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.

Google and Travel Plans

Google has coded this awesome website where you can make your own movie using Google Docs. I made one here:

http://goo.gl/HMpIzj

In other news I'm getting closer to planning my trip to Europe and Asia. I've payed the deposit for Everest and I'm probably going to book my flights to Indonesia tomorrow. I'm a little concerned about going to Sumatra to climb Mt. Kerinci because there are no registered companies that organize the 4 day hike for you. Instead tourists are forced to contact individual guides to walk them up the mountain. Whilst my experience of living in Indonesia has led me to believe that locals are very trustworthy and friendly, I'm still very scared of arriving in Padang Airport with nobody there to meet us.

Also, I have two new roommates now! There's so much to mention that I'll have to leave this for another massive post next time. Spoiler: they're German and Italian just like the last crew.

Tough Mudder

I ran a 19 kilometer obstacle course today called Tough Mudder. It was awesome! It wasn't too crowded and it was very challenging. A lot of the early obstacles were super easy - just climbing over walls or walking through mud. But by the end I was pushed to the limit with 3 obstacles. One of them - called 'Leap of Faith' - featured an old fashioned Navy net that had its lowest end elevated to about 2m above your head and and about 4m in front of you. But the hardest part wasn't jumping and reaching the lowest rung of the net. The hardest part was climbing the net using only your upper body strength.

Another obstacle was a essentially a manlyafied version of monkey bars. You had to swing from suspended ring to suspended ring to get from one side to the other. Sadly this was the only obstacle I didn't make :( - hardly anyone did. The rings were widely spaced that it was impossible to gather the momentum to swing to the next ring. Your only hope was to do it in one go - practically jumping through the air and hoping to get the grip and angle necessary to grab the next ring.

The last obstacle was what many may have perceived to be the easiest, yet ironically was the hardest. All you had to do was run in a straight line trying to dodge dangling electrodes. There were so may that it was impossible to dodge all the electrodes so I just decided to sprint through. Half way through the pit I thought it was a piece of cake, I could barely feel a thing, and I thought to myself if there was any chance of me being stung it wouldn't sting more than one of those prank electric pens you can get for $10. Then it hit me. It was as if Zues himself punched me in the heart. The jolt forced me to jump into the air like a rag doll and shout out the worlds "AHHHHHHHHH!! FUCK!!" at the top of my lungs. It retrospect it was actually quite funny because there were a bunch of kids spectating this final obstacle by the finish line. At the time though, I was only focused on the giant surge of adrenaline coursing through my veins which made me leap out of the pit straight through the finish line like a badass.

Molly

On November 10th at 4:30pm we put Molly down. Our dog was born in 1997 so she was 17 years old - a very old age for a Labrador. Within the last year she had a seizure and was diagnosed with a liver tumor. For far too long we have been fighting nature by trying to keep her going with medication and scrupulous care & support. By the end though, despite my Mum and Dad taking care of her with undying passion, she had lost control of her legs, could barely see, hear, move or even go to the bathroom.

Over the last 17 years she'd developed quite a unique character. Here are a few things that made her special:

1) She never needed a leash. Even when she was a puppy with boundless energy she would always come sprinting back to us.

2) At first she hated swimming, but like the trooper she was, she learned to dive into the water and swim with the fishes. She always tried to catch the fish she saw in the water. Even though she was very smart I don't think she ever learned that bouncing around through the waves actually reduced her chances of catching a fish.

3) Whilst she had many names including; santoh, moless, poodle, smooshie, smooshie poodle, smooshie poodle pie etc etc, she would respond enthusiastically to any name said in a high enough pitch.

4) She hated almost all other dogs but loved my Mum and Dad more than anything - and that includes schmackos doggy treats.

5) She once jumped out of a moving boat to try and swim with dolphins in the middle of the ocean.

6) Molly had a minor fear of cats ever since she was attacked by one in Jakarta

7) We used to go on beach trips to Sambolo in Indonesia. My brother and I would use her as a pillow for the long car ride down. Although we were always there for at least 3 days, she would exhaust all her energy running around on the first 2 days and spend the last day completely motionless in the car waiting for us to drive her home.

8) Towards the end, she would sleep with her tongue lazily protruding from her mouth. Somehow it made her even more cute.

On her last day I was both glad and disappointed to see that Molly was relatively vibrant. I was glad because I knew her last day would be a happy one and because I knew we were putting her down before she mentally and physically deteriorated any further. But I was also disappointed because I had this nagging emotional voice in the back of my head yelling at me saying "she can go on a bit longer!". Reason won in the end. She had a full life and died peacefully right next to the people she loved.

RIP Molly. I'll never forget you.