A Cozy Place

Reasons I don want to come back

It is funny how life turned out to be not the way you want. I don want to be cheesy or cringy in any thought of way but today I want to share about the reasons I do not want to come back to Cambodia.

Before I list down my reasons, I hope that you could look at this writing from my perspective especially personal reasons because it is not because of Cambodia that I do not like but the life that I have here (if you have not read my other articles, I was in Singapore for six months for my study and went to Australia for vacation and just came back in less than a month).

Family issue is the major reasons I do not want to come back but as an INTJ personality, I have never ever have the courage to talk with anyone about this but it has trying me crazy for the past six years now. Sometimes, I even wonder if I am a part of this family or not (sounds funny, isn’t it?). I could not see my future in the next 10 or 15 years living like this forever because it is impossible and that is also the reason I was so happy that I could go to Singapore for six months just so that I could escape this place.

Second reason is that I feel like what I study or do here is not going to get me anywhere near my goals. I want to be an auditor but what I study at RULE (Finance and banking) is trash. For two years, I don even know what I study with those students and lecturers. There is no word to describe the environment and school politics there. I never want to study there (only full scholarship) but I also don have money to study at CamEd Business school. While the other university, I study international studies there but after the exchange program in Singapore, I finally decided my goals are not align with this degree. One thing good about this university is that I like the environment, the hard-working lecturers, and the amount of afford some students put into their assignments. It creates the environment where I can fully function as a student. Nevertheless, a good university where I have no interest to pursue a career in give me more trouble than I thought while I want to pursue my career in audit but studying in that university feels like a waste of time.

All I want is a simple life. I do not want to study two universities but I have no choice.

You know what I want?

I want to study in Australia for my bachelor degree in accounting and get a Permanent Resident there while working part-time to afford my living expense. Isn’t it simple? Actually I don have a big ambition. All I want is a simple life with work-life balance. However, I know bachelor degree in Australia can only become a dream that never turn into reality but what about master degree?

I know I complain many things but what I wish for is to at least try living my dream because at the end of the day I don want to say that I regret not doing what I want. I don want to say that “I wish I went to Australia for my master degree and maybe things turn out the way I want”.

My life in here is not what I want. I am not happy here. Therefore, why not taste a life that I desire for

Trip to Australia

Hello! It is me again but today I am going to tell you guys my experience in Australia while I was travelling like crazy in both Melbourne and Sydney.

Before going to Australia, I was so nervous that my passport and my visa would not be accepted by the immigration but anyways things turned out pretty well and I landed in Australia.

I spent one day travelling to seven places which is beyond my expectation and with the fact that we only got up at 10 o’clock in the morning. First, I went to Springvale market just to see how Asian that place is because there are a lot of Cambodian and Vietnamese’s restaurants there. It felt like I was living in Cambodia with all those people talking in Khmer. After that, I went to the city just to explore those shopping malls and summer clothes that I could not afford and the funny thing is that i was in Australia for the whole trip but only eating Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai food, instant noodle and fast food (In fact, only these kind of foods are the one I could afford shhh!! Don tell anyone). After all the cities things, my friend and I finally got to go to the beach (Brighton and St. Kilda) to take more photos and enjoys the breeze of fresh air, away from pollution and crowded people. We ended the day with eating ice cream near the beach where my crazy friend brought her special friend to eat ice cream too and then we went to watch penguins in the middle of the sea with strong air that I was so scared that I am gonna fly off in to the water. It was a crazy day but I had so much fun.

It amazed me with the fact that my friend in Queensland also happened to be in Melbourne as well, so the other two days we went to the city and great ocean road together. It was fun and the amount of laziness we affected each together wals surreal. One thing I nearly forgot to tell you was that we missed the bus in the middle of nowhere and my friend was so scared that we were gonna stuck in this place with nowhere to go to the point that she was thinking of asking strangers to take us back to the city. Fortunately, things turned out pretty well. The tour guide came back to get us and we were off to the next destination. (It was an adventure I must admit this)

With the wrap of Melbourne, I went to my friend’s university which is Swinburne University of Technology just to meet cute guys. It was so funny and I also happened to meet her special friend. We stayed there the whole day and I don know why but I felt like I was finally home. I felt like this is the place I want to settle in and the place I can truly feel like a local. That was my last day in Australia but did I tell you I also went to Sydney as well?

I went to Sydney for four days but the first day does not count because we were there late at night and directly went to our airbnb. We went to many tourist destination such as opera house, botanical garden, Hype Park, Museum, the rocks and Chinatown in just one day and at the end, we were so tired that we went back to our airbnb early just to play card and watch old Hongkong drama. The next day, we went to Manly beach but took the wrong ferry and went to rose bay instead. Our trip was always crazy and little things happened this and there but that is what travel all about. Manly beach reminded me of a little town with tourist but still a lovely place to travel to. After that, we went to get “mju” which is popular in Khmer but I don think western people eat those stuffs but it was good. We took more than one hour of train to get it because she hasn’t eaten it for so long since it is nearly impossible to find in Australia so we went there to get it and went back to Sydney opera house for night view. We went back to our airbnb around 10 o’clock to eat mju, play card and watch Hongkong drama. While the last day in Sydney, we got to many places as well since our flight was at 10:30 pm. At first, we checked out of our airbnb and stored our luggage at central station for the day and we were off to Sydney Fish Market for expensive seafood. There were a lot of seafood but too expensive for us and it was not as delicious as in Cambodia. We did buy some to eat and then walked to University of Sydney to take more photos since that place was so beautiful. After walking around the campus for a while, we headed to our last destination which was Bondi beach to see those big waves and put our feet in those cold water. It was a fun day indeed.

This trip seemed to be a wonderful experience but bad things also happened along the way because trust me, there is never a perfect trip that go as planned. We missed the last train to go back home a few times so we had to take didi which cost around 40 AUD. We changed plan most of the time, so our travel is not like what I had planned but I still liked it. I got lost and missed the bus with my other friend in the middle of nowhere and spitted out my Starbuck in Chadstone while laughing. I was a third wheel for a whole day which was fun too. My phone ran low on battery with no power-bank and my phone was my lifeline at that time. Nevertheless, this crazy things that happened along the trip were what made this trip so wholesome and hard to forget.

I am thankful for the scholarship in Singapore that let me have a chance to apply to Australia for a vacation and created such a wonderful memories at the end of this 2019. A trip to celebrate my 20^th birthday.

Expenses on a nine-day trip

Visa fee: 154 SGD
Biometrics Collection: 52 SGD
Photo for visa: 7 SGD
Flight Reservation: 41 SGD
Flight ticket from Singapore to Melbourne round trip: 581 SGD
Flight ticket from Sydney to Melbourne round trip: 131 SGD
Airbnb for three days: 66 SGD
Great Ocean Road day trip: 120 SGD
Food and other things: 400+240 SGD

A guide to applying for Tourist Visa (Subclass 600) to Australia for Cambodian Passport

**Brighton Beach, Melbourne, Australia**

Hi!!! Today, I am going to explain on how I got my Australian tourist visa and guide you guys as well who is Cambodian and want to get the visa because I know it can be really hard to get one especially as a Cambodian. So now let’s get into business!!!

To begin, there are two ways for you to apply for the visa. The first one is through hard copy that you can get from the embassy or find it out online then printing it out to complete on your own. The second one is online application that I find to be much easier which you can do whenever you want. For this article, I am going to explain from the online application. One thing to note is that when I applied for the visa, I was in Singapore for my exchange programme at NUS. Therefore, I would recommend people who going on an exchange programme to apply to your dream country because it might be easier since you got the student’s pass in one country that means it is kind of ensure that you will come back to the exchange programme first before going to back to your home country.

Step-by-step guide on how to apply for the tourist visa

Create an account for yourself through this provided link. https://online.immi.gov.au/lusc/login
Complete the 19 pages of the application form. Be as specific as possible.
Attach all the required and supporting documents with pdf files except the photos
Review all the documents again and again
Submit the application form and pay the visa fee which is about 145 AUD
After that, you will get an email on the biometric collection (52 SDG)
Make an appointment for the biometric collection
Finish the biometric collection and waiting for the email

Tips to improve the chance of getting the visa

Having a relative, family or friend

If you have any family members or friends, it is good to mention them in the application even they are not the one who sponsors your trip. From my experience, I have a friend who I am gonna visit but she is only cover for my accommodation but I did not mention that; I only mention that I will visit my friend, and she will go on a trip with me while in Australia.

For this reason, I want to convince them that I actually have a friend who is studying in Australia. Therefore, I upload some supporting documents such as:

Photos of me and my friend
- My friend’s copy of passport
- My friend’s student card
- Her certificate of enrollment in the university
- Letter of invitation

Supporting documents

It can be hard to get the visa but you can try to upload as much supporting documents as you can and those might help to showcase the credibility and that you will come back to your home country.

National ID
Copy of Passport
Family book translated in English
Visa photo (front): link to make your Australian visa photo for 7 SGD https://visafoto.com/au_visa_photo
Visa photo (back): put your name and signed it
Statement of purpose: state the reasons why you want to be there and how you are gonna support yourself
Stamps of going to other countries: to showcase that you have travelled to many countries
Certificate of assets: land, house or your saving account in your country
Proof of residency (I put Residential College 4 cos I was there for my exchange programme)
NUS student card: to ensure that I am definitely a student at NUS
Student’s pass: it is like a ID card for you to stay in Singapore
Proof of NUS students: I got it online from my NUS account but if you are from Cambodia, can ask your university for it.
Flight reservation: it costs about 20 USD for agency to do it but it depends on airline, some airlines let you do it for free in 24 hours
Hostel booking: you can book a free cancellation hostel for confirmation letter for the visa and cancel it later on from booking.com or agoda
Travel itinerary: plan your day to day activity in a very detail way
Bank statement: three months transaction but for my case I do not have it so I just show the money in bank account.

Note: all the documents have to be in its original colour.

I hope that this article can help you guys and that is it for the day.

Say Yes To Australia

Hello!

It’s been a while since I open this blog again. I remember it was during my first week in Singapore that I started to create this blog but now it’s already the time I have to leave this country. Do you guys remember one of my blog about friendship and how I want to visit those western countries, my friends and the place that I had insert the picture in which look like a heaven to me?

GUESS WHAT!!!! 😀 😀

I WILL BE THERE IN THIS DECEMBER TO VISIT MY FRIEND AND AUSTRALIA.

I was so happy to receive the visa granted notification from Australia embassy because to me it’s like a dream to be there. I have never imagined that I could be there on my own without my sisters just to visit my friend. As someone who always wants to travel abroad, it is not an easy thing to do. Money and visa are the biggest problems.

To tell you a little bit of my background on why I was over the moon when I received the email. I came from a middle income family in Cambodia which is a developing countries. Therefore, our passport is not that powerful and easy to get a visa to those developed countries plus I don have any bank account. How can i make them trust me that I am gonna come back to Cambodia? Thankfully, I am here for my exchange programme with scholarship that I can save to travel outside Singapore. I have my own bank account here and have enough money to persuade them to give the visa. After thinking for a while and checking the flight tickets which is much cheaper compare to Cambodia to Melbourne, I decided to apply for the visa just in case I can get it then I will go, if not it’s still fine. It took me a few weeks to gather all the documents and photos just to apply online but it’s worth it. Another thing I haven’t mentioned is that usually if I want to go abroad I have to go with my sisters and their friends, so that they can support me financially and most of them I would avoid going out with my family. It is something I have never talked to anyone and it is also the reason why I try to go out abroad or study a few weeks this and there. My family is a part of me but whenever I stay at home, I have to face with a person who I hate to the point that I try to avoid interact with my family just to escape this. Therefore, I start to feel distant with my family and going out together meaning we have to take along her so I choose to be on my own and build a wall around me. At first, I thought this is working for me and it was not impact me in anyway but I started to realize it changes me tremendously especially my behavior and my mindset. All I can things about are self-interest, selfish, cost and benefit I can get from a person to the point I cannot form any close relations with people besides a group of friends that I have and resulted in self-harm. I start to dig my nails into my skin just to feel the pain and use this as a tool to become more independent and cannot rely on my family. This is a negative side of me and I know self-harm is not good but at least it is fuel me. People think I am childish but it is been six years now that I have to live like this and I don’t think it will change anytime soon.

Seems like a happy story turn into a sad thing but anyways I still can’t wait to be in Australia and hope that time would stop there.

Singapore is a place where I can escape my house,

Australia is a place where I can escape Singapore,

Home is a place where I can suffer. (Kidding not kidding)