10 days down under!

Can’t believe I've been in Sydney for a little over a week – it feels like it’s been several months already…

The move went really well – I’m living with a professional chef, a personal fitness trainer and a computer science wizz (who promised he would fix my netbook, what a sweetheart :))! I am loving the flat and the area – not at all dodgy, I'm actually surprised at how calm it is around here!! Here are a few pics:

My swimming pool :)

 

Doro c'est ton lit pour quand tu viendras ;)

I’m confident the job situation is going to work out pretty soon… I've been walking all over the CBD (Central Business District) introducing myself to the various recruitment agencies and handing them my CV in person (as well as sending the regular application emails). Seems to have paid off so far - a guy from Quay Appointments recruitment agency called me on Monday, I followed up on Wednesday and landed an interview the next day – he said he liked my CV a lot, and congratulated me on my “persistence and determination” (haha!) He promised he would put my CV forward as soon as a position comes up. He told me things were pretty slow at the moment but that it should pick up after Australia Day (January 26^th) when people get back into “work mode”. He offered me a flyer distribution job in the meantime and told me he would forward my contact details to one of his personal friends, just in case she has something for me. Another recruitment agency (Cox Purtell) also contacted me today by email regarding temp work, so I should hopefully be getting a call next week! Annnd I have a group interview on Tuesday for a part-time customer support job in the company my friend Greg works for…Fingers crossed! Can't wait to start making lots of money for my roadtrip this summer!

I'm loving Sydney more and more each day…

A few highlights so far:

- The buskers at Pitt Street Mall

Joe Moore is my favourite, check him out (just found out he'd been on Australia's Got Talent)

- Circular Quay (Opera House and Harbour Bridge, the ferries…)
- The stunning Botanical Gardens

- Hyde Park and St James 

- The Rocks
- Darling Harbour
- Broadway, Uni Campus and Victoria Park (a 10-minute walk from my place, with a lovely swimming pool where I just spent the afternoon...please don't hate me :))

- Banana Bread and Gloria Jeans’ coffee…yum!

- Priceline (Australian version of Boots ;) I am trying VERY hard not to spend all my money in there!!!)

I’m hoping to go to Bondi Beach after my interview on Tuesday, as well as Manly and Surry Hills next week. My flatmates also suggested we go to the Blue Mountains all together relatively soon, so that should be fun (approx. a 2-hour drive from Sydney). Also looking forward to Australia Day - there seems to be so much going on!!! 

http://www.australiaday.org.au/

Just wanted to end this post by thanking you for all your sweet messages concerning this blog :) I’m really glad you like it! Please feel free to leave comments or ask questions on here :)

Miss you lots!

Love,

Laura xxx

Welcome to Sydney!

My last day in Bali was really nice; I decided to go back to Jimbaran to avoid any kind of hassle, since it’s relatively close to the airport. I met a lovely Portuguese couple from Lisbon while I was walking around the streets and ended up having lunch and spending the afternoon with them before I left to catch my flight :) They told me the weather in Bali had been awful for the past week, so it just confirmed the fact that we made the right decision by going to Thailand!!!

My plane landed in Sydney at 7 am...I went straight to my backpacker hostel but they wouldn't let me check in early, so I had to wait until 2 pm to access my room, which I share with 5 other girls (1 English, 2 German and 2 Japanese) – good vibe, they're really sweet. It cost me around 22 euros/night (seems so expensive compared to Thailand!!).

Maze Backpackers is located on Pitt Street, very central, a 20-minute walk to Circular Quay and a 5-minute walk to Darling Harbour. I don’t think I would recommend it though - it’s not too bad compared to other youth hostels I've been to in the past, but the WiFi connection is absolutely awful: I had to pay 12 dollars for a 7-day “high-speed” Internet access (Global Gossip), which never works properly…It's very annoying since Internet was critical for my job/flat searches during the first few days...I managed to get by thanks to a travel agency providing free WiFi access for backpackers (Wicked Travel on Pitt Street and George Street) and a hotspot at Darling Harbour (near the Chinese Garden) – but I often wished I was back in Asia where you literally have free WiFi everywhere you go! The backpacker is also located right above a pub on a busy street, so it’s always very noisy (no AC, the windows are always open!) There are plenty of other good hostels around though, and from what I've heard it’s better to be around this area than Kings Cross for example!

Anyways, I went straight to Vodafone to get an Australian mobile number, and opened an account at Commonwealth Bank to make an international transfer as soon as possible…Very easy and straightforward compared to what I had to go through in Spain! I then walked right to the Opera House – it was a dream come true…I guess that’s the moment when I actually realized I was finally in Sydney :)

I went to visit a few flats on the second day: the first flat is the one I chose, located next to Redfern train station, a “dodgy” area from what I’d heard (known as "The Block" with an important aboriginal community), but I wanted to check it out anyway (please note that I lived in the UK’s number 1 city of crime for 2 years!). I met a French couple who were living opposite the day of my first visit; they reassured me and told me the flat was a good deal compared to other offers (for someplace central). Other people have told me there’s nothing to worry about, that the area is getting better and as long as I’m street-wise I’ll be fine!

I'm actually moving in tomorrow lunchtime. The landlord is very friendly and helpful, and the flat is fine; not very appealing from the outside but perfectly alright inside. It seems clean enough, not too modern, but all the basic equipment is there. The rent is 210 dollars/week, all included, with a 2-weeks’ notice if I ever want to leave. I’ll reevaluate my budget in two or three months - depending on the job I find and how much money I get per month I might go for something a little more expensive ;)

I’ll be living with three guys, all students: Spanish, German and Chinese…It should be fun being the “New Girl” ;) This is my 7^th shared-flat experience, so I’m looking forward to it!

The second flat I visited was in a very modern building in Darling Harbour (quite touristy, but I think it’s got to be my favourite place in Sydney so far)…The advert mentioned a shared room, but I basically walked in on 4 girls living in one tiny room with bunk beds and an en-suite bathroom + 4 guys in another room… The place was an absolute tip! Needless to say I was not impressed…170 dollars/week (bills not included) – not for me, thank you very much... One of the German girls from the hostel also went to visit a shared room: 20 people living together for 150 dollars/week (with only 2 bathrooms)!

In addition to looking for a flat, I've been sending CVs to various recruitment agencies, and looking through Gumtree, SEEK, SimplyHired, etc… on a daily basis for administration/office support/secretarial work positions…I reckon I've probably sent over 100 CVs in less than 4 days. Hopefully I’ll get some interviews very soon – fingers crossed! All the people I've met so far have told me it shouldn't be difficult for me to find a job, I hope they’re right. There are so many Europeans with WHV out here; you can feel the competition all around. 

Another anecdote was my first visit to the doctor/chemist: I got stung by a bee on my first day (typical!!) and it wasn't getting any better after 2 days…The chemist told me it was infected, so I went for a consultation – the 5-minute appointment cost me 70 dollars (!!) and the antibiotics another 22 dollars! Thank god for my WHV insurance…

Apart from that, the weather is perfect: beautiful blue sky all day long, with a nice breeze. We had a heatwave on Friday (45 degrees!!) but it only lasted for one day.

The city feels like a mix between London, New York and Valencia – I really think I’m going to love it here! I met my friend Greg and two of his friends for lunch today which was really nice; they told me about the city and places to go to, so I’m looking forward to seeing more of Sydney very soon! Here are a few pictures ;)

Opera House

Circular Quay

Darling Harbour

Love,

Laura xxx

A taste of paradise...

I think I’m in love with Thailand…

This was much too short, I really need to come back at least 3 weeks to backpack some more around the country…Who would be up for it in a year or two?!

The evenings here are magical – you can go to a bar on the beach, just lie there and relax under the starry sky, incense burning, torches lighted around you, lounge music in the background… Heaven on earth… I hadn't seen so many stars since my nights in the African desert – magic!!!

Buenas noches ;)

Anyway, to pick up where I left you last time: after our train/bus/ferry/pick-up mission, we finally arrived at Shiralea Guesthouse (600 BAT per night) – the best deal on the island according to Lonely Planet, so we were eager to check it out – a dozen of small bungalows 100 meters from the beach, swimming pool, bar, TV room, pool table, massage hut, basically everything you need for a relaxed holiday!! Plus the staff was super friendly and welcoming which was nice. The place is managed by a couple of New Zealanders; what I found really touching is that they try and collect funds to send their Thai staff – who have never travelled – on holiday to New Zealand, to finally discover the country they’ve heard so much about.

Backpackers' quotes in the toilet :)

We actually stayed there three nights in the end! We needed some rest, so we spent our days just exploring the beautiful beaches nearby, taking in the sunshine and relaxing by the pool…The highlight was having a massage in a little beach hut facing the sunset – Doro had a traditional Thai massage and I had a “normal” jasmine oil one – I must admit I didn’t regret my choice when I saw Doro suffering next to me for one whole hour hehe! 

Doro, l'amie des bêtes

I also finished my first holiday book, “Meurtre dans un jardin indien” – Funny story: I found this book in the guesthouse in Bangkok, Doro had actually told me about it a few days earlier. She recommended another book, “Les Dieux passent toujours incognito” while we were talking by the pool in Shiralea, and I found it in their collection of books as well – so I’ll be reading that one after “7 ans d’aventure au Tibet” which I borrowed from Doro J It’s so cool to be able to read again…I never used to take the time when I was working in Paris…

The only low point of our stay in Shiralea was that the bar got VERY noisy one night, they were blasting out music for a bunch of young people, it really felt like we were in an actual club, the walls of our bungalow were literally vibrating – Doro asked them to turn it down a notch but they refused to do so, and it lasted til 2am – we had to wake up at 7am so I guess you can imagine how tired we were the next day! We also had a bad experience in one of the restaurants by the beach. We took a little while to choose what we were going to order, but the waiter got really impatient and told us to “hurry up because we weren't the only ones in the restaurant”. We were quite taken aback at how nasty he was being to us and left the restaurant immediately, but his reaction was “I don’t care”…I must admit I wasn't very impressed by the attitude of some of the locals on the island  (in shops, restaurants, etc…) You can tell they resent the tourist invasion…

Other than that, we went on a day excursion to Ang Thong National Park, organized by Orion Tours (1,900 BAT – we made sure the price included the Park entrance fee) – the trip included pick-up transfer, breakfast, lunch and snacks, snorkeling, kayaking, treks to two viewpoints or to the caves. I think the pictures speak for themselves (Copyright: Doro lol)…I am SO glad we decided to do this!! The only disappointing thing about this excursion is that we realized how disgusting the seawater was inside the National Park…Beer bottles, plastic bags, crisp packets everywhere!! Really shocking considering it’s supposed to be “protected”… Such a shame…

Emerald Lagoon

Monkey Island

Where have you beeeeeeeeeen?!

A backpacker Doro met in Cambodia, Audrey, arrived from Phuket that evening and spent the night in the hammock in front of our bungalow. We went snorkeling on Koh Ma island the next day, but I nastily hurt my hand on a coral reef… A Thai lady from a massage stand came to my rescue with a first aid kit so it was all good – nothing serious, just really annoying!!!

In the evening we went to the other side of the island – the legendary Full Moon party place, Haat Rin! We ended up at SunSet Bungalows - 400 BAT for a bungalow right by the beach, probably one of the best deals we've made so far!! We went to a pool party at Coral Bungalows, a 2-minute walk on the beach – when we arrived there was nobody in the pool so we decided to get the party started, all three of us jumped in the pool and started splashing the people drinking on the side…It took about half an hour for the place to go crazy! We actually met 3 guys from Guadalajara, Mexico (I asked whether they knew you Dante ;)). Unfortunately my hand started bleeding again so I had to be reasonable and call it a night L I really want to go back for a proper Full Moon Party on the beach though, it looks amazing…

I left the girls on Koh Tao Island yesterday lunchtime, and made my way back to Bangkok by coach (7h30)! Caught my flight to Denpasar this morning, so I’ll be spending tonight and tomorrow in Bali! The next stop is SYDNEY J

The holiday has gone by so quickly, but it has been a real treat, I don’t regret the last-minute change one bit…As I've learnt from past experiences, improvised trips are often the best!!! And sharing everything with Doro made it all the more special…
Merci pour tout ma pink lady!!! 
Looking forward to seeing you in Sydney on February 7^th ;)

So long Thailand, I’ll be back!!!

Love,

Laura xxx