Troy Archie – Everybody Knows This is Nowhere

I’d just like to thank everyone who emailed me, posted messages this last little bit and actually anyone who reads this. I had some rough times there and those little comments really help out; Mom, Dad, Tiff, Jesse, Colby, Dan, Yolanda, I really appreciate it. I’m feeling much better now after a week of pretty much just chilling out but I’ve been getting a little “itchy” the last couple days sitting around here in Adelaide and I’m really looking forward to getting out to the farm that I’m going to. It actually looks a lot more like a bed and breakfast then a farm and a pretty posh one at that so I’m thinking this could be a pretty cool experience. The only thing that’s been biting me the last couple days are mosquitoes but they’re getting everyone else too and they’re laughable compared to the ones back home.

I think one thing that had brought me down there for a bit is that I was watching too much what others were doing and not what I was doing. Yeah that’s great that a lot of people want to go on tours and just see the sights and there’s nothing wrong with that but I’m realizing that that’s not entirely for me. Getting bed begs, having a crappy farm stay and whatever else bad things that have happened to me are just part of the reason and the only reason why I’m here; The experience. I’ve had a lot of good ones and I’ve had a couple bad ones and yeah Colby, some days I do miss my own bed but then I think back to where I was a year ago and I can’t help but laugh and shudder in fear of being back there. Around a year ago it was about -30 and I was toiling away 10 hours a day at a job that I really didn’t have too much of an interest in. I remember quite well that it was right around this time of year that I was spending my days in the dark confines of a large rusty mudtank, which was in a large dusty and cold shop, taking measurements of the tanks and trying to make some kind of decent drawings out of them. It pretty much sucked big time. If I was back home sleeping in my comfortable bed I’d have that, or something to that effect to look forward to everyday and well, I’d rather have bed bugs everyday then that.

I changed hostels from a 5-star one to a place that was just a mess and super crowded to a place that was above a bar. At first I wasn’t too sure about it, being it was above a bar but I took a look around inside and it was clean so that’s all I really cared about. Sure there was no TV room, the kitchen,yet clean was a bit crammed and there was no laundry room but since I’d rather not sit around watching TV and I handwash all my clothes I really didn’t care. Plus I paid the weekly rate which came out to like $13.50 a night, mix that with buying food from the market and I’m living pretty dam cheap. It’s almost more of a guest house than a hostel and I figure I’m going to have to remember places like this and keep an eye out for them. I found with the 5-star YHA it was tough to meet and talk to people and that the atmosphere in the place was really bad. Here since it’s pretty small, it’s almost impossible to not talk to people.

My home for a week.

View of China town from the balcony

So I spent a couple days just chilling out in town and seeing the free sights. I went to the musuem by myself one day but was too itchy from bed bugs and couldn’t concentrate on the displays so I had to go back home. I went a couple days later with the French Canadian chick I had travelled from Alice Springs with and an American guy, both of which were very cool. They had some pretty cool exhibits there, specifically to do with the Aboriginies.

All the natives that I’ve seen thus far have been big huge people sitting around under trees in parks. Now Chris, the lady who owned the farm in Carnarvon, said that that’s how they socialize as in they are a very public people and don’t hide what they’re doing. I hate to assume that all they’re doing is sitting around getting drunk in there little groups but from what I’ve seen that seems to be a lot of it. I wanted to take a picture of them in their little groups but I figured it was a bit impolite and quite frankly, they scare the shit out of me. They’re all very heavy obese people and I thought it was just the way they always were but form the pictures that I saw at the museum taken in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, they were a pretty stacked group of people.

Some pipes that they used.

This one is made out of a crabs claw.

Thus far I have a very mixed view of them. From what I’ve seen of their history and earlier way of life I have a huge amount of respect for them but from what I’ve seen of them in real life and the way they currently are I have this perception that they’re like children. They scuttle around town, yelling and squabbling amongst one and other and seem to have no jobs or a real earge to do anything. I think I’ve seen the last of them though, since I’ve gotten to Adelaide they’ve pretty much all disappeared and it’s not like there’s no parks in Adelaide for them to sit around in, in fact from what I’ve seen of Adelaide it’s all park. I guess they’ve all been pushed out of the large cities and now just live in the smaller communities which explains a couple things to me. One of the mindsets down here is that a lot of the down problems here and what’s “wrong” with the country are due to imagrants moving into the country. They mainly live in the large cities and are seen by everyone yet from what I’ve seen I think one of their main problems is their natives but since they’re out in the smaller towns and in the woodworks, no one sees them and sees their problems except the local people living with and around them and a lot of their opinions seem to be that the natives can only blame themselves.

I was thinking that I probably shouldn’t point out all these problems with a country that I’m visiting but I decided I should since it’s part of my experience here. I know the natives and my country in general have a lot of problems too and I’d be really interested in looking at them a lot closer when I return home. I wonder to myself, “When was the last time I went to an Indian Reserve?”

I’ve been to the market a couple times the last couple day’s and it’s pretty dam cool there, super cheap fruits and veggies and the atmosphere is great. Each time I go there I end up getting carried away and buying way too much stuff but it’s all good since it’s so dam cheap. I went on Saturday which is the busiest day there, last day of the week it’s open and the most insane. It was just wall to wall people with everyone pushing and shoving to get the best deals, it was great. I should have worn hockey equipment it was getting so rough. The shoppers were pretty crazy at some stalls but it wasn’t until about 2:00 before it closed when the vendors really lost their minds and started slashing prices to get rid of anything and everything; that’s when shit really hit the fan. People yelling and screaming numbers, handing you bags of fruit calling out a price, general mayhem took over. I spent like $20 and got a weeks supply of fruit and veggies so I’ve been eating good this last week and have probably been doing too much cooking when I should be out and about seeing the city and such. I’ve been making a lot of curries lately and have been dishing out some pretty dam good ones. The secret is coconut milk/cream.

I also spent a day in the botanical gardens, which was pretty relaxing. It was some pretty nice gardens and they had some pretty cool little wooded trails to hike through.

Rose Garden.

Some big building by the rose garden that I had to pay to get into so I didn’t go in.

Nice walkway.

A tribute to the king onhis birthday.

One thing that I’ve been meaning to talk about is pack sizes. I am carrying with a 45 liter pack which is a bit small, moreso when you compare it to other peoples. I had done a fair bit of reading and reseach when deciding what pack size I needed and pretty much all of the articles said to get a smaller pack ranging from 40-55 liters. The theory behind this is to force yourself to travel light by taking a small pack, makes sence. Now so far from what I’ve seen of others I have the smallest pack in the world and I figure I am carrying pretty much nothing with me. I constantly see people lugging around 70-90 liter packs with things hanging from them and wearing an other small daypack on the front of them. Back in Perth I met this English chick who had to get other people to carry her pack for her from the bus or where ever, now that’s insane. I constantly see people lugging around with them shit that makes me scratch my head. Stuffed animals, hair dryers, what appears their entire wardrobe of clothes and just other shit that they really don’t need.

The first couple weeks were the hardest; my pack seemed so small and it was so stressful packing things up that at one point in Perth I was walking around looking to see how much new ones costed and if I could trade mine in. Fortunately now, but unfortunately at the time, there are laws in places in WA that don’t allow shops to trade in packs so I was stuck with the little one I had. As time marched on I became a better traveller and packer (it’s all about rolling your clothes up), traded in a luggy towl for a sarong and just downsized a lot of stuff to the point where I can put everything I have in my bag with plenty of room to spare and that’s even after I went out and bought clothes to work in. Albeit, I don’t have a lot of clothes but how much do you need? I handwash my clothes that I wore the day before so my stuff always clean and I try to keep it simple when it comes to other stuff. What a great traveller I am, I have only what I need. Actually no, I’m probably worse then all the rest.

I have my fair share of “luxury” items that I don’t need but lug around with me anyways. I started out with the following:
Workout Gear – I have with me a large elastic band that I use for resistance, home made gymnastic rings and a jump rope to workout with. I don’t need all that stuff, albeit I think I do.
Coffee/Tea Plunger – I like my coffee and tea and have been carrying around a plunger with me since day one. There’s days that I have cursed the dam thing but more days that I have bowed down to it’s caffinated goodness.
Coffee and Tea – I usually have with me some coffee and right now I have 3 different types of tea. As I have mentioned before everyone down here drinks instant coffee at home meanwhile in he streets cafe culture is ripe in the big cities. No Starbucks, Tim Hortons or any “quick and easy” equivalent.

The way I see it, I love fitness and working out and not doing it would kill me, mentally that is. As for the tea and coffee, well I figure I’m saving myself a good chunck of change by not having to go out to cafes and such to buy coffee so a penny saved is a penny earned.

Now things is where things are starting to get ugly.
Spices – Being that I always cook for myself, enjoy cooking and enjoy eating moreso, I have with me a variety of spices. At first it started off simple with just some pepper but as time has worn on it’s expanded into a monster on it’s own. I now carry with me 7 different powered spices and herbs: pepper, curry, oregano, mint, cinnamon, basil and hot peppers.
Espresso Maker – I don’t know what I’m thinking and I need help. The other day I noticed that they have these little 3-cup stovetop espresso makes for super cheap. I figured, “I have room for that” and bought it. Silly me but DAM it makes a good cup.
More Coffee – Well I’m going to need some good espresso style coffee for my espresso maker right plus I need some for my plunger.

So yep, I’m slowly losing my mind by stocking up on all these things that I really don’t need. I’m realizing though that with all these things they all point to one thing; Thefiner things in life; Good coffee, good tea, great food, good workouts and now good chocolate. Yep, I’m eating a bit of chocolate now too but it’s the good stuff. Lindt’s dark chocolate with 85% cocoa is what I’ve been nibbling at. I allow myself only little peices each day but enjoy each bite. It’s odd, as a kid and teenager I was a chocolate-oholic and had pretty much cut it right out of my system for a long time (becoming lactose-intollorant also helped with that). Now when I eat regular milk chocolate I find it way too sweat and don’t like it at all compared to the really really dark stuff, whereas when I was a kid I hated the dark stuff.

Also, I finally broke down and got a mobile phone. Yeah another thing to lug around but it was becoming a pain in the ass to get a hold of people in the local area using the pay phones and even more of a pain in the ass getting a hold of people back home. Because of the time delay I’d end up having to sit around until late morning/early afternoon to try and call home and it would be a major pain in the ass if there was no one there. Now people can call me, which I don’t expect them to because I think it’ll cost a fare bit but I do have text messaging, which is extremely popular down here and rather cheap. At first I thought I was just out of the loop when it came to texting and that everyone back home texted but me but I guess not. I’m hoping that others out there have text messaging so we can keep in touch. The charges for me are like $0.25 a message so it’s not that bad. My number is 04-0500-8583 and the Australian international dialing code is 61 so throw me a hello or even throw me an email with your cell number.

Tragedy

One little thing that has happened to me that could very well be a terrible terrible thing is that my Mp3 player broke. The battery top peice snapped off and now the battery won’t stay in. I got it for free from Tiff (thanks again) so I’m not too upset yet but I’ll see what happens to me after a couple weeks without music.

Other then that I’m feeling pretty good right now and I’ve pretty much have been just sitting back relaxing and getting things ready for my farm stay at Maslin House. As it looks like a really nice place I’m hoping to do a longer stay this time around if the situation is good. Got a hair cut or actualy gave myself a haircut with a pair of clippers that a guy at the hostels had so I saved some money there to make up for all the other crap that I bought the last couple days. That said, I’m still doing really well for money and with this wwoof stay should do even better.

Many people might not have any idea of where some of the places that I’ve been to are located in Australia so if you go here, you can click on each link and roughly see where they are.

Safe Travels

Troy

Tags: Australia

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