There's really nothing special happening here, and that's why I havn't posted much lately.
The Chinese New Year was past, and it was the first time I wasn't at home during that time. To be honest, I felt lonely. The only people on this island knowing that holiday were just my Korean girl co-worker and me. There was nothing we could do to make that holiday special. All we got was working as usual. The only thing made me happy was that I called my family and several friends in Taiwan.
I will leave this island on the 13th of April, and that's 8 weeks from now. I can't wait the coming of the day. I'll be very happy to leave here.
In my original plan I was to stay in Australia for another 2 weeks since my working holiday visa expires on 19th of April, but things had changed. I found that it seemed to be difficult to extend my visa to a visitor/tourist's visa, and so I will leave Australia before my current visa expires. And my sister is going to get married on 2nd of May, I have decided to go back on time to participate her wedding ceremony.
Because now I'll have to go back to Taiwan before my sister's wedding, so that I will not go to Singapore to take a train to Malaysia and Thailand this time. Besides, as a Taiwanese passport holder, I have to apply for a tourist's visa to Malaysia and Thailand in Singapore in order to take the train ride, truely I think that's a pity. Maybe I'll do that in the future and get the visas ready in Taiwan.
This time I'll fly to Osaka, Japan, from Cairns. I'll stay a few days in Osaka, and then take a train to Kyoto. I want to spend more than one week in Kyoto before I return to Taiwan on 30th of April.
How do I hope the next 8 weeks pass in a blink, but I know that it is actually not a too long period of time. I can't wait to leave.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Monday, January 14, 2008
Life on a Remote Island
I have been working and living on this remote and small island for 3 weeks, and to be honest so far I think the life I lead here is not too bad.
My work here is as a kitchenhand, I have to wash loads of dishes, prepare food materials, and clean the kitchen, restaurant and toilets. Recently I have also learned to make lunch meals, so during lunch time I also have to make sandwiches and burgers. I start working in the morning at 11 o'clock, have a break from 2 or 3 PM, go back to work at 5 and finish at around 10. I work 5 or 6 days a week. The hotel provides us full-time workers accommodation and food. Everyweek I get paid about 500 dollars.
After work i simply go back to the house we live to watch TV or sleep. I don't go out usually because there are many mosquitoes and sandflies everywhere, and normally the weather is hot and it rains a lot. I don't spend much money either, on this island there are only two shops, and everything the sell is at least twice the price when compared to mainland Australia, that is truely terrible. So life is very simple here.
The best thing here is that people are mostly very friendly. The aboriginal, Torres Strait islanders, are exceptionally friendly. I have an aboriginal worker, Tina. She's a very nice person. She has a big family here in Torres Strait, and she has family members all around here. She had introduced me to some of her family members. Lase week when I had a day off, I went to ride dingy, small boat, with her, her brother Issac and 2 of my co-workers. The dingy belongs to ther brother, and her brother drove the dingy for us. When we started the weather was okay, we sailed to Thursday Island, made a circle around it, and then sailed to the sea among other islands. Then we planned to do some fishing, but after her brother dived into the sea twice, he then said it's not suitable for fishing that day. We then sailed to the back of Horn Island. We went to a shallow water there, I went into the water, it was warn and comfy, and there were lots of oysters growing on hte rocks under the water. Later the weather changed, it's now wet season and it generally rains everyday. We thought we had to go back, but the weather was so bad, it rained very heavy, and the wind was strong. Our little dingy seemed like nothing in the wild sea. The waves were high, and that made our ride very tough. We had to cling to the dingy very tightly, if not we surely would fall off it into the sea. The rain hit hard on our faces, and every time we fell off the tip of a wave our bottoms and backs hurt. It was lucky for us to return safely, I thought. The next day my whole body ached.
That's the simple life I'm living here. I think I can really stay until the 2nd week of April, and then start the next episode of my journey.
My work here is as a kitchenhand, I have to wash loads of dishes, prepare food materials, and clean the kitchen, restaurant and toilets. Recently I have also learned to make lunch meals, so during lunch time I also have to make sandwiches and burgers. I start working in the morning at 11 o'clock, have a break from 2 or 3 PM, go back to work at 5 and finish at around 10. I work 5 or 6 days a week. The hotel provides us full-time workers accommodation and food. Everyweek I get paid about 500 dollars.
After work i simply go back to the house we live to watch TV or sleep. I don't go out usually because there are many mosquitoes and sandflies everywhere, and normally the weather is hot and it rains a lot. I don't spend much money either, on this island there are only two shops, and everything the sell is at least twice the price when compared to mainland Australia, that is truely terrible. So life is very simple here.
The best thing here is that people are mostly very friendly. The aboriginal, Torres Strait islanders, are exceptionally friendly. I have an aboriginal worker, Tina. She's a very nice person. She has a big family here in Torres Strait, and she has family members all around here. She had introduced me to some of her family members. Lase week when I had a day off, I went to ride dingy, small boat, with her, her brother Issac and 2 of my co-workers. The dingy belongs to ther brother, and her brother drove the dingy for us. When we started the weather was okay, we sailed to Thursday Island, made a circle around it, and then sailed to the sea among other islands. Then we planned to do some fishing, but after her brother dived into the sea twice, he then said it's not suitable for fishing that day. We then sailed to the back of Horn Island. We went to a shallow water there, I went into the water, it was warn and comfy, and there were lots of oysters growing on hte rocks under the water. Later the weather changed, it's now wet season and it generally rains everyday. We thought we had to go back, but the weather was so bad, it rained very heavy, and the wind was strong. Our little dingy seemed like nothing in the wild sea. The waves were high, and that made our ride very tough. We had to cling to the dingy very tightly, if not we surely would fall off it into the sea. The rain hit hard on our faces, and every time we fell off the tip of a wave our bottoms and backs hurt. It was lucky for us to return safely, I thought. The next day my whole body ached.
That's the simple life I'm living here. I think I can really stay until the 2nd week of April, and then start the next episode of my journey.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
My contact method while on Horn Island
I arrived on Horn Island on this Monday, and I start working at Wongai Hotel in Horn Island today.
This island is very remote, I do not have GSM mobile connection here. Right now I'm sharing a flat with 3 of my co-workers, and in the house we have a land-line phone. The number is 07-40903459. If you call, please just ask for Sen.
I don't have much time now, so I'll finish here.
Wish everyone a very wonderful new year. See you.
This island is very remote, I do not have GSM mobile connection here. Right now I'm sharing a flat with 3 of my co-workers, and in the house we have a land-line phone. The number is 07-40903459. If you call, please just ask for Sen.
I don't have much time now, so I'll finish here.
Wish everyone a very wonderful new year. See you.
Friday, December 21, 2007
Destination - Horn Island
I'll leave Cairns for Horn Island for a work at a hotel there on next Monday. Horn Island is next to Thursday Island in Torres Strait between Australia and Papua New Guinea. There are many indeginous people living there.
You can find relevant information on the webpages through the hyperlinks above. It will be a special experience I hope. I think there have not been many Taiwanese people there.
It is now the beginning of the rain season there, but they say at this time of the year the place looks most lush and green.
The place I'm going to work at will be Wongai Hotel. Their address is 2 Wees Street, Horn Island, QLD. Their toll-free phone number is 1800804422. Hopefully I will work there until mid-April of next year, and then return to Cairns and take a tour to Whitsunday Islands before I leave Australia.
It is so remote, I'm afraid that I won't have mibile phone connection there. So maybe I can only keep in touch with my friends by email if there is internet there.
A tropical, remote island, that is my next destination.
You can find relevant information on the webpages through the hyperlinks above. It will be a special experience I hope. I think there have not been many Taiwanese people there.
It is now the beginning of the rain season there, but they say at this time of the year the place looks most lush and green.
The place I'm going to work at will be Wongai Hotel. Their address is 2 Wees Street, Horn Island, QLD. Their toll-free phone number is 1800804422. Hopefully I will work there until mid-April of next year, and then return to Cairns and take a tour to Whitsunday Islands before I leave Australia.
It is so remote, I'm afraid that I won't have mibile phone connection there. So maybe I can only keep in touch with my friends by email if there is internet there.
A tropical, remote island, that is my next destination.
Cairns, continued
I have been in Cairns for 5 days. Actually I like this place. The weather is not as hot as I thought before I came here. It could be hot around noon, but in the nighttime it's very comfortable. Although it should be rain season here, but so far it has rained only once last night.
This is a tourist's city, especially Japanese tourists. There on the streets are a lot of Japanese tourists. You can see Japanese signs everywhere, even in the Woolworths supermarket. When I went to find a job at a hotel, they asked me if I can speak Japanese; when I handed in my resume at the Grunt job agency, they asked if I can speak Japanese as well. There are 3 cities in Japan namely Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya with direct flights to Cairns, no wonder there are so many of them here.
This is also the first place in Australia I find there is a night market like that kind I found in Singapore. The scale is smaller that that of Singapore of course, but you can find souvenir shops, clothes and decoration shops as well as more than 10 food shops in the night market. There is a good thing about having dinner in the night market, everynight evening after 8:30 the 4 cafeterias offer meals originally priced at around AUD$12 at a great AUD$5. They will give you a plastic plate and you can put on as much food as you can. That is really a bargain. I tried twice with different cafeterias, and they were both not too bad.
Cairns city place is not very big, but it has a big shopping mall with more than 100 shops, a main street from the shopping mall to the esplanade where you can find a man-made lagoon to swim in, a lot of tour shops you can book tours to the Great Barrier Reef and rainforests, a lot of pubs, backpacker hostels, restaurants, souvenir shops, boutiques, and 2 Global Gossip internet places where you can use the internet for AUD$1 for the first hour, etc. Generally you won't soon get bored with this place.
I met 3 Taiwanese friends here. One of them I have known since in Darwin, she has left for Osaka yesterday, and will return to Taiwan next week. The other twon are a girl coming here just for holidays and has left for Brisbane; the other is a boy who's been in Australia for 2 months only but has been to many cities already, he has left for Mareeba, a twon about 60KM out of Cairns, for work. I think there are not many Taiwanese people here, I'm also leaving soon, but I'll return months later.
This is a tourist's city, especially Japanese tourists. There on the streets are a lot of Japanese tourists. You can see Japanese signs everywhere, even in the Woolworths supermarket. When I went to find a job at a hotel, they asked me if I can speak Japanese; when I handed in my resume at the Grunt job agency, they asked if I can speak Japanese as well. There are 3 cities in Japan namely Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya with direct flights to Cairns, no wonder there are so many of them here.
This is also the first place in Australia I find there is a night market like that kind I found in Singapore. The scale is smaller that that of Singapore of course, but you can find souvenir shops, clothes and decoration shops as well as more than 10 food shops in the night market. There is a good thing about having dinner in the night market, everynight evening after 8:30 the 4 cafeterias offer meals originally priced at around AUD$12 at a great AUD$5. They will give you a plastic plate and you can put on as much food as you can. That is really a bargain. I tried twice with different cafeterias, and they were both not too bad.
Cairns city place is not very big, but it has a big shopping mall with more than 100 shops, a main street from the shopping mall to the esplanade where you can find a man-made lagoon to swim in, a lot of tour shops you can book tours to the Great Barrier Reef and rainforests, a lot of pubs, backpacker hostels, restaurants, souvenir shops, boutiques, and 2 Global Gossip internet places where you can use the internet for AUD$1 for the first hour, etc. Generally you won't soon get bored with this place.
I met 3 Taiwanese friends here. One of them I have known since in Darwin, she has left for Osaka yesterday, and will return to Taiwan next week. The other twon are a girl coming here just for holidays and has left for Brisbane; the other is a boy who's been in Australia for 2 months only but has been to many cities already, he has left for Mareeba, a twon about 60KM out of Cairns, for work. I think there are not many Taiwanese people here, I'm also leaving soon, but I'll return months later.
Monday, December 17, 2007
Cairns
I left Carnarvon yesterday, took a ride of the uncomfortable greyhound for 13 hours back to Perth, then take the flight at 11:15PM from Perth to Cairns, and after about 5 hours I arrived in this tropical tourist city.
Cairns is so popular that in the high summer now there are still a lot of tourists and backpackers here, and I was kind of surprised when I was looking for a hostel to stay here I found that there are almost 30 backpacker hostels in such a city with only 100,000 of population. This place is HOT and rowdy. The streets here look even more crowded than Perth.
Later I'm going to get more familiar with this place for I'll say here until mid-April, and later on will write more abouth this place. I'm now too tired and can not think of what I could write...
Cairns is so popular that in the high summer now there are still a lot of tourists and backpackers here, and I was kind of surprised when I was looking for a hostel to stay here I found that there are almost 30 backpacker hostels in such a city with only 100,000 of population. This place is HOT and rowdy. The streets here look even more crowded than Perth.
Later I'm going to get more familiar with this place for I'll say here until mid-April, and later on will write more abouth this place. I'm now too tired and can not think of what I could write...
Friday, November 16, 2007
Carnarvon
We are now staying at Port Hotel in Carnarvon. We will begin grape picking from next Monday. I need to commit 3 months of seasonal work to apply for a second WHV.
There are several works to do in this agricultural center in north WA, but it's easier to get one through the hostels here. There are two backpacker hostels here. People say that Port Hotel is better because it has more job offers.
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I left Carnarvon on 16 December. Totally I stayed about 6 weeks there. In the first week I had no work to do. My first work there was picking table grapes, it lasted for only one day, and on the next day I changed to work at a vegs and fruits packing shed. The pay was only 15.30 before tax, and my tax rate was over 20%. After working there for 5 weeks I could save up less than $1000 after spending the hostel rents and living costs. My work in the packing shed was mainly stacking the packed rockmelons, each of the carton could weigh around 20KG, and sometimes I had to stack more than 600 cartons in one day. The work was tough, but not lucrative, and that's why I decided to leave.
Other than working, the only things you can do in Carnarvon is sometimes you can rent a car to go to Coral Bay, Exmouth or Monkey Mia. Unfortunately I didn't have enough money to do that, but I don't think that's a loss because now I think everywhere in Australia looks similar, and I'll not apply for the second visa for the reason that now I reckon one year is enough.
There are several works to do in this agricultural center in north WA, but it's easier to get one through the hostels here. There are two backpacker hostels here. People say that Port Hotel is better because it has more job offers.
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I left Carnarvon on 16 December. Totally I stayed about 6 weeks there. In the first week I had no work to do. My first work there was picking table grapes, it lasted for only one day, and on the next day I changed to work at a vegs and fruits packing shed. The pay was only 15.30 before tax, and my tax rate was over 20%. After working there for 5 weeks I could save up less than $1000 after spending the hostel rents and living costs. My work in the packing shed was mainly stacking the packed rockmelons, each of the carton could weigh around 20KG, and sometimes I had to stack more than 600 cartons in one day. The work was tough, but not lucrative, and that's why I decided to leave.
Other than working, the only things you can do in Carnarvon is sometimes you can rent a car to go to Coral Bay, Exmouth or Monkey Mia. Unfortunately I didn't have enough money to do that, but I don't think that's a loss because now I think everywhere in Australia looks similar, and I'll not apply for the second visa for the reason that now I reckon one year is enough.
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