Wow, November 20, 2012. Today’s kind of a special day for me. It was four years ago this very day that I finally BOOKED my ticket to London, England to begin what would become a still-in-progress nomadic journey. If you would’ve told me four years ago that I’d be in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia after having a job fall through in Australia, I wouldn’t have believed you. And, as any body who has travelled before, there comes a point when you get the feeling that you must move on to the next place. But where? Do I stay in KL and try to find work here? Do I go back to Oz? (Btw, my efforts to land one of those lucrative and apparently “easy to get” mining jobs has proven unfruitful and I’ve all but given up.)
It’s at times like these I think back to what made me travel to other destinations.
Money is often first on my mind, but not always the prime motivator. I travelled through Western Europe simply because I wanted to go. I’d never travelled alone before and I’d never been overseas for any substantial period of time. I figured Europe was a safe place to try my hand at solo travel. It was a pretty cool and dizzying trip… probably because of the all booze.
When money is the motivator I look for where the best and most interesting prospects for employment are. South Korea held the most lucrative job to get me out of Winnipeg the first time and I had a great time teaching ESL. The people I met were an amazing group of adventurous souls with different backgrounds and reasons for going abroad. Plus, teaching ESL enabled me to develop a new skill (teaching!) that I could literally take anywhere all over the world.
After my year in South Korea I travelled through parts of southeast Asia because it was close and I didn’t want to return to Canada right away (not at all, to be honest). Further, I was tired of teaching ESL in Korea not because I didn’t like it, but because the entire reason I left Winnipeg, Canada was to travel and explore the world, not settle in a new place right away. I don’t think I knew this at the time, but I think back and that’s what drove me to leave South Korea.
What made me return to Canada twice was family. The first time was to finally meet my second niece of whom I became The Godfather. Plus, I’d been away for 1.5 years at that point and was getting a little tired of travelling all the time. The second return to Canada was for two weddings four months apart, it didn’t make sense to fly back and forth so much so I stayed in Canada once again. I figured it was a familial duty of mine to go back and actually SEE my family.
I went to Poland and Ukraine on a mission… well, not really, but I liked the idea, to research and find my roots. And I did. I found an old little cemetery in the middle of nowhere in southeast Poland which hosts the graves of some of my ancestors. Then I moved on to Ukraine where not only I taught English for a few months, I practiced my Ukrainian language skills, learned about my grandparents’ homeland, and met the family I still have over there. It was quite an experience to say the least, though I only lasted four months in the country before I wanted to leave.
As for Australia, well, I was turning 30 this year and like hell if I’d let a country not let me work there because I was past their target audience. So I applied, and received the Aussie working holiday visa. I spent 6 months there working on farms. The second job, one that I’d liken to “paradise” and one of those jobs which people will ask me “whyyyyyy diiiiiiiiid youuuuuu leave????” The family I was working with made it really bloody simple. They even let me drive a truck 😀 (“semi-trailer” in Canadianspeak.) They even offered me a job at harvest, but I was keen on getting a mining gig or, at the very least, going somewhere else in Oz.
The choice to travel to Indonesia was, at first, simply to give myself some time off from working the 12-14 hours a day the Aussie seeding program took. I told myself it was the typical Aussie farmer vacation to stay in Bali for two weeks. I also had an ulterior motive, to work on a project that I’d been putting off for some time. I let my plans slip out to a few people before I actually began but, for the most part, I kept quiet about the real reason I went to Indonesia (hint, it has to do with music.) And no, it wasn’t for the cheap booze and women, I know, surprise surprise. I travelled through Indonesia because, while in Bali, I actually became a little frightened at what I wanted to do, so I reverted to what I knew how to do: travel. And thus I went through Bali and Java.
The decision to move to Kuala Lumpur began as a two-week stint to complete a significant project for me. It ended up taking longer than I wanted but it got done anyway. That being the case, the project is in the finishing stages and I’m happy with it. And now, since that harvest job fell through, I’m back at square one: where to next?
Do I throw a dart at the map (yes, I carry one with me)? Do I return to Canada? Do I have another go at finding a job in Oz or something else?
What makes you decide where to go? Budget? Job prospects? Lovers? Language?