Folks,
I'm not going to lie to you all, if indeed anybody still checks my blog. At times the blog has been a burden to me and clearly it still is, I had planned to post at least another five entries on my travels but I just haven't got round to it. Originally I would have posted even more. I would prefer if the blog was more spontaneous and less rigid if I'm being honest. That's what I intend for it to be in the future though.
Suffice to say I'm well behind posting anything further than the Thailand Part I entry. Since that time in Thailand I've been to Lao, Thailand again (Part II obviously), Malaysia (in total about four months, I travelled around for two and mostly hung out in Kuala Lumpur for two), Indonesia (two months) and now I'm in Perth, Australia (about three weeks). If you wish to see an exact list of the places I've been to please refer to my journeys to date entry and look at the countries above on the list. My oldest sister, Denise, lives here so I've been fortunate enough that she has let me stay at her house.
I'd love to be able to post on the places I've been in these countries as I've had some amazing experiences. However at the moment it's not possible - I might do so in the future though. In the meanwhile if you are considering travelling to these countries get in touch and I'll give you my thoughts and opinions on where to go and what to do. Either that or we can chat about it the next time I see you :)
As I expected, eventually my funds began to run low. I can't believe it is almost the end of November, time is moving so swiftly, I left Ireland in January! An English friend of mine (Gary) in Kuala Lumpur had a job in Perth lined up. When he was telling me about the work and the money I said to him, wow that's good stuff, if there is an opening for work please let me know. Later that evening Gary asked me was I still in interested in the work and obviously I was. Turns out Gary was missing his girlfriend back in England and wanted to go home instead of taking on the work. Garys people talked to my people and now I have his job! Thanks Gary!
I flew to Perth a couple of days later and stayed with my sister. However, I flew into Australia on a tourist visa so legally I couldn't work in the country. The guy organising the work on the farms insisted on me getting a working holiday visa, a visa to work for 12 months here. So I had to fly back to KL and get a new visa. I didn't mind much, apart from the costs, I got to see my friends in KL again for a few more days and have a laugh. Obviously smoked more weed, a hell of alot actually :)
Originally I was looking to go working in Korea, teaching English, but I decided to put that on the back burner for the moment. The work in Australia was about to start and the work in Korea wouldn't have started until March. Additionally I wouldn't have found out if I'd get the job until January! Besides, I can always reapply and at least now I know more about the process and such. The work I have is due to start within the next few days. I'll be working on grain farms here in Western Australia for the next three months. Think I'll be able to earn in the region of about 8,000 AUD.
With that money I intend to get back on the road and travel to Sri Lanka, India, Nepal and possibly Bangladesh. Before that I'll be back in Malaysia to visit some friends and will likely skip up to Thailand to visit my Irish friends Joe and Shane. I hung out with these guys through Viet Nam and Cambodia and we kept in touch. They came to work in Perth and I've been lucky enough to meet up with them again over the past few days and create more banter! Great lads, like brothers to me.
Anyways, that's the update from my side. Please feel free to leave a comment or get in touch by sending an email to liamoconnor2001@yahoo.co.uk . Apologies if the formatting of this post isn't too hot - the blogger site seems to be rejecting or simply not implementing all my format changes (such as basic ones like paragraph spacing).
Peace,
Liam O'Connor, travelling hobbit
