I’ve been in Sydney a fortnight and things haven’t changed here much. On my first night in town I was sitting in what must be the only non-gay bar on Oxford Street, quietly nursing my $7.70 glass of Asahi when I was hit on by a 45 year old junkie hooker who kept insisting she wasn’t a hooker. It’s a far cry from 50 baht Heinekins and the young caramel-skinned lovelies you see cruising Sukhumvit on a friday night, but I guess that’s Sydney for you.

The weather has been a big shock to the system, going from 35 degrees down to 12, but the greatest shock has definitely been the cost of living. I have to constantly stop myself from blurting out “paeng mahk!” (expensive!) everywhere I go. A sandwich and a coke costs $10. I got my hair cut on Saturday for the price of $15. Back in Bangers it costs me $2. So I guess I won’t be going out that much.

Still in all it’s nice to be back in a land where motorists don’t deliberately try to run you down while on a pedestrian crossing, where you can walk down most streets without fear of turning an ankle or disappearing down a klong, and where there are more beer choices than Singha and Heinekin in the pubs.

I’m missing good Thai food (I had dinner at one restaurant in Newtown, of which there must be at least 20 or more Thai joints) but have given up using restaurants as a way to keep up my Thai language lessons. I tried speaking Thai to several of the waitresses and most of them just looked at me like “what the fuck are you talking about?” so I quickly reverted back to English. Anyway, there are so many Thai restaurants around that I can embarrass myself by asking for the “Jum Jim” soup in a different place every week until I return to Bangkok.