Introduction [Part 1]

Day 2,273, 11:25 • Published in Malaysia Malaysia • by Tunku
Hai!

This is my first article in eRepublik! First of all, I'm not Malay, but I do feel like one. I'm currently working as an English teacher in KL. As my introduction I wanted to tell you guys my background and how I got into eRepublik. This may be long so I will make this a two parts introduction.

Well, It all started two years ago when I graduated from College. I decided to go on backpacking around the world. I wanted to know different places and cultures so, I grabbed all my money that I had saved up, sold my car and hopped into a plane towards Portugal. I spent nearly six months in Europe, but then I wanted more. As naive as I was I took a bus from Turkey to Egypt, stopping by some of the countries in the way.

My greatest failure

I arrived to Egypt in the midst of the first presidential elections since Hosni Mubarak, and the social climate couldn't be better. I had the opportunity to experience with some friends the feeling of hope, of real freedom (it's a shame what happened afterwards, but for a short period of time they could enjoy of that precious feeling that many of us have forgotten to appreciate). So, why is my greatest failure? I had planned to go backpacking around Africa, but political stability was scarce and social unrest was high in the region. I went to the US embassy and everyone told me to avoid Africa for the time being. This was the first time in my travels to actually resign of my plans (I still haven't forgotten you Africa, someday I will go).

New Paths

Well, as one door closes, others open. I went back to Spain and stayed a couple of days with Mario, a friend I met my first time there. He told he was going to Venezuela with some friends, and I said, why not.... so South America, here I come. After two months working in Spain I got to save money just to buy my ticket to Caracas. I spent almost 5 months in South America. After Venezuela I went to Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Brazil, Argentina and then to the end of the world, Chile.

New Friends

People in South America where very cheerful and friendly, but for me, most of the time, was very hard to communicate, specially in Chile (they speak veeery fast), so I met a German couple in a Hostel in Valparaiso, Chile. They had just arrived from Australia. They talked about the great time they had in Southeast Asia and so, I decided that my next destination would be there. After getting in touch with some friends I, I changed my plane ticket that I had and took a plane from Santiago to Sydney. Here I met my friends JJ and Mike. While I was waiting to get my backpack, I stood there among everyone else. Slowly, people began taking their bags and it wasn't long enough that I was the only one standing there. There where some bags left, and one identical to mine, but it wasn't. Then I realized someone took my backpack. I read the ID card in the bag and it said it belong to James Jensen (JJ). I went running to the information desk and told them that if they could cal out his name. After 15 minutes, he arrived along his friend Mike. I explained the mixed up and so our friendship began... It happened that they were also backpacking around the world, and like me, they were starting their trip to Southeast Asia. We decided to go on together.


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