A little Pig’s adventures …

Dark grey ceilings with hospital white walls and blinding yellow light appear before me as the doors slide open. A thick, smelling, nicotine blanket covers me when I enter the room currently inhabited by several Business men and some scruffy looking fruitcakes. The single tiny window in the area catches my eye and I notice the blackness on the other side. My bag gains several kilos while I stumble around to find a suitable seat for the coming 10 hours. After deciding none of them fit the conditions, I just pick one and light a cigarette.

Taipei airport’s smoking room, unknown hour (or day for that matter) in time and in biologicalrhythm. As my brain is struggling to maintainbodily functions, I ask myself; what am I doing here?

What was that huge reason to leave crazy,lovely, safe, familiar Amsterdam?

Isn’t it funny how 30 hours travel time always seem a peace of cake when the smiling travel agent is taking half your savings. (While the other half will have mysteriously disappeared 2 months earlier than planned). Repositioning for the hundredth time in the airport seat while smok-ing what feels like the twentieth cigarette my mind slowly wonders off…

What makes us willingly fall into that backpacker adrenalin trap over and over again?

It’s August 2004 and I’ve just left my going away party at the Flying Pig Palace. After having worked there for over 4 years, with one and a half years of travelling in between, I can find my way home blind(folded). Once again a brilliant night. Bit emotional at the end because I won’t see my friends for a long time, but brilliant all the same. I’ve got my present with everyone’s goodbyes written in it carefully tucked away under my jacket and am already planning tomorrow morning. Australia here I come (again)! I’m going to complete my thesis for university, become a wanted writer and see the world…

So here I am, midnight in Sydney Australia writing a column for the Flying Pig news-paper.

I’ve been here for 1 month now and I have found the answer to my Taipei smoking room wonderings. As I was vegetating waiting for my next plane I met this
Australian chick who had to wait for the same flight. After having gone through both our life stories, we exchanged numbers, got on the plane and slept! I arrived in Sydney, got myself a hostel with a pick up (which I had to bargain for!), had a good sleep, met new people, went to the pub, bought the Sydney morn-ing Herald and got myself an apartment. It’s part of a deli store owned by a Chinese family. I have a tiny room, the bathroom only officially holds that reference, there’s no TV and the two dogs they have are huge German Shepards.

But you know what, it doesn’t *** matter! I am having a great time, meeting all kinds of people. From the alcoholic Irish one-night-stand, the Australian horserace cameraman to the non English speaking Thai roommate.
I get up in the morning, step out into the sun and than decide what today will be like. I get to watch footy in a pub with people that are actually interested in the game, can order a big breakfast in any café or restaurant, play trivia in the pub with my Australian friends who expect me to know the European answers, teach the dogs Dutch, go for walks around town, ride the ferry on a pensioner ticket, witness the greatest sunsets, be an illegiti-mate student in UTS libraries, go to bush parties or lying on the beach, get to do interviews with indigenous people and see interesting exhibitions. True, I’ve still got to work on my thesis and I’ve not been asked to write anything else than this colum
But afterwards I will be free once again to travel for 30 hours or more and to be honest, I can’t wait…!.

Cuyp market. A huge, very Amsterdam-like market. This is not so much a tourist market but this is where the Amsterdam people go for their bargains, cheap fruit and fish and to end their day of shopping with fries covered in mayonnaise. Tired of seeing and hearing all those new impressions? Relax in the kitchen with a hot cup of tea or chill in our cosy basement and drink a cold beer, and swap travel stories with other travellers.
Meet, relax and enjoy in the Flying Pig Palace, a backpacker’s oasis in the middle of crazy Amsterdam!

The Flying Pig Palace can accommodate up to 135 people. So if you’re looking for a room, please check our web site for availability.