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.

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.