Troy Archie – Everybody Knows This is Nowhere

Well well well, it’s been a busy interesting last couple days and I finally have time to sit down now and post here. Perth started out to be a pretty boring town but has ended up to be quite fun. Now where to start…

I guess it was last Thursday I switched hostels from the geriatrics ward hostel I was in to a really good one where I have met tones of great people. I met this English guy named Adam, a Korean guy named Yangsung and a German girl Verena and we all really hit it off well and have had a good time the last couple days so pretty much “home” life has been pretty good. It’s quite enjoyable to get a hostel after a long day and see some familiar faces to chill out with and have a good laugh.

When I first started this blog I was going to give each post the name of a song that was going through my head at the time, even the blog’s title is a song but now I have found that I have listened to pretty much no music as I find it really kills any chance of conversation and interaction with people. Case in point:

The last couple days I have been eyeing this book called WWOOFing that they sell at some stores. WOOFing stands for Will Work On Organic Farms and how it works is the book is full of organic farmers who let international travellers come and work at their farms for a couple hours a day and repay them with accommodations, food stay and the experience of seeing life in a different place. I have been eyeing this book for the last couple days now but wasn’t too sure if I wanted to spend the $50 on it and to top it off I couldn’t find anyone who has had any experience with it. Well on Friday I was standing on the street next to this girl wearing a backpack (obviously a fellow traveller), both waiting for the lights to change so we could cross the street. I struck up a conversation with her about where she was going and coming from. Ends up she had just picked up a WWOOFing book a little while ago, had just got back from her first farm stay and was on her way to another place for a stay. I pretty much ended up drilling her with 1000 questions right there on the street and only got rave reviews from her about WWOOFing. So I ran out, bought the book and am now trying to get a hold of some farmers looking for an out going young fellow such as myself.

I was about to put on my headphones a couple seconds earlier but held off and ended up having a great conversation with a complete stranger and potentially changed my travel plans right around. I’m finding that when you’re travelling along interaction is key just about conversation is good, save the 15 minute monologue some security guard gave me about his job, home life and mother in-law, anyways…

Friday was a pretty busy day, I went out the local botanical gardens here in Perth and just hung out in the park doing handstands and reading.

Here is a shot of Perth from King’s Park.

Now in King’s Park they have a huge war memorial and I must say it’s pretty classy. Australia is very very proud of its history, especially its war efforts and it really puts Canada’s to shame. I’ve never seen anything like this back home and the only war monument that I can think of in Canada is the eternal flame in Ottawa. I don’t know if I just don’t know where they are back home and I keep bumping into interesting historical and memorial sites over here but Canada’s efforts for memorial is a bit of a joke.

Halls of the Dead

War Memorial.

Another shot from King’s Park.

A duck that wouldn’t leave me alone.

So I was suppose to leave Perth Saturday morning and had my bus ticket all booked to start my journey up north but got word that some people that were my grandmother’s friend’s sister lived in town and really wanted to meet me. I managed to postpone my ticket and got a hold Bob and Glenda Smallmen. It was a pretty quiet night and we just went out for fish n’ chips (first time I’ve eaten anything deep fried in over 2 years) and got a bit of a tour of the city. The next day I went out to the family owned and run water slides they have and hit the slides and pool for the afternoon. Afterwards we went out to their place just outside of town in a suburb called Byford for “tea” and that is where I met their two sons Mark and James who were pretty much right around my age and both really cool guys. They took me out to see the sun set over the valley and to get a close look at some kangaroos that were near their place. James is a draftsperson too so it was pretty interesting to see what he was building and drafting. I was quite taken by his original fully intact Optimus Prime and Starscreamer Transformers that he had. Very cool. They also explained to me the rules of Cricket, which currently a lot of people down here are following. It was always on TV in the background at the hostels but I had no idea what the rules were but I’m getting a hand of it and think it’s pretty interesting. Ain’t no hockey though.

Later that night I got a hold of another person that I had never met before and got together with her. Her name is Hayley Pots and she was an exchange student with some friends of ours in Camrose for a year. She took me out to her family farm near this little town called Narrogin way off of the beaten trail. There were no backpackers in this town and I don’t there ever has been or ever will be which was great. I feel very fortunate to see, meet and stay with “real” Australians and not just some people trying to sell you something. I’m pretty sure most other travellers in Australia haven’t had an experience like this and will probably never will.

In Narrogin I was privy to the 17th (I think) annual Revheads competition. Now revheads is where they take suped up cars and just rev the shit out of them trying to make the longest, smokiest and loudest burn out possible before their tires blow. I have never seen anything like this before and I’m told it’s pretty local. I came out of their covered in black tar and soot that took 3 showers to get fully off but it was good fun.

The first guy was the best and did like a 6 minute burn out.

Just give’er

A couple guys with a motorized couch that they were driving around.

After that we went around sleepy Narrogin and met Hayley’s aunt and “Granny”. Granny was the coolest and sweetest old lady, next to my grandmother of course, and I got to hang out in her garden eating her fresh fruits. They have these things called Lokids that they don’t sell in the stores but a lot of people seem to grow that I took quite a liking to.

Sleepy Narrogin

Narrogin and Granny really reminded me of my grandmother and her hometown Vermillion

The next day we took another little tour of the town and the farm. Hayley’s dad, Barry, took me out for a good long tour and showed me his land and gave me a quick education of farming around there. It was pretty interesting to see just how different things are down here and the life of a farmer on down-under.

Whipping through the country

Sheep and lots of them. I think they have like over 3000 head of sheep, which I’m told is rather small.

More sheep.

Beautiful country out here.

The welcoming I have received has been extremely warm and I’m rather touched by the openness of all the people I’ve had the opportunity to meet from Hayley, Granny and to the Smallmans. This one weekend has aloud me decide what I want out of this trip and where I want to go with it. I feel kinda bad for some of the other “travellers” who don’t get the opportunity or ever make an effort to get into that type of situation to see what this country is really all about.

Again, thank you Hayley for taking me out to your farm and letting me have this opportunity.

When I got back to the hostel Monday night it was business as usual for most of the people which included drinking and sitting around. There was one group of guys that when I left they were planted in front of the TV and when I came back they were in the exact same positions, the only thing changed was their clothes. It was pretty bizarre scene. I then overheard another guy bragging about how he has been in the pub drunk every night for 6 months straight (he was Irish go figure). I acted the fool and with a confused look on my face asked him why he just doesn’t stay home and drink. He replied, “Where like at the hostel?” I shot back, “no, your home country.” All I got back was a blank stare. Each to their own I suppose.

My plan now is by the end of the week to start making my way up north towards Broome and hopefully get a hold of some WWOOFing hosts and get on a farm or two at my first stop. I am in good health, save for getting a wicked case of bed-bugs and being itchy as hell. I am meeting some amazing people and just having generally a great time. I’ve only been in country for 2 weeks now and Hayley asked me if time was flying by and I must say that no it hasn’t. I have so many great people and just having an all around blast. I think I have met more people in these last two weeks than I have in the last two years and that this is something I desperately needed. My workouts are still going strong and I’m already freaking some people out with them. Good fun.

Good health to all and until next time…
More pics here

Well I’m in Perth right now and Perth is a bit borring so I thought I’d put in an other entry but this one of all my general thoughts and observations thus far of Australia and whatever. The crappiest thing thus far about travelling alone is you don’t have anyone to share these weird quirky little thoughts and observations with so that’s why I’m posting them here. I hope I don’t sound too insane from this.

Flies. You ever see on TV they’ll show some poor desolate people in Africa or some other far away country and the people there always seem to be covered in flies. You think to yourself that they must be so weak, tired, dirt poor and without any hope that they just don’t do anything about them. The truth is is that they just don’t care. The flies in Australia are HIGHLY agressive and they’re always hovering around you and always in your face. Eventually you just stop caring and let them crawl over you.

Bordies. They’re not short pants. They’re not swimming shorts. They’re “Boardies” and they are useless. Everyone down here wears them and they are quite fashionable but they’re just absolutely pointless. They don’t have an inside liner like swimmers so you have to wear underwear with them but yet they don’t have any pockets so you don’t have anywhere to put change, room key… I bought a pair at the factory outlet and had them for 2 day’s before I tossed them.

Aborigines. They’re in rough shape like the Natives back home. I watched a group huff a bag of something in a park earlier today.

Hostels. They sure can be hit and miss. I don’t mind them being a dirty or rough around the edges at all, it’s the atmosphere and people that I’m interest in the most. I’ve thus far gotten burnt out hippies that keep to themselves, super friendly open to conversation people and now this one which is full of old people and asians that can’t speak a word of English. I sat and listened to two 70-80 year old British ex-patriots argue about who was the best King of England for an hour last night. Things started to get pretty ugly at some points. I have yet to stay at a “party” hostel or a real young person hostel yet so that should be interesting.

Asians. I’m assuming they’re Japanesse on this one and I’m trying not to sound racists but they are a riddle to me. You’ll be sitting on a beautful pristine beach with bluer than blue water and you’ll look over and see them playing games on their cell phones and organizers. I just don’t get them.

Coffee. Australians really like good coffee, good expensive coffee to be exact. I’ve seen only one Starbucks thus far and that was in Sydney. Sorry, no Timmies and no other major franchise to replace either of them. They’re all just small mom and pop operations selling coffee for like $2-$3 a hit. No $0.99 all you can drink diner coffee down here. Good thing I brought my coffee press.

Even McDonald’s is getting in on the actions.

Resturants. Australia is a very eat out country. Most of the resturants are sit-down places and I’ve seen very few fast food places. Pretty must all the places are again mom and pop operations and there are very few franchises like back home with Boston Pizza and Joey Tomatoes. They’re all kind of expensive too but I guess you get what you pay for. A meal for under $10 is considered good.

Food. It’s funny, my grandmother said to me that I wasn’t going to be able to eat the way I normaly eat while travelling. Ends up she’s right but the funny thing is, everyone else is eating the way I used to eat. I see everyone else making big huge salads, BBQing chicken and steak, cooking up big stir-fries and having omletes for breakfast meanwhile I’m currently living off of cans of tuna, oranges, peanuts and whatever else is on sale or cheap. I’m keeping my diet fundamentally the same as back home, just on a tighter budget. I figure I’m eating for less than $10 AUD a day right now.

Sunglasses. I’m glad as hell that I got a contacts before I left as I am loving sunglasses.

Cars. Cars don’t stop for pedestrains here. Mike warrned me about this and he was right. Even at crosswalks they speed through.

The Ocean. I still can’t get enough of it. This picture gives it no justification from what I saw that night on Rottnest.

Showers. Jumping into the ocean isn’t considered a shower/bath. I need to follow this one better. See Flies?

Accents. I’m doing pretty good understanding what people are saying with their accents. German, Scot, Asian, so far the only person that I had a really tough time understanding was another Canadian and no he wasn’t a newfie.

Air Conditioning. I don’t like it. The heat is alright but the second I get into an air conditioned area I just about fall asleep. 3 times now, twice on a ferry and once on a bus I just about fell asleep due to the cool air.

Perth. Perth is kinda of a borring town. There isn’t too much to do but that could be a good thing as it lets me catch up on things. It could also be the fact that the city isn’t on the ocean. It’s also kind of a weird town as it’s very Asian, and what I mean by that is that there are hundreds of Asian food resturants, tons of asian internet cafes and lots of Asian food stores yet I haven’t seen that many Asians around compared to a place like Vancouver where I would a minority.

Like I say, Perth is a little borring so I’m thinking about rigging out but at the same time I feel like I’m moving too fast and need to chill a bit. I think perhaps my best bet would be to chill at the next stop which is looking to Cervantes as it’s on the coast and not far from some really cool outback scenery.

Well that’s that.

Troy out.

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