It's just begun

I finally arrived at Cairns in Northern Queensland. It was a wild and tiresome trip.

My last night in Hong Kong I met with Baabäk from Turku and we hung out for a couple of hours talking about Hong Kong, Australia and movies. It was nice to speak Finnish and to talk about something else besides movies. Baabäk will stay in Hong Kong until at least December but I had to leave to the real destination of my trip, Australia, the next morning. That night I packed my stuff and set the alarm at 9:30.

I only slept about five hours, my body still in Finnish time. I used the MTR and Airport Express to get to the airport where I ate at Burger King (again) and bought a Slam Kicks magazine. The flight from HK to Brisbane was pretty empty and even though we left in the am and arrived in the pm some people slept in their private rows of four seats. I watched a couple of movies and read the Kicks magazine and an Irving novel I've first started probably a year ago.

When I got to Brisbane I couldn't get to the Domestic Terminal for my flight in the morning so I stayed and spent the night on the International terminal's sofas. Other people were doing it too, but, unlike myself, they were sleeping. A cleaning person kept moving chairs for at least an hour and I didn't even really try to sleep. I played around with my iPhone and it almost ran out of battery before I fell asleep with less than two hours left to sleep.

I woke up before my alarm at 5:15 AM and payed 5 AUD$ for a train ride there. When I checked in I had to pay 80 AUD$ extra cause my ticket price only included carry-on baggage. The plane left a little late but that was nothing.

I initially couldn't sleep on the plane cause sleeping sitting just isn't my thing so I read the Irving some more. Being dead tired I did fall asleep but as I slept a little I stopped being dead tired and woke up easily. So I read some more.

Above Cairns there was an enormous field of clouds. So we waited our turn to land. I woke with a lot of pain in my ears which meant we were descending quickly. When we got below the clouds we almost immediately pulled back up again. Through the clouds I could see the shore and then the sea. We has overshot our landing.

Back above the clouds the captain announced we had been rerouted to Townsville 350 km back south. There we landed but the airport came so crowded that we waited in line for more gasoline and tried to approach Cairns again. This time circling led to a successful landing. We were five hours late at this point and took pretty long before the luggage came. I used a free phone at the airport and a got a free ride to a fairly priced Hostel. It's a 20 minute walk from the city center and after securing cash and food from the center I returned the bar/restaurant here. My 8 person dorm only occupies myself tonight and the hostels closer to the city are as cheap so I'll probably be moving down there after three nights. Tomorrow I'll try to get a bank account, a local phone number and maybe my first job. There's some homesickness which will surely fade if I get a passable job and it stops raining. Now it's time for showering and some peaceful sleeping.

I'll keep you posted, no worries!

No good title

Greetings friends!

Today was very pleasurable. I again woke up at noon and proceeded with my plan to go to the HK Wetland Park. It wasn't sunny when I got out but I spent the next 40 minutes sitting on the MTR (equivalent to Helsinki's metro or more accurately Stockholm's Tunnelbana) and on the Light Rail (a cross of the tram and the cityjuna in Helsinki) so it didn't matter. On the way I read my new Klosterman as the views were horrendous. Every suburbia we passed was as awful as the one before. I guess this is what you have to do when you fit a billion people in to one country. Although the high risers are plenty and ugly the people inhabiting them seem normal. No smelly bums or poor immigrants were hanging out at the subway stations. The locals just must be more okay with living in crowded places than yours truly.

When I arrived at the Wetland park it started raining. Fortunately there was stuff to see inside the compound. After eating I headed out to the park as it had stopped raining. There wasn't much to see and I was mostly appalled by the ugly high-risers next to the park entrance. The one thing I would've like to capture on my camera was the crocodile mascot of the park. As I was going back inside to the main building I heard a bunch of kids screaming and yelping "Poi Poi!" They were enthusiastically screaming at the crocodile Pui Pui who was swimming in his little habitat. He swam towards a drain and then he turned. Straight. At. Me.

I felt the little eyes of the 1.5 m crocodile go right through me and had there not been a glass separating us I would've been a leg shorter. I knew this and he knew this too. I froze and left only after Pui Pui returned to the shore and lay still. Why the kids liked him so much I'll never understand.

On the way back I continued reading and in an essay about watching people, like neighbors, through windows Klosterman made a point that doing that is interesting because the watcher can't know what'll happen next as opposed to what's happening next in our own lives. Not knowing makes people feel good. That's how I felt today.

For my endeavors today I bought a 1-day MTR Pass and after a brief stop at the Hostel I headed to a shopping district in Eastern HK Island. I didn't even find what I was looking for but I think that's even better. I walked the length of two MTR stations, ate on the way and had no idea where I really were cause I couldn't see the sea or any familiar buildings and I hadn't bothered taking a map either. But I felt alive!

I returned to the Hostel and as I finish writing this paragraph I'm meeting my friend Baabäk at the Avenue of Stars before returning here to pack my stuff and shower. Tomorrow I fly to Brisbane where I'll spend the night and the next morning I fly to Cairns where it's almost as warm as here bit not quite. After that I don't know what happens. But that's okay cause I. Feel. Alive.

Write to you soon, bye!

No Beer No Dad

No beer, no dad indeed

Hong Kong - Day 2 / 3

I just wanted to give an upbeat update on my condition here in Hong Kong. I still miss home but having money in your wallet helps your spirits immensely.

I woke up at noon today. That's 7 AM in Finland but I don't think my jet lag is too bad. I headed to the ferries and sailed to HK Island. There I explored on foot and spent a long time at a Dymocks book store in IFC mall (just below the second tallest building in Hong Kong, IFC 2).

Next I headed to the Central to midlevel escalators, a shopping and dining area connecting Central with, surprise, supplies, Midlevel. What a name for a place. The escalator is the longest continous collection of escalators and walkways at a total of 900 meters. I went up, and then I walked back down.

After that I headed back east to visit Bank of China Tower. I heard there was a viewing platform but it was all just a big bank. I returned to IFC and the Dymocks where I finally found a book by Chuck Klosterman. After reading the first paragraph I bought it for 150HK$. I ferried back to Kowloon, bought drinks and checked my iPhone.

Symphony of Lights was at 8 PM so I headed out to see that. It was nice and all, but two of the buildings looked good while the others barely looked like anything. 15 minutes and a lot of wasted electricity later the hoards of Chinamen started to leave and so did I. Comfortably I strolled around for an hour after which I retreated back here. Now I'll shower and probably read my new book.

Tomorrow I'm going to HK Wetland park which should take a good portion of my day since it's 40 minutes away on the train.

I might write again tomorrow, take care my good readers!

It's on like Hong Kong

Or is it?

This post is long cause it's therapeutic to write. And I NEED therapy.

It's 11:25 PM and I'm at a hostel room in Kowloon just across the canal from Hong Kong island. But let's review how I got here.

At Helsinki-Vantaa I bought a Premiere magazine which I read for the whole flight to Amsterdam. I did take a last foggy look at Helsinki when we ascended and saw the Pasila TV tower as the closest thing to home.

The first flight was easy. At Amsterdam I had a lot of time to burn, so I scoured the bookstores for new magazines and books but ended up buying nothing. I ate a slice of Pepperoni pizza and finished the mag before heading to my gate.

I flew to Hong Kong on a 747 Jumbo Jet for Cathay Pacific Airways. I had an okay seat cause next to me were a an Asian family of three and next to me was the bigger of the two boys. They were so polite that I didn't have to get up once to make room for his bathroom breaks.

Cathay had an excellent on flight entertainment selection and I'm glad my next flight is without them too. I ended up watching familiar stuff like Kick-Ass, Hot Tub Time Machine and episodes of Modern Family.

Sleeping on an airplane sucks. The seats on this flight didn't go back as much as they slid forward. My ass was really sore no matter what the position but I did sleep for about three hours before being woken up for breakfast. We arrived to Hong Kong at about 7:30 am.

At the airport I got my stuff, changed into my shorts and headed out to the express train. I checked from a map that the station closest to my hotel was Kowloon. I decided to walk from there. Somewhere I lost my map so I tried to rely on my navigation skills. That backfired, badly. I actually walked in a huge circle at one point before finding the right street.

Sweating like a pig, I found the right address but there were no hostels to be seen as I made my way around the block. I checked the address and headed in to the corridor. The next step was finding the right floor. Which was one floor above check in. Check in didn't begin until 2 PM and it was only 10 AM. But I did get to leave my stuff at the "reception"  (a foldable table next to an elevator) of the hostel.

Quickly I headed out to see the closest sights. I checked out the Avenue of Stars on the waterfront before heading for a ferry to HK Island. It cost $2 which is about 18 cents so that was nice.

I was feeling really crappy but then I decided to take a bus tour around the city to kill time and to understand the city a little better. It made me feel a lot better.

I even took a tram up the hill and looked down at the city from about 5-600 meters. The rest of the bus trip seemed to last forever and I was really tired in need of a nap. After 3 PM I got back to the hostel and checked in. I'd already paid 90€ but they asked me for $200 extra, $100 of which I'd get back when I leave.

My room was small as hell. I do have my own shower, but it's almost above the toilet.

Fortunately there's a good air conditioner. I was almost out of cash, hungry, sunburned and my iPhone's battery was running low. So I headed out to correct that stuff. I ate McDonald's, haggled to pay 10€ for a charger I can only use for three days and I bought some aloe vera. But withdrawing cash was harder than I thought and after giving the wrong personal number twice I gave up and retreated to my room almost penniless. I enjoyed the Wi-Fi for a second and napped until 9 pm. After showering I finally was able to withdraw some money and to my surprise the problem was the wrong personal number I'd given.

I felt so stupid. Cash got my spirits up a little. But while I was having dinner at an actual Asian restaurant I started to think about my friends and girlfriend, which bought a tear to my eye as it does now. I really miss everybody and I really don't want to spend two more days in this humid and hot hellhole where every peddler on the street is trying to sell me a suit because I'm the whitest dude they've seen all day. This place sucks and the culture shock is something I didn't anticipate. Instead of enjoying myself this summer I should've been preparing myself mentally but there wasn't enough time.

The worst part about this all is the fact that I'm all alone. Sure it's fun to be alone when you're surrounded by 300 DVDs and everybody you care about is a phone call away. Or even when you've just spent a week with your parents and you're sleeping in the back of a car in New Zealand for a week. Yeah, but this time it's at least four months before I meet anyone I know.

I know it'll be a lot easier in Australia where I can understand what's going on around me. Here, the only English I hear is either someone selling me suits (how unstylish am I?), selling me something else or a recording on a tour bus. I actually hope I meet someone Finnish in Australia, soon.

Tomorrow I'll do something mega-touristy to make thd time go faster and check out the Symphony of Lights which were cancelled today because of the hostage in Manila.

I'm not counting the days but I can't say see you soon either. Any encouragement and donations are appreciated. My e-mail is pelksaka@gmail.com.

I miss you, I'll write again soon.

At the Gates

This is my last post from Finland. I am currently sitting at my gate at Helsinki-Vantaa airport. It's also my first e-mail post so I don't know how good it will look.

The last few days have been very busy and a little painful. I didn't pack my stuff until yesterday when I was hanging out with my gf for the last time. Besides the stuff I took with me I also had to pack everything I left behind so my parents wouldn't be buried in heaps and heaps of clothes.

Saying goodbye to my girlfriend was really tough. Normally when you stop seeing someone your life is safe. Mine's not. It's scary. I'm anxious about getting jobs and places to sleep and getting around in Australia. It's a big place, bigger than Central Europe. And even though I've traveled a lot, I've never felt this uneasy about it. But experience does pay off. For some reason I beeped going through the metal detector and got an unpleasant groping for it. Plus my back was scanned twice, but neither really bothered or surprised me.

Yesterday I also saw my three best friends. I'm grateful for the time they were able to put aside to see me for the last time in 9 months. I'll be sending you postcards!

Goodbye to you all!

The Going Away Party

Yesterday, four days before my departure we held a joined going away party with Aki, who left for med school in Estonia this morning. The party was held at Kannas in (South) Central Helsinki. I were a little late for the party as I was preparing and burning a DVD as a going away gift for Aki. It's stuff we shot on an 8mm camera 6-7 years ago and that's all I'll say, cause we don't want the thing to go public (it's just so good).

When I arrived at the party fashionably late there was only one guest, a friend of Aki's, so I wasn't actually late at all and you wouldn't have known unless I'd just told you. Others were fashionably late too, but in the end a good portion of my friends and even some of my nicest co-workers attended the event. There were also some surprise guests, which was nice.

Notable guests:

• My brother
• My friend and co-worker LeBron
• My friend and co-worker Llanos
• My friends Valtteri, Pekko, Sanna, Anssi and Eve
• My co-workers Kimmo, Anni and Sonja

Notables missing:

• My cousins (Bono entertained them)
• Our friend Urpo
• My girlfriend (At the U2 gig, too)

I didn't take any pictures cause I don't take pictures in the dark, so this post is void of any visual aid. But take my word, most of my friends aren't that handsome anyway. I didn't get any going away gifts, but then again I wouldn't want to haul anyone's shit around the world anyway, so that's all good. U2 stole some of my guests and I was very tired after preparing Aki's DVD for most of the previous night after another evening on the town. So I headed to my girlfriend's place before last call.

Thanks to all the people who came and said farewell, those who missed it and feel bad about it can come see me at a special comeback party in May of 2011.

My next post might come from Hong Kong later this week, so stay tuned.

20 Days until departure (First official post)

Welcome!

In 20 days I'm going to do what I should've done a long time ago. As some of you must know, I'm going on a working holiday to Australia. This is something I have been planning for a long time, maybe 3 or 4 years. Still it came as quite a shock to a lot of people when they found out about it this past spring. Go before it's too late, it's now or never, yada yada yada...

I will be away from Finland for nine months, eight of which will be spent in Australia (probably). In three weeks I'll be in Hong Kong where I'll spend three nights before flying to Brisbane. From there I'll probably go to Cairns, where it's warm but not rainy yet. In the following eight months I'll work and travel and see as much as I can. Some familiar places like Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide and hopefully lots of new places like Brisbane, Tasmania, Perth, Darwin and Alice Springs.

After the eight months I'll revisit New Zealand (this time on the Northern Island), fly off to Tonga and travel back in time to Samoa before coming back home in the end of May 2011. Okay, poor writer trick time. Here are some lists 'cause my brain isn't working very well.

Preparations for the trip I have done:

• I moved from my apartment in Turku to my parents' apartment in Helsinki and put most of my stuff in a locked storage for 15 months.
• I bought airplane tickets from Kilroy Travels for just over 2000 €. 1500 € was supposed to be my limit, but then I fell for Samoa and Tonga instead of San Francisco and LA.
• I've been working at summer camp for most of the summer to attain sufficient funds for my trip.
• Sold my old TV to a friend for extra cash.

Preparations I've yet to do:

• Buy traveler's insurance.
• Get rid of clothes I don't need anymore (coming to Facebook).
• Book accommodation in Hong Kong.
• Buy a trip from Brisbane to Cairns.
• Haggle with my phone company to free up my iPhone for use in Australia.
• Get a job in Australia. (I do have a contact in Sydney and one near Melbourne where I might go work on a wine farm)
• Prepare mentally.

Stuff I'm leaving behind:

• 1 girlfriend.

That's it for now. Out of the 20 days remaining, 11 will be spent not preparing for the trip but I hope I'll get everything done in time.

Please come back soon, I'll try to post as often as I can after I departure.

PS. Hit me up with any tips you have about working in Australia or abroad in general or about anything else in the comments.

PPS. Also check out my twitter feed (THERE! On the right!) for smaller updates.