So the moment has finally arrived, as I write this it’s only one hour until I leave for my train, taking me to the airport where I begin the next chapter in my life. I will be leaving my home of Australia to my first destination Bangkok Thailand, Over the next 3.5 weeks I will be travelling through Thailand,Cambodia,Malaysia before finishing in Singapore. To find out more about my Asia travel plans check out my post. “My Totally Awesome Travel Plans For South East Asia“.
From Singapore I fly out to London UK, where I will spend a couple of days before heading to Ireland for 10 days, I will be attending the TBEX travel conference, along with some other VERY exciting blogging events, which I will be announcing in the coming weeks, in my post “10 Days of Blogging Goodness In Ireland”. I don’t want to give to much away now but lets just say that out of all my travel plans, the things I have organized for Ireland are by far the ones I am most excited for, and that’s really saying something because my South East Asia travel plans are pretty dam exciting.
As I sit here I still can’t believe that this is happening again. it’s only been just over 5 months since I finished my last travel chapter in Latin America and decided to return back to Australia get a job, and try living in the real world again while saving some money.
I was incredibly lucky to land a job almost immediately and even a place to stay in Brisbane.thank’s to some awesome friends. However it was not to last. I tried to resume my life and get settled back into a routine. I struggled to get back into the groove of things, while dealing with post travel blues.
It’s hard to not let the travel blues get you down sometimes.
Shortly after I started work it was announced the game studio I was working for would be shutting down in August.This left me standing at a crossroads with one of the biggest decisions I’ve had to make in my life. Did I get another job in Australia or decide to take the harder option of leaving Australia again to travel and work overseas?
It was not an easy decision to make and in my post “Fighting Fear and Following your Dreams” I made the decision that I was not going to let my fear of doing something stop me from following my dreams. I decided that I wanted to go and work in the UK on a working holiday visa. so I began putting all of my energy towards that. I started saving all the money I could and booked my flights to London, However through researching and booking my flights, I found that it was cheapest to fly through South East Asia, which was when I figured, if I am in South East Asia I might as well spend a few weeks exploring around as it’s very cheap.
The scariest part of the entire thing was that when I decided to go to UK I had less than $500 USD to my name and with only 3 months to save money it was going to be very tight. But I planned it out and worked out I could do it as my work didn’t finish till early August.
However things don’t always go as smoothly as expected!
In the last 2 month’s my work decided to cut my hours back from 40 a week to 12, This greatly decreased my income and meant I had to adapt my plans a bit. So for the last 2 months I have been living back at home with my parents helping them out while still doing a bit of work and saving absolutely every dollar that I could.
I’ve made a lot of sacrifices in the past 2 month’s, Especially to my socail life (Or lack there of).But in the end it turned out alright. As I got to spend some extra time with my parents and family living on the sunshine coast. Plus with some extra tax money that I got back my savings have turned out better than I expected. It’s funny how things have a way of working out.
I also got to see my brother and sister in law’s beautiful baby boy and became an uncle last week which was great to be back in Australia to see.
Me being all uncley and stuff 😛
I don’t know what the future hold’s for me, After my plans for Asia and TBEX travel conference in October I have no set plans, except some loose ones to either find some work in UK, or travel in Eastern Europe, But that’s ok. I know that things are going to work out, and as much as I try to predict what I’m going to be doing, there really is no point.Chances are I am going to be doing something and being somewhere that I had never even anticipated before. Life’s unpredictable.
If you had told me even 6 months ago that at this moment I was going to be mere hours away from flying out for a trip through Asia, followed by 2 years working and travelling through UK/Europe I wouldn’t have believed you.
But you know what that’s what makes life and travel so great.
That feeling that anything is possible, All you have to do is have the courage to go out and give life a go. I would be lying if I told you I was confident and not afraid of what comes next. But that’s what make’s it so exciting, being thrust outside your comfort zone and discovering that you are capable of doing things you never thought possible.
I want to thank everyone who has supported me and followed me over the course of my travels, All my readers, All those amazing travel friends that I made in
my travels, My friends here in Australia and Canada who have always stuck by me,given their support and put up with me talking non stop about travelling :P. And of course beautiful my family for always being there for me and giving me the love and support I needed to be able to follow my dreams. Without all of you I wouldn’t be here today.
Life Begins At The End Of Your Comfort Zone!
I look forward to seeing what this next chapter bring’s and next time I’ll be writing to you all it will be from South East Asia 🙂
OHG. Cambodia & Bangkok, I’m so jealous! I was in Malaysia last year and it was great.. but lots to cover in Asia. Hope travel has been good for you.
Hello Rachh,I am about two months into an arunod the world trip with my wife and I have learned sooooo much recently I decided to get out and try to help others do the same experience my wife and I have. First off, I would say go to New Zealand, easier to get a work visa and although smaller than AU, I found it completely breathe-taking. There was the funky green hostel in Rotorua, NZ that was great about helping you get a cheap place to stay and help find you a job in the area. If you are still wanting to stay with AU, I would suggest trying to start in the rural areas arunod Brisbane. My cousin has been going to school there and he seems to have no trouble finding work. Check out Thornsland, Queensland. You are only about 45 minutes from the city center and it was a lovely area. I would also looking into couchsurfing. org and woofing. org. These two websites are a traveler’s dream. They really help you stretch your dollar. If you want to check out Kim(wife) and I’s blog-site go to www. jacobitravels. comWe have been writing out of process. From planning and preparation all the way to today in Chiang Mai, Thailand. We still have 8 months of traveling to go. Check it out we have learned a lot in the first two months and I want to spread the experience to everyone. We have contacts that you could check out for yourself if you are interested in the things that we are doing. Everyone should travel before settling down and working. Good on ya for doing it. I hope my information helps you!Cheers,JacobiP. S. Go to Thailand! You will not regret it!