Ooooops Maandag, 11 maart, 2002 (Ripley's) Believe it or not: I'm in Australia now and will be heading back to Asia tomorrow. Main reason: MONEY Let me explain what happened. Last august I quit my job, after that I asked myself what to do next => Ok, let's travel. Allright, so where do want to go? => Don't know, let's go to Asia, Australia and New-Zealand. How much money do you have? => well, never saved up for this, but I think I have enough to travel around for 6 months. It was only on the plane from Singapore to Sydney that I fully realized what it means that Australia is a western country: it means western prices. I spent a couple of days figuring out my finances and what it would buy me here in Australia. I've come to the conclusion that if I blow all my stocks and savings I can just survive in Australia and New Zealand: 1. This is not the way I want to see Australia. I know I'll love it, but want to travel with a little comfort and be able to affort some luxury. Open question: who wants to go to Oz with me for like 3 months in about 2 years, buy a car and drive it around? 2. For the same amount of money I can live quite well in Asia. 3. I do not care about blowing all my money and savings away, but if I do I want to live a little instead of using it to survive. Working over here was not really an option as there is very little work around at this moment and I don't have a work permit. Am I sad to skip Oz en go back to Asia? Well, in a way I am. Yesterday my Aussie mate Darren showed me around Sydney and it is beautiful out here, I'm sure I would love Australia. Am I sad to skip Oz en go back to Asia? Well, NO. This is the joy of what I'm doing: I can do whatever I feel like. There's still loads of places in Asia to check out and some places to go back to for further exploration.   ... back