4th – 31st October
After 172 days, 57 beds, 12 visas and over 22 hundred pounds in South East Asia, it really is time to go. I said my goodbyes and shed a fair few tears in Chiang Mai and less than 24 hours later, found myself almost surreally drinking cider with my sister and some of my best friends from London in a beer garden by the beach in Sydney. It was tough to leave but it's not a life I can really complain about. So the weekend saw a lot of catch ups, a lot of laughs, a lot of stories, a lot of cash and a lot of rain. Brilliant as it was, Sydney's spring was a sharp reality check on the stunning weather and value for money that is South East Asia! So on that note, let's go back to Thailand for a second...
I would say my last few weeks there were somewhat unexpected but I don't think anything will surprise me anymore. I slept like a baby on a tiled floor, helped lay turf and make a website, made friends with a gecko that previously had scared the life out of me, been to a funeral, handed out flyers for English tuition, been greeted with 'Hello Falang!' (hello foreigner!), decorated someone's door, spent a night in an unfurnished country bungalow that I've watched being built, chosen window frames, picked out a van full of flowers and spoken English everyday to a lady that speaks to me in Thai without once ever understanding each other. I've also made a couple of truly amazing friends, visited what may be the most fascinating building I've ever seen, been complimented on how relaxed I am and learned that I was born on the week's unluckiest day (bizarre, considering I've get quite far on luck alone!).
All in all, I've had a ball.
So here I am. I landed in Sydney exactly a week ago and attempted to prepare myself for a huge weekend with some Thai sleeping pills but in actual fact was left tapping my feet and pacing the cabin for the entire flight. God knows what they were and although I was on the aisle seat, I don't imagine my neighbour was exactly loving me. By 7.30am, I've had my first coffee in years in an attempt to make myself look human and am waiting in the arrivals hall for Claire and Joel to fly in from New Zealand. It's 3.30am my time. By 10am, we're sitting by the pool with Priscilla, Nathan and Joel's mum and sister and by mid afternoon, there are about 10 of us in the beer garden of the infamous Coogee Bay Hotel. Thanks to the thrill of seeing everyone and one late afternoon walk on the beach to wake me up, I make it to midnight – that's 4am Chiang Mai time and an impressive session start to the weekend with a change of continent over a 45 hour session! Needless to say, I sleep pretty well that night.
The week has pretty much flown past and it's still a slightly weird feeling to be here already. I keep waking up and having to run through the past few days to work out what country I'm in and I'm suffering from a careless afternoon at the beach under the deceptive Australian sun but there's no one else to blame for that. Otherwise, it's pretty good to be back. I like Australia, I love this start of summer atmosphere and it's always good to see old friends. I have until the 17th of December if I stick to my flight dates (let's face it though, that's relatively unlikely) so that gives me 7 weekends, including this one, to do the rounds and have the maximum amount of fun! Unlike the rest of the trip, this will involve a bit of forward planning and it might be a little less laid back and a whole lot more expensive than North Thailand but I've never failed to have fun with Australians before and going by the week just gone, this time round won't be any different.
