just turns out (but we both knew this anyway) that Tina and I are equally 'ocd' obsessive and borderline freaks about writing lists, being productive and getting EVERYTHING sorted as fast as humanly possible. I'm not exaggerating when I say that by the end of day 1 we had set up a sort of temporary mobile office in D+L's sitting room. We had two laptops on the go, wireless internet being used to the maximum capacity, excel spreadsheets of house viewing times, job applications and phone numbers being created. In the corner of the room Tina sat with the Skype headset on calling endless agents and account managers looking like she was on a call centre marathon challenge.
It was fair to say that by the end of the day we felt we'd had a good stab at getting going on this new Melbourne phase....
By the end of the first week both Michelle and I had jobs, Tina had utilised her account managing experience to land an admin role in an office full of 40 somethings in the Southbank area and I started working at a restaurant in a boutiquey art hotel 10 minutes away called the The Cullen.
Through the powers of fate we also stumbled across the ultimate apartment, perfect in every way and complete with a pool and gym in the rooftop to help get rid of 4 months of backpacking stodge which i'm pleased to say worked a treat. The Wierd story behind the apartment is that it turned out we were moving into Lukes bedroom, Luke being the random Brit we met 4 months previously in New Zealand while doing the glacier hike! It was completely crazy that his boyfriend showed us around the place and we didn't even know it was his, some things are just meant to be.
Over the weeks we've been really strict on not going out too much, especially at the beginning to make sure we were on track with our targets but there have been certain things to tick off the list and add to our agenda which have made our time not only in the city, but in Victoria a fun and memorable one.
Over the weeks we got to know Gerald, our local Avis car hire rep, we even worked the Tina and Doxie magic by blagging the corporate rate for our trips! Dan (Tinas friend) came to visit from Sydney and we drove down the peninsular to the seaside town of Sorrento. This is a place that throbs with tourists in the summer months but had that slightly wind blown desolate feel to it when we went down. It was great driving through the wine regions and having the freedom with the car to go in search of random deserted light houses and look out points though.
A couple of weeks after that Tina and I went in search of a mini adventure yet again and stopped off at the infamous Ramsey Street otherwise known as Pin Oak close, it was soooo weird to be standing outside the houses I used to watch on tv after school in the 90's, especially when it's in Australia...on the other side of the world! After a pit stop there we drove on into The Dandendong Ranges, a scenic drive up into the mountains which look over the Victorian plains. It was a sunny day and worth the climb up to the top to look out at the view of our temporary home.
That day we also managed to fit in a lunch visit to an award winning pie shop as well as some tasty scones and cream in one of the villages on the way down which was completely done up in christmas decor to celebrate the 'Christmas in July' thing the Aussie's do during their winter.
One memorable moment from the day was when in typical Tina and Doxie style we actually managed to lose our hire
car. We were trying to be good and thought seeing as we'd driven up there we should stretch the legs and go for a walk. Unfortunately the sky had clouded over and spots of rain started appearing on the windscreen. We had our umbrellas with us so not to be discouraged I slipped off the uggs and put on the trainers in preparation for an hour of fresh air. We left the car at the tip of a small and VERY muddy walking trail and followed some battered old signs further and further into the forest into we got to the rather disappointing waterfall we'd been looking for, it was more of a muddy trickle.
Anyway, on the return leg the sky was losing light fast and we couldn't quite remember the exact way we'd come from so had to make a bit of an educated guess, which we must have gone wrong because when we reached the car park our car wasn't there! We had an initial 'freak out' and then agreed we must have arrived at a different car park and had to somehow find the first one.
I had horrible visions of having to sleep up in the mountains but after a couple of attempts a car stopped for the waving lunatics on the side of the road and pointed us in the right direction.
In our last month we upped the socialising another level and went out another two times, this time going to as many places as possible in the process. We managed 5 clubs in one night and it didn't cost us anything either because of my new Melbourne friend connections which we utilised to the max (one being a massive bouncer called Tiny who I made skinny lattes for!!)
Our trip to Oz also wouldn't have been complete without a trip to an AFL footie game which we enjoyed loads. We watched Calton vs Collingwood (known for their bogan/chav supporters) at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and to my horror/delight we had the worst of the bunch sitting behind us, a real gross family with painted Collingwood flags on their faces constantly yelling pointless abuse at the Calton team.
It was particularly pointless abuse seeing as we were in the highest tier of seating and miles from earshot of the players.
Before we knew it we were into August and the weeks running away from us, a special mention has to go out to the restaurant Babble for giving us the best fillet steak of our lives during one of our treat meals out in Chapel Street. Babble itself is really cute, done up like the inside of a ski chalet with a log fire, stone walls and antler and candle chandeliers. For the hour and a half we were in there I forgot I was in Melbourne and almost expected to walk out onto the snowy streets of Switzerland.
That was our second to last weekend and now that I was working more evenings we'd managed to plan another day trip away at the weekend to Phillip Island, a little pocket of land south of Melbourne connected to the mainland by a bridge but more known for it's wildlife and environmental attractions.
Gerald at Avis had obviously thought he was doing us a favour by upgrading us two car sizes but it's fair to say Tina and I were both shocked and unhappy about being presented with a family sized 'dad type' saloon car for our 3rd and final trip.
This thing was a beast and neither of us wanted to be the first to drive it out of Melbourne! We got there fine though and enjoyed fish and chips on the promenade in Cowes and then cruising around the circumference of the Island in the sunshine.
We finished up the day by watching the very talented local surfers ride huge barrels as the sun set and then I somehow got lost on the drive home. Oh well, all fun and games.
The following weekend I gathered everyone i'd met in Melbourne together for a 'leaving party' night out and we went to an infamous St Kilda venue to watch some local Dj's called Dirty South play. It was good to finish my time in Melbs with a bang and seeing the group out together really reminded me how far we'd come in just 4 months of setting up a brand new existence in a brand new city.
Our last week was crazily hectic and there didn't seem to be enough time to do anything at all. Both of us were working right up until the day before we flew out of the country and any free time was filled with boring tasks like renewing insurance, tax rebate appointments, filling out forms and post office trips. Our last night in the apartment was a randomly great one though with two goodbye visits, one from Karl (good friend from work) and the other from Dylan and Lynn.
Alot of champagne and wine was consumed and the night turned into a bit of a blurry reminiscence of our time in Australia and included some nostalgic staring out across the night sky to the beautiful city scape from the balcony.
When the alarm woke us up at 6am with the traces of a headache to remind us of the night before there just wasn't time to deal with it. What followed was a frantic 3 hours of packing and cleaning before leaving for the airport. We were so rushed that there wasn't even time to eat the remaining 6 milos that sat on the fridge shelf waiting to be devoured...a real sign that things were manic. So before we knew it our keys were on the side waiting for their next owner and the front door closed for the last time.
......And then that was that, Melbourne was over.
Well here it is in its full glory AND if things couldn't get any better, i've had a little play on the new template designer and freshened up the design and everything! Wow.
Soooooo...17 weeks on and yes, Michelle and I were still in Melbourne, working like busy bees and storing away the honey money for the next chapter of the adventure which felt long overdue. Saving I find relatively easy, saving on Australia's minimum wage of $15 an hour was not so easy... especially when we found ourselves living in the 'suburb to be seen in' along with Danni Minogue, her new beau and baby.
When Tina and I first arrived in Melbourne (for the 2nd time) on April 15th our first port of call was getting a taxi to Dylan and Lynn's house in South Yarra. Dylan and Lynn are mates of Ants (my bro) who left London and made the move to Australia themselves in 2008. They put us up in their new place for 4 days when we made a flying visit in February and offered to house the homeless again if we needed it.
Not one to take an offer lightly it was only a matter of time before I was banging off a facebook message letting them know our flight details and asking for the spare key to be left under the back door! We just needed a place while we found our feet and sorted out new jobs and accommodation so we're very thankful to them for that and probably saved about $300 in hostel fees.
One key piece of advice i'd give to potential travelling buddies is make sure you have the same priorities because it just turns out (but we both knew this anyway) that Tina and I are equally 'ocd' obsessive and borderline freaks about writing lists, being productive and getting EVERYTHING sorted as fast as humanly possible. I'm not exaggerating when I say that by the end of day 1 we had set up a sort of temporary mobile office in D+L's sitting room. We had two laptops on the go, wireless internet being used to the maximum capacity, excel spreadsheets of house viewing times, job applications and phone numbers being created. In the corner of the room Tina sat with the Skype headset on calling endless agents and account managers looking like she was on a call centre marathon challenge.
It was fair to say that by the end of the day we felt we'd had a good stab at getting going on this new Melbourne phase....
By the end of the first week both Michelle and I had jobs, Tina had utilised her account managing experience to land an admin role in an office full of 40 somethings in the Southbank area and I started working at a restaurant in a boutiquey art hotel 10 minutes away called the The Cullen.
Through the powers of fate we also stumbled across the ultimate apartment, perfect in every way and complete with a pool and gym in the rooftop to help get rid of 4 months of backpacking stodge which i'm pleased to say worked a treat. The Wierd story behind the apartment is that it turned out we were moving into Lukes bedroom, Luke being the random Brit we met 4 months previously in New Zealand while doing the glacier hike! It was completely crazy that his boyfriend showed us around the place and we didn't even know it was his, some things are just meant to be.
Over the weeks we've been really strict on not going out too much, especially at the beginning to make sure we were on track with our targets but there have been certain things to tick off the list and add to our agenda which have made our time not only in the city, but in Victoria a fun and memorable one.
Over the weeks we got to know Gerald, our local Avis car hire rep, we even worked the Tina and Doxie magic by blagging the corporate rate for our trips! Dan (Tinas friend) came to visit from Sydney and we drove down the peninsular to the seaside town of Sorrento. This is a place that throbs with tourists in the summer months but had that slightly wind blown desolate feel to it when we went down. It was great driving through the wine regions and having the freedom with the car to go in search of random deserted light houses and look out points though.
A couple of weeks after that Tina and I went in search of a mini adventure yet again and stopped off at the infamous Ramsey Street otherwise known as Pin Oak close, it was soooo weird to be standing outside the houses I used to watch on tv after school in the 90's, especially when it's in Australia...on the other side of the world! After a pit stop there we drove on into The Dandendong Ranges, a scenic drive up into the mountains which look over the Victorian plains. It was a sunny day and worth the climb up to the top to look out at the view of our temporary home.
That day we also managed to fit in a lunch visit to an award winning pie shop as well as some tasty scones and cream in one of the villages on the way down which was completely done up in christmas decor to celebrate the 'Christmas in July' thing the Aussie's do during their winter.
One memorable moment from the day was when in typical Tina and Doxie style we actually managed to lose our hire
car. We were trying to be good and thought seeing as we'd driven up there we should stretch the legs and go for a walk. Unfortunately the sky had clouded over and spots of rain started appearing on the windscreen. We had our umbrellas with us so not to be discouraged I slipped off the uggs and put on the trainers in preparation for an hour of fresh air. We left the car at the tip of a small and VERY muddy walking trail and followed some battered old signs further and further into the forest into we got to the rather disappointing waterfall we'd been looking for, it was more of a muddy trickle.
Anyway, on the return leg the sky was losing light fast and we couldn't quite remember the exact way we'd come from so had to make a bit of an educated guess, which we must have gone wrong because when we reached the car park our car wasn't there! We had an initial 'freak out' and then agreed we must have arrived at a different car park and had to somehow find the first one.
I had horrible visions of having to sleep up in the mountains but after a couple of attempts a car stopped for the waving lunatics on the side of the road and pointed us in the right direction.
In our last month we upped the socialising another level and went out another two times, this time going to as many places as possible in the process. We managed 5 clubs in one night and it didn't cost us anything either because of my new Melbourne friend connections which we utilised to the max (one being a massive bouncer called Tiny who I made skinny lattes for!!)
Our trip to Oz also wouldn't have been complete without a trip to an AFL footie game which we enjoyed loads. We watched Calton vs Collingwood (known for their bogan/chav supporters) at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and to my horror/delight we had the worst of the bunch sitting behind us, a real gross family with painted Collingwood flags on their faces constantly yelling pointless abuse at the Calton team.
It was particularly pointless abuse seeing as we were in the highest tier of seating and miles from earshot of the players.
Before we knew it we were into August and the weeks running away from us, a special mention has to go out to the restaurant Babble for giving us the best fillet steak of our lives during one of our treat meals out in Chapel Street. Babble itself is really cute, done up like the inside of a ski chalet with a log fire, stone walls and antler and candle chandeliers. For the hour and a half we were in there I forgot I was in Melbourne and almost expected to walk out onto the snowy streets of Switzerland.
That was our second to last weekend and now that I was working more evenings we'd managed to plan another day trip away at the weekend to Phillip Island, a little pocket of land south of Melbourne connected to the mainland by a bridge but more known for it's wildlife and environmental attractions.
Gerald at Avis had obviously thought he was doing us a favour by upgrading us two car sizes but it's fair to say Tina and I were both shocked and unhappy about being presented with a family sized 'dad type' saloon car for our 3rd and final trip.
This thing was a beast and neither of us wanted to be the first to drive it out of Melbourne! We got there fine though and enjoyed fish and chips on the promenade in Cowes and then cruising around the circumference of the Island in the sunshine.
We finished up the day by watching the very talented local surfers ride huge barrels as the sun set and then I somehow got lost on the drive home. Oh well, all fun and games.
The following weekend I gathered everyone i'd met in Melbourne together for a 'leaving party' night out and we went to an infamous St Kilda venue to watch some local Dj's called Dirty South play. It was good to finish my time in Melbs with a bang and seeing the group out together really reminded me how far we'd come in just 4 months of setting up a brand new existence in a brand new city.
Our last week was crazily hectic and there didn't seem to be enough time to do anything at all. Both of us were working right up until the day before we flew out of the country and any free time was filled with boring tasks like renewing insurance, tax rebate appointments, filling out forms and post office trips. Our last night in the apartment was a randomly great one though with two goodbye visits, one from Karl (good friend from work) and the other from Dylan and Lynn.
Alot of champagne and wine was consumed and the night turned into a bit of a blurry reminiscence of our time in Australia and included some nostalgic staring out across the night sky to the beautiful city scape from the balcony.
When the alarm woke us up at 6am with the traces of a headache to remind us of the night before there just wasn't time to deal with it. What followed was a frantic 3 hours of packing and cleaning before leaving for the airport. We were so rushed that there wasn't even time to eat the remaining 6 milos that sat on the fridge shelf waiting to be devoured...a real sign that things were manic. So before we knew it our keys were on the side waiting for their next owner and the front door closed for the last time.
......And then that was that, Melbourne was over.
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