From the moment I started getting ready to book my flights, I spent three months seriously researching everything I needed for Australia: how to book flights myself, what luggage to bring, how much money to take, and so on. After all the running around and preparation, everything was finally ready. Time to set off on my working holiday in Australia!
I thought about this for a long time but couldn’t figure out how to explain all the details of my departure clearly and completely, so I decided to list everything in bullet points! (I’ll keep adding anything else that comes to mind.)
● My first stop
－ Melbourne
I visited Brisbane as a child and fell in love with Australia, but this time I wanted to choose an Australian city that, according to my mum, was even better than Brisbane and full of culture. It was also a city I’d always wanted to visit, so I made this beautiful place my first stop!
For me, your first stop should be a city you genuinely like. If you come because you love the city, then even if things don’t go smoothly, at least you’ve made it somewhere you really wanted to visit. That’s better than choosing a place where, according to what “everyone says,” jobs “seem” easier to find and prices “seem” cheaper (personally, I don’t think the cost of living varies that much between Australia’s larger cities). If you arrive, discover you don’t like the city, and then can’t find a job either, you’ll only end up thinking Australia really sucks~ Your first stop matters! Choose somewhere you’ll love!
● The airline I flew with
－ AirAsia
Save money, save money! So from the beginning, I decided to fly with a budget airline. There weren’t many low-cost options to Melbourne, though, unless I wanted an extra connection. AirAsia offered a flight from Taipei to Kuala Lumpur and then straight to Melbourne. The fare was good and the reviews were good, so AirAsia it was!
● Flight schedule
－ 2010/2/2 (Tue) Taipei 15:55–Kuala Lumpur 20:35
2010/2/3 (Wed) Kuala Lumpur 1:20–Melbourne 12:10
All the times above are local, so the flights weren’t actually that long~ Taipei and Kuala Lumpur are in the same time zone, so that flight took four and a half hours. Melbourne is three hours ahead of Taiwan in summer, so the second flight actually took around eight hours. Altogether, I spent twelve and a half hours on planes (half a day!!), plus about five hours waiting for my connection in Kuala Lumpur (though after subtracting the time spent going through immigration, it was really closer to four hours). The price of saving money with a budget airline is that travelling takes an entire day. Luckily, this backpacker has plenty of time XD
● Airfares
－ Taipei–Kuala Lumpur: 2760 TWD + airport tax 330 TWD + 20KG baggage 570 TWD, total 3090 TWD
Kuala Lumpur–Melbourne: 380 MYR + airport tax 69 MYR + 20KG baggage 55 MYR + mandatory insurance for one leg 15 MYR, total 519 MYR, which was 4937 TWD at the exchange rate when I bought it
So the two flights cost a total of 8027 TWD. That’s really quite cheap for getting to Melbourne, right!! Ha~ I bought the tickets on 2009/11/1. Budget-airline fares usually keep rising as the departure date gets closer (unless there’s a sale), so buying three months before departure got me a nicer price. Some of the travel companions coming with me paid more than 10,000 TWD for exactly the same flights~
● My mountain of luggage
－ One 25-inch semi-rigid fabric suitcase expandable to 27 inches + a women’s backpack (no idea how many litres it holds XD)
But I still had so much luggage that I expanded the suitcase all the way to 27 inches, stuffed the backpack completely full, and carried an ordinary shoulder bag for shopping too. Then my checked suitcase was four kilograms overweight = =, so I was fined 800 TWD (200 per kilogram~ ridiculously expensive!)
● How much money I prepared
－ AUD 2,000
My original plan was to save 120,000 TWD, including the cost of flights, my visa, luggage, and everything else, so I expected to bring at least AUD 3,000. After paying for the flights and visa, I still had 100,000 TWD left. But I never expected to spend sooo much on luggage and preparations. I decided to get new glasses and contact lenses, went to the dentist several times, and bought all sorts of backup skincare products, cosmetics, contact-lens supplies, and other odds and ends. It cost me a fortune. When I left, the Australian dollar’s crazy exchange rate was approaching an all-time high XD. I exchanged almost everything at a rate above 29, or 28 at best, so I could only arrive in Australia with a very thin wad of AUD 2,000… Talk about thrilling.
● How many travel companions came with me
－ Seven people in total: four men and three women
After I booked my flights, the deeply concerned questions from family and friends started pouring in: “You’re going all by yourself? Isn’t that a bad idea?” I originally thought travelling alone would be great, but after hearing that so many times, I began to feel that maybe I really should find some people to go with. So I posted on Backpackers.com.tw looking for companions. After talking with two or three women, my first wonderful travel companion, Lauran, decided to book the same flights as me. A few weeks before departure, I happened to see Eason’s post on the forum inviting people to go to F1 together, and his flights were around the same time as ours. Once we started chatting, we discovered that for the first leg from Taipei to Kuala Lumpur, he was flying one day earlier. They planned to spend a day in Kuala Lumpur, then take the same flight as us for the second leg. Even more coincidentally, they had booked the same backpacker hostel in Melbourne. In that case, we might as well arrange to set off together! I originally assumed there would be no more than two of them, but it turned out there were four guys, making our group four men and two women. Then, at the very last minute, just a few days before departure, I chatted with another woman on msn. By another incredible coincidence, her flight arrived one day before ours, and she had booked the same backpacker hostel too! In the end, seven of us came together for the first Melbourne stop of our WorkingHoliday. Even now, all I can say is that I was incredibly lucky to meet these people and begin our WH together. I thought they were amazing friends then, and I still do today!
● Preparation time before departure
－ More than three months
In late October 2009, when I hadn’t prepared a thing, I heard Jimmy say that he was leaving for a working holiday in Australia in November. Suddenly, I realised that although I kept saying I would leave in early 2010, I hadn’t prepared anything at all!! So I immediately started researching how to apply for a visa, checking airfares, and so on. Once I’d booked my flights and obtained my visa in early November, the trip was finally confirmed, and I launched into a frenzy of preparations and research.
● My travel plans?
－ During my first visa, I’ll travel around eastern and central Australia, covering half the country. If I get the chance to obtain a second visa later, I’ll head to Perth and explore Western Australia. I’ll stay in the south during summer and travel north in winter.
