No photos of a pretty uneventful but also bizarre day! Our flight landed at 7.30am which doesn't sound too horrific, apart from it felt like 5.30am and we'd had approx 6 hours sleep between us. We got off, collected our bags and managed to find a bus to our hostel. It was freezing, well, by our new, Asian standards, and I was very grateful for the cardigan I'd put in my hand luggage.
A 45 minute coach journey (and a very intense dream) later we arrived at our hostel. It was 10 ish now and all we wanted was a nap, but we couldn't check in until 2. Good times. We headed out for a healthy meal of some cheesy chips (night flights always make me feel hungover) and then wandered around a bit. My first impression really waant great. In their defence the staff at the airport were actually among the friendliest I've met so far, but from then on it went a bit down hill.
There were a lot of homeless people near our hostel. Now, we've seen poverty on a scale unlike any I've experienced before, but it's so different. People surrounded by friends and family who are smiling and laughing despite living in a little shack with no running water up a mountain in Thailand is somehow far, far less depressing than seeing a girl, no older than us, in a developed country like Australia begging us for change. It's like we've gone from these third world countries only to see more poverty just a couple of steps down the road. There's just a large group who have congregated who clearly have a range of mental health problems; shouting to themselves and each other, many clasping bottles, and whilst i feel little other than sympathy towards them it just concerns me that there isn't support for these people who clearly need it. But hey ho, anyway.
We ventured down to the beach in spite of the cold wind, and again, i don't know, it just wasn't what I expected. It was nice, but we're not in a particularly nice part of town, and the beach back home is about 50x nicer. My expectations of Australia have always been beautiful beaches going on for a miles with people surfing and the occasional kangaroo and koala strolling past. It just seemed, as I summed it up, 'a weird England'. Everywhere does seem cleaner and brighter though which is a perk, and I have since warmed to it.
We went back to the hostel and at 1.55 attempted to check in. They made us wait until 2 exactly, which pretty much sums up the hostel. We went to the room we were told we were in, a 16 bed dorm (lovely) and were greeted by by far the worst hostel of our trip, including the day infested one. 8 bunk beds in a room that smells remarkably like teenage boy, crammed full of people's bags spilling onto the carpet, no curtains and just generally rank. We could only see one free bed and went downstairs to check we'd got the room right. An absolutely classic moment occured which i doubt I'll truly be able to capture but hey. Lauren and i had gone to ask, and when we said 'there's only 1 spare bed in 101' the guy at reception started to mutter and then got out a walkie talkie and was like 'frank I'm going up there right now' he was being almost comically angry and we followed him upstairs, me nervously laughing. We went into the dorm where Molly was sat on her bag. The guy went 'turn around. Who are you? What bed are you on? Can you move so that people can actually walk around in here instead of sitting in the middle on your bag?' In the rudest, most aggressive tone, continuing to rant until one of us pointed out that she was with us. Before he could apologise the ominous Frank appeared, a caretaker similar to Filch in Harry potter, and the guy from the reception proceeded to rant at him about the state of the room. Filch pointed out 3 beds, which it turned out were in fact in there, just harbouring other people's stuff which was nice and also had linen just chucked on so we couldn't even tell the beds were unoccupied. The reception guy stormed out of the room after his argument with Filch, leaving him to say really sarcastically 'enjoy your stay' before leaving too. We stood for a few moments in horrified silence at the prospect of spending the next 6 nights there. Fortunately our tiredness took away some of the shock and we were asleep until 6 ish.
Not wanting to stay in the hostel any longer than necessary we headed to pizza hut for dinner. You can tell you're in a dodgy part of town when they're offering 3 medium pizzas for $13 (£6.50) but hey, it's budget friendly. Afterwards i got some fruit from 7/11 as scurvy is becoming a very real threat.
We stayed in pizza hut as long as we could before returning to our dorm. Fortunately the other people in there seem normal, one excited to 'leave this hell hole' and despite the main activity of the day being sleeping, we were soon ready to do so again.
Laura x
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