Indonesia day 6

We woke up at 4:00am to finish the climb to the summit before sunrise. Once again I'm not good enough at English (or Indonesian) to describe how spectacular it was. I'll post a video later but all I'll say for now is: 1) we could see lava from the top. 2) in the distance you can see Gunung Tuju, the tallest lake in south east Asia.

We managed to get down by 10:30am. We had quite a bit of time to spare so we took a different route back to the car. We passed a cinemon tree. Fun fact; did you know that cinemon comes from the bark of a tree? We ripped a bit off and chewed on it for a few minutes. Soooo strong. While climbing the mountain, Matt had developed his own language which was a crude mixing of Indonesian words. Salamat bagus (which doesn't really mean anything) was a popular saying.

Indonesia day 5

We woke up to the smell of nasi goreng in the morning made by the guest house maid. It was delicious. travel tip - add 'sambal' to everything - it tastes great. After breakfast Rapani took us to the base of the mountain to start our hike. i can't possibly describe the hike using words so i wont really try. All i'll say is: 1) we started at 2000m and climbed to 3300m on our first day. 2) we hiked up a dried up stream. 3) the ground was a bit polluted because tourists from Jakarta just threw their plastic bottles away and burned their rubbish.

Indonesia day 4

I'm only starting to realise now how hard it will be to keep a blog going everyday. so far i've written a blog post for the last 3 days but i have not had the Internet to post them.  As of recent, Internet is the least needed utility for me though. As i'm writing this post it's the 29th (day 6) and i can tell you that electricity, plumbing, toilets, and even clean water are scarce. It's amazing. Let me tell you about it

We woke up at 5:30 on the 27th to catch a flight to padang. we (Matt, brad and i) were traveling to padang to meet Rapani, a guide who would help us walk up mt Kerinci. Everything went smoothly except for when i got locked in Dennise's bathroom for 20 minutes because the door handle fell off.

We met Rapani in the late morning outside the airport holding a sign saying 'matthew james'. First class treatment, eh? At first he didn't believe it was me because my gmail thumbnail picture was taken a few years prior and i hadn't grown my disgusting face fro and head mop at that time. The drive from the airport was 7.5 hours long and featured a fantastic view of shacks, farms and beautiful countryside. At one point we got pulled over by a police blockade. A fat indonesian policeman waddled over and said something i interpreted as licence check. a quick bribe of 300000 rupiah later (30 aud) offered by Rapani and we were on our way. Most people we met along the road gave us white people an unmistakable expression of surprise, pleasure and confusion as we passed - except for an old man we passed who tried to spit at matt gates through the window.

We made our first stop at a local 'restaurant'. It was more or less a glamorized tent and that made food for locals by locals. rapani took us in and ordered us a bunch of food that we could never pronounce. At first we were hesitant because the curry was a sickly green, the chicken still had hair on it, the bowls were slimy, and there were very little black things covered in white things that were as hard as wood. We all shrugged our shoulders and whispered to ourselves 'when in rome' and started digging in. Everything was delicious. The curry was awesome and spicy. the chicken was succulent and extremely filling which was surprising considering it was only the size of 2 chicken nuggets. i guess that says a lot about australian processed meals. oh and the black things were pickled eels and once you bit into them they tasted pleasantly salty and spicy.

We finally arrived at jambi province in Desa Kersik Tuo.  Every house was extremely damaged and broken down except for the two mosques that surrounded our guest house. They were in quite good condition and had giant speakers witch sang out some prayer which nome of us could understand. Just like the mosques in jakarta, the Imam's really need to get singing lessons. the guest house had very limited electricity, unreliable taps, no clean water and holes in the ground for toilets. but at least it had a stable roof and one bed. Literally just what i was hoping for.

Indonesia day 3

The jet lag didn't hit us as hard today. We woke up much later and enjoyed yet another wonderful meal consisting of eggs, toast, fruit and tea.

The first thing we did was walk to my old school, JIS, for Australia day. It was amazing seeing how much the place had changed. A lot of my old classrooms were still there but some buildings like the food court had been completely redone. It was really nice having my brain slowly bring up hidden memory after memory when I was a kid. I remembered small things like me winning a mathmatics award in grade 7 and me losing a basketball game called 'knockout' at recess. This must sound cliche but the whole place seemed so much bigger back then. I felt like a giant stepping through old footprints. I think Dennise must have seen how happy I was walking through my old school that she pulled some strings and got me an Alumni card. I did it guys! I finally graduated from a school I liked!

After JIS we went to a massage place nearby. For only $15 you can get a 1 hour massage. Brad and I loved it but I think Matt's ultra British and Christian background made him perceive the massage as an unpleasant mix of foxy boxing and a colonoscopy.

We then took a taxi to Raganan zoo. Dennise had a few contacts so we managed to see the orangutans even after the zoo had closed. We were expecting to play with baby monkeys and watch the larger ones swing from branch to branch in an exhibit. Sadly though we found all the orangutans were locked up in small, dark and damp cages.  A few of them tried to spit at us as we walked past them but the others just squeezed a hand out through the cage trying to get attention. I went up to one of them and held its hand. She stared at me with a very well known human emotion - misery. She tried to pull my hand through the cage and I let her. She brought my hand to her mouth and at first I thought she was going to bite me, but then I realized all she was trying to do was kiss the back of my hand. Shortly afterwards I began to remove my hand from the cage and I noticed her grip tightened. I eventually yanked my hand out of the cage one her grip began to cut me because her nails were desperately digging into my skin. I gave her a banana when I left. She didn't eat it.

When we got back we had a nice traditional Indonesian meal. Of course it came with unlimited bintang beer.

Later on that night we went to amegos bar in Kemang to meet Pablo. That was great because they had half price drinks and the music was good. It was awesome seeing pablo again. His English was always great but now its superb. I pretended not to understand a few words anyway just to mess with him. I'm really looking forward to traveling around Thailand with him and his friend.

Indonesia day 2

We began our second day by waking up to the smell of eggs, toast and fresh fruit being prepared by two maids. Then after a few hours my Dad, Ashok, Matt, Brad and I casually hailed our driver to pick us up and take us to Sunda Kelapa. This place is famous for previously being a dock built at the time the Dutch colonized Sumatra. The museum we went to was pretty dull and empty but I'm glad I went anyway so I could learn more about Indonesia's Muslim roots.

What we did afterwards was much more fascinating though. We walked around the neighborhood and got to see locals living in the area. The whole district was desperately poverty sticken. The water was so polluted with plastic, petrol and probably sewerage that it looked dark brown. You couldn't see through the water to see any fish, but some must have been swimming through the filth because we saw gutted brown fish littered throughout the narrow corradors that connected the shacks and shops. Every 'house' was about the size of a small bathroom with a wooden or plastic ceiling so low that you'd have to bend down to see people sleeping in them. Even though the whole area was drowning in trash every local there was unbelievably happy! They all smiled at us and said 'Salamat Pagi' (good morning) as we passed them. The children were especially vibrant and happy. We found a group of kids playing this bizzare board game with 3 pieces of wood, 3 stones and some etched out markings in the concrete. The game was a lovely mix between tic tac toe and checkers and the ultimate goal was to get your 3 pieces to form a line. My limited indonesian managed to get me invited to play against the kids. I lost horribly to a 5 year old but in my defence the kid had the help of 20 other 5 year olds so their collective intelegance was vastly greater than mine.

Afterwards we went to cafe Batavia which was located next to the town square in the city. My Dad was kind enough to buy us food, beer and cocktails which was awesome. I remember going to that cafe as a kid - so thanks Dad for the trip down memory lane :).

On the way out of the cafe we ran into a bunch of Indonesian school students who wanted to ask us all sorts of questions. Matt, Bradley and I felt like Justin Beaber because every person in the area wanted to take photos with the white kids.

After that we went to Kemang to have drinks at a place called FJ's. Its a rooftop bar and the view was spectacular. I'm really regretting not trying their special - coffee and avacado. Yum :)

Later Brad, Matt and I went to a place called Krystal pub in Pondok Indah. The name of the bar sounds like a cheap prostitute and Dennise warned us that the whole place was probably filled with prostitutes too. The place was nice but it had a strong American sports bar vibe which I don't like too much. Also, there were only middle aged men at the bar which made the prostitute assumption either wrong or very surprising.

My Dad left to go back to Kuala Lumpur that night. Thanks for the surprise visit Dad! I'll see you in Malaysia in late March!

Indonesia Day 1

We arrived safe and sound at Jakarta international airport at 2:40pm local time. Towards the end of our flight we honestly didn't know that was going to be the case though. The airplane was swaying from side to side as we descended at a staggeringly fast pace through the smog and clouds.

It was a nice pleasant walk through the airport to grab our bags and visas. It wasn't too crowded and the air-conditioning seemed to be pumping out pure nicotine.  The second we left through the automatic doors, however, all 3 of us were hit by the humidity of the air around us. It must have been quite amusing for the locals to see us exit in single file and then see us 1 by 1 pull our faces back in shock due to the change in air quality.

The ride up to Pondok Indah was surprisingly fast and cheap. The Taxi service guy tried to encourage us to pay a fixed rate before hopping in the Blue Bird, but I insisted on using the meter instead. It was only 180,000 Rupiah (which sounds like a lot, but it's actually only about $15). The road rules were just as crazy as I imagined. Nobody pays attention to lanes of traffic, and public buss's just drop and pick up people in the middle of the highway.

We arrived safe and sound at a family friends apartment. Dennise and Ashok have known me since I was a wee little baybeh. We were given a welcoming feast consisting of fantastic curry, pavlova, beer and gin & tonic. At some point we found time to go walking around the neighborhood where I used to live 10 years ago. It took me a disturbingly long time to remember the general area, but once I did everything started coming back to me. All these specific memories started swarming around in my mind - like when Molly got scratched by a cat and when I played a basketball game called "knockout" with my brother. The neighborhood I lived in was megawealthy. We lived right by a golf course and every house was impractically massive. A lot of houses even featured giant statues right outside.  I can't quite put my finger on it, but my old home has changed in some very subtle ways. I think it probably happened when the house was demolished and rebuilt into bigger house.

Oh yeah, my Dad (who lives in Kuala Lumpor) tried to surprise me and now he's staying with Dennise too.

Australia Day 1

My mum was kind enough to drop Bradley, Matt and I at the airport at 8:30am today. I'm unsure if I have or haven't talked about Bradley before. He's a friend of Matt Gates' and I had never actually met him in real life before today. It's good to know he's a real person and not some next generation Skype A.I. trying to pull off some elaborate futuristic scam. I'm especially glad he's not a simulation because he's a funny and entertaining bloke. I think I'm traveling with a good crew.

For  the last 3 nights I've been drinking quite heavily. I've been meeting up with friends who I haven't seen in a long time. It's just way too easy to walk up to the counter and grab another round of beers. And it's even easier to stumble up to the counter after you've had those beers and order vodka. Whilst the last 3 days have caused an unexpected spike in my blood alcohol level, my average blood alcohol level over the last 2 months has been impressively and depressingly high. I made myself a pinky promise that I'll be in the fittest shape of my life before Everest. Sadly I think it's the other way round. I pant when I walk, I sweat when I eat and I cry when I run. Bring it on Everest!

Oh yeah, speaking of not being overly prepared for my trip - I only found out 2 days ago that I needed a visa for Turkey. Whoops! I honestly had no idea that UK passport holders needed a visa. Turkey always seemed to me to be this delicious welcoming place with succulent immigration policies. Don't worry though, I managed to get the visa in 10 minutes online. Phew!

Speaking of food, I only had a bottle of olive oil and half a jar of Vegemite when i officially moved out of the house today (that was a pretty impressive segway, eh?). That's right! I'm finally out of the Animal House! I spent around 3 hours cleaning up my room for the girl who is going to be replacing me - her name is Daisy. Whilst I was packing up I found like 8 pairs of clean, unused underwear! Deep down I think I always knew I had more than 1 pair.

Well I'm coming up to the last hour of my journey to Jakarta and I'm starting to get more and more excited about things I can do there. It's been ages since I've been there (at least 5 years I think). I really want to do cultural and meaningful activities like; visit my old school, see my old neighborhood, eat Nasi Goreng, play Counter Strike at an internet cafe, and haggle with a local who isn't even trying to sell me anything.

Before I end this blog I just want to say that Garuda Indonesia flights now have wifi. I swear we live in the future now! Sadly you still need to pay for access - so I guess the future is a bleak heartless capitalistic world.

Leaving soon

Woah, I leave in like 5 days. I should probably organize my trip.

Ironically I've put more effort into organizing house trips to the pub or to the beach than I have into my trip. Just yesterday I went to the Blue Mountains with Mitch and before that I went to Jervis Bay for a spontaneous beach day. The Blue Mountains was awesome. The weather was great and the view was spectacular. At one point I jumped into freezing water at the bottom of a small waterfall. I've been trying unsuccessfully to organize a trip to the blue mountains for the last 3 weeks - I even went through the effort of creating a facebook event. In the end, I learned that the best way to organize something is to just make a spontaneous plan and stick to it. Jervis bay was great too. The sand was beautiful, white (not that there's anything wrong with black sand) and pollution free. The only downside was that there were quite a lot of kids playing around in the sand near us. This problem was fixed very easily by bringing out my portable speakers and blasting dubstep in their general direction. It was only a matter of time until their parents, good samaritans or pedophiles hastedly dragged the children away from us.

My Grandparents were visiting Australia over the Christmas break and only recently left. It was nice having them here. It was great to visit the pub with my Granddad and talk to him about his childhood and his Dad's involvement in WW1. I tried digging around for any photos of me with my Grandparents over the Christmas break where I'm not binging on food. After a few hours of searching I found one:

Ok guys, I reckon I'm going to end the post now. I've recently shared my blog with a work friend of mine. As a result, I think it's pretty important that I have at least 1 post that's not reflecting on how wasted I got a few nights before.

New Years Eve, Travel Plans and Roommates

Holy crap it's been a long time since I've written on this thing. There have been quite a few things that have happened since my last post. Gather around children and let me tell you a tale filled with wonder and excitement!

I got fucked up on New Years Eve. Drank way too much. There were 3 parties that I knew of happening on NYE but I didn't go to any of them. Lachie organized a house party literally 2 days before hand and managed to get a fairly decent turnout considering the time constraint. It started off with some casual drinks and well behaved and controlled games of beer pong, but after about 4ish hours my snazzy gentleman demeanor spiraled into a Gollum like character. We managed to walk to Coogee for a bit to meet a few people and chill out.  When we got back we played 20 games of consecutive flip cup. We went through an uncountable amount of champagne, goon and beer. It turns out that I can be quite persuasive when I'm drunk coz I managed to convince a girl who had lasted till 1:00am trying desperately not having a drop of alcohol to have 1.5 bottles of a champagne playing flip cup with me and my team. I later found out that her desire to be sober that night stemmed from an (how should I write this that's not disturbing?) explosive gag reflex to alcohol. I spent the remainder of the night chatting to Andreas, a German guy who was visiting Australia for a few days, and looking after Sven, a German guy who had passed out puking in my backyard. It was a good night :)

Oh speaking of international people, I've managed to organize more of my trip. I'm not sure what I've told you before in previous posts, but i'm going to assume I had no clue what I was doing back then so I'll tell you the plan from the start. I leave on the 24th of Jan (that's right, in 3 weeks!) and I visit the following countries in order:
Indonesia
Thailand
Nepal
Dubai
Turkey
(insert almost every European country)
France
Malaysia
Australia

I've recently booked a unlimited train pass around Europe. This is beyond awesome because it means I have complete freedom to travel any path I like from Turkey to France. I really like the idea of waking up in Italy for breakfast and then deciding spontaneously that I want to be in Switzerland for lunch and Germany for dinner. I'm not sure how fast the trains travel though, so I guess I'll probably end up having all my meals on the train :/

Oh yeah, so in case I haven't mentioned this before, I currently look like a yeti. I haven't cut my hair (or styled it) since February 2014 and I haven't trimmed (or styled) my beard since November 2014. I'm not kidding when I say that I've forgotten how many friends have pulled me aside in private to tell me how much they hate the appearance. I’ve noticed parents shy their kids away from me when I walk down the street and homeless people look up at me with a weird smile of admiration. My parents also recently pointed out that the curls I’m getting on the side of my face are making me look Jewish. Maybe if I keep growing my beard out I might look Muslim. That would be ironic.  I even asked for a house vote to see if I should cut my hair or not. The vote wasn’t good – 6 to 0. Even I voted that I should get my hair cut. I keep telling everyone I know that I’m only growing my beard and hair out so that I can have a natural rug to constantly hug my face when I’m climbing the frozen heights of Everest. However, I’ve never had the strength to tell my closest friends and family the real reason why I keep growing my beard – that’s why I decided to post it on my public blog.  You see folks, the real reason I’ve kept this disgusting appearance for almost a year is because… I want to trademark my youth. I want to see pictures of me on Facebook in 30 years and think to myself “wow, I’ve come a long way”. I know it looks disgusting, it’s itchy, unclean and oh so impractical in the middle of the Australian summer, but goddamn it! If I could grow a ginger afro, I totally would. 

Ok ok, enough about me. It's time for me to tell you guys about my current roommates. They've been staying here for about 6 weeks now and it's entirely my fault I haven't talked to you about them. One is an Italian called Mitch (his actual name is Michele, but I can't pronounce it without offending him so I just call him Mitch), and the other is called Ann (her actual name is Anke or Ann Katrin or something but I can't say that right either). Mitch is 29 years old and loves playing beach volleyball. At first he joined me playing beach volleyball, but it wasn't long until I realized he was muuuuch better than me so I quit out of shame. He's also a professional soccer coach trainer so he knows a whole lot about fitness. Most trainers like him would ask for a $200/hour training session but I asked him if he'd be willing to train me every day for a reasonable payment of 1 beer per week. He didn't accept - typical stingy Italians, eh? Ann is completely different. Reason (1) she's female. Reason (2) I suspect she's probably the most mess sensitive in the house. Amazingly though she seems to love rolling in the Animal House filth with the rest of us. I think she's just remarkably trained at hiding her disgust and pain when she walks into the kitchen or bathroom. Reason (3) She's a Chemistry student (I'm very sure she isn't a Chemical Engineer due to Reason 1) on some scholarship to try and cure cancer or aids or something. Both Mitch and Ann are awesome sauce. They're remarkably friendly and social. Both of them have independently shown me great songs to listen to: Mitch introduced me to Dramma Nero by Coez, and Ann introduced me to Aaron by Paul Kalkbrenner.

Ok, I'm almost done with my riveting story. My website is finally completed. I can begin putting my own content on. This is great for me. Sadly it's quite late - it would have been perfect if this happened 6 months ago. None the less, this event has given me a powerful motivational kick I needed to get some more educational videos produced.

Alright kids, that's it. I've got work tomorrow and I'm way too tired to write more about my life. Wait till the sequel.