Visas N Sub Conscious Changes

Trip Start Dec 01, 1999

103

Trip End Aug 31, 2000

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Flag of Australia Melbourne, Australia
Friday, December 10, 1999

Good Bye Melbourne work friends and hair (20)

Good Bye Melbourne work friends and hair (18)

Good Bye Melbourne work friends and hair (14)

Hey Hey and a Big G'Day toya

Let's talk about organising my Adventure!

Maaaaaaaaate,by 1999 I was living an existence that didn't make me happy at all.
I thought I was happy but inside I was drying out. I was so bored with life. I was bored with being bored. I was bored of having everything I wanted. I was bored with meeting important and interesting people. I was bored with door lists to see new and exciting bands, I was bored with existing. None of these things are actually 'boring', in fact they are very exciting.

The fact was I was mentally BORED with myself and my pathway in life.
Add to that the fact that I didn't like change.

It all began to change when I was walking down Elizabeth Street in Melbourne one lunch time. I had purchased yet another book. I think it was the new Charles De Lint. As usual I stopped out side Flight Center to look at the airfares to all the countries I 'wanted' to go and visit. This was a daily routine for me on my way back to my mundane existence at my desk that had a window that overlooked Melbourne's Art Centre, the MCG, the Botanical Gardens, the Shrine and views all the way to the Dandenongs. As usual I was about to walk off and internally dialogue with myself, 'Man I'd love to go to Vietnam or Japan.

Next year I WILL go!'

Luckily one of the girls inside came to the door and asked me to come in. She had been watching me stop at the 'fares' board most days for many months and wondered why I never actually purchased a plane ticket or even enquired about it. We began talking and soon we were talking about my dreams and where I did actually want to go. Vietnam, I WANT to go to Vietnam. I wanted so much to go to Vietnam.

I loved the thought of going to Asia.
I left with some brochures of tours with Peregrine Tours. .

My life actually began to change from the moment stepped foot in that door. Prior to entering I was a dreamer, a 'gonna' so to say. I'm gonna do this and I'm gonna do that. Once I stepped foot outside my dreams had begun to take over my life. It was like someone had popped an internal balloon full of 'gonna' dreams. Soon we had dates and time off work organized.

Over the following months I began to do very strange things.
Instead of walking out of the shop 'Bakpakkers' empty handed.
I actually walked out with a backpack and other assorted goodies.

I would also do things like have lunch with my friend at Flight Centre and all we would talk about was travel. I had enough leave stored for a few paid months off. Besides going to Vietnam my dream was always to go across Russia on the Trans Siberian. This always seemed like it would remain 'just a dream'.

It seemed too difficult and scary to bring into life.

My Travel Girl had recently returned from China and soon I had China on my list. My girlfriend of the time would return from Vietnam and I would continue. After another lunch I had Japan organised and then South Korea and soon tickets were booked for the Trans Mongolian and then the Trans Siberian.

On a separate occasion we organized a 'Home Stay' in Ulaan Baatar Mongolia.

We soon began talking about Home stays in Russia. This was much harder as I would need a longer VISA. She tried and tried for that damn VISA. Our request was always returned with another list of questions. Finally I got it. I soon had home stays booked for Lake Baikal and St Petersburg.

My parents best friend had married a beautiful girl from Xi'an in China and soon she had organised for me to stay with her family when I reached Xi'an.

Over the course of booking and getting Visa's organised I had forgotten to tell work and actually hand in my resignation. I had been working with my boss for a very long time and it was a rather sad occasion when I actually did hand the paper over. He like others had always heard my 'talk' of going and wondered if I actually ever would.

I then sat and told him what I had organised. I could see pride in his eyes.
He was proud I had actually woken from my big sleep,
the sleep of those whom would never follow through.

For me financially it was best to leave at the end of the fi$cle year and become a 'temp' the following day. That way I could take some of my Superannuation to help me pay for everything I had organised. The months began to fly by. My parents and family began to get both very excited and scared for me at the same time.

My plan for this journey was to not actually return to Australia for several years. My mother is from Scotland and I have the Certificate to the Right of Abode in the UK in my Australian Passport. My explanation for having no British Passport is this; I worked for too long and woke too late in life.

Rules change mate!
Now that's a real bugger for me!

Soon I was with passport, had all my Visa's and shots and of course I had packed too much. I didn't know this at the time, as far as I was concerned I needed it all and that was all there was too it. I knew the first six or seven months I was bound by VISA dates. I was happy with this as home stays were very important for me as was the Trans Siberian and Mongolian.

I soon said my sad good byes to my bewildered second family at the Law Courts.
Some still couldn't comprehend I was actually going through with it and actually leaving.

I went home to stay with my parents and family in the country for a time. Soon sadly I even had to say good bye to them. My mother was so happy for me. She knew my dreams and the frustrations of being a 'gonna' in life caused me. Finally I had grown up and allowed my dreams to come forth. Though it was such a life changing experience, it was also very hard at the same time to leave work and those you love.

Living in a comfort zone makes life predictably easy.

You know where you will be each day, how much money you have and will get paid, how much ones lifestyle costs per annum and that your friends and family will be there for you when you need them.

I was leaving behind a good life and I knew it.
I was to learn that life changes and you either change with it or it will change around you.
I invited the change so I accepted to change with it.

What you will be reading if you wish to continue are a series of emails from me to family and friends. I was lucky to have a friend in Australia that saved a lot of emails I sent. Without them I could not write text for this travelogue.

I will change the emails more into an entry type of thing.

As I write I will remember more and more but it's a pity it won't have and I will not be able to give it that raw and fresh feeling of actually being there at the time. There will be so much I can't put in such as some hostel names and names of some travel partners. I will do my best though as even my family still ask me questions about my last journey. It will be nice to have it there for them. I will even add in events that I have only 'kind' of told them about like my journey across the Trans Siberian with the Russian Soldiers going to war. It was very scary.

My family 'kind' of know what happened but my girlfriend of the time and now best friend knew how scared I really was and how lonely I felt to be in Russia.

I have written about this journey in the 'scariest situations' I think it is called on Travelpod. I even had one Travelpodder claim that I was lying and that he had been across the Trans Siberian twice and that it is a safe journey. Funny thing is he had never taken the journey with hundreds of soldiers in a time of war.

Most places are safe, UNLESS you are there at the wrong time.
Life I've found is a lot about time or moments.
Sometimes you are in the right place at the right moment of time.
Other times, unluckily for oneself, you are in the wrong place at the wrong moment of time.

Anyhow, it is now 9:20 in the evening in the south of China.
Man needs beer and bbq to survive

Cheers N Beers toya...shane

The rokkin behind tonights entry is:
The one and only Aussie Celibate Rifles
The album 'Blind Ear'