Australia, here I come !

After undergoing a chest x-ray and waiting in agony for 2 weeks, my Australian visa finally got approved this week. I already booked my flight to Bangkok after I got the x-ray, because the doctor told me it was clear. But I waited to book my flight from Bangkok to Melbourne until I got my visa and booked it this morning. So it's all set now :-)), I will fly to Bangkok on the 8th of January and I will fly to Melbourne on the 4th of February. I have almost a month in Thailand, to visit my friends in Nongkhai and maybe do some other things...

I will make another blog especially for Australia when I find the time, but for the time being I will keep on posting on this blog...

The end is only the beginning

Yes, I'm home again. I arrived back in Belgium wednesday around 11am after that very long and exhausting trip from Bangkok. Eventhough it's always nice going back home, back to a place you know very well, were you can relax and see your old friends again; my return hasn't been too great. I've had major jetlag and a really bad cold, the weather is horrible outside and all kinds of small things seem to be going wrong. But today is the first day that seems to be a bit better.

So the end is the beginning. Of what? As some of you already know, I have some new big plans. I'm planning on going to Australia, hopefully in januari. On my way to Australia I will visit my friends in Nongkhai again for a few weeks, and after that I will fly to Melbourne, were I'm going to try to find a job and will stay for a while, maybe indefinitely, if I really like it there. But right now I'm trying to organise this trip to the land of Oz. I've started my visa-application, something that shouldn't be to hard, but of course for some reason that I don't know (though I think it has to do with the fact that I've been traveling in poor countries in the last few years) they have asked me to get a chest x-ray, before they can approve my visa. Monday I will get the x-ray, and hopefully everything will be ok, so they can approve my visa, and I can book my flight. I'll keep you posted on my progress in organising this trip. And I'll post the link to my new Australia blog as soon as it's ready...

The long journey home

This morning I got up early, around 5am. My 6am minibus to the airport left half an hour late, and I was a bit scared that I would arrive too late at the airport, but there was really no need, because we somehow managed to get there in only 25 minutes (usually it takes about an hour or more). My flight to Singapore was very relaxed and we got here with a slight delay, around lunchtime. And now I'm stuck here in the airport until my flight to London leaves around 10.45pm. So I have a lot of time on my hands to discover everything there is to do here in the airport. So far I've already had some nice sushi, watched some television (unfortunately they were playing Terminator II on the moviechannel, I'll have to check again later to see if there 's a better movie on), had a cappucino, walked around in the shops, looking at very expensive things that I would never buy, used the free internet and had a footmassage by one of those footmassage machines...
Yeah, I think I will be happy when I arrive back in Belgium, tomorrow around 11 am (that's about 30 hours or more (I seem to have some calculating problems with all the time differences, but it sure is a lot of hours) after I got into that minibus in Bangkok).

Last day in Bangkok

Leaving Nongkhai was harder than expected. Physically, because there was a train strike, the first one in about 20 years, which meant I had to stay one day longer in Nongkhai. But I didn't really mind staying longer. And mentally, because I had to say goodbye to so many lovely people. Nongkhai really feels like a second home now.
But I finally arrived back in Bangkok, and I've been indulging myself with shopping, massages and good food. The shopping isn't completely going to plan today, because I kind of forgot that most of the market stalls in the Kao San area are closed on mondays. I hope they will open tonight, but I'm afraid they will not. But I've had a few nice massages. And I've had some really good food at Spicy Affair (Indian food), their Malai Kofta is delicious, and at Maykaidee's, the best vegetarian food in town.
All that's left for me to do now is pack my bag and have a good night sleep before embarking on the long journey home...