Into Malaysia. KL.

Ugh, right now I'm in a jungle and I feel sick. I'm really unmotivated so I happened to track down an internet cafe (these things are everywhere).

I won't talk about the jungle though. Or the Cameron Highlands which is where we just came from. Instead I'll play catch up and talk about crossing into Malaysia.

Singapore was getting expensive, and it was time to get the show on the road, so we caught a city bus to the Malaysian border. From there, we crossed over with ease into the border town or Johor Baru. We had about 2 hours to kill before our train for Kuala Lumpur came, so we hung out in an incredibly Western shopping mall. They even had a Kenny Rogers Roasters. I guess Malaysia is doing pretty well. Compared to Indonesia at least.

Our train came and we took it all the way to KL. Decent ride compared to the hawker-fest that was the Yogyakarta to Jakarta train. Really, I'm just going to be comparing everything to Indonesia now because so far, we have yet to encounter anything as rugged or rough as some of the places we slogged through while there.

Anyways, we got to KL pretty late, so finding a hostel was a priority. Chinatown was the place to go and we managed to track one down with ease. It was a bit of a dump though. We got a room with no windows, no bathroom and just a fan. It smelled like dirty laundry and bathwater too. And it wasn't that cheap. Come to think of it, why the hell did we stay at that place? Anyways, the food in Chinatown was nice and cheap, and we got free wifi in our room so that helped.

That night we went to the Reggae Bar, which I was pretty apprehensive about. However, instead of white dudes with dreadlocks and djembes, we were greeted with Fatman Scoop, a dancefloor and lots of ladyboys. It seems you can't go anywhere without running into ladyboys in Southeast Asia. Or at least we can't. One of them sauntered up to me and whispered "you're cute" in a deep baritone. We spent most of the night at a table outside. Later, Adam found a whole bunch of rats in an alley.

The next day we had to pack in as much stuff as possible. It started with a late wake-up (thanks to a bucket of piss poor gin we foolishly bought at the Reggae Bar the night before) and a Chinese breakfast. We took the monorail to Kuala Lumpur Tower first. Now, I don't know what it is about towers that offer citywide panoramas, but they always end up being some of the WORST tourist traps. This one was no exception. The price doubled since our Lonely Planets were published AND they made you buy a package if you even wanted to go up the tower. The package included access to an animal pavilion, an F1 simulator, a forest walk and a pony ride.

The view from the top was nice. KL is a pretty big city and the Petronas Towers dominated the skyline as you can imagine. We checked out the animal pavilion and saw a monkey escape so that was rad. The F1 simulator was just 4 minutes of Playstation, we didn't do the forest walk, and despite Adam's constant urgings, I refused to do the pony ride.

Next we checked out the main city square (whose name escapes me) and walked way down to the National Museum. We made it 30 minutes before it closed, so it was kind of a rushed appreciation. We then walked the long way back to our hostel to catch some dinner in, uh, Chinatown again. This time, it absolutely poured, which gave our meal an interesting ambiance.

Next morning, we were gonna catch a bus to the Cameron Highlands, but there was no way I was not going to see the Petronas Towers. So we woke up early to check it out. Apparently if you get there early enough, they let you on the skybridge that connects the two towers. Unfortunately for us, they shut the bridge down on Monday for maintenance. CRAP. So we just took pictures in front with the other tourists before heading to the bus station.

So Kuala Lumpur, despite what my usually cynical posts may suggest, was quite nice. It rained sometimes and was blistering hot others, but the city itself had charm. It kind of reminded me of a budget Singapore. Paying In ringgits required a little bit of head-calculation, but everything worked out to be cheap (except KL Tower). I kind of wish we saw more museums, but oh well. Here's the pics.

Petronas Towers. Me.

I thought this building was really pretty.

Skyline shot. Cost me 38 ringgits so appreciate it!

Singapore Slangin'

So I think last time I mentioned that Adam and I hit the abort button on Sumatra and decided to head back to Jakarta and catch a plane to Singapore. Kind of messes up our overland only plan, but saves us countless days of frustration and maybe a case or two of jungle rot.

Anyways, we had to go back to Jakarta from Krui to make this happen. That meant another day and a bit in transit, but when compared to the four or so we would have had in Sumatra, it wasn't so bad. Rather than take the awful sardine can we rode into Krui on back to Jakarta, we opted for an air conditioned coach. We packed up our things and walked a good kilometer and a half, through the gauntlet of "hey meestar"s to the bus stop and waited. And waited. We feared that we might have been stuck in some Twilight Zone episode, waiting for a bus that would never come while the uncanny locals laughed at us. It ended up coming very late (about 4 hours). It must have been coming from another far away town too because it was packed with people who looked like they had been traveling for a very very long time. They were all unkempt and half asleep. The air conditioning on the bus was blasting so cold that everyone was huddled into blankets and covering their faces. It kind of looked like we walked into a leper colony. Not to mention the whole bus smelled like a septic tank.

The ride itself wasn't bad. I slept during the windy, bumpy parts and woke just as dawn broke and we boarded the ferry back to Java. We arrived in Jakarta shortly after noon. From there, we navigated through the city to the airport and found a cheap flight to Singapore. We landed in Singapore at around 9pm. As you can imagine, after a day and a half of traveling, we looked and felt pretty haggard. As we boarded the squeaky clean subway in Singapore, I felt like a total dirtball. We arrived in Little India without any trouble and managed to find a bunk in a dorm at our first choice for a hostel. I honestly can't remember what I did after that. I imagine deep deep sleep came pretty quickly.

So we were in Singapore. As I mentioned, it is a very very clean city. There is literally no garbage anywhere, everything is clearly marked in English and everything works perfectly. Definitely more tidy and efficient than anywhere I've been in Canada. It's odd too because the racial makeup of the small city-state is about 70% Chinese, 20% Malay and 10% Indian, yet the official language is English. It seemed that the residents all were able to speak it, with varying degrees of success, yet preferred to converse in their native tongues amongst themselves. It was a huge breath of fresh air having such a clean, modern city sprawl before us after slogging our way through Indonesia for the past three weeks.

Our hostel was pretty nice too. Definitely, a favorite for backpackers, it had a pretty bustling lobby scene, complete with DVDs, computers with internet access, a kitchen and all kinds of places to hang out. We met a few people there and were able to soak in all the modern amenities. First thing I did the next morning was a 100% hygiene overhaul. I was never able to find a combination of well-lit room and mirror in Indonesia so here I spend a good hour cleaning my wounds and tidying myself up.

We decided that we wouldn't stay too long in Singapore because it was significantly more expensive than anywhere in Indonesia. the bunk alone cost 20 Singapore dollars. Day 1 was sort of a write-off. I spent most of it relaxing, charging my electronics and Skyping with my brother. I regret nothing. Probably the most relaxing day I've had since the trip started. Adam went out to buy himself a new camera and had some success. When he got back, we made somewhat of an attempt to walk along the river, but rain thwarted it. Instead we headed to a food court to eat cheap food. That night we bought a six pack of Anchor beer and talked with some Finns who were backpacking for their honeymoon. Afterwards, we did a night walk of Little India before calling it a night.

Day 2 was a little more productive. We met an Indonesian girl named Tika who tagged along for most of the day. We started in Chinatown. Personally, I don't see why Singapore has a Chinatown, as you can't take a piss in the city without hitting something Chinese. I think it was more of a cultural center than anything as it housed plenty of red lanterns, cramped food stalls, street vendors and Chinese architecture. Lots of tourists too. Anyways, aside from a massive Buddhist temple, it wasn't terribly different than any other Chinatown I had been to, so we promptly headed for the riverside promenade.

This walk is heavily touted to be a must for anyone visiting Singapore. It was quite nice too. Nice colonial architecture amidst skyscrapers. It rained for a bit, but let up eventually. We zigzagged across bridges and took some pictures. It soon became clear that our Indonesian traveling companion was struggling to keep up, so she ducked out and went shopping while Adam and I went to this huge hawker center housed inside an old Victorian-style building. Pretty funny place. From the outside it looked like it could have been some old British train station or government complex, but when you walk in, it's full of Chinese food stalls and hanging, skinned ducks.

Later we met up with Tika and went to the National Museum. Being cheapasses, we went after 7 when it was free, but about an hour before it was closing. Awesome museum too. Too bad we had to rush through a lot of it. We walked back home and promptly did nothing afterwards. The next morning we woke up early to get the hell out of dodge before it wrecked our bank balances. Next stop: Malaysia.

As an aside, Singapore has done wonders for my burn. It stayed an oozy mess constantly in Indonesia and refused to heal, however the first night in Singapore, it scabbed over and finally looked like it was on it's way to recovery. Thank goodness! Sleeping in a cool, dry room worked wonders.

So our experience in Singapore was about as small as the country itself, so I guess I'll do a roundup like I did with Indonesia.

THE HIGH:

- Aircon, hot showers, potable water, public transit and other modern amenities.
- The National Museum. The parts we saw were very well done and you can tell they made an effort to make it interesting.

THE LOW:

- A little sterile. Definitely lacked the spice of Indonesia.
- Expensive. We couldn't eat anywhere cool because it was too expensive! Adam really wanted to try chili crab, but not for $35.
- Getting $100 stolen. But that was my own dumb-assed fault for leaving my wallet in the lobby overnight.

THE MEH:

- Chinatown. If you've ever been to a Chinatown anywhere before, this place won't really blow your skirt up.

Really, the whole city is pretty meh if you just want to sightsee. Most people go there to shop. They call it the only shopping mall with a seat in the UN. Since we didn't do any of that, our experience was pretty "meh". The pics turned out well though!

Merlion statue and skyscrapers. I don't usually like sticking pictures like this in my entries because you can just google it.

Yeah Singapore loves air conditioning.

Yep.

Buddhist ceremony in progress in Chinatown.

Chinatown.

After a couple gets married, it's customary for them to revisit important places in their relationship and have their pictures taken. Here some newlyweds are taking a stroll through Little India.

Indonesia Roundup

We've been out of Indonesia for a couple of days now so it's time to look back and reflect.

THE HIGHS:

- How utterly cheap everything is. $6 a night for a double room, 80 cents for a meal, $10 for a cross-country busride. NICE.
- Lombok. Not crowded or teeming with tourists. Beautiful coastline and excellent people, not to mention the Gili islands right off the coast.
- Hiking Bromo. Although I almost died of exhaustion, the beautiful sunrise and view was absolutely 100% worth it.
- Swimming in a jungle river in Ubud. Seriously like something out of a movie. Unreal.
- Learning how to surf. Bali was a total write-off, but surfing in Krui was excellent.
- Motorbiking around the countryside. A little scary at first, but once we got the feeling for the road, it was great.
- Excellent travel companions we met along the way.
- Best hotel ever in Krui. Inside a mansion with a doctor in house

THE LOWS:

- People constantly trying to get our money. Beggars, scam artists and touts, all with their hands out wanting a withdrawl from the walking ATMs. Some even succeeded.
- Burning my leg in Bali. It's just starting to heal NOW.
- Some pretty crappy hotel rooms. Goes along with the low price I suppose.
- Bathrooms. Had a few "three seashells"experiences, if anyone has ever seen Demolition Man.
- The Krui Putra aka HellRide. 10 hours of agony on a sweaty, cramped, creaky bus going along winding, bumpy roads.
- Kuta, Bali. Gross spring break atmosphere.
- Surfing in Bali. Bad judgement led to me getting pummelled by waves way too big for me and an all around terrible surfing experience.

THE MEH:

- Borobudur. I wasn't always a temple person anyways, but even this failed to ellicit any kind of excitement within me.
- Krui. Aside from surfing, this town wasn't my bag. Didn't appreciate the constant "hey meestar!"s either.
- Ramayana ballet. Maybe we got the b-cast that night, but none of the dancing or music seemed terribly on-point that night.
- Indonesian food. Sure it was cheap and pretty tasty, but unfortunately we never came across any dynamite discoveries.
- Museums in Jakarta. Thank god they were cheap, cause they were pretty brutal.


I wanna my experience in Indonesia a score out of 10, but I feel it's only fair to do that once I've been around to other places some more. Anyways, I'm in Singapore now and I got some good pictures. Next update will cover that. Tomorrow morning we're heading out to Malaysia.

Crabby in Krui

If anyone has even heard of Sumatra, it's either from the countless news reports of earthquakes and tsunamis in the area, or from David Attenborough's butterscotch smooth voice on the Planet Earth DVDs. This place is pretty untraversed to say the least. A huge island east of Java, it is the complete opposite of Bali; sparsely populated, very poor infrastructire and completely devoid of tourists. We planned on heading through it on our way to Singapore, and we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. Check a map if you wanna get an idea of how utterly huge this island is (6th biggest in the world apparently).

So, our trip started as an early morning departure from Jakarta. We took a nice, air-conditioned ride to the far west coast of Java, boarded a ferry to Sumatra and drove another 3 hours to the town of Bandar Lampung. I honestly don't know how long the trip took cause we splurged for an executive class bus with full legroom and fully reclining seats and I slept like a baby. This busride was completely contrasted by the busride we took upon arriving in Bandar Lampung.

Not wanting to waste any time crossing Sumatra, immediately after arriving in Bandar Lampung, we snagged another bus bound for the coastal town of Krui. Now, again looking at a map, these two locations don't seem terribly far apart. However, as a testament to the utter ruggedness of Sumatra, this ride ended up taking 9 hours! On top of the 7 hours we spent coming from Jakarta! 16 hours on a bus! Also, if the bus to Bandar Lampung was executive class, the bus we took to Krui was unquestionably proletariat class. Cramped as can be, packed with people, smoking, babies crying, people sleeping in the aisles... Definitely a tough grind for 9 hours straight. We were moving at a snails pace through winding rodes, slowing to a crawl every 50 meters or so to drive cautiously over some extreme potholes. By the end of it, I was ready to gouge my own eyes out.

We arrived in Krui at 4:30 in the morning and it was raining. The bus was nice enough to drop us off in front of a hotel. We checked in without any problem. This hotel sucked though as we would soon find out. Not terribly clean, lacking a shower and not to mention the fact that the water and electricity kept going out. I think the whole strip had power issues, but when the power died right in the middle of my scoop bath, I almost threw a fit.

Anyways, the first day I was incredibly grumpy and unmotivated. I briefly meandered around town and it quickly became apparent how completely in the middle of nowhere we were. The town itself seems to be built around a main road with nothing even close to a tourist information booth in sight. Almost every single person we passed shouted out "hey meestar!" like it was their duty. Guys even shouted it from motorbikes as they drove by. At one point, I swear to god, as I was sleeping, some dude poked his head in my room and said "hey meestar", but I may have dreamed that.

So day 1 here was pretty uneventful. Adam attended a Muslim funeral somehow. I just laid about and tended to a rash I had cultivated over the last week and a half (totally made the 9 hour busride awesome btw). Some dude offered to drive me to a doctor then ended up swindling me.

So yeah, crabby in Krui is a pretty accurate description of the experience up until this point. Things didn't start getting better until day2. We were originally planning to plough through Sumatra straight to Singapore, but them we found out we had 27 hours of bussing ahead of us, and that would only take us part way. It was at this point we decided "hell no" and opted to head back to Jakarta and catch a flight to Singapore. This was unfortunate, because it broke our "no planes" rule, but I figure it will save us time, money and sanity.

We decided to stay another night in Krui. First step: check out of shithole hotel. I arrived back to find a cat pissing on the couch. We packed our stuff up and Adam went off to find a new place while I settled the price. I haggled for a good 15 minutes with the dude and managed to get the price lowered due to the fact that we had basically no amenities while we were there. Meanwhile, Adam found this super stellar place about a kilometer south that was much cleaner and even cheaper! We threw our stuff down there and at that point, my experience took a complete 180 degree turn.

After checking in, we went to the beach (finally) and ran into a German couple that had been there for 4 weeks. Also, along the way we somehow met a guy named Albed and he agreed to take us surfing the next morning. That night, he fit both of us on his motorbike and drove us to a restaurant for dinner. Adam and I tried this Indonesian wine while he opted for a bright green vodka mixer. He claimed that the vodka mixer was weak and thus good for him because he doesn't drink. It had about 4.8% alcohol in it though and after half of the bottle, he was swaying heavily and had to walk home.

The next morning we woke bright and early to start our surfing lesson. Albed was late (hangover maybe?) but he whisked us to the beach with surfboards in tow. The waves were a manageable size (unlike the ones in Bali) so I had some confidence that I would do well. The Germans showed up soon after we did and we all went out together. Second surfing experience: FAR better than the first. I actually stood on the board and rode a wave several times. It was fantastic! Adam had some luck as well. Some luck surfing at least. It seems his sunblock didn't work too well that day and he got completely tandooried.

Right now Adam is off surfing some more while I'm updating this blog. The doctor told me to keep my burn wound dry and I ran out of supplies so I'm avoiding the water. We catch a shuttle bus back to Jakarta at 6, this time, all first class, so no more cramped nightmares and horrible semi-sleeps. Next stop, Singapore! Goodbye Indonesia! PICS!

The ferry from Java to Sumatra. Nice scenery, expensive snacks.

Adam helped these kids launch their boat out to sea.

The internet cafe where I made my previous post. Note the generator.

Your wounds will not heal in Jakarta

Jakarta is a very very big city. So big in fact, that it lacks a cohesive city center, and in an effort to give the place and it's citizen's a little more orientation, they built a massive park in the middle complete with a huge monument. Sadly, the city is still sprawling, but I was able to navigate it by foot somewhat nicely.

I'll start by saying that we Canadians are blessed with having public transit systems that post maps and clearly display the names of each station. In Jakarta, not only is their public transit system a half-assed extension of their train network, but there are no maps and you have no idea where the hell you are all the time. Thankfully, they have a pretty decent bus system that isn't too confusing provided you ask enough questions. Anyone looking for a more comfortable (or at least private) ride can hop in a taxi (there are many companies, only one which uses the meter) or an auto-rickshaw driven by a salty Jakartan. I opted for the later several times to get a little more flavor in my journey, and when those guys hit speed bumps, you get tossed.

My walk started up north in the Dutch colonial district, Kota. I saw a few museums, a few murky rivers and had my picture taken by countless young Jakartans. One paid for my admission to a museum in return. As I walked south, it became clear that the groomed streets of Kota were an anomaly in Jakarta, as things got very dingy very fast. The traffic in the city is also pretty nuts. There are very few street lights and if you're not used to jaywalking, Jakarta will throw you in the water and demand that you learn to swim. The locals generally just stick their hand out and play Frogger while maintaining a calm demeanor. Or you could do the Jon way which is to run across and wince like you're stepping on hot coals.

About halfway through my walk, I dipped into a shopping mall which was starkly contrasted with the surrounding environment. Air-con, security, people wearing shoes, Jakartan-muzzak. I saw the rainclouds starting to roll in so I made haste for the National Monument just north of our hotel. It was alright I guess, just really really big. The park was a nice breath of fresh air from the honking and chaos of the street. Then I went back to the hotel. Good walk.

Our hotel is worth mentioning actually. First of all, it was an awesome find at around $3.50 each a night. Not to mention the fact that it was clean (freshly bleached) and had a restaurant downstairs with free wifi. Also worth mentioning is the fact that the aforementioned restaurant appeared to be a happening haunt for Jakarta's ladyboy scene. Ladyboys, of course, is the distinctly Southeast Asian way of referring to transvestites. Every night as the house band played, the ladyboys would swoop in and turn the usually quiet Memories Cafe into Castro Street.

The second night there, Adam and I were looking to go somewhere a little more hetero, so we headed to a street known as "Blok M". Now, no one told us anything about this street and Lonely Planet referred to it merely as "infamous". I'll paint the picture before revealing our eventual conclusion. The street was run-down and lined exclusively with bars. On the street itself, young women with babies in their hands begging for money from passing tourists. Inside the establishments lurked a ragged handful of unscrupulous looking white men and about twice as many bombshell Indonesian girls dressed up to the nines. The women seemed desperately vying for each lumpy, sun-burnt misanthrope's affection and drinks were expensive. So before you could say "HOOKER BAR" (which is what it was, by the way), we were back in the cab and back at the hotel.

The next day I decided to go to the hospital. My burn was doing everything but sprouting tendrils so I though I'd finally get around to having it checked out. What sucked was that it was nearly IMPOSSIBLE to have anyone even look at me that day. I was given a pretty impressive runaround before the emergency room of all places agreed to see me. The doctor took a look, let out a stern "tut-tut" and fixed me up all hospital style with the proper gauze and sanitation. Set me back quite heavily, but at least I knew I was getting proper care. As mentioned in this post's header, the wound was not healing well.

The next morning we left Jakarta, and Java entirely for the sultry wilds of Sumatra, the next island to the west. I'll update on that soon enough. I think the internet cafe dude's generator is running out of juice so I gotta sign off (I'm serious).

Anyways, here's your pics:

I played role-reversal on these kids and took a picture of THEM.

Streets is calling.

Turn any random corner and you may see this.

Kids enjoying the National Monument.

Playing catchup. 3 days in Yogyakarta.

SO! Things have been pretty urban as of late. When I last left off, Adam and I had just arrived in Yogyakarta and found a cheap squat to spend the next 3 nights in. We pretty much figured that after an 11-hour overnight bus, the entire next day would be a write off. And it was. Probably the only thing I managed to squeeze in that day was a walk up JL Malioboro, the main shopping street, to check out the batik markets. Batik, so you know, is a kind of catch-all term for Indonesian art printed on cloth. Nothing I saw really blew my skirt up, and apparently it's really overpriced. Rule of thumb, if guys are running up to you and being waaaay too friendly, you're bound for a fleecing. Dudes were literally jumping over other dudes to get a word in with me. I spoke French to get away from it.

The next day, we did another pre-dawn wake up so we could catch Borobudur, the massive Buddhist stupa, at sunrise. We rounded up two of the guys we waited for rooms with the previous morning and caught a bus. It was about an hour outside of the city. Unfortunately for us, it was overcast, making the early morning rise somewhat pointless. However, we did get a good meander around the place before the flocks of tour groups showed up to jump in the way of our pictures. Then it was back on the bus to another, much smaller Buddhist temple that we could give a rat's ass about after we'd just seen Borobudur.

Back home we napped. That evening I just puttered about the area. I managed to come across an extremely Western-styled mall by chance. It was odd because I haven't seen anything like it, even in Korea. It had brand name stores and restaurants, a huge supermarket in the basement, was relatively uncrowded and completely air-conditioned. I bought some Converse shoes there for $20 too. That night we hung out with the locals in front of a convenient store.

Day 3 in Yogyakarta would be dedicated to seeing the Kraton, or the sultan's palace which was located in the heart of the colonial Dutch area. It was wicked hot that day too. Valerio, one of our Borobudur companions, and Jasmine, a Canadian girl we met the night before, accompanied us for a rather unspectacular tour. Basically info about the old sultans and the stuff they used in their everyday lives and this and that. Funny thing was, because of a rift in the royal family, there were actually TWO entrances to the kraton, and one was a FAKE. We managed to sniff out the real entrance though. Or maybe we actually got the fake one. Who knows. I don't care.

That night, the same crew made a trip out to Prambanan, the other giant temple complex just outside of the city for the sunset. This one was a Hindu however, and it was quite apparent by the architecture. There were separate temples for Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma, and the whole thing was surrounded by ruins where other temples stood. Then it rained really hard.

The plan was to see the ballet Ramayana which was being staged at an open air theater nearby, but none of us planned for the rain or the distance to the theater. We ended up running as fast as we could in the direction of the theater in a futile attempt to maybe not get wet. By the end of it, we were completely soaked and thrashing in puddles with complete abandon. My new Converse felt like sponges and everyone had to throw their expensive cameras into Adam's backpack. Turns out Adam's backpack was not waterproof either, and his DSLR got ruined. When we found the place, we looked like complete animals. They wouldn't let us sit down either until we dried off. I stripped completely naked in the bathroom and wrung out every piece of clothing over the toilet in a feeble attempt to get more dry and comfortable. After a hot coffee paid for with soaked money, we sat down for the performance.

We had already caught a performance of Ramayana earlier in the trip in Ubud and it was interesting to see how these two compared. While the one in Ubud had a soundtrack of just voices, this one featured a full gamelan orchestra. The costumes were more lavish, the dance more choreographed and the narrative much longer. They didn't kick hot husks at us in the end too. It was 9 by the time it finished so we caught a bus back for a quick dinner and a goodbye to our brief travel companions.

The next day we boarded a train to Jakarta.

I'll end it there and provide a little addendum. For some reason, people, especially young students, really really want to take pictures of Adam and I. It's quite odd having people shyly shuffle up to you and ask in broken English for a picture. I wonder what they do with them? Maybe it's frosh and they need to photograph as many white people as possible to win a challenge. Maybe they're mesmerized by how ghost white I still am after two weeks in this country. Who knows. At one point, in Borobudur, we walked by a huge tour group of students who were looking at us more than the attraction itself. Matthew, a Dutch guy we were traveling with, uttered a modest hello, and the whole group of them, maybe one hundred strong, yelled "hello" back to him. Then they completely swarmed him for a picture. SO ODD!

Anyways, here's all the pictures this slow internet can muster. I'm in Jakarta now. You'd thing a modern city would have better internet than say, the Gili Islands, but no. Oh well.

Borobudur at sunrise from the top. Not a tourist in sight.

Prambanan at sunset.

Street tattoos in Yogyakarta.

Mo Bromo

Sunrise over the rim of the crater.

Adam grabbing some shots from atop.

View of the Hindu Temple at the foot of Mount Batok.

Horsemen guiding visitors across the sand sea.

Postcard shot. Mount Semeru is partly obscured by the clouds that rolled in just as we made it to the lookout point.

The last post continued...

So, I ran out of time last time, but I'm taking a day off here in Yogyakarta to just kick it and do whatever the hell I want. This includes, sleeping all day, eating a club sandwich, Skyping my fam and spending hours at an internet cafe uploading pictures.

So when I left off, Adam and I had just arrived at what we thought was the rim of the crater in Bromo Tenggeru National Park. Our intent was to wake up early at 3am and hike to the top of Mount Bromo, the active volcano in the center of the crater, to watch the sunrise. Turns out we got sheisted by a tour operator (surprise!) and he only took us about two thirds up the crater. We had no idea though because it was dark when we arrived. AND it was dark when we woke up at 3am and started walking! THIS MEANS we had to walk 7km uphill to reach the actual top of the crater! The entire time we were like "why the hell are we still going uphill? Where's the rim of the crater?" Jerks! I almost died of exhaustion, and we thought we were going to miss the sunrise! The only thing that saved up was the fact that Adam forgot to adjust his watch to the right time the last time we jumped time zones, and we actually woke up at 2am!

So upon FINALLY reaching the rim of the crater and shaking off tout after tout trying to sell us 1km motorbike rides for $10, we started the descent inside and across the massive sand sea to the smoking Mount Bromo. It was still dark though so we had no idea where we were going. Then, like something out of a videogame, some small man galloped up to us on a horse and offered assistance for a modest $2. We agreed and he showed us the way. At one point, my body totally gave out so he threw me on top of his horse for the rest of the way. We finally reached the base of the volcano and climbed to the top as the sun was coming up. It was beautiful too. The light illuminated the mist that rolled across the sand sea, and the surrounding mountains radiated a bright orange. We could also see deep into the volcano and smell the acrid stench of the sulfur rising up from within it.

After pulling myself together I grabbed some shots. It was cold too! The mountain itself is about 2500m above sea level and the temperature was about 8 degrees. So we hung out for a bit before heading back to the rim of the crater to get breakfast. Afterwards, we decided to hike up the the highest point of the crater to grab the so-called "postcard perfect" shot of all three mountains lined up inside the crater. It was another hour hike, but we made it up and got the shot. Unfortunately, the tallest mountain was partly obscured by clouds, but it still looked great. Thankfully our trek back to the hotel wasn't that brutal thanks to the goodness of mankind willing to taxi us the 7km of mountain we were not spared earlier that morning.

Out of sheer insanity, we decided to check out of the hotel at 3pm that day and embark on another 12 hour bus ride, this time to Yogyakarta. The trip started when we caught an insanely overcrowded bus down the mountain. This bus was literally hemorrhaging people. There were four dudes hanging off of the back, four hanging off of the side and god knows how many on the roof. Inside it was a hot mosh pit of farmers and us. At the bottom we grabbed dinner with some French girls we met on the bus ride and hopped onto our next vessel for the subsequent 12 hour journey to Central Java.

This ride was pretty bad too. Even though we could recline our seats fully, we couldn't sleep for more than a 2 hour stretch. The driver was whizzing around cars and doing some serious nuts-in-throat lane changes. The driver's girlfriend also tagged along for the ride, and at one point, some random dude jumped in the back for about an hour then jumped out. We reached Yogyakarta at 5am, which, by the way, is the WORST TIME to EVER get into a city. Mainly because all of the hotels were booked, the touts were out in droves trying to sell us sunrise package deals to Borobudur and the few places that had room were trying to count the next 24 hours as a 2 night stay.

We ran into a few travelers that were in the same predicament as us and spent the next 2 hours together waiting for some of the places to clear out. Even after some places cleared out, it was still a while before we could find a decent room for a decent price. One place had red ants all over the bed! It also didn't help that is was the weekend of Nyepi, a major Balinese holiday, so a lot of places were booked for the next few days. We found a nice place though. It had no windows, but that turned out to be a blessing in that the sunlight could not bother us as we slept the entire day.

So that's it so far. We plan on spending the next few days here in Yogyakarta. It's supposed to be the best city in all of Indonesia, and it's only a short hop away from Borobudur and Prambanan, two of the most insane temple complexes in the country. We'll check those out tomorrow morning. Tonight I am just going to relax and thank Allah I'm not on a cross country bus. As long as he keeps his 4am call to prayers a respectable distance from my hotel window.

Addendum: So I mentioned how I burned my leg on a motorbike exhaust pipe a few entries back. Well, the burn has quickly gone from fleshy mound to Resident Evil (potentially NSFW link here). Luckily, we ran into a fellow backpacker who happened to be a nurse and she told us that what I was doing to treat the would was completely wrong, and offered to dress it up for me. Awesome. Hopefully when I remove the bandages, it won't look like friggin' monstrosity anymore.

Here's the pics I promised:

Sunrise on Gili Trawangan.

Fast boat back to Bali.

Kecak performance in Ubud.

Crazy McBastard kicking hot coconut husks all over us.

Monkey Forest in Ubud.

No, it's not cute. He murdered someone to get that banana.

These kids thought we were pretty cool. Very rural Bali.

Swimming in a secret jungle river grotto, Ubud.

Nyepi is on March 16 and is the Balinese day of silence. Everything on the island shuts down completely for the whole day, including the airports and streetlights. Either before or after, they have a celebration which includes floats and gamelan performances. I swung by a temple and snapped a few shots of some unfinished floats and gamelan rehearsals.

Sunrise from atop Mount Bromo.

First world problems

The internet in Indonesia can be less than stellar so forgive me for not making good on those promises to post pictures. This place in particular is SLOOOOOW so I'm not even going to try. BUT! I will tell you about all the fun I've been having!

So after Ubud, Adam and I hopped on a bus with the intention of reaching the Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park on Java. This place has always interested me, because it is essentially a giant crater with a mountain as well as an active volcano inside of it, surrounded by a sand sea. Overlooking the crater is another giant mountain, Mount Semeru, the tallest in Java. I figure it would make a good hike, and a great stop in East Java.

So we grabbed a few buses here and there, went to Denpasar, then to Gilimanuk, boarded a ferry from Bali to the big island of Java, and drove a while to the town of Probolinggo. From there we managed to find a bus to (what we thought was) the rim of the crater. The whole journey took a grueling 12 hours, on a very squished bus that broke down once. However, we did meet some very excellent locals on the ride.

I have to run and catch a bus to Yokgyakarta now, but I will update a bit later about the Bromo hike, hopefully with pictures! GTG!

Ubud is prettier than the name sounds

So last time we left off, Adam and I were on Gili Trawangan, checking out the island. The next day we each did some snorkeling separately. I ended up seeing a massive turtle. Mike, the French guy I mentioned previously, really wanted to see a turtle for some reason, so I'm pretty happy to have seen one myself. I did get a bad sunburn right on my waistline, which is probably the worst place to get a sunburn if you are backpacking. When I do up the waist strap, it feels like I'm wearing a cilice.

The rest of the time on the island was spent casually sauntering about the beach in between the times I was napping. After day two we decided to move on to our next destination. The island was great, but it was specifically tourist oriented, and I'd heard enough of "Gasolina" by Daddy Yankee at that point. Early the next morning we caught a boat back to Lombok.

From Lombok we caught a Perama fast boat back to Bali. The boat ride was excellent. The first time we crossed between islands, we took a public ferry and it pretty much killed our day, not to mention gave me the gut spins and subsequently a very terrible bathroom experience. This time, there were only a few of us on a tiny boat and it took a paltry two and a half hours. Plus, we got lunch, and I got to hang out right in front and snap some excellent pictures. There were even dolphins and flying fish leaping up beside the boat!

Our destination that day was Ubud, a town in central Bali and a cultural capital in a ways. We settled for a cheap room and made our way to a Balinese dance performance. Not exactly sure how to describe the dance. The music was all done by a chorus of men seated in concentric circles swaying and chanting together. In the middle, characters would jump in and act out the narrative. I believe the term for this type of performance is "Kecak", but the flyer advertised it as "Balinese Trance Fire Show", probably to get more tourists to come.

The show itself was excellent. Without any announcement that the show was starting at all, about 50 dudes in sarongs blasted out of the temple in the background chanting and chattering. Then the characters came out and acted out the story. At the end, I guess to make good on the "fire" promise, they set a bunch of coconut shells on fire and had some guy dressed as a horse kick them around with his bare feet. The very first kick the guy made actually ended up sending a bunch of burning husks flying over the containment wall and into some poor bastard's lap. At that moment I honestly thought that it was part of the show and that we would be dodging fire for the rest of the night. Thankfully it turned out to be a mistake and duder wasn't burned (at least not badly).

That night we drank Bintang and listened to Gordon Lightfoot, Phil Collins and the Blade Runner soundtrack on our porch.

Today was when we'd actually get out and about and see the town proper. First step was the monkey forest, which is exactly what it sounds like, a forest filled with monkeys. At the entrance you can buy some bananas so the locals can have a good laugh as you get pummeled by hungry monkeys. I bought some and yeah, they really do climb all up in your face to steal whatever you're holding.

Next we rested a motorbike and rode double around the Ubud area, looking at rice terraces and rural communities. At one point, we couldn't make it up a steep hill and the bike ended up falling over. On its way down, the hot exhaust pipe burned a nice mark into my calf, on top of a pre-existing sunburn. Then the bike wouldn't start up again so we had to get a local to help us.

After a bit of coasting, we came across an old Buddhist and Hindu temple complex. Now, this place would have been a little boring, had we not ventured deep into the jungle and come across an awesome swimming spot where the rapids slow as they entered an underwater Hindu temple. We jumped in and swam around for about an hour, completely undisturbed and it was AWESOME. Definitely the highlight of the trip so far.

Unfortunately, I can't post pictures this entry. Before I even started writing, I submitted a bunch of pictures to be uploaded, and now, about an hour later, they are STILL uploading. So Maybe I'll give up and post them when I come across a better connection. Anyways, thanks for reading it all. As you can see, we are doing GREAT!

Photos as promised

Poppies Gang I in Kuta, Bali. This place was kind of gross.

The pedestrian-unfriendly streets of Kuta.

Petrol for scooters and motorbikes were sold on the side of the road inside Absolut Vodka bottles.

Boarding the ferry from Bali to Lombok.

Padang Bai, the port in Bali.

Aboard the slow ferry.

Scooting around the Lombok countryside. You can't see it, but I got a hot pink scooter.

The three Gilis as viewed from Lombok. L-R: Gili Trawangan, Gili Meno and Gili Air.

My favorite picture of the trip so far. The dude was actually really nice.

The parking man.

The road along the Lombok coast. It was all beautiful vistas around every turn.

Boat to Gili Trawangan. The ladies behind were super angry at all the tourists.

Gili Trawangan.

Quick update

We're in Gili Trawangan, one of three tiny islands off of Lombok. It's an absolutely adorable place. We biked around the whole island in about 45 minutes and climbed the big hill in the middle. The entire coastline is beach and the scenery looks like a postcard. The tourists are really nice here too, a far cry from the fratty boisterousness of Kuta. We're gonna spend another day here before going to Ubud in Bali. Then we're off west again to Java.

PS tell your friends about this blog! Pictures next entry, prooomissss.

Maps

I was trying to get it so the beginning of every entry would have a Google map of where I was, but whenever I changed my little man icon, it would alter all the old maps too. So to fix this I just made the picture behind the title bar reflect my location and I'll update that as I update this blog.

In Lombok

So right now Adam and I are in Senggigi on the island of Lombok in Indonesia. We took a bus from Kuta to an unknown port town on Bali, then a 5 hour ferry to another port town on Lombok. From there we took a minibus up to Senggigi. This place is a nice change of pace from Kuta. Kuta was kind of gross and crawling with nasty tourists. This place is a little slower and the people seem nicer. We're still getting hassled by touts every so often, but I definitely prefer the change of pace.

On the ferry here, we met two French guys and a British girl and spent the rest of the day with them. One French guy, Mike, was an interesting character. He seemed to have absolutely no hesitations when it came to doing what he wanted. Kind of a free spirit, but not in that really annoying way. Just in a mildly annoying way. He decided to hang out with the captain for the ferry ride. On the island he was handing cigarettes out the window to the locals.

That evening we checked out a live band playing covers at a bar. Lots of drunk old western men dancing. Afterwards, Adam and I and the two Frenchmen went to a nightclub to see what that scene was all about. Surprisingly, there was nary a westerner inside. They too had a live cover band, but their repertoire was a little more "young urban" and for some reason they were wearing pajamas. After the band wrapped up they brought out some near naked female dancers and a drag queen MCed for a bit. For the world's largest Muslim nation, Indonesia sure knows how to let its hair down. Mike even managed to get the MC to give us a shoutout in English too.

The party didn't go off the rails cause we planned on getting up early to check out the island via motorbike. It was around $4 each to rent a bike for the whole day, so we each picked one up and headed north on the island to check out the scenery. My god, was it ever worth it too. Rice fields, palm groves, beaches, cliffs, shantytowns and more were lining every stretch of road. Cows and chickens crossed every so often and kids waved hello from small thatch huts. There were a few scary moments, specifically when we had to pass a giant truck or when a chicken darted in front of my bike, but it was completely incident free and excellent!

So Lombok is great, and Gord and Charlotte, if you're reading this, you should definitely check it out, even if it means cutting some days off of Bali. Bali was alright, but fat, drunken, near-naked cavemen and the spring-break atmosphere soured it for me a bit. I'm having an excellent time here. Tomorrow, we are heading to the Gili Islands, a small archipelago of three islands off the northern coast of Lombok. Apparently there are no roads or police and all problems are handled by the island elders. Should be excellent.

More meat this time

So, I have a little more time on my hands now, I figure I'll provide a more substantial update as to what has transpired in the last 48 hours.

We left Adam's sister's place near Itaewon at 5am to catch a shuttle to the airport. I got about 2 hours of sleep max so already you know this is going to be a great start. Get to the airport, fly out as usual blah blah blah. We stop in Singapore for one last taste of the first world before we're off again to Denpasar, a city on the island of Bali in Indonesia. I have been having some pretty bad sinus congestion in the last few days and the ascent and descent felt like someone was inflating a balloon behind my eyeballs.

It was after sunset when we landed in Bali, but the humidity was still striking, especially coming from cold Seoul. We both had our jackets too. Probably gonna send yet another package home. Anyways, as soon as we left the terminal, the touts were on us like we were giving out prize money. We wandered into the parking lot and it got waaay worse so we hoofed it back towards the terminal. We denied about 16 cabs who wanted to take us to Kuta for $10 (equivalent) and somehow managed to have this French hippy and her crew give us a lift into town for free.

We knew we were in Kuta because of all the Starbucks and KFC signs. Kuta is the tourist trap town and the streets were crawling with sun-kissed foreigners, some who looked like something they sell at the aforementioned KFC. Looking like fresh off the plane tout-bait with our massive backpacks and Lonely Planet in hand, we made our way up the promenade and towards Poppies Gang I, the hostel street. Keep in mind it was dark, and with cabs honking at us and people holling trying to lend us motorbikes we were almost at our wits' end.

We found the street after a few wrong turns. It was actually not so much a street, but a dark alley. Yeah, a dark alley in Indonesia at night. Seemed fine though as there was a healthy stream of motorbikes whizzing down it. We checked prices at a few places and settled on a room for about $15. It was no Bellagio and the shower was more of a drizzle than anything, but the bed served its purpose of allowing me to sleep in it and that's all I needed.

So the next morning we woke up bright and early to try and find another hotel because we thought we got shafted at $15 for two people a night. Apparently it gets cheaper! So we went and found a place for $10. Shower worked but there's no air conditioning. We both had a nap and I think we agree that shelling out more for air conditioning is probably not worth it. We also booked a ferry to Lombok, a nearby island, for tomorrow morning. Hopefully it won't be as big of a tourist trap as Kuta, but we'll see.

After a $2 lunch, we made our way to the beach. This town is loaded with surf shops, bleach blonde Aussies with surfboards and motorbikes with board racks, so we knew the beach had to be something worth checking out. We checked it out. We also rented surfboards and decided to fail miserably at trying to surf together. Adam failed pretty hard, but my fail was so epic, I ended up heading home, sick and exhausted, to take a nap afterwards. Basically we went out too far and the waves were a lot bigger up close and the ocean essentially had its way with me. I swallowed a ton of salt water, had my shorts nearly yanked clean off and got tossed around like a rag doll. With all the strength my body could muster, I swam to the shore and almost died on the beach.

So now that you're all caught up, I'll drop a few first impressions. First of all I am THRILLED with how cheap everything is here. $2 meals, $10 accommodation for two people, and apparently taxis are really cheap if you can convince them to use their meters. I bought a $1 pair of flip flops and several 20 cent bottles of water.

Speaking of which, the water is necessary because, as you can imagine, it is HOT here. Like, the evenings aren't too bad, and that's why we think no AC is doable, but the early afternoons are like, sticky disgusting hot so don't be surprised if a lot of my updates are posted in the afternoon from the comfort of an air-conditioned internet cafe.

The vibe around Kuta is certainly a strange one. It is essentially a town that caters to foreigners that have way more money than the locals. As such, the locals have picked up things that said foreigners like to do. There's t-shirt and clothing shops selling frat boy novelty shirts and Western rock paraphernalia, cyber cafes aplenty, sports bars showing cricket and soccer games, tattoo parlors with ugly tribal flash on display; and all of these things being touted by working class Indonesian families. Even the souvenir logos for Bali are done in a hip, young Bape-ish font and color scheme. They have us all figured out! So basically the vibe of this place is like Logan's Run, where it seems like everyone is in their 20s and completely indulgent, but instead of the people over 30 going and committing mandatory suicide, here they hook up with a 20 year old Indonesian girl and sit at a bar and drink.

Ok that's it for now. So far the trip has been a little rough, but I'm just getting used to it. I'm at a point now where I'm starting to ditch my uncomfortable clothes and pick more climate-appropriate things up, so hopefully once we get to Lombok, and once I finally get a full 7 hours sleep, I can start making less-cynical posts about my trip so far. Thanks for reading all of this! Pictures soon!

Touchdown

Adam and I are fresh off the plane and staying in Kuta on the island of Bali in Indonesia. It's our first night and we're both bagged. This place is too intense right now. Hopefully we'll be able to start making sense of things. However, on a plus note, we've already learned how to effectively ignore all the touts who accost us several times a minute.