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.

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!