Goodbye Australia!

Pt 1: 15/08/06 12.43am Room 641 IBIS Hotel Sydney Airport

Well, I fly out of Sydney bound for San Francisco, California tomorrow. I am really looking forward to it. It seems unbelievable that I have been in Australia for the past 8 months, its a long time, but looking back on the whole time, it seems to have gone quite quickly. There have been some great moments. I haven't really felt "homesick" so far (which I was very surprised at) but this morning I saw a British Airways plane on the runway and it briefly set me off for some weird reason. As I sit here on my bed watching James Taylor live on DVD (one of the USA's best singer-songwriters IMO), I am super excited about the US and the gigs i have tickets for. I know I have 3 months and no more due to visa restrictions so I certainly have a time-scale to work within.

So the past week since I left Brisbane has been a nice ending to my time in Australia. I flew up to Airlie Beach on the north Queensland coast (avoiding excess baggage charges by strategically placing heavy items down my pants and laying on the politeness very thick to the check-in lady. Maybe she just thought i had a big dong as i had half my backpack down there ;) I spent a couple of days readjusting to grotty hostels (reminding me of the main thing i hate about this budget travelling life, however at no point during my time here did I take a greyhound bus anywhere), I met a few people in Airlie and just generally hung it out at the beach (although I didn't go for a swim) as I waited for my sailing trip around the Whitsunday Islands to come.

I was spending the next 3 days on a boat called 'Madison'. It was damn windy the couple of days before my trip and travel sick pills proved to be the sensible idea. Leaving the harbour on a Wednesday evening set for 3 days and 3 nights sleeping in a 6 ft x 3 ft bunk (with a room full of snorers - thank god again for iPod), it sure was an adventure though. Watching all the craziness of the mainland (well as much as you can get in Airlie Beach, Queensland) quickly disappear on the horizon was a nice feeling. It was like being on your own island and your own time for 3 days. Early mornings didn't seem so painful when there was such amazing snorkeling on offer and exploring amazing beaches like Whitehaven. The most well known one, and nearly the only one with sand, the rest are all coral. Its so vast, like a picture postcard. Pretty sweet huh!. Still a load of tourists on other boat trips there though (not pictured fortunately), but this was really the only place where there were a few.


It was ultra relaxing at times and there was no need to worry or be concerned about anything at all, just chill out with a beer watching the sunset over the islands on the horizon. It sure was spectacular. During the days I saw more tropical fish than in an aquarium, and we saw whales on more than one occasion, including 2 feet from our boat at one point! Not something you see everyday. No sharks though. The high wind (25 knots to be precise, which is bluddy windy in nautical circles) meant we couldn't make the 4 hour open sea trip to the Barrier Reef, which was a blessing in disguise, as there were 5 ft waves breaking on the boat at times. It was a shame I didn't have my board. But seriously, if we'd gone there wasn't a pill in the world that could have stopped you hurling. So yeah we did experience some 'rough seas' on our voyage, at times the only option was to hold on for dear life to the nearest mast!.

The best bit of the trip was the other 11 people on the boat (not all pictured, some were in bed). It was so refreshing to meet a group of intelligent and genuinely good humoured people. Mainly from all over Europe and one couple from Australia, it renews your faith that there are still good people out there in this world. We spent the last night on the boat discussing each others different cultures and having a laugh. It was sad to leave the boat when we did arrive back, it seemed more like a week than 3 days. Although after a long hot shower when we returned to dry land we all met up for drinks. Everyone had a noticeably renewed enthusiasm for their travels (probably mainly due to that long hot shower), and it was another really pleasant evening of interesting and hilarious conversation.


The next couple of days were spent chilling on the beach. 3 others I had met (Will, Kathy and Gem) and I hired a car one afternoon and took a drive out to nearby "Ceder Creek Falls" and Conway Beach. I met a girl on my flight down to Sydney this evening from Ascot who I managed to get to check my guitar with her baggage as she only had 11 kilos of a backpack. Yet again I avoided the dreaded excess baggage charge, victory over Jetstar! Even if i had been required to pay extra for my excess kilo's I'd have had trouble paying for it as I had converted all my AUS dollars over to US AM EX travellers cheques two days ago.

So here I am in my hotel room in Sydney. You really realise the importance of the things you take for granted when you are away from hom. Having my own room in the house in Brisbane was so nice as i could just take some time alone after 4 months of hostels and geek out on the computer, play guitar for hours on end and most importantly, work on some songs. I can't write when there are people all around, its a very personal thing (sensitive singer-songwriter stuff :) So, getting into the hotel room, even though only a week later and only one short night, was so nice (especially as my hostel in Airlie beach was particularly bad). To have a little 1, 2, 3 - me time. Sit back, have a tv (i have watched about 2 hours of tv in total since January) - it even said my name!, play some guitar, play and sing as though nobody was there (which i am slowly learning to be able to do when people are present).

As I got on the bus at Sydney Airport to my hotel this evening I saw the musician Lior (who I saw live in Birzzy) at the shuttle bus stop. We both had guitar in hand and it was only as we made eye contact that I realised it was him. It was annoying I didn't get to have a chat, but everybody is always tearing around on their way to where they gots to be going... anyway, I am gonna have to resume this later as its 1am and I have to be up at 8.30am for my flight to get to my flight to San Fran.

I spoke too soon...
Pt 2: 16/08/06 1.30pm Room 213 Mercure Hotel Sydney Airport

However, little did i know then that my time in hotel rooms was to be a bit longer...

My flight has been delayed for 9 hours!! Great fun. On my way to the international terminal this morning I got a call from Quantas. So here I am in a "delay dayroom" in a nearby hotel (watching plane after plane take off and land). Its annoying but its hardly the end of the world. I sit watching people in Greece on the news who are living in poverty with no help. In this western culture we get annoyed when our flight is delayed and we are not reimbursed for our time in some way. Anyway, I get the best lunch and dinner I've had for some months for free, so its not all bad. Plus I will (hopefully) get to SF early evening instead of very early morning, which definitely works in my favor.

On a more potentially disastrous note. I decided to re-read the page on US visa's in my guidebook yesterday and it said that all visitors must show proof of an outbound ticket when entering the US (in theory to make sure you don't have the potential to just "disappear" after they arrive). I didn't have one. I was going to see how I went and then book a ticket back to London from New York just before I needed it. So, upon arriving at Sydney airport I had to book one (even though its fully refundable). Panic over, but it was lucky I did get one before going to check-in as I wouldn't have even been able to even leave Australia without it!

I'd just like to say thank you all for actually taking the time to read my writings on this blog. I have had some really nice emails over the past couple of months and I really appreciate it, it makes it all worthwhile. Bye for now... see you in Frisco'... t.m.