Today marks the beginning of a journey with a one-way ticket overseas, embarking on an adventure of a lifetime. A long awaited trip, the idea sparked from an after-thought coming home from a 2-week holiday in Japan, with the decision that I wanted an adventure. I wanted the culture, the food, the people, more than I wanted my boring menial day-to-day grind.
The idea was to travel to Japan and become an English teacher, living like the Japanese for a while as it was something I thought I could do and something that I would enjoy. During a gym-session, I bumped into a close friend whom I’ve known for over 10 years and we discussed the idea of a working holiday, to which my friend Estelle mentioned Canada as a popular place for Australian Expats.
Canada Eh? Hell yeah. I’m an avid snowboarder, albeit, a beginner in my eyes, this was definitely something I could see myself doing for a while. Just imagine, the beauty of Canada, some of the world’s best ski resorts, wildlife and blue-lakes, not to mention friendly people and wild parties (so I’ve heard). From there, the plan was to get a job at a ski-resort, something to the likes of Whistler, Lake Louise or Fernie, however after applying to several mountains, it wasn’t going to be as easy as we originally thought.
Luckily for myself, I rediscovered affiliate marketing 3 months prior to my departure and have been somewhat successful to date. I resigned from my day job 3 weeks before my flight and spent most my days working on campaigns in the hopes to build something sustainable and semi-auto pilot to last me the 3-weeks I would be in Thailand and Japan, or at least help me ride it out til I am settled in at the final destination.
Amongst the madness, getting prepared, building a business, planning and booking flights, hotels, insurance, applying for jobs, packing, buying the required travel gear, I still managed to organise and host a going-away party & BBQ to farewell friends and family which was filled with booze food and music. The turn-out was great, the food was amazing (thanks Mum), my friends were all there and sure enough, one of them got drunk enough to break a chair!
Moving forward to the big day, myself and Estelle met at Tullamarine Airport for our flight out of the country, amped and excited, Estelle wisely bought a small bottle of creamy-beige Baileys (I’m Old’ Greg!) and I managed to scoop up a good deal on Armani Acqua Di Gio and some DOPE Carerra sunglasses from the Duty Free store.
On the flight over from Melbourne to BKK
The day before I was close to getting business class seats at an upgrade of $199 each as it was a special offer from an outbound call-centre. Unfortunately we missed out on the deal but we were happily surprised to see the seat we got on our first flight had extra leg-room! Win!
On the flight over, I reminisced about Thailand and Lebanon showing off my travel pics and it just made me realize how much I am going to enjoy the trip!
The first stop Bangkok Thailand. The crazy nightlife, food and culture of Thailand.
Post Thailand is back to Japan for some early-morning Sushi, Fuji-Q Highlands and the nightlife and shopping of Shibuya.
After that we’re headed to Calgary airport and we hope to find a place to rent around Banff for the winter to engage in some winter sports, amazing surroundings and party like it’s 2007 (I was much more of a partier that year).
- Signing Off
Andrew
