October 2000

Saturday 14 October

Only a week to go! On Friday 20th at 11:15am Sue and I will leave England for at least a year to travel, live, work and drink beer all around the world. Our first stop is Bangkok for a night’s stop-over and then we’ll leave the ladyboys behind for the 48 million sheep of New Zealand. We plan for the Land of the Long White Cloud to be our home for about nine months. Then it’s Australia, Fiji, Honolulu, Los Angeles and then back to London.

We’re going with the nice people from BUNAC who sorted out our visas and everything. We’re also going with forty other travelly types who could be axe murdererers but will most probably be a good laugh. Anyway, this should be the start of many (far more interesting) entries so come back soon!

Wednesday 25 October

(Writing this in NZ….) Arrived in Bangkok in the early hours - 26 degrees C! Had a sleep and then went on a cruise down the Klong river. Mixture of huge houses, shack houses all next door to each other. Highlight was being given bread to throw to the enormous fishes (could have been Carp?) that swam by the riverboat.

This is the view from our hotel window in Bangkok. It was weird to see how the towers and skyscrapers were surrounded by shacks and huts with a freeway flying above it all to separate rich from poor.

Went to a “traditional” Thai restaurant in the evening where girls did some sort of fingernail dance. Of course most were ladyboys and, predictably, Sue won our game of “guess the bloke”. Pat Pong after - the main bar/red light district. I thought I’d have to protect Sue but it was more the other way round as girls kept trying to pull me into their shows, pointing at diagrams of the things they’d do and pinching my arse. How rude. We went into one bar, however, where there was a Thai boxing show. It was tamed down for the tourists (dodgy old men) and, amazingly, when the fights were over, they put up poles for the bikini-clad girls in the bars to dance around. Sue and the others later failed to find a male bar: the only ones on offer unappetisingly promised “man-on-man”.

The worst thing about it all was that all the women had numbers on them - even the waitresses - so that the customers could literally choose who they wanted. Much like a takeaway, really. We’d gone out with a few other BUNACers and we took a couple of the local three-wheeler “tuc-tuc” taxis back to the hotel - us in one and the others in another - and the drivers had a race between us, wheelying away from traffic lights. Still alive.

Bangkok has countless temples but this is one of the more sacred. Sadly (and shamefully) I can’t remember exactly why. Must find out.

Went on a guided tour round the Buddhist temples and saw the gold-plated Reclining Buddha the next morning, despite our huge hangovers, worsened further by the heat. Even our Thai guide, “Adun” was moaning. Went on to the airport later to fly on to Auckland… or so we thought. Our BA flight was late and so, because we’d miss our connection in Sydney, we were put up in a swish hotel, all expenses paid, with a huge swimming pool, gyms etc. Sue was very impressed that they had a man to press the lift button for you. Went on the piss again after a night swim and played a few games of snooker. Barry won. Went on to a karaoke bar in the hotel where we were conned into being the stars of the show. When we left at 2.30am, we were the only ones left and had sung about twenty songs. Sue apparantly thinks that I wouldn’t give the microphone up and was so keen that I even sang some Thai songs. Remarkably they thought I was good.

This is our BUNAC group in front of one of the many temples in Bangkok. It was the day after we’d been to Pat Pong and it was ridiculously hot and sticky, hence our tired, miserable faces.

Finally left Bangkok and had to fly to Hong Kong. This sounded great until we realised we’d have to stay in the departure bit for six hours without any Hong Kong Dollars.

Got to New Zealand 23 hours after leaving our Bangkok hotel and were whisked away by the NZ organisers to a volcano overlooking Auckland. Knackered. Were forced out to drink ourselves awake (this was apparantly the best cure for jet lag) in a backpackers bar. Sue came second (marginally…) in a pool competition and amazed the Kiwi regulars.

Had our orientation today and are making our plans for the rest of our stay in NZ. Different people are going off doing different things and there’s lots to sort out. We’ve really got on with everyone and we’ll probably get a house in Ponsonby - to the west of Auckland - with a few others. It’s a fantastic city and the Kiwis are really friendly. The only problem are the bloody hills - our youth hostel’s right at the top of a 45 degree road!

Saturday 28 October

Fifth day in NZ and everything’s less crazy. Jet lag’s getting better (although I do keep falling asleep at the pub) and we’ve started to explore Auckland. It’s a fantastic city, lots of pubs, bars, cafes, shops and things to do. The Kiwis are really friendly and helpful and we’re really enjoying ourselves.

Went to the Sky Tower on Thursday, the fourth largest towery thing in the world, apparantly. Was, indeed, quite big and the views were amazing all over Auckland. Had a few beers up their, sat around on the Sky Deck (the top bit) and lie in the sun watching the boats in the harbour.

Yesterday, however, six of us (Stu, Daniel, Helen, Jo, Sue and me) went househunting but not much luck, so we came back today and found the most amazing three-storey house really close to the city. It’s fully furnished (very rare for out here), washing machine, tumble dryer, dishwasher, microwave, satellite, leather sofas, two bathrooms, balconies with a sea view, “vibrasauna” (God only knows). We haven’t got a definite “yes” - the estate agent needs to confirm with the landlord that he doesn’t mind six scummy travellers… - so we’re crossing all our fingers.

It’s really sad at the moment: half the BUNAC group are buggering off down south and a few good friends are leaving. Seems like we’ve been together for ages because they’ve been constant throughout the last week and a day. Sue and me are going to book our places on the Kiwi Experience bus for about March next year and tour around the South Island. You get to stop off at all the best places, swim, mess about, explore with these Kiwi tour guides.

Sue and I are off to Davenport on the ferry tomorrow and then we’ll take it easy - we’ve both got job acency interviews on Monday. It’s going to be a shame to have to “end” our holiday and work but, despite the fantastic exchange rate, we’re spending money fast. Need dollar!

And we keep getting freaked out thinking about people in the UK standing upside down. Just doesn’t seem right.

Monday 30 October

It’s D-day today. Sue and I have both got interviews with job agencies and we also find out whether we’ve “won” our dream house. I’m actually far more nervous about the latter seeing us the other group of BUNACers who’d be waiting have been gasumped - the estate agents informed them that someone else had moved in! Which is nice.

I’m off to Enterprise in an hour who will hopefully set me up with some IT work and Sue’s going to Select. Fingers crossed.

Tuesday 31 October

Rather predictably, we didn’t get the dream house. To quote the landlord, “I’d rather wait for a few more applicants before I make up my mind.” Which translates into, “I don’t want scummy British backpackers dirtying up my ‘funky’ house. I wouldn’t rent to you lot if you were the last $500-paying tenants on the face of the Earth.” Back to square one, then. Actually, we’re going back today to put a final, $600 offer on the table to tempt him so maybe maybe.

Had my Select job agency interview today which was easy. Sadly, they only had telesales to offer me so I guess I’ll have to ring up and irritate some Kiwis! More promising is a phone call I had from Enterprise who had an interested client for me to meet. More (hopefully successful) news soon.