Corey leaves Australia

“This is a sad day, my fellow Australians, for today we have lost a great son”.

- John Howard, Prime Minister of Australia, in his goodbye speech for Corey Hawke, Sydney Airport, Australia, 13 June 2007

Day 0 (13 June 2007): Sydney Airport, Australia

I’d checked in with China Airlines by about 0930. One bag of what had been my last 26 years in Australia, reduced down to only 18kgs, including eight text books for the New York Bar Exam. This was it. I’d left behind a few boxes of odds and ends at home, but if I were never to see them again, I wouldn’t be devastated.

In some respects it’s a little sad. I’d said goodbye to my friends, to all those sentimental pieces of memorabilia I’d held on to all these years, as well as thousands of dollars of what now look like foolish clothing decisions. Twenty six years, and all I have to show for it is a few thousand dollars of drinking money, one rucksack, and a ticket to the United States of America.

Ironically, I didn’t even actually have that. Half an hour after checking in I arrived at my gate, with not a ticket to the United States, but a ticket to the always sunny city of Vancouver, Canada.

Arriving at the gate, I quickly scanned the empty seats for a place next to any single looking attractive females, failing that, any unattached females. My cursory glance proved to be a waste of my eyes, and I quickly strolled over to sit in one of the few spare seats between a couple of guys. The guy to my left quickly glanced away, intimidated by the imposing figure I made in a t-shirt, cargoes and thongs on this cold winter day in Sydney. The guy to my right, sporting a ‘I live in a university dorm’ beard and a hat that hid his gloriously disheveled hair gave me a friendly nod G’day. We started up a conversation. It turned out Zane, as the young lad shortly became known, was also going to Vancouver to meet his girlfriend who he hadn’t seen for over six months. She was a Canadian who had been over the previous summer on exchange. I didn’t have the heart to tell him then that whilst he had been faithfully counting the days to their reunion, she had been boning as many Australians (because isn’t that what even Canadian chick wants to do?) that had made the journey to her fair country, in addition to the usual college shenanigans with the locals.

The flight to Vancouver was stopping overnight in Taipei, China (or as some separatists may refer to it: Taiwan). Zane was keen to join me for a quiet snifter of brandy in the bar upon landing in Taipei, and then check out some of the tourist sites the next day, so we agreed to meet up at the hotel China Airlines was putting us up in. It turned out such planning was unnecessary, as we ran into each other again almost instantly upon disembarking from the plane.

As a short side note, I had successfully requested an exit row seat for the flight to Taipei. Advantages: the flight attendant who sat opposite on take off and landing was very attractive with a short skirt, I got to put my feet up on part of the emergency exit door, and I could get up without disturbing the surly quiet old guy sitting next to me. Disadvantages: I was seated next to a quiet old guy who was impressively surly, I couldn’t stretch my legs out properly without resting them on the emergency exit door, and the flight attendant who sat opposite on take off and landing kept looking at me funny.

The bus ride to the hotel was interesting. It was night, so I couldn’t see much of the landscape, but I could certainly hear it as the bus clipped low lying branches and bottomed out on the sharp corners as we made out way into the mountain side. Some of the softer people on the bus fearfully exclaimed that they’d have rather stayed all night in the airport then risk the bus ride up the goat path to our hotel. I had always thought that Taipei would be more modern, but my first impressions were not quite living up to what I had imagined.

After a quick shower, I changed back into the clothes I’d been wearing on the plane for the last 12 sweaty hours. I’d foolishly checked all my luggage into Vancouver and was stuck with what I had – not taking shoes was going to potentially limit my going out options later in the evening. I met Zane in his room next door and raided his bar fridge for beer. It turned out that the beers were about US$2 each, a bargain for a hotel mini-bar. When he was finally ready, we journeyed out in search of the hotel bar. Alas, there was none to be found. Deciding to harass the reception staff, we found out that the nearest pub was a half hour taxi away, and that all but three of the spare mini-bar beers had been already snapped up by some cleverer and more beer dedicated Aussies. Running into another Aussie who was on the same grand quest as ourselves, we grabbed the last remaining beers, and got the reception staff to open up the pool room – where I gave the other guys a free lesson in how to play pool.