This was it! Our great Oz adventure was about to begin, we stored our bags in the van, had breakfast, set up our bed. Now to buy some food for the van. Destination Aldi where everything is cheap and in bulk.
So we stocked up the van with essentials: noodles, pasta, Sauces, eggs, bacon, sausages, water, juices, fruit, Topped up with snacks: Chocolate, Crisps (Chips), sweets (lollies) etc
We departed a sunny Manly with a fond farewell and hit the coast road. Watching the sea and sights pass as we set out for Woolongong. We passed town after town stopping for coffees and sight seeing. All was great until 200k when disaster struck.
Bruce the damned van began hissing. The engine is right under the passenger seat so my backside began feeling warm. The temperature gage shot the needle off the scale. This was it 200k and Bruce was ready to give up the ghost.
To say I swore a little is an understatement. To say I cursed the name Asher (the car dealer) and all that he stood for again was an understatement. I haven’t the first idea why steam, coolant and extreme heat radiated from our engine. I paced and gritted my teeth and tried to google what might be wrong.
I will say this – don’t trust google!!! if something is wrong see a specialist. I was given the worst case scenarios from forums and self help sites. I had written the van off several times in my head.
After breathing time I decided to just top the levels up and see a mechanic in the morning. With the Water, Coolant and Oil filled, we got on our way.
Only 10k it lasted, I was cursing and swearing yet again, this faulty purchase was our lifeline to our travels. Not even a week in the country we were a few grand down and a heap of junk to show for it. The only saving grace in all this was we broke down outside a petrol station. We had managed to park the motor and weren’t stranded in the middle of nowhere.
The store clerk was a great help, he was more than good to us. As it was late in the day he said we could sleep the night in the van and he advised us to save money on the breakdown services and see one of the many garages on the 2k stretch.
So here we were stranded and annoyed. The place went my the name of Warilla. We had crash landed in a strange old town so what else could we do but drink and meet the locals.
-Jack and Kate-
Regrets I’ve had a few but then again too few to mention
Taken from Frank Sinatra’s My Way a line that resonates a great deal with me. You could write that on my grave 100 years from now
We as humans procrastinate we can easily avoid the life we want and fall into a life we need a life driven by work and a mundane routine. Maybe that’s for you but let’s be fair not everyone reading this disagrees, I have been there and it’s not always a pretty place to be. Stuck in a perpetual loop unable to escape. It doesn’t have to be that way.
We read books, watch documentaries, read travel magazines, watch films, scroll the internet for beautiful beach sunsets in paradise,1to add as a wallpaper to your office computer to avoid looking out at the window at a dreary life, at least that’s the life I once led.
With the power of Facebook I would watch and envy anyone who was out there avoiding the 9-5 smiling happy and enjoying the things I wanted to do. Why did I ever think this was impossible for me to achieve?
Whatever it is you want to do or dream about doing or a place you want to go or something you would love to try, why aren’t you doing it? What’s stopping you?
It’s morbid but I have seen it time and time again, regrettably people can get ill and I have known a few who are or were terminal. In their last time on earth many come alive, they look at their bucket list and start ticking it off, maybe travel, perhaps a skydive, holiday in the Bahamas, get married, a trip to Disneyland etc etc. The way I see it is this, life is terminal not one of us is getting out alive so why can’t more of us wake up and stop dreaming our bucket list away. A time will come when you will be looking back and realise just how easy things could have been, how we should have not worked so hard or achieved a lot more. We should never let things be too late. Once life’s gone you aren’t going to get it back, hours, days, weeks, years, time is all we have and it ticks away.
If I had to really sum up what I’m saying imagine playing a computer game, you are one character who needs to get from the beginning to the end in one go, but to win you must collect as many points in your time on this level as you can. You would try everything to get the most amount of points to say this level was a success. Hope that makes sense
For me travelling was always my dream being lived by someone else I would talk stories with friends who did it, relate that to the shows I watched on TV but still go back to my day job and carry on paying the bills. With the good fortune of meeting Kate and having someone so enthusiastic towards life woke me up. Money can be saved, they pay for flights, more money can be saved, they pay for travel money. I worked every hour sold things I didn’t need and together we made our dream happen. It’s not impossible I’m no longer envious of others. So why can’t we all do the things we want before it’s too late?
What is it you want to do, write a book, get a promotion, travel, start a buisness, buy that car, study, move abroad, skydive, swim with dolphins, get fit, climb a mountain, run a marathon, whatever it may be
Don’t wait until your death bed to regret it treat this life like it’s your last…..and get off your arse and live
No Regrets
–Jack and Kate–
The search was on, we had only a couple of days in order to look for our home on wheels our campervan for the next few months. This is what any traveller should know before they start. Unless you saved incredibly well, or perhaps you just have a lot of money spare maybe a nice work bonus before you left for Oz you are going to have to lower your expectations on what vehicle your expecting to pick up. If your buying you will have to search hard to find a cheap motor that hasn’t done a round trip across Australia a few times before it’s reached you and Australia is a bloody big place so expect a few Kilometres on the clock if you want to save the Dollars.
We had a budget and we wanted a campervan we sat for hours scrolling through endless pages of motors on Gumtree and other ad sites, we emailed and rang, strolled round local notice boards, rang and emailed some more. Some got back to us. We narrowed our choices down to a handful of motors but found our heart set on a Mitsubishi Express here in Sydney, Bondi Beach to be exact.
During this time we had met a Hungarian man in the computer room of the hostel he was very talkative and loud, nice enough though. He told us his travelling stories and his plans from here on out, conveniently at this point he was interested in selling his Toyota Hiace he had parked out in the hostels car park. With a desperate attempt to convince us it was the best choice and had everything we would need for best comfort and a good running motor he let us have a look. We got excited and went to check it out.
The van was a heap of crap. I can only describe it as a bricklayers van that had never been cleaned in ten years service and stuck together with duck tape. The bed was raised but homemade and slanted to the left slightly at a 30 degree angle. Relentless in telling us it was a very good van for everything we needed, it was thanks but no thanks from us.
The search continues we went back
to the Mitsubishi Express it looked ideal, the price was good and came with everything we could ask for, small kitchen space, under bed storage, windows, chairs, table, camping bits plus 4wd we were convinced we wanted to have a look.
We emailed and within 10 mins a response came through within 30 mins we had planned a viewing at Bondi Junction. This was exciting we were ready to look at our first motor.
We spent the rest of the day in Manly walking the beach, window shopping and relaxing. We still needed to catch up on our jet lag so we slept.
A ferry trip to Circular Quay and a bus ride to Bondi Junction got us to our meeting point. A car park opposite the station. Text comes through
10 mins delay be there soon
an hour passed and just as we were to give up hope a squeaky suspension spring sounded the arrival of the Mitsubishi. The white van turned a corner into the car park a little grubby but nothing less than what we expected.
A short guy with dark curly hair possibly Jewish jumped out the drivers side this was to be an American named Asher we shook hands, and had a look inside,
I pretended to know what I was talking about. Asking to lift the passengers seat up to have a look at the motor. I twisted caps and poked things and asked questions about things I had no idea about. A small lesson before I left England gave me some basics I should tick off to know if the van was worth the money.
Heads up to anyone travelling get an idiots guide to car mechanics or a manual if your not sure before hand it’ll save you some hassle down the road.
We were happy, it had what we needed bed, storage, kitchen area, runs well, came with pink slip we were happy and wanted the van. Now just to withdrawal the cash.
Bugger!
The last thing that was on our minds was to carry the money, we had it in our heads we could just pop to the bank withdrawal what we needed, however today was a Sunday, somewhere between our jet lag and excitement we hadn’t even given a blind bit of notice to what day of the week it was.
The next hour was a run around town withdrawal money from ATMs on Oz Cash Cards, Credit Cards, UK Bank Cards, anyway we could get money out, we did all this whilst trying to entertain Asher with a coffee at Maccas and swapping stories. If I’m honest i was bored of the guy after 2 mins, a monotone not much to reveal kind of guy, awkward silences ensued, it did nothing for the panic that surrounded me as Kate an I took it in turns to find money from somewhere.
We did it!!! We scraped together just enough cash and handed it over, signed the documents and were now the proud owners of a Mitsubishi Express 4WD. We drive our way back to Manly taking the scenic tour across the Harbour Bridge. We were one step further to hitting the coast road. We were excited as we parked the motor in the Hostels Car Park.
The excitement of this damned motor was to be short lived but that’s for next time
-Jack-
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We were tired but excitable when we walked through the Manly Ferry dock. We had only been in the country for a couple of hours and had seen some of astonishing views already. The other more exciting news was that a few streets away a bed lay waiting for us to drop our bags and rest our heads.
The sun beamed down on the beach runners and cyclists crossed on paths, dog walkers and school kids crossed roads to the sound of that clicking the pedestrian crossing makes when it’s time to walk. There across the street was the first ever Ben and Jerry’s ice cream shop we had come across. Little things like that tell you that the Austalians got it right somewhere down the line.
We walked past barbers, restaurants, surfshops, cafés, supermarkets, churches and on to our destination Manly Backpackers. We were here and ready to check in and finally breath.
The beauty of hostels for anyone who already has or is ready to backpack is the variety of the folks inside. We heard French, German, English, American accents resonating from down the halls. I am a fan of hosteling, the many variety of faces and names that pass through them. I will say now it is the best source of hands on information, if your planning something it’s very likely someone you’ll meet has tried and tested it and can give you the run down of what to expect.
We checked in, found our double room a basic room with grandpas old furniture and the last whitewash paint job likely earlier 80s. The room was however comfortable and clean at the same time. We dropped the bags down and lay flat on the bed. It had been a determination of ours to stay awake and try and beat the jet lag sooner rather than later. This challenge lasted about half an hour i didn’t quite know how long we had slept for but it was still light when we did eventually wake not that I felt any better after this impromptu snooze but I was now a darn sight hungrier.
Me and Kate decided to stroll around the town. Some of the Kebab houses, fish and chip shops pizza restaurants and so on had began trading for the night, the bar The New Brighton Hotel had opened its doors to the early starters on their way out for the night. The sun was setting quickly and a buzz was beginning to build around us.
The shops were closing up for the night as we strolled through the town centre towards the beach, we had pizza with fish and chips. We had visited the local liquor store to purchase the first bag of goon (Nasty wine that leaves you with a splitting headache of a hangover that ruins you for a day but on the plus side it’s dirt cheap and gets you really drunk). We ate and drank although I do think our eyes were way too big for our belly, we had stuffed ourselves silly as we sat on the beach front.
The sun had gone down and the glow of street lamps brightened the concrete around us. We both made comments on what we had seen and enjoyed in this small time and shared thoughts on the feeling we got from this beautiful Sydney suburb. We had both fallen for Manly in the brief time we had been here it felt homely but more exotic and relaxed.
We had three nights here but whilst we wanted to relax we had everything to do, top of our list was finding a motor, our little home on wheels. That could wait for the morning tonight we swigged goon and listened to the sea.
-Jack-
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Welcome To Sydney
Nothing tastes better than a Maccas when your tired and jet lagged and lugging Kgs of luggage around. Fast food breakfast. Disorientated we stepped out of the airport and into the sun ridden streets of Sydney. It hadn’t sank in at this point that we had finally arrived on the other side of the world.
We were heading out to Manly beach so we jumped on a train and headed for Circular Quay. A train system for me Id say is often the first impression of any city rarely do you land right where you need to be, Airports are often located miles from the city center and often in the a sea of warehouses and industrial estates. The best and fastest way to head anywhere is to jump on a train. So the train system will often be a first impression a portal to your true destination and in the most subtle way can lift my spirits or drop it slightly. This train had a double decker carriage suddenly I’m in awe don’t ask me why but things like that excite me so I was sold.
Station after station passed in and out of tunnels and light, me and Kate spoke of where we are staying strategies about sleeping, drinking, eating anything we could have (but god knows why we hadn’t) discussed in the hours of flights we had just done. One more tunnel passed shutting the natural light out for about 15 seconds, as we emerged my jaw dropped, from behind Kate through the Perspex window glowing in the radiant sun was the Sydney landscape. Recognisable from the many school text books, postcards, TV shows, News bulletins, travel mags emerged it’s defining feature that connects each end of the harbour the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
I stopped listening to Kate and pointed we both stared, I forgot how tired I was and how long we had travelled and took in this moment…..I was in Australia not only that I was in Sydney my years of dreaming had become the most amazing reality.
We stepped off the train at Circular Quay it was busy but not the rat race of London, we stumbled around squinting in the light for an idea of where we go from here. One thing you have to give credit for is the Ozzies are a helpful bunch, pointing us in the right direction of the distinct green and yellow ferry we were on route for destination Manly.
For anyone who may want to save a dollar or 2 forget paying out for a tour of the Harbour get a front row seat on the public transport you will achieve the most amazing views.
We watched the Harbour Bridge slip away as we turned a corner the great shape of the Sydney Opera House came beautifully into view, we had another moment of awe. Just like the many Asian tourists surrounding us we took photo after photo. Like most people nowadays we wanted a really great Facebook profile picture so smiling and several attempts we got ourselves a great selfie.
We sailed on taking in the all we could of the harbour. The next 30 mins passed quickly and we sailed in to the beautifully sunny Manly beach next mission to find our hostel
I had attempted to watch the Great Gatsby to cover the Ho Chi Min flight 10 mins in and the system decided to crash just as the film was getting exciting. Mild irritation I took a nap on Kate’s shoulder I doubt she would have noticed an elephant laying its head on her, she was dead to the world.
We landed nice and easy at Ho Chi Min we spent an hour updating our family members on our where about’s and laughing at the time differences don’t ask me why that’s exciting. Everyone was starting their working day and we were sat in a humid airport terminal in the middle of the night waiting for our change over.
We took our chance to grab some budget booze a bottle of Smirnoff and a big bag of Smarties for the plane. We found our fellow passengers and sat discussing the flight, the food and just how tired we really were.
Now I have a reputation of losing small items cash cards, hats, sunglasses etc and only 24 hours into our journey it was no different. A book I had paid costly for in London and had read several chapters of before becoming fascinated with was now on a seat in the terminal of Ho Chi Min departures lounge. As I buckled up my seatbelt I grumbled to myself whilst Kate reminded me in detail how I’m proned to losing everything at which point I handed her all my cash and cash cards for safe keeping.
I switched the entertainment system on and lined up again a list of films I was going to fill my time with.
Great Gatsby (the rest of)
Mud (brilliant)
Amongst that I star gazed from the porthole window this far from the earth no light came between me and the night sky. It was beautiful.
I found myself a small pocket of time to sleep. 12 hours passed touchdown destination Sydney.
Hanoi-ing
Hanoi was moist, warm and a little bit irritable. The Vietnamese knew how to wrangle a couple of extra quid for little to no effort. In spite of our lack of staying in Vietnam they still wanted us to stump up for a Visa. This wouldn’t be such a ball ache if the money went on the service they provide in issuing you a visa. So we stood for about an hour in a cue luggage in tow hot sweaty and unable to go anywhere. I did however take this time to give my everything a modest wash, a wasted few minutes as sweat wouldn’t stop pouring from everywhere.
Eventually our time came round and we made our way out. We were to take an internal flight to Ho Chi Min city (a secret stop labeled only in our small print might I add). A baggage lady a representative of Vietnam Airways stood at the door of the Arrivals. She said we didnt have to check in but rather she could take them as they were already bound for Sydney. Several other passengers happily handed over our cases and so did we. When strolling past Check in many of the other Sydney passengers were checking in their luggage by hand. I’ve watched enough of The Real Hustle to feel a little giddy at the thought of leaving my bag with a complete stranger in a suit. Those two girls had not long been arrested in Peru, slight paranoia kicked in, my ass was grass as soon as I hit Oz.
Anyway naivety aside we had decided to make our way out to Hanoi and see some sights in our 10 hour stop over. Meeting a couple of the younger passengers in the hour long visa cue wait we tempted ourselves a visit into Hanoi centre. Taxis are cheap and 5 quid can get you to just about the moon and back. Understanding there is a set price for taxi trips and we were not to be duped into anything else we attempted to explain the price we expected with one of the drivers. There is no luck in trying to negotiate with a man that hasn’t the foggiest what your saying. After many attempts at speaking louder and pointing at things I gave up. It was easy enough to be driven to somewhere you didn’t know and being dumped there, however the chances of four non Vietnamese talking Brits getting back to the airport could have been a tricky situation. We resigned ourselves to beer and grub in the airport restaurant.
Now to describe Hanoi airport is this
London Tube Station on a Saturday with the population of London on top of the population of a small country trying to get through Piccadilly station.
Ankles were targets for baggage trollies everyone is in everybody’s way apparently. Pushing, shoving, hustle, bustle and a humidity you could cut with a butter knife we scrambled through for food and beer. On the plus side at 5″3′ I eventually felt like I was finally the average height.
Fed and watered me and Kate made our way to departures lounge falling asleep on each other. We curled up and slept. Heaven knows what time had passed until we were shaken by one of the passengers we had met who was concerned we might miss our flight. And thank the lord she did I was stone cold out of my head asleep and so was Kate we both have a small reputation for missing flights and we could have spent a day asleep at this point.
All aboard we settled for the next 2 hours all I was concerned about was the film I would watch Kate was fast asleep.
Take off for Ho Chi Min
Departure Day
Me and Kate woke in a small run down 2 star hotel room 10 minutes from Londons Victoria station. 1 plug socket and a shower with no on/off handle. I guess we got what we paid for on the budget we payed.
We packed up, checked out and set off for the train station. The weight of rucksacks became all too apparent carrying your life on your back comes with a price. I was carrying half the weight of Kate’s with my lack of hair and no need for cosmetics i had packed shorts t-shirts suncream and a good book.
Anyway we stepped on to the train dropping our bags at first chance and waited as the train delivered us to destination Gatwick Airport.
It was a fairly easy process checking in our only confusion was the numerous stops in planes in Vietnam. Me and Smarty were not the best at keeping schedule or deadlines and lack of knowledge hindered what little organisational skills we can pull together between ourselves (although Kate does have the upper hand over me).
We had some breathing time before our flight. We set down and had a beer and breakfast more of a way to burn up the shrapnel of British sterling we had in our pockets. Beer is how we start every holiday we’d like to call it tradition but probably its more likely that when we ain’t working we like a brew.
Our first destination was Hanoi Vietnam, would have liked Hong Kong but we were flying with Vietnam Airways. We watched the minutes tick by before departure, saying cheerios to our folks and family. We made our way to our gate does it not always seems half your journey is made up of the walk to the gate. After a long and hearty walk we climbed aboard the first of 3 flights we were to embark on set down and got comfy.
It’s no secret we were both excited but I couldn’t stop chatting shit, Kate would tell you every bit of trivia about anything from Johnny Cash to 12 Angry Men (great film) ran off my tongue in the previous hours much to the annoyance of Smarty not that I don’t rattle off useless information in her direction for her to ignore in common conversation only this time it was relentless and in too close a proximity to be avoided.
That was it we were strapped in and ready to fly Cheerio Blighty!!!
Flight 1 of 3
Flying doesn’t scare me it is still a known fact that it is the safest way to travel statistically that is. Yet I do often consider that perhaps at some point statistics catch up with you the more you fly the more likely something will go wrong. It’s never the prospect of the lack of survival rate of falling from so high in a tin can that makes me ponder these thoughts but more that the last meal your likely to eat is a cardboard cut out of presumably a staple diet designed most probably by a chef that lacked the pivotal needs of both sight smell or taste buds.
Anyhow we took off routinely and so the ascent began. An entertainment system occupied the back of the headrest in front of me. I battled for the arm rest with an Asian man sat to my right. I had already given up the possibility of winning the right arm rest as Kate had already laid claim to it. After a tactical battle I will say I came away victorious, the gentlemen had fallen to sleep and a gentle strategic nudge gave me the upper hand. Kate got the worst of it mid 40s Vietnamese man seemed to be having a football match with the back of her chair, and worst of all couldn’t understand a bloody word we said when we requested him to stop, Kate took it like she was off roading through the outback. I offered to switch but she grinned and bared it like a trooper.
So now to settle and watch as many movies I could fit in, in the next 13 hours of flight time. The movies weren’t touch and play to my dismay but I spent 10 mins lining up what film to watch at any one start time. The list ran like this:
Beautiful Creatures
The Croods
Parker
Jack the Giant Killer
The Last Stand
Also amongst my tight movie schedule I allowed time for dinner. Much to my surprise the menu on offer seemed to offer an appetite wetting selection. Me and Kate had both decided to go with the Chicken dish served with rice and a selection of other bits and pieces. As the cart came down the aisle we could smell our much needed grub. Bellies rumbling we saw the gentlemen across the aisle unveil the same mouthwatering chicken dish we were prised to enjoy. I pulled down my inflight table. Kate requested her meal
knocked back!!!
Sorry we have just run out of the chicken we have fish, would you like that instead
I took one look, I liked the thought of that as much as I like the thought of licking a public urinal
Alternatively you can have noodles
Beggars can’t be choosers perhaps it was a small dish maybe with some ham or perhaps a tasty sauce
No!It was a budget pot noodle, it hit the spot like Stevie Wonder with a bow and arrow on a merry go round.
A few times I had got up to walk around and give my little legs a stretch, I had found myself at one point stood next to the big bulky fire exit. For no apparent reason i stared for a while contemplating the enormity of a disaster it would be if I opened that door. I sat down before any other crazy thoughts passed my mind.
Breakfast came and went an hour before we touched down this time we managed to grab a slice of bacon and eggs. For me and Kate the coffee wasn’t strong enough and the disgusted look we received from the air steward on request of a beer first thing in the morning made the nectar all the more sweeter.
Anyway moving on the flight was reasonably pleasant apart from the aforementioned and the biggest part of our journey came to an end. We had reached Hanoi safe to say in one piece.
–Jack–
We will be blogging all that comes our way over the next year the mostly good but the possible bad as we road trip around Australia. Damn it feels good to have a dream and live it and here it is blogged for you. hopefully we can inspire more to get up and do what they always wanted.
Much Love
Jack and Kate
Jack and Kate in Oz 