Sydney, another beginning.

After my lovely little holiday in Perth, I decided to head on to Sydney. This time I uprooted, left Melbourne and set up base in Sydney. Honestly I was a little skeptical about Sydney. From my last visit, I felt it was too metropolitan, made me feel like I was in Singapore. One of the reasons I decided to move there was to spend time with Prama & family. Especially the little ones, Lakshman and my godchild, Githanjali. I've been really fortunate that they've offered to rent me their lovely guest house.

As soon as I came to Sydney, the job hunt started, I must say it wasn't very easy to find a job here. I was lucky enough to land a job with home furnishing Swedish giant, IKEA. I got a job at the IFS (IKEA Food Services) department. I was trained to work in the little bistro that serves hot dogs, ice cream, donuts and calzones. The work is pretty simple and my colleagues are a rather fun, young bunch. IKEA is a great place to work as they really care for their staff and the benefits are pretty grand.

Thus my journey around New South Wales begins!

Theatre work in Melbourne: Month of Sundays

I read an audition on Star Now about the Australian Centre of Performing Arts (ACOPA)'s Month of Sundays. It's where actors get together and put up plays, gigs, cabarets, songs etc every Sunday of the month. I decided to audition for it.

I was then introduced to other actors who were part of the July Month of Sundays: Heather, Nick, Melanie, Cait, Jacqui, Sarina and our lovely director Maggie. We put together a few sketches in a segment called Pigeonholed. We rehearsed for about one month, every Tuesdays and Sundays. It was a lot of fun and a lot of nerve-wrecking madness! Nevertheless we managed to pull it off and performed to quite a full house every Sunday!

Thanks so much to the cast and crew for making this happen. My first time performing in Australia and you guys made it very memorable!

Theatre work in Melbourne: King of Bangor

Since I was working as a stage manager for Student Body, Dione asked if I was interested in designing set for her next play, King of Bangor. I was very excited and squealed out a big fat YES! Mind you, I've never designed a set before. It's a good thing that the set was minimal (also due to the low budget). So I just played around with whatever I was offered.

The play was a one act play and a theatrical exploration into the creative mind of Stephen King, a world renowned novelist.

It was a fun experience. I did it all by myself, painted and tried to make the set look old and vintage. It was a pretty good first experience of trying to put the set together!

Click here to read about the King of Bangor!

Phillip Island

Phillip Island is home to the cute little Phillip a.k.a Fairy penguins. They're much smaller than the emperor penguins and are grey in colour. What's most exciting in Phillip Island is the penguin parade. Many tourists flock this place during sunset to watch the penguins make their way from the sea back to their little dune burrows. Joel decided we make a little road trip to watch the penguin parade. We left slightly late in the morning and made our trip down to Phillip Island.

On the way, we stopped at the Wildlife Wonderland. It's a little zoo like concept that was started off by this family. I found all these animals apparently native (or maybe not) to Australia. Koalas, kangaroos, wallabies, llamas, ostriches, weird birds, name it and they have it.

The highlight of my trip has got to be feeding the kangaroos, wallabies and petting a koala. I'll have you know the feeding a kangaroo was SCARY! I freaked out, was practically hiding behind Joel. I swear the kangaroo was out to get me, he was clawing at our clothes! NOT at all a pleasant feeling. The koala on the other hand was extremely adorable and let me pet it to my hearts content.

We then made our way to a little fish and chips shop, had lunch, lazed by the beach a little and made it to the penguin parade by sunset. It's very cold there so we were bundled up, all set to watch the penguins. Sadly, there weren't that many penguins that night. Nevertheless, it was fun watching those few penguins turn up and find their way back home.

Theatre work in Melbourne: Student Body

I was fortunate enough to get some theatre work done during my stay in Melbourne. I have been rather actively involved in theatre back in Malaysia and missed it a lot when I got to Aussie. I started checking out various websites online that offered any sort of theatre work & auditions.

I then stumbled upon a little ad looking for someone who could play a role of a Malaysian student. I thought this was a blessing and went ahead by sending an e-mail requesting further information. I then got in touch with Dione, who was directing a play called Student Body, produced by Boobook Theatre. Dione informed me that the role has already been offered to someone else, nevertheless, there was a vacant position for a stage manager. I stepped in and took the role. We have a fun time rehearsing, albeit it being far away in Williamstown which was about 1.5 hrs train commute from Clayton. I didn't mind it that much as I was just really happy to be working in theatre again. We had our show, Student Body at the Union theatre, University of Melbourne 17th to 25th March 2011. It went on fine, not man glitches although I will say, stage managing is probably the toughest theatre job ever!

I had a great cast and crew working alongside each other and we had so much fun!

AFL

Apparently ones trip to Melbourne is never complete if one does not witness an AFL (Australian Football League) match. I was introduced to the AFL by Joel who is a huge supporter of the Essendon Bombers. The Australian Football or footy as it is fondly known is a pretty interesting sport. Melburnians are in love with this sport, so much so it's almost a religion.

So we went for an Essendon Bombers Vs Hawthorn Hawks. Unfortunately, the Bombers lost. Despite that, I had such a great time just soaking up the atmosphere of the match and the thousands of enthusiastic fans supporting their respective teams.

It truly was an unforgettable experience. It did suck me in a little and I started following rest of the matches and scores leading to the finals. Geelong Cats won the AFL 2011 title.

It is a pretty exciting game, catch it if you have the chance!

Perth, WA

After lots of planning, I finally made my way to Perth, Western Australia.

The awesome Edita and her amazing hubby, Jed were kind enough to let me live with them for a while.

There was some drama prior to that. I bought my tickets via Tiger Airways. They had some technical issues and cancelled their flights without informing me. The day before I was supposed to get on my flight, they inform me that they've been grounded and will not be flying out on the said date. I had to make other arrangements and purchase my tickets from Jetstar. This meant I had to leave on a later date and my trip was a shorter trip than intended.

Nevertheless, I had such a great time in Perth. We drove down to lake leschanaultia for a little picnic. It's a very pretty place. It was rather chilly but we managed to soak up whatever sun there was.

The next day Edie and I went into the city and visited the museums and art galleries. One of my favourite things to do in a new city is to visit the galleries & museums. One of the best things in the gallery was Andrew Brook's The Cell. This is where we don the costume provided, enter this huge bubble of a cell and jump around and pretend to be anything we want to be! It was like unleashing two crazy monkeys in one little cell. So much fun!

We then went to Kings Park. It's a huge, lush and beautiful park & it's also pretty special as there was where Edi and Jed had their wedding reception. We hung around there and took a long walk around the gorgeous park.

While in Perth, I met up with Kristin. We went for my first ever Japanese dinner. Surprisingly, I loved it. Kristin sure knows her food really well! We then went for dessert at this super swanky place called Rockpool. I had a giant macaroon! Delicious!

During the weekend, we went to a really cool artsy town called Fremantle, or fondly known as Fremo. Fremo has lovely weekend markets where you can get anything and everything cute and kitschy imaginable! I had a blast at this place where I spent mostly on food!

While still in Fremo, we walked up to the old round house, spent some time looking at the historic site and then retreated to the harbour for some fish and chips where we met up with Jed and Micheal. We then headed to the Little Creatures brewery where I was talked into having my first ever pint of pale ale and I loved it! 7 hours later I was a tipsy, happy person!

The last night there, I finally met up with Kimberly. I haven't seen her in 2 years. It was so much fun just catching up, talking about theatre and fond memories over cake.

Perth is a truly gorgeous place. Thanks so much to Edie and Jed for your kind hospitality. Love you guys! Will try to return to Perth!

Work in Melbourne

I seem to have only posted articles on my travel. Well, to be fair, it is a WORKING holiday after all!

As soon as I landed in Melbourne, I've been looking around for jobs and managed to secure one at AMF Bowling, Clayton which was right behind where I lived. Lucky me!

I worked at the cafe as a cafe attendant. Duties included cooking, cleaning, making coffee and monkeying around with my awesome boss and colleagues. There were some crazy stressful moments but overall, it was such a great place to work at is the staff were all really friendly and fun! I had such a grand time working there that I missed it so much when I left.

Thanks to my lovely AMF family for having me!

Gold Coast, QLD

All that big hoo hah about Gold Coast made me book my tickets to GC. Situated in sunny Queensland, AV and I decided to hit it early summer.

Booked our accommodation at a decent little apartment which was walking distance into town and the beach.

Unfortunately, the beach on surfers paradise wasn't much to shout about. It was definitely clean. I liked that it wasn't too crowded, possibly because of winter. Coming from chilly Melbourne, I thought the weather in GC was super warm!

We bummed at the beach a lot. GC is also pretty popular for it's nightlife. We joined a club hopping crew for a fee of $30. Takes us to 5 clubs and serves free drinks and food. It was pretty fun.

Food and accommodation does get pretty pricey in GC. We then visited Dreamworld, WhiteWater World and Warner Bros Movie world. The rides were amazing. We being adrenaline junkies decided to go on every single roller coaster ride imaginable. I am probably immune to the rush and excitements of roller coasters by now.

In my opinion, GC is a little too over commercialized. Could be because of all the theme parks available. Nevertheless, it was a good trip and fun to get away from work and Melbourne for a bit.

Travel :)

"I am loyal and constant about my love for travel. I feel about travel the way a happy new mother feels about her impossible, colicky, restless newborn baby—I just don't care what it puts me through. Because I adore it. Because it's mine. Because it looks exactly like me. It can barf all over me if it wants to—I just don't care."

- Elizabeth Gilbert, eat pray love.

ADELAIDE!

I made it to Adelaide from the 14th to the 19th of April. Stayed with Subi. I even scored mighty cheap tickets with Tiger Airways (which is a very unreliable service by the way - shall elaborate on it in another post)!

Adelaide is truly purrrdy! It's very laid back as compared to Melbourne. It has a very small city. Public transport is pretty straightforward with mostly buses running around the suburbs towards the city.

Adelaide has a good feel about it. Very cool artsy stuff dot the city and they have some interesting installation pieces around the main city itself.

I walked about the city on my own and had amazing pancakes at this little pancake place calledthe original pancake kitchen.

The Rundle Mall is probably the most popular landmark in Adelaide city. If you get lost, just get back to Rundle Mall!

Amazingly, the nightlife in Adelaide is pretty exciting! I visited an awesome nightclub calledcasablabla thanks to Daniel. We also did hit a few salsa bars. By the way, men in Adelaide are far more liberal with their compliments!

I met up with Debra who took me to an amazing little cafe for breakfast. It was a good catch up.

Sharanya came down from Exeter, UK and we met up the day before her brother's graduation. She was lovely enough to show me around a bit of Adelaide as she's had the pleasure of schooling there. She took me to Glenelg, which is a lovely place by the sea. It was only one train ride away. and had the most amazing sunset view ever!

We then went for her brother's law graduation the following morning at the university of South Australia.

The next day Jean took me to this cute little kitschy cupcake shop called the aviary where we sat back and had loads of tea!

basically that was my short and sweet trip to Adelaide. Seems like a place I would like to revisit soon! Thanks to Subi for putting me up for those few days!

Kate Nash in concert!

So I went to watch Kate Nash live at Billboard! 18th February 2011! I wouldn't have known if Brana didn't tell me! I love her and I know she'd never come tour in Malaysia. It was worth every dollar! My first ever concert in Aussie and I went alone! Here are some of her awesomeness onstage!

Sorrento

Sorrento is a lovely place in Mornington Peninsular. It is a beach area and has some of the most breathtaking views I've ever seen. ZM & PM were very nice enough to show me around Sorrento. We drove for a couple of hours. As soon as we reached, we had some pretty good fish and chips. We then decided to walk up to the National Park and take a nice mini hike around the place. It was lovely and we did get great shots of the place. Some of the war remains and tunnels were also pretty amazing. Give me a beach any day and I'm game! Here are some shots of Sorrento.

St.Kilda's festival

I visited Melbourne in December 2009 and fell in love with this place. Thus I decided to kick start my gap year here. A friend of mine, Six, was kind enough to let me live in his place and I am ever so grateful for that.

One of the first fests I visited proper is the St.Kilda's festival. I went there with AV, ZM & NP. Its an annual festival located at the beach area of St.Kilda. Music, food, carnivals and fun fills the air. One can find almost anything to do at the fest. Here are some of the shots taken at the festival.

Getting started

I was desperate for a change. Something was amiss. That's when I spoke to my dear friend SR who is based in Newcastle and she told me about the Work and Holiday Visa offered to Malaysians who would like to take a gap year off and explore Australia.

So lazy me forced myself to get off my lazy arse and do this! This is what you do if you're a Malaysian and would like to apply for this visa.

1) Letter of good conduct - this you must go to putrajaya and get it done. (refer below for the things u need to get letter of good conduct)
2) Letter from you university stating your course was conducted in english
3) Bank statement - You need minimum AUD 5,000
4) chest xray and health check (this one i did in the hospital in menara AM bank on yap kwan seng itself. but this one you do after you go to the Australian high commission and pay up for everything, they'll give u a form, fill it up and complete the xray. It costs roughly RM35. Only then will they send your report straight away to the Australian high commission)
5) FORM 1208 must be filled up completely. This form you may obtain from the website.
6) Certified copies of IC and BC of both parents.
7) 2 recent passport sized photos.
8) Education qualifications (You MUST possess a degree at minimum to apply for this visa)
9) Health insurance evidence
10)Ccertified copy of passport (make sure your passport has a minimum 6 months left)

For the certificate of good conduct which you must obtain from kementerian luar negara in Putrajaya, you need these:

1) 3 recent color passport pics
2) ic (original and 3 certified copies)
3) Malaysian passport (original and 3 certified copies)

You will be able to obtain the letter of good conduct in a matter of hours. It doesnt take a long time. Get this letter of good conduct first before applying for the visa.

Sadly, the websites aren't very reliable, that is why I have compiled the above mentioned list. I hope this will be a great help for those who are planning to apply for this visa.

The beginning

Hi, I'm Gowri Paary and this is my travel blog for my gap year in Australia. Some time last year, I decided that I should get myself out of my comfort zone and push myself to do something out of the ordinary. Something asians rarely do. I quit my awesome job, left behind my amazing family, man, friends and a lot of lovely things going on for me to throw myself into a not so familiar, weirdly adventurous life down under.

My journey starts in Melbourne on the 2nd of February 2011. It's been a month and a bit. I decided to start this blog to keep track of the things I do here. It will definitely be interesting to look back, read and reminisce it when I'm 70, old and wrinkly!

To my Aussie Gap Year and all the good things that come with it, cheers!