Work>Travel

The feeling of disappointment washes over me like a child who doesn't receive that toy he's been asking Santa to give him on Christmas day. While most view traveling as a once in a lifetime opportunity and vacation, I view it as a new learning experience and a chance to keep me sane and from killing everyone around me (especially the stupid, arrogant and moronic group. You know who you are).

What I love about my current job is not only the fact that the pay/benefits is far, far better than previous jobs I held, but management and fellow employees don't treat each other like shit. There isn't a problem with drugs or staff hooking up with staff and that right there is an added bonus. Moreover, I am able to take time off or swap shifts so easily without having to fight for it or risk losing my job. Needless to say, taking a weekend off for New Zealand in March, a week for New Caledonia in May and a week off for Singapore in July is pretty lenient and amazing compared to what other employers would offer or say.

So it devastated me when I was told that I could not get the time off for Singapore July 24th-29th as this is the second week of classes at Griffith Uni and things would be a bit hectic until mid August. What I found annoying throughout the whole process of getting the time off, is we had booked this trip in March when I returned from New Zealand and while mentioning throughout that time that I needed it off, I was told to 'remind me as the time comes closer'. Unfortunately, as that time came closer, it was noticed I was attempting to leave during a busy time-frame. Whoops.

So I entertained the idea of quitting and going to Singapore before realising how stupid of a mistake that would be. To leave a job for a $250 flight or just eat the loss due to error and lack of checking dates? I chose the latter knowing that the trip will be waiting for me in August and as the semester proceeds into week 4, I can take more time off to add Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), Indonesia (Jakarta) and perhaps Thailand (Bangkok) to the list over the course of 9-12 days. Plus I did not want to go through the same issues I did when I left for Japan back in November and returning without a job (and money).

But during this process it got me thinking, why I would resort to such an irrational choice of leaving a job to go experience 4 days of bliss only to come back to nothing? Probably because I'm stupid and crazy and when it comes to traveling, I absolutely love it. Or because I'm reaching that point where it's time for me to get out of town once again as the Gold Coast continues to diminish my faith in humanity.

Whatever the case may be, I will not be going to Singapore Jul 24th-July 29th but instead cancelling and going a few weeks later. I know, I know, this is devastating to all of you, but don't worry, I'll be in the air in no time and back to Asia for a 2nd round.

In the meantime,

Cheers and 再见！

-H

Sydney vs. GRE

There’s something about the big city that I absolutely love. Not just the sounds of cars honking, trains speeding by and continuous construction, but the feeling that everyone walking around has a purpose and somewhere to be or somewhere they are going. It excites for my own venture out into the real world when I get to dawn an expensive suit, carry a briefcase and carry two phones at once (ok maybe a bit far).

My trip to Sydney, much like my trip to Auckland, New Zealand, was a relatively short one that only served one purpose and that was for my GRE. I hitched a ride from Jimmy to the airport to save on the hassle of taking the bus before checking in and heading to the gate.

I want to go off on a slight tangent here and state that although Virgin Air considers itself a discount airline, I absolutely love what Richard Branson has done with the model of the company. Customer service agents greet you by name on check-in, ask you how your day is going, why you’re going to your destination AND my first time flying with Virgin, they upgraded me to an exit row seat! Needless to say, I love the customer service associated with it (and the hot staff they employ) even if it means I’m paying a bit more than flying with Jetstar.

I tried my best to sleep on the plane since I had to work all night but it wasn’t happening. So I arrived in Sydney exhausted, groggy and ready for bed. I purchased a multi-transport pass for $61 and that allowed for unlimited travel on any of the trains, buses and ferries including leaving and coming to the airport. Although now that I look back I did not take the full advantage of the $61, the pass is good for a week, so anyone going to Sydney, I strongly recommend getting it. Moreover, last time being here Sydney was lacking in the apps department for travellers whom have an iPhone and they have greatly improved this time around with transit schedules and such, so really helped out. Far better than my time here in 2007 in which I only had a brick phone Nokia.

I caught the train to the city and then a bus from the city to Cass’s place where I would be staying for my two days in town. She has an awesome place on a hill that has a great view of the city nightlife as well as the quietness of any suburb. She gave me a tour of the place; I met her roommates and then after an evening of chatting decided to finally pass out. I was a bit nervous, as I had not done any studying that night to prepare for my afternoon GRE test the next day, but oh well…

I didn’t sleep well that night and woke up with a kink in my neck resulting in a pretty painful morning. I left the house with Ally for the city as she was on her way to work and figured might as well travel with someone who knows the area. I’m glad I did because my intentions were to go to the library at Circular Quay to study until my exam and then head to it at 1pm. She advised me there was the state library (which I didn’t even know about), which was closer and offered more amenities than the local library. So I headed there, found a seat in the café and began studying furiously for the next 4 hours.

I skimmed the material for the last minute cram session before realising I hadn’t looked over anything regarding shapes! It sounds stupid now that I look back, but to completely forget a whole section, at this point I told myself “screw it”. I grabbed some KFC before heading to the testing centre.

To spare the long boring details regarding the test and to avoid getting sued by the GRE people, I’ll just say it wasn’t what I had expected. After the exam was finished it gave me a raw number regarding what my scores were without my verbal reasoning essays (as those would be graded by humans). I’ll spare the details now and wait until I get back my official results before announcing anything, but at this time all I’ll say is the ends justifies the means, clearly.

After the exam, I walked around a bit before heading back to the library to do some email checking, podcast downloading and connecting with Lani to meet up for dinner. She told me she was in Kings Cross, which I shuddered after hearing because that place is absolutely disgusting (and it’s apparently improved over the years!). We ate at a local hole in the wall Thai place, which was pretty spicy but also amazing. Afterwards, we went our separate ways and I headed back to Cass’s place before relaxing for a bit and heading to bed.

I woke up Thursday morning to the sound of rain, which I wasn’t to pleased with as I was not expecting it to rain until Thursday evening. I packed my stuff and headed to library to drop off for a few hours since they had hourly lockers, so that I could walk around the city as well as head to the harbour to take pictures of the bridge and opera house. Sadly, the rain was constant throughout most of the morning, so I bought a $15 umbrella to attempt to keep me somewhat dry.

I first headed to the rocks and took some pictures of the bridge as well as the opera house across the way before making my way over to the opera house. Luckily at this point the rain had stopped so I was able to get a few pictures as well as Skype my buddy Diaz from back home to show him the sights and sounds of Sydney Harbour. A pretty low-key day before I grabbed my stuff, headed to the airport and caught the 3pm flight back to the Gold Coast.

Overall, the trip was pretty good. A bit unfortunate that there were many friends of mine I didn’t get to catch up with but since airfare is relatively cheap to Sydney ($150 on a good day), I am planning to go back in August on my days off but with the mindset of relaxing and not worrying about a test. There are already plans in the works to go see an opera or symphony at the opera house! More to come.

Until then,

Cheers and 再见!

-H

Public Transportation vs. Walking

For the past six months while working at Griffith University, something was reconfirmed to me that I have always known throughout my two years of being in Australia, public transportation in Australia is HORRIBLE. It may just be Queensland (aka Translink) or even just the Gold Coast, as I have yet to verify this with Sydney (New South Wales), Melbourne (Victoria) or even Brisbane (Queensland).

Not only do Translink services abruptly stop or Translink bus drivers blatantly miss stops or never show up to stops, but the fact that buses start running earlier/later at certain platforms than others is annoying. They don’t sync up! Moreover, with the Gold Coast being a predominantly tourist population, the system overall is always delayed as tourists are continually asking questions to drivers about what stop to get off of, how much the fare is, and what bus they would take to get to such and such destination.

Working at Griffith University in Southport is an easily fun and equally laid back job, getting to and from work though is a whole other story. For my journey to Southport (20 mins by car), it takes roughly 90 mins to get there by bus with one. This means that working 5 days a week, I waste 450mins (7 ½ hours getting TO work) when if I had a vehicle, I would only be wasting 1 hour. Luckily though, I’ve been able to keep busy with PhD readings, GRE studying, etc. On top of that, because of the timing, I can either get to work an hour early, or be late by 10 mins. Therefore, I also waste 5 hours of down time before I actually start my shift. With Queensland security industry standard pay at $24, I waste $120 sitting around at work before starting,

Now, I clock off at 0400hours every night. HOWEVER, the bus from Griffith University does not start running until 0550hours. This means I have to wait almost 2 hours before I can even get on the bus for another hour of travel before getting home; 3 hours total down time and home by 0730hours. Again, 5 days a week, that's 15 hours of garbage time wasted. So I wanted to experiment with taking the 24-hour bus from Australia Fair shopping centre, which is 4km away from Griffith University.

One night, I decided to walk the 4km to Australia Fair after my 0400hrs shift to catch the 0500hrs bus (24-hour running bus to Gold Coast airport) home. Lo and behold, I was home by 0600hrs and typically in bed by 0630hrs. Crazy and annoying that I can either wait for the bus and be home in bed by 0800 or walk 4km (usually takes me 40mins, I walk fast) and be home and in bed by 0630.

But I guess the better question is why I don’t just go out and get a car…

Anyways, just a random observation (and great workout!)

Until then,

Cheers!

-H

To whom it may concern...

“Penguins travel in groups. And when it comes to entering the water, there is always the first penguin that must jump in to make sure it is safe for all others…”

We are all like penguins. Or more exact, lemmings. We follow in the footsteps of others but dare not step outside of our comfort zone and be that first penguin. And so it makes you think for a second about the life you currently have. The places you have gone or the places you want to go. You remember seeing that special on the Discovery Channel or Travel Channel and thought to yourself doing something like that. But then you remember the boyfriend/girlfriend/husband/wife you have. The kid(s) screaming to feed them or take them to the park to play. Or even that mundane 9-5 job that you sit in traffic for 45 mins just to get to. When was the last time you were happy? The last time you were able to sit back, relax and say you are happy with all that you’ve accomplished in life? Better yet, when your 10 year high school reunion comes, who is going to have the better story? You, because you popped out a kid and got married and went on a hike last weekend, or the guy that just got back from China and is heading to South Africa next weekend?

To me and I assume many others, life is a book. And each step of the way we write a new chapter. To many people though, they assume once marriage comes along, that is the final chapter of their book. This “domestic” lifestyle was seen as the “normal” lifestyle until the emergence of the internet and cheap air travel. Many began to saw what was out there, new adventures and experiences that they wanted to set out on. Whether it was a cheap motel room with the female off of craigslist or conquering Mt. Everest, we all have our own dreams to pursue. And if we can’t pursue them, we give up and fall back on life with the 9-5. When you were 5 or 6 (or even 10 and 11), what did you want to be when you grew up? I can tell you right now it wasn’t a house wife or stay at home dad.

Do you have a passport? If not, why? If you do, why haven’t you used it? Is it because of family issues? Or maybe because you work a job that doesn’t allow adequate vacation time? And if your answer is because you’re too broke to go anywhere, how? You're still young, working that same job you had in high school or perhaps fresh out of college. Or is it because you have too many bills or just spent the last $20 you had on diapers? Do yourself a favour. Next time you’re mulling over Facebook while you get ready for bed to repeat your life all over again tomorrow, click on the profiles of those that are traveling, not fellow friends who have the same interests as you. Instead of gawking over their photos and how you wish you were there, actually TALK to them. Ask them about their adventures, the places they’ve been, the people they’ve interacted with, and ask them if it was worth it. I guarantee 100% of the time; they'll say it was well worth it. Talk to those who have travelled at one point in time or another and I guarantee you the best stories are those that took place outside American borders. Whether it was getting arrested by Canadian police or the ping pong show you saw in Thailand, the stories are always there and they are always repeated to those who want to hear them.

There are many out there who have not truly lived. Their idea of a good life is domestication. This horrible idea that from the age of 24 on, they will not travel anywhere outside the continental U.S. let alone, their own state. This horrible idea that they will never get their passport or to experience what being at the Great Wall of China is like. They say “why fly there when I can look it up on Wikipedia?” or “why go when I can live vicariously through you?”. But then again, these are the people who have no motivation in life whatsoever but to just work, eat and sleep. And unfortunately, these people have already written the final chapter of their book. Learn from their failures. Listen to the horror stories of them at work, taking care of the kid(s) or the outrageous bills regarding food, utilities and trying to squeeze in work somewhere. Many of my friends whom once thought they were happily married or enjoying life are now divorced or unhappy altogether. But they all share a common trait, they have NEVER traveled.

Now read the Facebook statuses and check out the blogs of those traveling. Ask them about the food, the people, even the night life. And the more you listen, the more you wish you there. The more you realise the furthest you’ve been was Montana for a wedding. Or the most exotic thing you ate was the red curry at that Asian place in downtown Seattle. While you’re contemplating how to pay the cable bill for 500+ channels that you don’t even watch, they’re contemplating where to fly too next or whether to scuba dive the Great Barrier Reef or sky dive off the coast of New Zealand.

I challenge you to stop what you’re doing before you get caught up in the moment. It may sound great now, but I can promise you years or even months down the road, you will regret it. You will wish you had taken that trip. Even if it's to Canada/Mexico if you live in the U.S. or New Zealand/Indoneisa if you live in Australia; get rid of that which you don’t need, pay off the 4 credit cards that you’ve maxed out, and leave the country. Friends in foreign places are more than happy to help those traveling. Hell, there is even a site dedicated to it called couchsurfing.org. Live amongst strangers and share your American stories for their Chinese ones. Climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge on the weekend or have a cup of tea under the London Bridge. Kiss under the Eiffel Tower or walk the same trail Frodo and Sam did in New Zealand.

Make that bucket list now before it is too late. Before you have to scrap that one and create a new one consisting of Disney Land, the zoo and breakfast for dinner. Thrill seek and create that own adventure that you’ll remember for the rest of your life. Going on Six Flags or sloppy joe Wednesdays is not an adventure. Do something that takes YOU outside of your comfort zone. Something that others will look to you in envy and wish they were you. Be that first penguin.