Nepal day 3

We woke up today and immediately went on the hunt for street food. Brad and I found a place which had a restaurant which had a roof with no holes in it so we decided to enter. Matt was unimpressed with the quality of the restaurant so he decided to go elsewhere. Brad and I remained and enjoyed delicious meals. Brad was super white and had fried rice with chicken. I saw a local next to me eating a large dish called salakana and asked to get the same. Yet again, it had no meat in it and it tasted amazing! I was given a spoon but I chose to eat the meal with my right hand anyway, just like the locals around me did. I also got a 'milk tea' which I thought would be new and exciting, but turned out to be a hot chocolate.

We got talking to a local called Biso while we were at the restaurant. He told us about how he had to drive 4 hours to get to work everyday just to work as a barman in a hostel. And to think I hated traveling 1.5 hours by public transport to go to Uni...

At 2:00pm our Everest group had our first meeting in the loby of the hotel we were staying at. The meeting was dull and the presenter just recited what was already written on the trip notes. The group we are traveling with, on the other hand, seemed overwhelming friendly and energetic. As far as I can tell we the group consists of; 7 Aussies, 3 Brits and 1 German.

I organized to go drinking with quite a lot of them at the Irish pub right by our hotel. It was a lot of fun. Great music and great company. I tried Everest beer there. I don't know why but I suspect it will taste better at base camp.

It started raining and hailing towards the end of the night which makes me think the plane might be delayed in the morning. After all, our flight is scheduled to leave leave at 6:15am.

Oh yeah, my mum gave me the wise advice to drink lots while I'm climbing Everest. Thats why I plan to buy a bottle of rum when I arrive at Lukla airport tomorrow morning.

Well its 11pm right now and I have to wake up at 4am tomorrow morning, so I think I'll end my post here. I doubt I'll have WiFi to write about my Everest trip as I experience it, so for the next 13 days expect nothing but silence!

:D

Nepal day 2

Brad, Matt and I sluggishly woke up and guilt tripped ourselves to go for a walk around Kathmandu. I love the character of Nepal; there were shop signs poking out everywhere, electrical wires tangled in large clumps, and people offering you cocaine at 9:00 in the morning. Who needs coffee, right?

We ended up having breakfast at a place called 'bon appetit'. I had a Nepalese omlet which had absolutely no meat in it, yet somehow managed to taste amazing! How do they do it? I have to have to eat a whole cow to enjoy my spaghetti back home.

Just by walking around we found out today was actually a very special day according to the Hindu religion. All I managed to find out by talking to people was that it had something to do with the God of destruction. Consequently we payed 500 NPR to go Pasupatinath temple. The taxi wasn't able to drive us the whole way because it was so packed with people. There must have been at least 300,000 people outside the temple alone, and there was a line about 1km long to enter. Instead we decided to walk around the area to see if we could at least get a glimpse the temple. Sadly we couldn't see anything so we decided to swim back to the main street and catch a taxi back home. When we got back we talked to the receptionist why it was so popular to see the temple. He said it was because it was the only place and the only time that marijuana was legal.

For lunch we had 10 samosas and 3 'jerries' which are kinda like thin donuts. Once again a great meal without meat! How!?

Later we went for a pub crawl. We all got semi drunk on cocktails. I wanted to have beer but the cocktails were much cheaper and the bar staff kept over pouring local rum in my drinks. I just can't say no to cheap rum! Even when you account for the 10% tip AND 13% service tax its still very cheap. Oh we also got free popcorn! Win.

At one point a bunch of kids wandered into the rooftop bar to beg for money. Apparently its a thing kids do once a year for 'sibrapri'.

Nepal day 1

I arrived in Kathmandu in the early afternoon. Immediately I was given a flashback of Indonesia because so many people came up to me to try and offer me 'super cheap' taxi deals. At this point I considered myself a veteran for finding cheap taxis so I managed to get to the guest house for about $3.

I was dropped just outside the guest house and was immediately approached by a few locals trying to advertise a cheaper hostel for me to stay at. When I told them I'd already payed for the guest house they immediately changed character and asked me if I wanted to buy marajuana from them. Crazy!

I spent quite a bit of time in the guest house catching up on sleep and writing my blog. But after a few hours my body changed priorities and told me to go out in search for food. I tried 'alu paratha' - its kinda like naan bread and it tastes delicious.

I really like Kathmandu. Its nice and cold which is a refreshing break from hot and humid Thailand. The people also speak much better English here which makes it much easier to chat and talk to locals. Lastly, the architecture is very different from Indonesia and Thailand; all the buildings are really squeezed together, there are no side carts and the roads are much narrower - i think the city would seem very efficient and organized if it wasn't for the poverty that inhabits it.

Matt and Brad were scheduled to arrive at the hostel at 11:00pm, however due to immigration problems they arrived almost 3 hours later. At the time I was pretty paranoid and decided to contact their friends from the Philippines via Facebook.

When they arrived we retold a condensed summary of our trips and then passed out in our beds.

Thailand day 14

I woke up at 9:00am hungover and sleep deprived. After deciding getting more sleep was futile, I went on a mission to find the closest greasy meal. About 20 seconds into my walk I found a broken down, unhygienic shack selling rice, duck and some kind of sweet sauce. I had two servings to myself. I can't tell you how awesome it is to get the taste of cockroach out of your mouth.

By about midday Luke and I decided to go to Siam to see the capital. We went there with the intent of being energetic tourists, but the hangover got the better of us and we ended up unenthusiastically dragging our feet around town. We found this one gym which was offering a year membership for 20 Baht (80 cents). The thought of paying money (no matter how little) to do exercise sounded like torture so we decided to leave and head back to Khao San rd.

As soon as we arrived at Khao San rd I sought out the nearest massage parlor. I emptied my wallet in front of them and asked for the longest massage possible.

Later we got in contact with Sarah and Cassia. They were heading to sky bar and invited us to join. Sky bar was a posh and expensive bar that had a dress code. Luke and I were hungover, poor and didn't have a single buttoned shirt so we politely declined.

Instead we had casual drinks at the same pub we went to yesterday. There we met a few German guys and a Canadian. The Canadian guy was really cool, but he had a longer beard than me so I hated him anyway. After only about 10 minutes of talking to each other I casually mentioned without any hesitation or subtlety that we should see a ping pong show. The vote was a unanynous 'yes', so after a few more beers we were on our way.

The show was awful. It was expensive, unimpressive and only lasted 10 minutes. Convinced that we couldn't leave Bangkok on a low point, we decided to go somewhere for food and drinks afterwards. That was much better.

When I got back I slept for about 3 hours before I had to leave to catch my flight. Not an easy task.

Thailand day 13

I arrived at my Bangkok hostel at 5:00am. For some crazy reason the hostel is called Khaosan River Inn hostel even though its not on Khaosan rd and its not in a river. I woke up a receptionist called 'herro' who was fast asleep on the floor with the rest of his family right by the main entrance. They were very friendly and gave me the full tour of the 3 room hostel.

I took a 3 hour power nap and when I woke up I bumped into a British backpacker who was just checking in. His name is Luke Stratford and he's from Kent. Apparently Kent is not the same place as 'old Kent rd' from monopoly - don't worry, I asked. We decided to travel to Chatujak markets together using public transport. The bus was an overcrowded metal tube with 4 wheels crudely stuck to it, but at least it got us there in 1 piece for only 8 Baht.

I had hardly any space in my main bag to buy clothes or souvenirs but I had quite a bit of money, so I decided it was only appropriate to splurge on food. Soooo much phad Thai...

Afterwards we decided to go to Wat Pho to see the reclining Buddha. To save money we took public transport, which included a train and a boat - definitely more enjoyable than a Taxi. It was a 100 Baht entry fee, but it was totally worth it. The golden statue is massive! I think I overheard from a few 5 year olds that it was the biggest Buddha statue in the world.

Amazingly Luke and I weren't sick of each others company yet so we deided to walk to Khao San rd. There I managed to buy a singlet and even more Phad Thai. We then went to a pub and ended up making friends with an attractive girl from the Czech republic called Hanah. Over the course of many beers (not Chang beers, thank God) we got to make friends with a few more people; Sarah and Cassia. Sarah was a black German girl with an American accent and Cassia was just Brazilian. They were a lot of fun. Towards the end Cassia and I were quite drunk and decided to make a feast out of deep fried scorpians, maggots and cockroaches that were being sold from a cart right next to us. The local who sold us the insects was undoubtably in shock because all other tourists only ever have 1 insect as a novelty thing, yet without question or pause we made a full blown meal out of what was on offer. Just for the record; scorpian tastes like salty duck and chicken, the cockroach tastes gooey and salty, and the maggots taste like expired potato chips.

Oh yeah, we also ran into 2 really cool south Korean guys at the pub. They were surprisingly extraverted and showed us this really cool drinking game called 'appartment'. So much fun.

By the end of the night Luke and I were quite drunk so we thought it would be a good idea to share a motorbike home. It was 5:00am at this time so the roads were quite empty. This caused our driver to accelerate to speeds of 70km/hour. A really scary thing when you're dipping in and out of consciousness without any protection whatsoever. Our crazy driver just shouted out the slogan "no police, no problem!" whenever he went through a red light or started riding on the pedestrian walkway. At one point we actually started driving into ongoing traffic to make the journey faster.

It didn't matter how much beer or samsong I'd had that night. When I got back, I was sober as a judge.

Thailand day 12

I woke up this morning and found a tic crawling across my face. I overacted a little and crushed it with my shoes with an unnecessary amount of force an unnecessary amount of times.

My ferry to Krabi was scheduled to leave at 1:30pm so I had some time to mess around and walk around the beach one final time.

On the ferry I sat next to a middle aged Sweedish guy. We got talking about Europe and in the end he suggested I go to Denmark, not Sweeden, when I visit. He was bold, had a walking stick and sounded a little like Yoda so I think I'll take his advice.

When I arrived I walked around hopelessly trying to find the bus station which my hostel receptionist advised me to go to. My efforts were useless though because I later found out that the bus station was a 15-20 minute drive from the dock. This event and many others have given me the lasting impression that the average Thai person is really shit at giving directions and reading maps. In the end though, it turned out to be a good thing because I haggled with a local to drive me to the bus station on the back of his motorbike. I had all my luggage on me too so that made the whole experience pretty awesome. More than once I caught myself grinding my sandles along the road as we overtook a car or sped around a corner.

I rocked up at the bus stop and lazily approached the counter saying 'can I go to Bangkok, please'. I was in luck because they had 1 seat left. 1st class, baby!

The bus was frustratingly long and was scheduled to arrive at 4:30am (yes, am) the next morning. We stopped over briefly somewhere for food and I noticed there was some kind of car promotion party just around the corner. I spent 19 of the 20 minutes I had walking around the fnacy cars watching Thai models seductively dance on some of the larger cars.

Thailand day 11

I woke up this morning excited for the day ahead. I had payed $100 to go on a watersports adventure.

First we had breakfast with the rest of the travelers. I met 2 south Africans there who where extremely friendly. I talked to them for hours during the trip and got to know them really really well. I think one of their names started with an 'R'.

We then hopped on our boat and visited a small tucked away beach area filled with monkeys. The beach was creatively named 'monkey beach'. We brought food and drinks to give them something. The monkeys were very cute and clearly had become accustomed to humans because they came right up next to you to take bananas from you. Sadly a lot of other tourists fed the monkeys coke and sprite, and whilst I'll admit that its adorable watching them struggle with the aluminum can, I'm not sure of an animal that size can handle the sugar content of 5 soft drinks.

We then went to Maya beach which was part of a small island right next to Koh Phi Phi. It was beautiful. The surrounding mountains of rock looked completely uninhabitable because there was no horizontal living space, only vertical jagged rock. However we found that some mountain dwellers did live there and they climbed up and down the mountain using poorly attached peices of bamboo as ladders.

We then floated past a place called Viking cave. Apparently it was where a huge nest of sparrows lived. According to our guide the Chinese pay $4500/kg for sparrow eggs.

Next we had lunch by another beach. The beach was different to all the others because it had small piles of rocks stacked on top of each other. Our guide taught us that if you wear a lifejacket as a nappy then you can lean back on the water and rest a beer on your chest. I perfected the method after half an hour.

Afterwards we went snorkling around a few different locations. The visibility was pretty decent and allowed me to see; coral, fish and a few sharks!

We ended the trip by going wake boarding and water skiing. We had about 15 people on the boat and only 2 people were able to stand; me and one of the south African guys. Although to be honest I only stood for about 2 seconds before I collapsed backwards into the salty water.

Later I had dinner and drinks with a few more people I met at the hostel. They we're British this time! They were very friendly and extremely social. By the end of dinner we had grown to a crew of 15 people. All 15 of them wanted to play flip cup and beer pong at a bar nearby. I joined them but left shortly afterwards. I was tired and I honestly could not stand the taste of Chang beer anymore. It's a disgusting, watered down, flavorless and expensive drink - #tropicparadiseproblems.

Thailand day 10

I woke up quite hungover so I decided to go to the supermarket to buy something with a lot of water. After buying and drinking a few Chang beers I was ready to start the day.

I spent the first few hours of the morning contemplating whether I should go to a different island tomorrow. I went so far as to research Koh Samui, find a good hostel and see if I could find cheap travel deals.

In the end I decided to stay in Koh Phi Phi and invest in a water skiing and island hoping activity.

I spent the majority of the day just walking around and getting a better feel of the island. I climbed to 'the lookout' and took a few good photos. Beautiful.

Later I managed to have drinks with a few Germans, Canadians, and British people in a a Mexican pub. It was really interesting to find out that all of them at some point had traveled to Australia. They all view it as the end goal tropical paradise. Ironic saying that while in Thailand, eh?

I decided not to drink any beers today because I wanted to save money. As a result I went to the boxing arena to watch travelers beat the living shit out of each other for free alcohol. I met a cool Canadian girl and American guy there.

About an hour of watching boxing from around a corner I got the idea that I could get a better view if I was the one fighting. I volunteered and was matched with a guy from Brazil made of muscle. Needless to say, he knocked me out in the first round. On the bright side, my nose isn't broken, my teeth are still there and I got a free bucket of alcohol!

I was pretty woozy afterwards so I decided to call it a night and go to bed.

Thailand day 9

My bus stopped abruptly at 7am in Krabi. I then took a 500 Baht bus and boat package to Koh Phi Phi making the total cost about 1300 Baht ($52 which isn't the best I could have done). It was all worth it when the boat started arriving at the shore.

The view was beautiful; hardly a cloud to be seen, and clean transparent sea water everywhere. I'm definitely going to go swimming later.

Finding my hostel proved to be quite a challenge since a third of the information booths didn't know where it was, another third were convinced it didn't exist, and the rest lazily pointed in contradicting directions. Eventually I found it tucked away in an ally next to a smoothie stand. Its called center point hostel and its pretty good. I'm staying in a 10 bedroom dorm  and the people seem to be friendly and social. Finally I think I can meet some people and go out for a drink with them.

In the afternoon I walked around to find cheap food. I found one small restaurant filled with locals selling food for half the price as the other restaurants. It was awkward eating there coz all the locals stared at me. Afterwards i made my way to the beach. The sand is beautiful, clean and amazingly tourist free. I assumed it was because travelers prefer to drink beers in the pubs, but then I discovered a much larger beach on the other side of the island where everyone hangs out.

I purchased dinner and a 630ml bottle of Chang for 130B ($5). Not bad for a tropical paradise, eh?

Later on I met two German girls in the hostel. One was called Leah, and the other one started with 'f'. They were pretty cool - they told me about how they'd traveled all around Australia over last 3 months while we were drinking in a pub that was also a Muay Thai boxing arena. I really enjoyed the place because if travelers volunteered to fight each other (and lasted 3 rounds) then they were awarded a bucket of free beer. I'm seriously contemplating doing it, but I'm terrified I'll be matched up against some massive American meat head that's been practicing Muay Thai for his entire life. I also don't think my travel insurance covers 'voluntary stupidity'.

We ended up going to a different pub/club and sat next to 2 other German guys. (Why are there so many Germans in Thailand? Are there any left in Germany?). They were taller than me, more muscular than me, and knew fluent German. About half an hour later they all started speaking German to each other, so I politely left.

I ended up running into a bunch of Canadians who were pretty cool. I enjoyed talking to them quite a bit until they all unanimously decided to go on a hunt to a pharmacy to buy/make riddilin.

I was pretty drunk and tired at this point anyway so I decided to go for a walk along the beach back to my hostel.

Thailand day 8

I left Grace's place in the late morning to go to Siam via train and monorail. Siam is supposedly where the heart of the city is but strangely there wasnt much there except giant booming malls like MBK which sold the same stuff side streets did for 5 times the price. I noticed people started playing the game 'spot the hobo' as soon as I entered because I was sweaty and had all my bags on me as I walked around the mall. 

I caught the monorail again to a place called Phrom Phomg where I could get a personal Muay Thai lesson for 800 baht (yeah I know, that's like $32!). I really liked it! I honestly think I'm a few lessons away from becoming a killing machine!

For lunch and dinner I purchased 5 bags of fruit. God they're so good! How do they make mangos, pinaples and apples taste so fresh and juicy every time! Individually the bags are cheap but combined it cost 100 baht. That's the problem with cheap food - you don't know when to stop consuming. Its like happy hour in Australia - you drink twice as much and spend the same amount.

In the late afternoon I went to Mochit to catch a night bus down south to Krabi in the hope I'll be able to find a boat to drop me off a Koh Phi Phi island. It's a night bus that leaves at 6:30pm today and arrives at 11am tomorrow morning. (I'm actually on it right now using the time I've got to catch up on my blog).

I'm planning to go island hopping over the next few days. I've heard Koh Phi Phi has a good party scene and is good for Muay Thai fights. Likewise I've heard Koh Samui has a good relaxed bar scene and Koj Tou is great for snorkling.

I'm finding my spontaneous travel planning philosophy is actually putting quite a bit of stress on me to organize everything in time. This is only because its quite difficult to easily get things done in a county that doesn't speak great English. As far as Thailand is concerned I'm going to start organizing my time at least 1 day in advance. Maybe when I get to Europe I can start being spontaneous again :)

Thailand day 5

We booked an all-day activity with Jumbo trekker today. We left at 8:30 in a large van filled with 6 other people. Two of them were Canadians called Kevin and Kristen.

Our first stop was the 'Long neck village'. Females in this village have been wearing rings around their beck since birth to make them longer. I honstely thought that neck elongation was only an African thing, I guess I was wrong. The price was 500 baht to enter per person so we didn't go in, instead we joined bunch of local children playing soccer with a barely inflated ball and a tyre for the goal. I'm glad we made the decision not to go in though because according to the Canadians it was very fake and an obvious tourist money sinker. Plus the kids were awesome, one of them is going to be the next ronaldo (that's the name of a famous soccer player, right?).

Next we went to see the elephants. You got to go right up close to see them which was awesome. Because there were 9 of us and only 3 elephants two people had to sit on the seat and one person had to sit on the neck per elephant. I was lucky enough to sit on the neck. It looked like I wasn't hurting the elephant, but I couldn't be sure. I tucked my legs behind his ears and we were off. Elephants are really hard to ride - they move a lot and get distracted by everything. I almost fell off a few times. We went on a fairly short ride; only up a gentle dirt incline, down a muddy passage and back up a shallow stream. Afterwards we got to feed them and pat them. Very cool.

Next we went to go for a hike. It was pretty nice and the view was alright but it only lasted 20 minutes and you could tell the path had been walked a million times by tourists before. The waterfall at the end was pretty cool though.

Lastly we went to go white water rafting. I didn't pay any attention to any of the safety instructions before going so that made it even more exciting. Occssionally you'd see giant clumps of elephant poo float by the boat so that gave everyone the motivation they needed to do their job and paddle correctly.

At this point we were pretty good friends with the Canadians so we invited them out to drinks at a recommended pub/ club called Zoe's in yellow. The company was nice, the drinks were good and the hangover was real. There was no bathroom though so you had to walk nextdoor to pay 5b to do your business in a disgusting hole in the ground - it actually would have been cheaper and more enjoyable to crap on the street. On the bright side we got to learn a really cool Canadian drinking game called 'cunty' - it involves flicking a coin between finger goal posts at an empty beer bottle.

Thailand day 7

Today we woke up and went to The Grand Palace. Our hostel was so close we could walk there. When we arrived we found out that they had a pretty strict dress code - no shorts or singlets. I had both so they hustled me into a change room and gave me a spare change of clothes. The entry fee was 500 Baht, and when you got in you could see why. It was filled with beautiful architecture and well preserved/reconstructed wall art. I personally loved the wall art because every wall told a different story. I tried to use the remnants of my high school education to predict what the message was before I read the brosure to find the actual answer. I was horribly wrong every time. One thing I didn't like about the palace though is how packed the entrance and exit were with tourists. It was kind of like a Ford Assembly line; there were speakers screeching instructions at you, guards everywhere, and at one point I'm pretty sure you actually had to stand on a conveyor belt.

In general, that's my one major critisism about what I've seen in Thailand. Its all been done before too many times.

When we got back we took a taxi to the floating markets. Sadley the driver must have misunderstood us because he dropped us off at Jatujak, which had markets! But none of them were floating. None the less the markets were amazing. You could buy almost anything for hardly any money. I overendulged in food and bracelets while Alonso bought a shit tonne of green tea.

When we arrived back at our hostel we walked around Khao San rd once more. I got a hole in my jeans repaired for $2 (which I still think is a rip off) and enjoyed some fantastic phad Thai. I had the time to see the whole place in full action and I've got to say there's a lot going on:
1. They sell scorpians you can eat
2. You can buy fake degrees and licenses
3. You can have hour long massages
4. You can eat large bags of fresh fruit (that are surprisingly outstandingly tasty) for 20b (80 cents).
5. Oh and there are locals who go up to individuals and inform you of a ping pong sex show by making a disgusting popping sound with their lips. At one point I was casually enjoying my phad Thai when an elderly woman leant up next to me and made the sound right by me left ear. That's just scary!

Pablo and Alonso left this evening to go back to Jakarta. I no longer have my Spanish mommy and daddy to look after me. But seriously it was awesome traveling with them! Thanks for the good times.

I immediately siffered without pablo or Alonso's guidance because I had forgotten to book a hostel for tonight. Whoops. After finding out that every hostel was booked in a 2km radius, I decided to call up Grace in desperation to give me a place to stay.

Her apartment is tiny but awesome. There is an especially good swimming pool at the top of the 80 floor building so I got some great opportunities to take some photos of the city.

Just like before, i was only talking to her for about 10 minutes before i did something culturally insensitive. I was pointing my feet at a pillow on my bed on the floor, and apparently that's rude. I think people must perceive me as a walking Satan around here.

Thailand day 6

I woke up at 8:30am to the sound of a parade marching right by our hostel. At first my hangover forbid me to enjoy the band playing, but that changed quickly once they started playing the mission impossible theme song (seriously). The parade was the 39th flower festival and it lasted all the way till midday.

After the music died down and the traffic replaced the parade carts we all decided to go somewhere to eat breakfast. Pablo and Alonso were pretty indecisive so I made them eat mango and sticky rice with me from a side cart. Apparently its a popular local dish for locals for breakfast. It was simple and delicious but I think I'm just too white to say its better than scrambled eggs on toast.

Afterwards we left to go to the airport to fly back to bangkok. An American trying to check into the same flight as us was getting extremely frustrated because his bags were 8kg over the limit and they were charging 400 baht/kg. We ended up sympathizing with him because the money he'd have to spend was the equivalent of an additional 2 flight tickets. I suggested to him that he take out 8kg worth of clothes from his luggage and simply wear it, and he was about to do it until Alonso offered to check in the Americans luggage under Alonso's ticket. It only hit Alonso afterwards that the American could potentially have drugs in his bag, and he was technically liable for it now. I honestly cannot begin to tell you the pure paranoia he went through. Needless to say, we got there fine. No Bangkok prison for us.

When we got to our hostel in bangkok we had enough time to settle in, wander around and eat dinner. We walked around Khao San Rd which is famous for being a backpackers hotspot. Everything is cheap and the energy of the place is enormous. We got invited out to a club by Grace but Pablo and Alonso wanted to watch a soccer game instead. I decided to suspend my hatred/fear of clubs for a night and meet Grace and her friends at Route66. The club was great at first because; there were seats everywhere (even in the dance floor), the music was quiet enough such that you could talk, you can buy full bottles of rum, and Grace's friends are really friendly. Sadly as it got later it turned into more of a club and my irrational phobia of dancing got the better of me. This was worsened once I realized two of Grace's male friends, who were Black and Mexican, (the greatest naturally gifted dance races of all time) were pulling dance moves that would have made Michael Jackson blush.

Thailand day 4

I woke up earlier than the others so I had a long stroll around the neighborhood. Its beautiful. Unlike Indonesia you can walk easily on the pedestrian walkways and walk into small side shops. I really like the Thai people too, they're very friendly. One thing I don't like about Chiang Mai though is how its become such a tourist hotspot. There are quite a few McDonald's, Starbucks and burger king franchises scattered around the place. Strangely, one thing I do like are the small French crepe carts that rest on the side of the road. I think France colonized Vietnam before the war but I don't know if they had any influence over Thailand. Either way, Thai people have really perfected French food.

Later pablo Alonso and I toured about a dozen temples. They were beautiful and well preserved. By the 3rd temple I had transformed into a typical tourist. I was carrying a phone and map in both hands while juggling a coconut I was sipping on which i purchased for $40 Baht. By the 12th temple I was starting to suffer from temple fatigue. Pablo and Alonso went on to check out a final temple 2 hours away while I went back to the hostel and started socializing with Dave and a guy from the Netherlands called Peiter. They showed me this amazing place which gives you twice the quantity of food for half the price. I tried kao soi gai which is a traditional meal known only to Chiang Mai-eans.

After pablo and alonso got back we went to the night bazaar to watch a dancing show performed by lady boys. Sadly at this point I was starting to suffer from food poisoning again so I just toured the markets, bought 2 bracelets and went back to the hostel.

Pablo advised that I take it easy and not eat spicy Thai food for a day. There's no way that's happening.

Thailand day 3

I woke up early and walked around the neighborhood while pablo and Alonso were still asleep. I got to get a good feel of the place by seeing; cafes, food shops and massage parlors open up. Right now my impression of Thailand is that its a beautiful mix between Indonesia and Japan. Its like Indonesia in the sense that; povery is quite provailant and you can find small pockets of agriculture everywhere. Its similar to Japan in the snese that; the infrastructure is very good, people abide by road rules and small gimmicky items are sold at corner shops.

One of the Scottish girls joined us to tour the 'white temple' down south (that's not a sexual reference, I promise).  We caught a songthaew (a large tuktuk) for just 300 baht. It was really cool. It was unlike any temple I've seen before, it was extremely modern and fancy. Everything was so pointy and the paint had no signs of decay or aging. Once you got inside you could see a monk praying and artists along the walls painting. To my surprise the artists were decorating the inside with paintings of modern western commic book figures and events. There was a picture of batman reaching for a mobile phone, Neo holding a gun and the twin towers being destroyed by a snake made out of a petrol pump. Im no english major, but if i were to hazzard a guess id say that the main message was to communicate the evils of human greed and consumerism. Connected to this was a giant gold building that was beautifully decorated with clay heads. It turns out that the building was actually a bathroom. I'm happy to inform you that I have now pissed on a beautiful and sacred temple.

When we got back we said goodbye to the Scottish girls because they were traveling to some rainforest somewhere. We then took a tuktuk up north to the black temple. Sadly there were once again no brochures or sign posts around so you couldn't learn anything about the temple.

We had two hours to burn afterwards so we decided to get a massage. God it was painful. The poor girl tried to overcompensate for the fact I was 3 times her size by twisting me in ways I can't be twisted with brute force. Anyone watching the massage from afar would have thought it was a wrestling match between a petite Asian woman and an inflated corpse.

When we arrived we met a friendly American from Colorado called Dave. We started drinking in the hostel and I found out he's in his late 30's and traveling around the world. Apparently he's been on the road without any money for the last couple of years traveling everywhere in between Alaska and Brazil to Ireland and Malaysia. He talked about the joys and wonders of leaving your job and hitting road without looking back. I'm still trying to decide whether I find it an inspiring story or not.

Thailand day 2

I woke up abruptly at 3:30am and sprinted to the bathroom. For the next half hour I proceeded to vomit up blood into the toilet. I expected to get food poisoning at least once while touring around Asia, but I was really hoping it wouldn't be so soon into my trip. #3rdworldproblems. Fortunately the day ahead of us wasn't too physically intense so I had some time to relax and regain my strength.

We began by going to a Thai temple. All the information signs were in Thai so sadly I couldn't learn anything. None the less it was kinda nice to wander around and take some cool photos. After this Pablo, Alanzo and I said goodbye to Grace and Andres and cought a 6 hour bus up north to Chiang Rai.

When we arrived at the bus stop we took a tuktuk to our hostel called 'big butter hostel'. We tried to haggle with the tuktuk driver but it didn't work. Alas we had to pay 150 baht ($6).

We got there close to 10pm so there wasn't much going on. We went to a local noodle place but I didn't eat much because my stomach was still upsetting me. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be feeling a bit better because we plan to ride motorbikes to 'white temple' and I need to be in top shape for that - after all, I don't have a license.

We met two really cool Scottish girls in the lounge area of our hostel just before we went to bed. They have been traveling for quite a while around Thailand and were very knowledgeable. They might travel around with us tomorrow hopefully.

Thailand day 1

Pablo and Grace met me at the arrivals hall in Bangkok airport. They were with two friends who I hadn't met before; Alonzo and Andres. Even though I was hopelessly sleep deprived I found enough energy to maintain a rudimentary form of communication. Our first stop was Mochit; a bus stop which featured great Thai food and an ATM which I could withdraw cash from. We booked a bus to Grace's house in Mueng Phitsanulok which is midway between Bangkok and Chiang Mai. The bus was great; they gave you free food, free water and a blanket. I was sitting at the front of the double decker bus which was perfect because I had more leg room and had a perfect view of Bangkok. My first impression of Thailand is that its like a cleaner and more spread out version of Jakarta.

About 1 hour in I placed my feet on the rail in front of me so I could go to sleep. Shortly afterwards I was awoken by an attendant who was slapping my leg. I couldnt understand what she was saying but she looked furious and signalled for me to take my feet down. Later I asked Grace why it was so offensive for me to place my feet on the railing above considering so many other people were doing it. Apparently in Thai culture its extremely rude to place your feet above your head. Well done, Matt - you've only been in Thailand for 1 hour and you've already done something cultrally insensitive.

When we got back to Grace's place we put our bags down and immediately headed to a small bar in Maimueng. It was great. There was live Thai music and nothing but Thai food on the menu - not a cheesebeger to be found. We ordered the food which was hardest to pronounce and 3 Leo beers. My expectations for Thai food was very high, and I'm sad to say that they were not met. The food had a punch to it, but it was not tasty. The beer was interesting though. They gave us 3 small glasses and two large ice cubes in each. The beer was nice, but quite watered down - I'm sure the ice didn't help. None the less, the atmosphere of the place and the great Thai service made the whole experience really enjoyable.

Afterwards we went to a supermarket to buy beers so that we could party on when we got back to Grace's place. Sadly though, staying awake for close to 48 hours straight had taken its toll on me and I had to go to bed early.

Indonesia day 9

Our flight back to Jakarta was at 2:00pm so we arranged the receptionist to drive us to the airport at 12:30. The car was just like any other on the road except it had 2 huge speakers installed inside of it. As soon as we all got in the car; the driver put sunglasses on, slammed his foot down on the accelerator, and played the loudest and filthiest dubstep music I've heard. The ride was meant to take 1 hour but we got there in 20 minutes. I found watching the driver zoom around every motorcyclist pretty terrifying so after the first 5 minutes I learned that it would be easiest if I just stared at my feet and let the bellowing sounds of dubstep soothe me.

Once we arrived in Jakarta I said my goodbyes to brad and Matt and found a bluebird taxi to drive me to pondok indah. I was welcomed with open arms by Dennise. She had been kind enough to stock the fridge with bintang beer and prepare an amazing meal consisting of potatoes, roast beef, steamed veggies and some delicious creamy combination of brocolli and colliflour (is that how you spell it? I don't know). Dennise's son, Kiran, was also there!  The 3 of us sat around the dinner table for a while drinking beer, eating great food, and retelling stories. It was very enjoyable.

My flight to Bangkok was leaving at 6:15am the next morning which meant i had to leave at 3:30am. I had organized my finances perfectly such that I had just enough rupiah to pay for a taxi to the airport and the international departure tax. Kiran ruined this plan though by suggesting we should go to a roof top bar in Kemang and drink until I needed to leave for my flight. I thought that was a great idea so I begged Dennise with puppy dog eyes to give me drinking money.

The rooftop bar was dead (as expected for a Sunday night) but we had fun anyway powering through some beers and chatting with kirans Canadian friend.

We got back at 2am ish both pretty drunk and very tired. Just before leaving I found that Dennise had woken up in the middle of the night and prepared a quick breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast for me. Above and beyond, Dennise. Thank you :)

Indonesia day 8

Today we spent 7 hours driving back to Padang. Out plan was to find a hostel by the beach then head to the airport tomorrow. When we arrived we said our goodbyes to Rapani and gave him a 10% tip for being such an awesome guide. The hostel was great: we had 2 beds, a western toilet and wifi. Matt and Brad spent 2 anti social hours catching up on Facebook while I reminisced about the subtle beauties of the Indonesian toilet.

After showering and resting up for a bit we went for a walk along the beach to a giant supermarket. We were pretty hungry so we found the first reteraunt, which happened to be a KFC, and entered. The food was cheap and tasty, but not very satisfying. When leaving the resteraunt we saw a knock off resteraunt about a block away called 'CFC'. We kicked ourselves for not going there instead.

When we got back we found our hostel was filled with young Indonesians. There were about 30 of them and they were all part of some basketball competition for university. They were extremely friendly, spoke pretty good English, played fantastic dub step music, and seemed to love Australians. I versed a few of them at table tennis and somehow managed to win every game - I think they might have let me win. It was a very fun night even though there was no alcohol.

That remends me, its been like 6 days since I've had a beer. Woah. I thought I'd be suffering from withdrawals by now.

Indonesia day 7

We woke up once again to a delicious Indonesian meal consisting of fruit, noodles, fried eggs, rice, sambal, prawn crackers and tea. Shortly afterwards we started driving to Gunung Tujuh; the highest lake in south east Asia. The hike was quite easy (especially compared to Kerinci) but it was quite muddy and slippery because it rained heavily the night before. We saw a whole bunch of interesting wildlife: monkeys, birds, beatles, snails and a plant shaped like a condom. When we got to the top we witnessed the beauty of the lake. It was so undisturbed by wind, rain or wildlife that a slight ripple would oscillate out for about 500m before it damped away. We were lucky enough to find a local who lived by the lake who gave us a lift on his canoe. It was really nice viewing the 7 towering mountains that surrounded the lake. Once again the only downside was the amount of pollution left by the locals. On the shore there were plastic bottles, tin cans and chrisps packets everywhere.

When we got back at about 5:00pm we just collapsed on the floor because two days of constant hiking had taken a toll on our mobility. Out of principle Matt refused to use the Indonesian bathrooms unless completely necessary (I think he was afraid the Queen of England might find out). This made only finding out about toilet paper being for sale by the front door on the last day even more hilarious.