Roughing it in Australia- travel log from the shitty city of sydney

[Lettow77]

 It is day 4. The wacky homeless dude next to me is twitching and mumbling "SAVE SAVE SAVE SAVE SAVE SAVE" and occasionally negative numbers. It is cool though, cause he is Korean.

I could have prevented all of this. That first day, through a rainy day in June, (a June which, conspiring against all decency, was in the depths of winter), I arrived in this unhallowed land. My aghast "reception" tried to defer me with speed (for I was an unenchanting figure, soaked and carrying my belongings on my back) to some hostel or another.

Hostels. They reek of foreigners. And so, most damningly, does the city of Sydney. As I warily peered at each person of unwelcome extraction, wondering from which immigrant my doom would spring, I at last arrived at the hostel that was promised, to find it was presided over by a sullen Aborigine. My spirit faltered, and I reluctantly aquiesced to stay there. I should have ran.

I was not long before I met my proposed roommate- a Belgian who was working himself to death in 80 hour weeks at some restaurant. My worst suspicions were confirmed; the hostel consumes men until they are nothing but bones for the Aboriginal to wield as tribal talismans. I took my flight.

Efforts to find a more permanent lodging were invariably full, even in this off season; My feet took me to places that billed themselves as backpackers' lodgings, but I found the claims to be filled with terrible truth. Jovial, crude backpackers loomed inside; some offensive dubstep emanated from within. I took my flight.

In the end, although I knew it to be wrong, I succumbed to a comfort I knew and understood. The Internet Cafe is a lofty institution, held to a glittering standard of civilization by the Japanese; within a proper Internet Cafe, manga line the walls, there are numerous drink machines where guests may endlessly draw from without charge, and great booths are erected to block light and provide the intimacy of a home for the man who finds himself staying there. A traveller could quickly learn to love the padded flooring, the pillows, and at times even the blankets distributed by the merciful and wonderfully professional staff of the Internet Cafe. With such an unblemished pedigree, could it be any wonder my heart longed to returned to such succor when tried and uncertain?

But Sydney does meet the base metrics of decency that would allow it to erect a proper internet cafe; indeed, convenience stores with three computers consigned to a corner might claim the prestigious title. There is but one I have found that approaches the Internet Cafe in truth, but it is as though through a scanner, darkly.

For it is run by Koreans.

Gone is any thought of booths, padding, or free drinks; Open-air computers and indifferent chairs are the rule of the day. Sizeable Australian cockroaches wander the floor, creating a sense of unease. In place of a generous and open larder, the Koreans ban any outside food or drink to ensure their ruinous prices are acceded to when their patrons finally sucumb to food and drink. (no doubt desperate for some sense of being alive and sensual stimulation after any length of time in this dismal place.) A bewildering variety of Southern country music, rap, K-pop and australian pop tunes plays on loop, calculated to please no one and assail any atmosphere of restfulness that threatens to manifest itself. The homeless and mentally ill seem to detect the negative energy of this place, for they periodically wander in- being, by all accounts, the only white men to do so.

Truly the rumors were true. The jealous and resentful Koreans, in seeking to emulate their betters, have birthed an abhorrent thing. And it is here I shall spend my evening, but it shall not wear me down. I shall return from this walkabout unbeaten, and once again take up a comfortable life in the fair city of Fukuoka.

[Syt]

My new colleague worked as a teacher in Sydney for a year and loved the city. (She was an English teacher in Japan before that.)

[Eddie Teach]

How do you pay your travel expenses?

[fhdz]

How do you pay your travel expenses?

[derspiess]

I've never stayed at a hostel & don't feel like I missed out on anything.

[garbon]

I've never stayed at a hostel & don't feel like I missed out on anything.

I did it once and was not a fan.

[garbon]

Also, Lettow sounds ridiculous. Complaining about foreigners when he is one...

[fhdz]

I've never stayed at a hostel & don't feel like I missed out on anything.

I did it once and was not a fan.

Yeah, my hostel experience was not a super awesome one either.

[garbon]

I've never stayed at a hostel & don't feel like I missed out on anything.

I did it once and was not a fan.

Yeah, my hostel experience was not a super awesome one either.

I mean it was indeed cheap but I learned that lodging is something I'm willing to pay decently for.

[Zanza]

I stayed in hostels quite a bit. Never made bad experiences beyond what you must expect (snoring people, stinking people, poor maintenance etc.). You get what you pay for.

[Liep]

I stayed in hostels quite a bit. Never made bad experiences beyond what you must expect (snoring people, stinking people, poor maintenance etc.). You get what you pay for.

This, and once in a while you run into interesting people to share a beer or two with.

[Lettow77]

Also, Lettow sounds ridiculous. Complaining about foreigners when he is one...

尊皇攘夷

[garbon]

That's nice.

[crazy canuck]

I've never stayed at a hostel & don't feel like I missed out on anything.

As a young traveller staying in hostels is definitely the way to go.  Not only are they a cheap way to travel but you end up meeting alot of potential travelling companions, or at least pick up a lot of interesting ideas of where to go and what to see.

[Tamas]

Can you claim to be poor if you haven't slept in an Internet Café?