Reverse Culture shock 1

We’ll we’re back (in Sydney)! Thailand gave a fitting farewell. The plane taxied to the runaway. Their were blue skys when we left the terminal. We had 4 planes in front of us waiting to take off. 5 minutes later, it was bucketing down with rain, so hard that at times you couldn’t see more than a few metres ahead. With winds up to 100kph, the Captain decided to wait on the tarmac. We sat on the tarmac for 40 minutes before it was safe for us to take off.

The 8 hour flight was not so bad as our two sons slept reasonably well (apart from our eldest son vomiting some flem up). However our daughter (9 months) woke every couple of hours.

We landed in Sydney at around 5:30 am (2:30am Thai Time). We got through immigration and picked up our bags in quick time. Too quick in fact. We forgot our stroller. So it took another 20 minutes to get Qantas baggage staff to go back in and get it.

First reverse culture shock happened at the airport. Lisa was feeling faint so I went to buy her a bottle of water. AU$3.50 (120 baht) for one small bottle of water! I couldn’t believe it! So expensive. Prices seemingly have gone up incredibly in the last 2 and half years. I had to do some grocery and other essential shopping yesterday at the local supermarket (Woolworths). I didn’t buy that much but I ended up forking out nearly $200. That’s nearly amounts to 6,000 baht in Thailand (and a month's rent or us in Lampang). The most I’ve spent in Thailand has been only half that amount for a lot more things.

The second reverse culture shock was the amount of choice at the supermarket. In Thailand (outside of Bangkok or Chiang Mai) there are maybe 5 different cheeses all up in just one small row of the diary section. In Australia, the cheese has it’s own section taking up half an aisle. I felt overwhelmed with choice to the point I couldn’t buy anything. With things being so expensive I didn’t want to make an expensive mistake. The range of food (at this small to medium size Woolworth’s supermarket) was extraordinary. So much choice with everything and so nicely packaged.

One positive reverse culture shock was not seeing a single dog on the 1 hour trip from the airport back to my parent’s house. Also, I’ve hardly heard a dog bark (apparently our neighhour has a small dog though which barks and poos in our lawn). Anyway, I didn’t hear any dogs barking last night and had a great sleep.

I got to see my first Bledisloe Cup (Rugby Union - Australia vs. New Zealand) on T.V for the first time in over 2 and half years. Unfortunately, Australia lost by 1 point in the final minute (not much has changed in this regard).

Anyway, more reverse culture shocks in up coming posts.