Category: English

Time flies when you’re having fun and it flies even faster when you’re driving 500km a day. 7 weeks in Australia is ages, right? It’s probably longer than many people spend, but our ambitious approach, seeing all the big 5 cities and a lot in between, has made it hectic. But as I’ve previously discussed, I like hectic. As I write this, I’m sitting on the balcony of our Brisbane hostel at 6am having left Alice to sleep for another couple of hours… our Oxford weekend routine has become standard now.

It would have been more relaxing to stick to the east coast, following the regular tourist trail from Brisbane to Melbourne at a slower pace, but I’m glad we didn’t. In the words of Bill Bryson, “you can’t say you’ve seen Australia until you’ve been to the outback.” It’s been good to speak to other travellers these two hostel days but the rural approach enabled us to meet many Australians. When we arrived in Bryon Bay to the hordes of tourists, we were quite shocked. Generalisations are dangerous but having met probably 50 locals in the last month, the overarching trait has been generosity; several times in campsites we’ve been offered beers, wine and even meals and we’ve been regularly furnished with fruit and vegetables from people’s gardens.

AirBnBs and campsites have introduced us to a much more diverse range of people than I would usually spend time with in the UK. We’ve met a truck driver, families who have taken their kids out of school to travel the country, a miner, a doctor, someone struggling to find employment and frustrated by the benefit system, plenty of ‘grey nomads’ – retirees who perpetually travel, and the Gypsy of the Celts!

On top of the warm, welcoming and kind attitude, we have encountered a couple of less positive aspects. The debate around same-sex marriage rages and I suspect that many of the people we’ve spoken to are rather conservative on this issue. We read about negative attitudes towards the aboriginal population and this has been evident. A few people have referred to the alcoholic stereotype and when our food was stolen from a campsite fridge, the (otherwise very friendly) couple who managed the site were quick to accuse aborigines. The fact that the thief took our milk, juice, cheese and yoghurt but not our beer didn’t deter them from this conclusion: “they probably thought the bag was full of beer”. A large exhibit at the Museum of South Australia in Adelaide showed us that some people are making a great effort to increase understanding of and respect for aboriginal culture, but our experiences suggest that there is a lot of work to do.

Moving on… the time zones are a bit crazy here. The time on our trip has been as follows: +8, +9:30, +10:30, +11, +10! I suppose this shouldn’t be a shock, as a trip from London to Baghdad (the distance we’ve driven) would probably require similar changes. The experience has confirmed my prior belief, that countries should set their time zones further forward than tradition dictates. Here is Brisbane, sunrise is 5am and sunset 6pm. Move two hours forward and you have 7am to 8pm – surely those two hours of sunlight after work are so much more valuable than those before most people are awake! In the same way, I don’t see why the UK doesn’t join Central European Time – yes, the winter mornings would be even gloomier but they can’t really get any more depressing, and at least then you might leave work before dark.

And finally, something I forgot to mention last month: the Google Translate app. As someone who loves speaking (or at least trying to speak) the local language when I travel, I find lack of ability to communicate very frustrating. No app will ever beat genuine language skills, but Google Translate is impressive. On top of the usual text translation offered by the website, the app has two great features: firstly, audio to audio translation and secondly the ability to point your camera and menu / sign and get live translation, with English overlaid on the picture. The second tool felt amazingly futuristic and worked well in Indonesian. This can all be downloaded and used offline. Even more reason to book a holiday to get away from the British winter… let me know where you are going.

Last time I talked about how time had been passing paradoxically slowly and quickly. This month has been more consistently speedy; after some time on the beach in Vietnam and a relatively relaxed few days in the Malaysian highlands, we embarked on a whirlwind tour of Borneo and East Java, followed by a bit of relaxation in Bali and now I’m writing from sunny Perth.

Although this month has not been plain sailing, things have generally been much more positive and I leave South East Asia with much more desire to return than I expected early on.

What’s changed? As predicted, the more hectic itinerary and regular mountain climbing have helped: we have been to some spectacular places that I want to go back to. If you want to plan a trip to Asia, I strongly advise a family holiday in Vietnam, a Honeymoon in Bali or a combined Adventure / Relaxation trip in Indonesia.

Continuing a trend that started at the end of last month, we have met so many more other travellers during this time. It took a while to shake off the city-living inhibition of talking to strangers but recently, I’ve struck up conversations with people at every opportunity. This has given me plenty of French, Spanish and German practice, although some of the best friendships we formed have been with a couple from Sao Paolo and two sets of Flemish (and English!) speaking Belgians. One slight concern I have in Australia is that fellow travellers will be harder to spot! That said, we have started meeting local people too: We stayed in the friendliest homestay in Banyuwangi and Bahasa-speakers have generally had a greater level of English, so that we’ve been able to chat to them occasionally.

It may just be coincidental but the start of September, usually heralding my return to work, was also a bit of watershed. I suppose that until then, the trip felt little different from previous summers and so I didn’t appreciate the advantages of taking a year off. Jen just asked if I missed school? A resounding no.

A useful comment from Rachel about my previous criticism of the Philippines has resonated too; she reminded me that as westerners we are very used to a remarkably high standard of living and asked whether we expect too much. Recently, I’ve tried to take a much more relaxed view when there is only a cold shower or transport is uncomfortable. However, I stand by my suggestion to visit other South-East Asia countries before the Philippines! On that note, here are my South-East Asia scores (10 being best, 1 worst):

	Philippines	Vietnam	Malaysia	Indonesia/Bali
Tasty Healthy Food?	3	10	5	7
Comfortable Lodging?	2	8	6	9
Easy Transport?	4	7	10	5
Interaction with Locals	6	3	8	7
Not full of Tourists?	8	2	6	3
Different from Europe?	5	6	2	7
Cheap?	6	7	9	5

Note that I haven’t ranked them on what there is to see and do, beauty or quality of activities. All four have great beaches, mountains, jungle and interesting history and culture that you can seek out should you so wish. I could try to separate them on these measures, but I feel that my minimal experience would be even less representative than it is on the criteria above!

One final point, related to the rest of this blog. We’ve noticed a distinct trend in how people from different countries respond to me speaking their language! French normally ask a generous “comment est-ce que tu parles si bien francais?”, with a sort of shock that an English person speaks French and Germans almost universally ask “why are you learning German?”, as if I am crazy to try. The Spaniards we’ve met have been more mixed, some speaking excellent English but a couple have been grateful to be able to speak some Spanish after having to speak English during most of their travels and we’ve received the ingenious “We don’t speak Spanish, we speak Catalan” a few times. It seems that the push for their own mini-Brexit is gaining some popularity.

Let’s hope that world travel opens their eyes to the advantages of globalisation. I strongly dislike McDonalds (I’ve never eaten there in my adult life) but recently read  in Better Angels of our Nature about the ‘Golden Arches’ theory of world peace; no two countries which both have a McDonalds have ever gone to war. It seems that teaching people that they can gain more from trade than theft is one of the most effective ways to discourage violence.

I suspect that most people experience the paradox I feel when writing this title: time passes simultaneously quickly and slowly. On one hand, it feels like the first month has gone in a shot, but when I think back through all we’ve seen and done, it feels like a long time.

If you’ve been following my photo of the day, in which I’ve showcased the great places we’ve been, you will probably be surprised to hear that there have been several occasions when I’ve contemplated cutting short the trip or taking a break already.  It has been a surprisingly emotional month for me and my mood has been up and down more than ever before.

A combination of things may have caused this: A feeling of aimlessness and wanting to do something useful / challenging with my time, in part caused by the fact that the job I left was very easy so I don’t feel like I need a break. It can be hard to find ‘freedom’ as a tourist in south East Asia: most activities are organised tours. The punishing tropical heat doesn’t help. A reason very thematic to this blog: I enjoy a country more when I can have a conversation with local people – my western European languages are of scant use here. I’ve been a little lonely at times: my lovely wife Alice is great, but I miss having other people in my life.

I’ve traveled for longer than a month before, but it’s surprising how the open-ended nature of this trip has affected my feelings. Have I (rather cheesily for a RTW trip) learned anything about myself? I like being busy and challenged, people and talking. I dislike organised fun and excessive heat. I’m sure I knew these things already, but the last month has emphasised/reminded me.

Happily, things are looking up. Alice’s theory is that we were never particular wanted to go to the Philippines before we planned the trip, so that’s why we didn’t enjoy it as much. It’s definitely true that we are happier in Vietnam: there are more things we want to see and do, which is keeping us busier. It has been much easier to meet fellow travellers here (we’ve probably just got better at approaching strangers!) so I’ve finally got some language practice in.

We had originally planned a month in Indonesia: after initially considering scrapping that entirely, we came to a compromise and booked a flight to Australia (aka “the cold zone”) for mid-September. Some mountains which we can climb independently feature in the itinerary to that point.

So the ‘solution’ has been to change the approach to do more of what I like and less of what I dislike. Sensible, perhaps, but I’m mindful of a suggestion from a friend: take the opportunity to discover a slower pace of life, perhaps try a meditation course. In some of my more uncompromising moments, I chastise people for not liking certain foods. Maybe I need to take my own advice and realise that trying a different pace of life is something not to miss out on. We’ll see…

Oh yer… A great IPA brewed locally helps too 🙂

Our last day in Cumberland Road (for now) – sad times.

After 3 days of hectic packing and cleaning… the house is organised, our stuff is in the loft, the car is as packed as it ever will be and we’re ready for the off.