PROLOGUE: The best-laid plans

Sydney, Australia
28 January 2019

Those who were masochistic enough to read my previous travel blogs on Travelpod (now closed and archived on Travelark) may possibly remember that, at the end of my last trip overseas to Europe in 2017, I was definitely going to move to Europe to engage in postgraduate study.

Ah, but the best-laid plans of mice and men gang aft agley.

After a nervous breakdown with a lengthy period off work and a slow, faltering recovery, the death of one parent with its attendant convulsive grief that turns one's world upside down, another parent who has also had some medical scares, and - perhaps most importantly from the practical perspective - a sober appraisal of what emigration, even temporarily, would do to my finances, I have decided to stay in Australia.

And really, you could do much worse than Australia. I have my friends, my family, a stable well-paying job that allows me to indulge in my travel addiction. Life is peaceful and safe (as long as you avoid the hordes of drunks with severe anger management issues swarming around town centres on Friday nights). Nobody starves from want of food or dies due to lack of medical care. Sure, Australia can be improved drastically. Like, perhaps a huge plastic air-conditioned dome could be built over the whole country. And maybe the railways could be sold to Deutsche Bahn who will know how to run a proper transport system. And Rupert Murdoch's printing presses that daily pour forth millions of column-inches of unadulterated bile could be blasted to pieces. But other than that, how many countries are there that have more civilised conditions of existence than Australia? A dozen countries in Northern Europe, possibly Canada and New Zealand, perhaps the four East Asian democracies. Out of nearly two hundred countries that's not too bad.

In any case, I have reached my maximum allowable amount of annual leave at work which I have to use, and it is time for me to keep exploring this world. I have picked a country in a part of the world that has yet to be thrilled with my electrifying presence. Where shall I go this time? Follow this blog to find out.