Australian update

Well I finally have a few minutes to update the blog.

We have moved into a new place, but unfortunately it doesn't have internet in it. I havn't been without a connection since i was 16 I think.. it sucks considering I don everything on it - check events, figure out bus routes or maps, talk to people, bank, and so on. Oh well, making by OK without it. The place otherwise is cool, we have 7 roommates but it works out alright as everyone is fairly cool. There are a scottish couple, another scottish girl, two korean girls, and one british guy who is moving out to go to thailand right away.

We also picked up a stellar ride. a 1986 toyota corolla with 377000 km. Toyotas are built extremely solid, however, so I expect it to last a fair while yet. All i can find wrong with it is a loose fifth gear (and the gas gauge stopped working for some reason).

Kayla has been quite successful in job hunting. She just quit at the balmoral as she said it was the "worst run company she'd ever worked for". The next day she was hired at another cafe AND was offered a secretarial job paying about $4 more than the cafe job. Unbelievable. As for me, I have received feedback from pretty much every job I applied for saying that they are looking for a permanent employee, nothing short term. With the labour shortage here I am quite surprised, as I'd be able to step into most of these roles with little to no training. If i was a permanet resident I'd have a job now for sure, and thye pay a lot. Maybe it'll change in the new year, as nobody is hiring now due to the holidays. If i don't have a job by early January, I'll have to pick up some crap job so I can continue saving.. as (if everything works out) we would like to hit the east coast, new zealand, and possibly a few other asian countries before we get back.

Sure doesn't seem like christmas. We went to the beach today, and the forecast for the next few days is around +35 . Can't complain !

Kayla says hi, and laughs at me because I am jobless.

John

Settling in Perth, Australia

OKay, so settling here has been a little hard. The bus system isn't the greatest so it takes hours to do one thing that with a car would only take you 45 mins or less. The housing is really hard to get. Every time we call anyone about a posting, it's already been filled.
A good thing though, is that it took me less than 2 days to find a job. I'm working at the Balmoral hotel. My first day was yesterday, just an orientation and the restaurant seems like any other restaurant except that you don't go to the tables to take an order. They come up to the bar to order from you. I found that a little hard to get used to because I'm so used to running around after customers. Nice little change but I wonder if I"m going to get bored more easily because of it.
So on Sunday we went out with Reece and Christine to one of their friends house for a BBQ. Had steaks and Snaggers (sausages), potato salad and alcohol. Hahaha.... supposedly, Sunday afternoon in Australia is like their biggest party day. I don't think people care that they have to go back to work the next day. They start early and go to a bar on the beach. It's a huge thing. The girls are really fashionable here too. All wearing dresses and very chic little outfits. When everyone was tired of standing in the bar we all went for a swim. The smart ones brought their bathing suits..... most just swam in their underwear. Hahaha all in good fun.
I have never felt power like that of the waves of this ocean. Even in Thailand everything was fairly calm. We were just playing in baby waves and it was enough to knock me over repeatedly. The power is amazing and I want to see what the big waves feel like. I can't wait to go see the surfers on the huge waves.
John has got a few interviews at IT places and I"m sure he'll get a job within the next couple of days. His leg's all healed up and he says Hi to everyone back home.

In Aussie!!!!

I know that some people have been having trouble trying to find our new photos so here's another link that you can go to.

http://s5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/starf0rsaken/thailand/ko%20phi%20phi/

^ for some reason, our blog cuts off the end of that link, so you have to highlight the text with your mouse then right click it and copy it. then you have to paste it into a new internet window to get straight to that photo album. The eastier way is listed below.

If you want to see any of the other albums, all you have to do is go to the top left hand corner of the page where it says current album: starforsaken>thailand and click on Thailand. Then look to the box on the left hand side of the page that says My Sub Albums and click on anyone of those. They all have new pics in them.

Okay so after leaving the Cafe shop on Dec 2 we took a ferry boat to the Mainland, Krabi. Then got on a taxi bus to the bus station, then onto an overnight bus. The overnight bus wasn't that bad. We had the VIP section with couches and a table and they played movies. I actually got some sleep. Wasn't really expecting to. Once in Bangkok we got on a taxi to the airport. Then boarded a plane at 9:30 am and arrived in Perth at 10:45 pm.

It wasn't a bad trip except for the fact that I was sick the whole time. Brutal. It was nice to sleep in something that wasn't moving when we finally got to Perth. We're staying with Reece and Christine right now. For those of you who don't know, Reece was John's roommate that went to Saskatoon from Aussie about 2 years ago and now lives back in Perth with his gf from Sask. Christine. We'll be staying with them until we can find jobs and a place to live which will be a while yet, seeing as the availablity for housing isn't that big in Perth.

We will probably be posting a little less for the next bit seeing as we're not going to be doing a lot o fun things. But we'll still post any good news. From here on in I'm just rewriting my resume, applying at jobs and getting familiar with the area.

Oh yeah and we saw black swans and jelly fish yesterday. We'll be going to the beach on Sunday for a BBQ ... hope we don't get eaten by sharks hahah. Yeah there's been sighting of a 6 meter Great White of the coast in the last month. No attacks lately, so we have some hope hahahaha.

Last day in Thailand

I am typing this entry from an internet cafe on Ko Phi Phi. It is our last day in Thailand, as we have to catch a ferry at 2 followed by an overnight bus (yikes) to Bangkok which should arrive around 6 AM. Then the flights to Hong Kong and Perth which will take an entire day.

I have also set up an internet voip number, it is 17472578899 . We can call to Canada for two cents a minute, but not sure on the rate for the receiver. You can call us as well, but if we're not connected to wifi (the internet) with the phone we can't receive the call although you can leave a voicemail which we can pick up the next time we are online with the phone.

We spent last night on Ko Phi Phi Ley, the infamous spot for the beach movie. It was great, much like depicted in the movie although some points were of course exaggerated or misleading. The sand was white and the water crystal clear, and the island is essentially uninhabited. It was awesome, check photobucket for pictures.

We have been on this island for 4 days or so, it's basically consisted a lot of beach time. I'll leave it to the pictures to say my thousands of words. The first night had a pretty sketchy adventure as our door wouldn't lock, kinda ridiculous, but the other nights we spent in nice places. My knee has also almost completely healed - and kayla says it's amazing that she hasn't burned yet.

I'm sure glad it's not -20 here. I havn't worn a shirt for 3 days.

GO RIDERS GO