Around the world in 100 days, with a Green Passport
A guy with a green passport…
Life is short but we should never ease to make it big and memorable. Life is also dynamic and you never know what sheer turn you might come across; it can take you to places you have only dreamed about or can make you to live in a shithole for years. And that is why life is so charming because it is full of surprises. The first four months of 2018 in my life were full of amazement with an escalating 360 degree around the world trip covering five countries— Malaysia, Australia, the United States, Mexico and Canada, somewhat UAE. In this series write-up, I am going to chronicle the unforgettable trip from its beginning to the end.
The beginning
Before going into the details of the trip, I would like your say something about myself. I am Zahir Ahmed and I am writing this article from Dhaka, Bangladesh. Travelling has been my passion since childhood and I have been to several nearby South Asian countries including India, Nepal and Sri Lanka, and Yup! I can tell you that these are the countries we– the Bangladeshis, usually travel after somewhat getting financial freedom. The second stage of the traveling overseas comes with the other, slightly more distant Asian countries. Nowadays getting into Malaysia, Thailand or Singapore is easy and bit price affordable due to the Airline Hubs are there to connect the world.
It is never easy to get a visa of a first world country from Bangladesh, with a green passport in hand. And Yah, arrival visas are like ever unfulfilled dreams for us. My previous experience of visa application to those cherished countries was not good at all. I applied for the Australian visa in 2009 so that I could meet my newly born nephew in Sydney but got turned down with a big letter explaining the causes of refusal. My 2nd failed attempt was for US visa in 2014. The visa officer in Dhaka suggested me to travel a few more countries before planning for the the USA.
Life was not easy and the countries I wanted to put my footsteps were still far away from my reach. In coming days, I heard from the travel gurus that once you got the visa of Singapore you can get the visa of the big countries, too. So in 2015, I applied for the Singaporean visa, which was for me like a doorway to the US/Australian visa. But was it so?
Twist and turn, here I come…
In the end of 2017 my maternal grandfather who was a reputed District Judge in British, Pakistani, sovereign Bangladesh era in Bangladesh died at the age of 99. This gave me another reason to think about life which I am living comfortable that is this all I want or is there something else I need to do before the final call.
To add more my job life took sudden turn and I had to end up thinking of alternatives in life. So I immediately applied for the Australian Visa with 26 supporting documents with it. Yes 26 supporting documents, after the turn down in 2009 this time I was double careful with all my IDs and proves that I will return back to home and will not go and vanish away their. I was confident because I was enjoying a reputed job. A good job title which I knew will help me to characterize as a good citizen of the country. So before anything goes any wrong further, I applied straight away for the Australian visa. My sister who happens to be an Aussie, her identity also helped me to show a very good reason to be there.
Now the waiting time started, and there is no news due to the Christmas and New Year. One side of my brain knew that I will get the access to the Aussie land and due to the delay other side of my brain started thinking otherwise.
And finally the day came, the email came in the 1st week of Jan, 2018 that I have been awarded the Aussie visa. Wow feel like a boss. The happiness came after two major setback in my life from the last year and now the New Year has to be better. So without making any further delay I booked my 1st flight to the Aussie land via Malaysia.
The sweets made of flower
My sister’s requirement was to bring some traditional sweet from Dhaka which is popularly known as Laddu. As the law of Australia strict about food items, I had to do some homework to bring those yummy sweets with me. So here it goes, I packed and hand carried those sweets with me so that while checking I don’t have to open my other luggage or anything. During the flight I received the custom declaration form where I had to mention it as sweet made of flower and sugar. After reaching the Kingsford Smith Airport, Sydney I had to go through the separate quarantine line after the smooth immigration. Awesome experience is happening in Australia my 1st foot step in the main land Australia and I am damn excited about it. And another smooth pass out happened with the quarantine officer, she didn’t ask for whole luggage check. She just have a look at the box of the Laddu and told me to go and enjoy. Wow….
Their I meet my Brother in law and father who was there to receive me and took Freeway M5 to reach out my new home for next 2 months in Sydney…
Landed safely in Australia and another chapter of my life just started. This is the 1st time official that I have traveled so far away from home (Almost Ten Thousand KM). In this entire tour, I will not consider myself as a fulltime bag packer rather a person who love to travel and meet people. So in this coming days, I will not stay at hotels or hostels rather stay at my relatives and friends. There are two reasons behind this 1st I don’t have that much of money to cater myself in a hotel or Airbnb myself for 100 days. And second of all I want to learn how my fnf (friends and family) are doing in the foreign land. I do not want to miss this unique opportunity to stay outside of the hotel rooms and learn about culture and lifestyle from them.
Weather of Australia is different from any other continent of the world. Two of the interesting fact about this mighty land is that they have summer in Dec to Feb and winter in June to Aug. Yes you heard me right, just opposite of the rest of the world due to its geographic position at the south corner of the globe. As my friend Rosy said to me, we see sun while going to the office and also see sun while coming back to office. She was talking about the summer time when the day is much longer and due to the flat design of the houses you can see the clear sky more here. The humidity is less (around 55%) so you will not sweat even it’s a sunny day compare to our tropical countries where you can’t wear the same shirt twice after 3 hours or so. Whatever the temperature during the daytime you will find comfort at night. As my sister says for fun, we are living in a desert.
Sightseeing & moving around in Sydney
After stretching my legs at my sister’s place also seeing my parents after almost two months I was waiting to see the iconic structure of this country. All the countries have their iconic structure so does Australia. By now you all know what I’m talking about. Yup, we took a train to go to the CBD (Central business District of Sydney) where the Sydney Opera House is waiting for me. I just can’t wait to take my selfie with this beautiful structure which was built in 1973. The best picture you can take is where you will see the Opera house and Sydney Harbor Bridge (Constructed in 1932) together. We dropped at the station at Circular Quay which is the station for the Opera House. It was a Sunday so it’s also known as fun day because you will enjoy a flat rate of AUD 2.5 for any public transportation anywhere in Sydney including Bus, Train, and waterways. Everything is so much advance and well synchronized that you will not have hard time finding your way in public transportation which is the cheapest way of traveling around. The city is so well interconnected that even if you live 50 KM away from the CBD you will reach their in less than an hour by train. I must say Sydney Transport did a great job managing commuters and the transportation system so clean and fast moving. I still got my Opel Card (the card that will allow you to move around in any public transport, and it’s a tap and go) and also got some dollar in it which I have to finish in my next visit to this wonderful city.
Bit of learning from the Aussie
As I have mentioned in Part 1 of this travel story that when I left the country I was not in my best shape of my life. So I had to plan something for my future while I travel and see the world. I have noticed that when I want to see my favorite Indian TV serial “Crime Petrol” in YouTube, I had to encounter almost 10 commercial breaks for this 35 min for an episode. Also in Facebook it’s full of advertisements. This make me think about the latest marketing tool through digital marketing, and the future of marketing is here. While searching about the content on digital marketing closely, during my stay here, I manage to get some freebies seminar, workshop, and one day event invitations which was happening around the Sydney. Wow, learning and meeting people in a professional platform in Australia and you do not need to spend much for that was on experience which is not possible in Southeast Asia for sure. I grabbed those opportunities straight away to fulfill my empty brain with some knowledge that can help me to earn in future.
I made the 100% from those amazing seminars where I had the chance to learn about Forex Trading (bit coin), Digital/Online Payments Fraud 360, and digital marketing. To add the cherry in the crown and giving my learning process a professional look, I spend some money from my traveling budget for a professional certificate course from a renowned university in Australia. Yup during my stay learned and learned a professional certificate from the “University of Newcastle”, Australia. Let’s see how much I can capitalize my new knowledge which I achieved here. Will it help me to improve my financial freedom? Only time can say in coming days my friend…
Family I have in Australia
My only sister Dimple who is in Australia since 2007 was so happy to see his younger brother in his house. After settling down here Dimple learned to cook so many yummy dishes which I never had the chance to enjoy. And now it is my time to enjoy her cooking expertise. She along cooked for more than 70 guests in a single day. I was the only member in my family who could not manage to come to visit her in Australia. So this time it was something special after I joined our parents who came here for their 3 months vacations in Sydney.
My sister immediately gave a room to settle down and I was so comfortable. It was a great family time in foreign land. Two of my nephews were so excited to find their mama (uncle in bangle). And the Brother in law Swapon vi is a great gentleman who came to this land as an student back in 1999. He is living a great family life and enjoy gardening after office hours. They always want me to come here and stay forever. But I was never so sure to settle down in abroad since I was enjoying a comfortable life in Bangladesh enjoying time with my fnf.
Back to the Australia, stationed at my sister’s place made me enable to attend those programs and achieve some documentations like Australian Photo ID card and Australian driving license an awesome bank account with ATM card and Travel card.
I could plan all only because I had a comfortable eating and lodging facilities. And the story in Australia become an unforgettable when I started meeting my friends here and got the idea of extending my tour by applying for the US visa from here…
Landed safely in Australia and another chapter of my life just started. This is the 1st time official that I have traveled so far away from home (Almost Ten Thousand KM). In this entire tour, I will not consider myself as a fulltime bag packer rather a person who love to travel and meet people. So in this coming days, I will not stay at hotels or hostels rather stay at my relatives and friends. There are two reasons behind this 1st I don’t have that much of money to cater myself in a hotel or Airbnb myself for 100 days. And second of all I want to learn how my fnf (friends and family) are doing in the foreign land. I do not want to miss this unique opportunity to stay outside of the hotel rooms and learn about culture and lifestyle from them.
Weather of Australia is different from any other continent of the world. Two of the interesting fact about this mighty land is that they have summer in Dec to Feb and winter in June to Aug. Yes you heard me right, just opposite of the rest of the world due to its geographic position at the south corner of the globe. As my friend Rosy said to me, we see sun while going to the office and also see sun while coming back to office. She was talking about the summer time when the day is much longer and due to the flat design of the houses you can see the clear sky more here. The humidity is less (around 55%) so you will not sweat even it’s a sunny day compare to our tropical countries where you can’t wear the same shirt twice after 3 hours or so. Whatever the temperature during the daytime you will find comfort at night. As my sister says for fun, we are living in a desert.
Sightseeing & moving around in Sydney
After stretching my legs at my sister’s place also seeing my parents after almost two months I was waiting to see the iconic structure of this country. All the countries have their iconic structure so does Australia. By now you all know what I’m talking about. Yup, we took a train to go to the CBD (Central business District of Sydney) where the Sydney Opera House is waiting for me. I just can’t wait to take my selfie with this beautiful structure which was built in 1973. The best picture you can take is where you will see the Opera house and Sydney Harbor Bridge (Constructed in 1932) together. We dropped at the station at Circular Quay which is the station for the Opera House. It was a Sunday so it’s also known as fun day because you will enjoy a flat rate of AUD 2.5 for any public transportation anywhere in Sydney including Bus, Train, and waterways. Everything is so much advance and well synchronized that you will not have hard time finding your way in public transportation which is the cheapest way of traveling around. The city is so well interconnected that even if you live 50 KM away from the CBD you will reach their in less than an hour by train. I must say Sydney Transport did a great job managing commuters and the transportation system so clean and fast moving. I still got my Opel Card (the card that will allow you to move around in any public transport, and it’s a tap and go) and also got some dollar in it which I have to finish in my next visit to this wonderful city.
Bit of learning from the Aussie
As I have mentioned in Part 1 of this travel story that when I left the country I was not in my best shape of my life. So I had to plan something for my future while I travel and see the world. I have noticed that when I want to see my favorite Indian TV serial “Crime Petrol” in YouTube, I had to encounter almost 10 commercial breaks for this 35 min for an episode. Also in Facebook it’s full of advertisements. This make me think about the latest marketing tool through digital marketing, and the future of marketing is here. While searching about the content on digital marketing closely, during my stay here, I manage to get some freebies seminar, workshop, and one day event invitations which was happening around the Sydney. Wow, learning and meeting people in a professional platform in Australia and you do not need to spend much for that was on experience which is not possible in Southeast Asia for sure. I grabbed those opportunities straight away to fulfill my empty brain with some knowledge that can help me to earn in future.
I made the 100% from those amazing seminars where I had the chance to learn about Forex Trading (bit coin), Digital/Online Payments Fraud 360, and digital marketing. To add the cherry in the crown and giving my learning process a professional look, I spend some money from my traveling budget for a professional certificate course from a renowned university in Australia. Yup during my stay learned and learned a professional certificate from the “University of Newcastle”, Australia. Let’s see how much I can capitalize my new knowledge which I achieved here. Will it help me to improve my financial freedom? Only time can say in coming days my friend…
Family I have in Australia
My only sister Dimple who is in Australia since 2007 was so happy to see his younger brother in his house. After settling down here Dimple learned to cook so many yummy dishes which I never had the chance to enjoy. And now it is my time to enjoy her cooking expertise. She along cooked for more than 70 guests in a single day. I was the only member in my family who could not manage to come to visit her in Australia. So this time it was something special after I joined our parents who came here for their 3 months vacations in Sydney.
My sister immediately gave a room to settle down and I was so comfortable. It was a great family time in foreign land. Two of my nephews were so excited to find their mama (uncle in bangle). And the Brother in law Swapon vi is a great gentleman who came to this land as an student back in 1999. He is living a great family life and enjoy gardening after office hours. They always want me to come here and stay forever. But I was never so sure to settle down in abroad since I was enjoying a comfortable life in Bangladesh enjoying time with my fnf.
Back to the Australia, stationed at my sister’s place made me enable to attend those programs and achieve some documentations like Australian Photo ID card and Australian driving license an awesome bank account with ATM card and Travel card.
I could plan all only because I had a comfortable eating and lodging facilities. And the story in Australia become an unforgettable when I started meeting my friends here and got the idea of extending my tour by applying for the US visa from here…