What is your Good Name?

During my last weeks or so in Australia and the time since I feel like i've been walking round with my eyes extra wide to try and take in all the information, trying to commit all the places I love in Sydney to memory and absorb all the new experiences i'm having.

The hotel in Bangkok is advertised as being 2Km from the airport, while this is true you need to drive for approx 20 minutes to get there. There is a strange one-way system outside the airport which meant we had to drive for 5 minutes in 1 direction, turn around and drive 10 minutes in the opposite direction (passing the airport and my hotel), and then turn around again and drive for another 5 minutes. Brilliant. This is after waiting for ages at passport control and being very tired. When I arrived at the hotel the guy checking me in asked if I was on my own, when I told him I was his eyes seemed to light up (bit weird). He must have said something to the guy who led me to my room as he talked constantly about getting a lady in to massage me, when I explain I wasn't interested and was tired he seemed to take this as a queue to start describing the extra services the women could provide...this show culminated in him putting his hand on the front of my jeans, again a bit weird. When I told him I wasn't interested he did the same speech with the same end move...after this happened a third time I had to open the door and point to tell him to get out. Tres amusing.

Managed to get the best legroom seat ever on the 4 hour flight to India, could stretch my legs out fully before the touched the partition in front of my, great stuff.

Arrived at Delhi airport at around 3PM (I think), forgot to change time on my watch so got a bit confused, India is an hour and a half behind Bangkok which is conducive to becoming a bit befuddled. Delhi is nothing like Goa…Goa is quite spread out and with lots of greenery, Delhi is a mental city. Crazy driving, all the cars have dents from accidents and everyone honks their horns religiously. The guy who picked me up had a very basic grasp of English and it threw me a bit, I thought I was going to be meeting someone from Koenig so went in with big smiles and handshake but only got a blank look…he must have just been a taxi driver on an errand. I’ve been out for a couple of walks, bought lots of water (extremely hot and humid here), some toiletries and power adapters for all my kit. Tried to buy a SIM card yesterday but I needed a passport and a picture apparently, madness. Managed to sort it out today but it doesn’t seem to have activated yet. It’s a bit of a culture shock being here after being in Sydney for the last 9 months, will take me a while to get used to it I think.

I went to a tailor this morning and got myself measured up for a shirt...costs 600rs which is about £7.50! Went to another tailor this afternoon and have been measured again, this shirt only costs 355rs. Went to buy some fruit from a guy in the street earlier...he said 30rs for 1 plum which I thought was a bit much but he meant a kilo of plums, so they are currently residing in my sink.

I have Internet in my room and lots of time over the next 2 days which I’m going to use to relax and get used to the time zone. Heat is mental – 37 degrees and extremely humid. I was considering going to see the Taj Mahal tomorrow but it is 5 hours drive in a non airconditioned bus - 10 hours in total! I will possibly go once my course has finished.
Oh yeah and for some reason if an Indian person asks you your name they same “What is your good name?” I thought at first that I was taking part in a favourite names survey and wasn’t sure what to say.

End.

Good morrow,

It's been a hectic 2 months since my last update, i've now finished at APRA which was a really good experience.

Aside from that i've been doing the normal eating out and suchlike. The fam visited for 2 weeks and left on Monday. I've spent the last few days packing and sorting out bank accounts and all that other boring stuff.

On Monday Lou and I went for an Indian meal with her folks, nice grub. On Tuesday I went out for a meal with all the good friends i've made over here, we went to a Czech restaurant and Lou and I put $300 behind the bar...good time had by all. Last night we stayed in a hotel for the evening for our last night together for a while.

I haven't really got the time to write a bigger update, there's still a few odds and ends to sort out and I need to leave here (the riot factory) in about half an hour for my 18:30 flight (it's 2PM at the moment).

So i'm off to India for just under 6 weeks. After that i'll be knocking about the UK - looking to move to London in mid-September time.

Feels weird leaving Australia, today always seemed like so far away and it's a bit surreal. I've made so many good friends over here, including the woman who I will hopefully spend the rest of my life with. I didn't really have a plan or any great expectations when I decided to come to Australia, so all of my experiences and many surprises have been a bonus to visiting a great country.

I can't wait to get back to the UK to see some familiar faces and surroundings, first I have to study (yawn)

Smell you later.

Tom

Lou: I have infiltrated the Tom blog walls (nudging him off the couch went quite sucessfully). I'm off to London on Saturday, waiting for the boy to join me. The next few months will be full of changes, very exciting, but i'm looking forward to the time when it all quietens down and everything goes back to smooth sailing. Bye x.