The final day has come. I’m officially moving on from Australia onward to Columbia. I will pass through Hawaii on the way and sleep there for the night and then have another long journey through California, then Texas, to finally Bogota, Columbia. I was first planning on working for a few more weeks to save up enough cash for two months to visit Columbia and then Costa Rica, but the type of work offered to me ran out unfortunately and there was no way I was going to do another shitty backpacker job in Australia. Plus on top of that, my road worthy inspection for my vehicle ended up being horrible and the car need about 3000$ of fixing plus 800$ for registration and then another 400$ for insurance. I bought the car for 2750$ and the thing ran sketchy and overheated so I was like fuck it I’m not driving it until I have to sell it. I was lucky enough to have this job in the middle of nowhere for a month and free accommodation at the place I was working so no need of driving anywhere.
I literally lived where I worked. The guy I worked for was a bipolar dick (just my luck). He was some millionaire that made is fortune in Papa New Guinea off gold mines and the people that I had to hang around with constantly told me the stories of the horrible things he would make these Papa New Guineas do in order to make him extra cash and save. For instance, instead of buying sand from a supplier he would have each worker swim across a crocodile infested river in order to retrieve a bag full a sand and would have to somehow swim and carry this full bag of sand back over without being eaten. Other things they told me on the day of the arrival was that he treats backpackers like shit and the guy that has worked for him for a long time accounts days where he would literally fired people and take all their bags and things and leave them outside to hitchhike. Hearing all this shit I was like okay what the fuck. Why is my fucking luck so shit most of the times and fuck this guy who I’m about to work for. On top of that it was a carpentry/builders job with people that have experience, and the only experience I had was helping the dude nailing shit in by holding shit up. The first couple weeks were great. This madman guy that I was working for was super chill and founded alright if I didn’t know what to do as long as I somewhat got the concept and then figure it out by myself. Then after a two week mark, the man snapped on me one time for not handed him cord for the TV fast enough. I just stared at the man and all these stories flushed into my mind about the guy everyone called a madman tyrant. These episodes with the crew happened about once a day for the next three weeks and the only thing holding me back from snapping on was one, the money I needed bad and two, I had free accommodation and couldn’t drive my car anywhere. The saddest part to all this is the man knew this was both me and this German situation and knew we couldn’t even speak back or else we be thrown out of the job site like the last few backpackers. Within this month I worked there, his loyal right hand man and a good man couldn’t take his shit anymore and just let. Like literally took all his tools from the site on a Sunday and left on Monday with his camper. The next day Mike my bosses name is, just asked me where did he go? since I was the only one working and I just shook my head and played dumb and said I don’t know Mike. The good man never answered any of Mike’s calls that day or week and never heard from him again. Mike eventually found two highly skilled builders with 20-50s experience and the week they were hired was amazing and disappointing at the same time. They were amazing Australian people with wonderful stories and wisdom. The guy that had 50 years experience taught me a lot about building just in a couple days of work and opened my mind on different ways to approach certain things to build. I truly did like what I was doing this last month even know I have never done any of things he asked me to do. I was learning what exactly I wanted to learn though. How to basically build a house from roofing to flooring to timber, electrical, pluming, irrigation, cold rooms, cabinets, and etc. The only bad thing was the dick boss, but I could handle that for sure because everyday I was mind blown on how you actually built this and that. Well the week when the guys got hired was the week where there was no more work for me. The type of work that was being done was required by one individual and really two working on the project would be a waste of money so I saw that side on that. During that week Mike did try to keep me busy and gain me money till the end of the week but Friday after I built my last cooler room for the beer storage Mike unfortunately told me that he has skilled workers now and wished he could keep me but there are no projects in the near weeks that could make him profit and keep me busy. Was Mike a bad guy in the end though. I still think yes. Maybe he had a bit of bipolarness to him and when these ticks came the would go just as fast and he would be smiling again. It was very bizarre to say the least. The man once bought me a smoothie for building a concrete slab for him all by myself in under three hours which was brutal and would say very good to a lot of my shit because it was very good (I had to prove myself to this guy). One thing that made me believe that he’s just a dark man was this. When he said there was no more work for me I was just like Mike I completely understand but can I stay in the hotel till Sunday to figure out what to do with my car and my options. His reply was of course you can but just after tonight you have to pay 70$ a night for this room. The room by the way was a dorm room with four beds in it with mice and cockroaches all in it. Bad guy for sure.
Anyways I’m always looking on the bright side of things and the bright side is the man gave me work and a place to stay for a month and let me work for him even though I didn’t have any skill in the profession. I’m a damn Engineer man not a builder I’ll admit that. Unfortunately Karma’s coming for the middle-aged greedy man because both builders that came in experienced the Wrath of Mike that week and when he walked away they both decided that this job isn’t worth it and won’t be showing up at work on Monday. Even the German I worked with didn’t tell Mike he was leaving on Tuesday which is today back to Germany. I can only imagine how this week is going for him. Don’t yell a people like their worthless ya cunt. With some money saved up I have decided to go to Columbia. While I’m up with cash get out of Australia and go enjoy yourself for your last hoorah of my 8 month journey. The day after I left my old job I posted my camper van online for 700$ and headed back to Cairns to sell. I told myself I would give myself till Monday to sell it or she’s going to the dump. Lucky me, that day I put it on I got 10 messages from people and one guy in particular was in the small town Mareeba that I stopped at for some McDonalds. I told the guy all the problems that wrong with it and etc and he tried to talk me down to 400$. I said to the man my bro I got 10 other people calling and I’m a nice dude practically giving away this car at 700 and the price will not go up or down. The man made a deal and said if he buys the car for 650$ and take me to Cairns a 1.5hr drive would we have a deal. I said deal. So boom now I have an extra bit of cash for this trip and stay in Cairns till today and now I’m at the airport.
For Columbia I don’t know what to expect I hear it’s a beautiful country with beautiful people and a lively culture. My plan is just to meet people in Bogota and then head to Medellin for a week and then for the rest of my trip chill in a bungalow by the beach with a pine colada in my hand reflecting on my travels. A true vacation after a long vacation. Three weeks no more no less and then back to the greatest country in the world and unarguably one of the best states, Florida.
Here some pictures though Australia was amazing with nature and stuff:
Simple Guy Goes For A Journey 