Country number 4 ....or as it used to be known...Siam- destination the first? ... Hat Yai!

The pics (well, the vast majority of them ) can be found on
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.395948647131030.90594.100001476944065&type=3 (I will put some pics in here to give some context!)Actually, there ar a few youtube clips which show the take off from k.l and the view from the skies (as well as some gus playing the pan pipes at a place called Bukit Bintang in K.L)
The links can be clicked on below (note:I am using software which asks for me to pay a fee before they get rid of a tag, so if you see their tag, pretend it isn't there!!!)


             The plane journey to  Hat Yai from Kuala Lumpur took 75 minutes .

Goodbye Malaysia (again) ,Hello Thailand!

 I was a bit worried when I entered this country as I only had a one way ticket here. Sometimes, you might get asked for an onward journey ticket.I am in 2 minds as to where I will be going next so I didn't buy a ticket.Fortunately, the guys didn't ask me so that gives me some time to make up my mind about my next destination after Thailand.
            Anyway,After I landed , I noticed that hardly anyone at this airport could speak english and Thai signs sometimes do not have the english equivalent underneath them. eep!!! Either a.) I learn Thai very quickly or b.)I start using my hands and facial features even more such that the local people understand me (or understand that there is a madman standing in front of them!)
           I asked a woman (at one of the deli. counters at the airport) what the cheapest method of transportation was ...She told me to grab a taxi or public bus...
           I saw a bus and then public bus...

A public bus, as seen from the exit of Hat Yai airport

I asked a  guy ,'how much for the bus -- He replied  300baht ,.I walked off as this seemed fairly excessive and I hate being duped (regardless of the money. It's the attiitude of stupid foreigner that I can feel sometimes when people talk to me. I could be completely wrong though!!! ) Later on that week, I took multiple rides from these buses.Let's just say I am REALLY g;ad that I did not take that original bus.
I walked back around the airport and  found a private bus ....

The official ticket (I wish all places could have official tickets!)

which cost 80 and the driver said he would help me out if i gave him 20 baht (which he reiterated 5 times in 20 minutes) After driving everyone on the bus into Hat Yai, He drove me to the hostel which was REALLY cool as I did not have a map of the place and It would taken me some time to find that hostel.
          I stayed at the  Cathay Homestay , There were no dorm rooms available so I grabbed a private room for 200 Baht...the internet costs money here (100 baht per day at this hostel)..I hope the rest of the country is not like that.

My First hostel room in Thailand

Sorry for posting so many pics of toilets. This will be the last one.This is a bit different as you have to use a step to use the toilet!

            I have noticed over the past couple of days that the electrical socket seems to be placed in the most awkward part of the room! Any time, i need to use it, to recharge the computer or recharge anything, it seems to be located high enough above the floor that you can't leave the computer on the floor as the wires are not long enough!!
           I went for a quick look around the place and noticed a couple of shops with interesting names. I always wanted to visit a 'happy shop' and in Hat Yai, my dream was achieved.

Not a sad shop

I think some shops are trying to tell me something but I am not sure what..I think it could be subliminal!

Across the road from the happy shop, there seemed to be a district full of optician shops.I was really happy to see this as during the time of my stay, I kept getting lost and this became my reference point of finding my location again!

Ah, the irony in using an optician place to figure out where you are going is ...great!

I was caught in a really heavy rainshower at one point. Let's just say that I was really happy to be walking by shops which had room for people to crouch in the corner. Otherwise I would have been drenched as I did not have my raincoat with me (Yes, sometimes I do wear a raincoat! Back in Ireland, I rairly wear them as I have tonnes of jumpers. There is no way, i'd wear jumpers over here!)

The weather is just like Ireland (well, for bout 30 minutes....Before it started raining, it was about 30 degrees, afterwards, The street sellers came out (the guys who sell the street food!) so I didn't really notice the weather but I am sure it was fine (but the heat had gone out of the day by that stage)!)

Have a look at the following clip http://youtu.be/zWLTMxgBSUU strong rain ...eh?
What about the amount of power lines!! http://youtu.be/BQ9HAeap_70

I noticed that the public bus here is very similar to the Jeepney in  the Philippines. i.e: 2 rows of people crammed into one space .There is one differance though. In some public buses, they will have a bench running up the middle of the bus, so there are 3 rows of people AND there are people hanging on at the end of the bus...fun times!!! especially, if i have my 'special shoes' on (Note to self: throw out those shoes as I am getting a few dirty looks at this point!!)

The public bus 

            It is very common to see 3 people on the back of a motorcycle like in the picture above. This seems to be an unwritten rule in Thailand!

            There seems to be an unmerciful amount of power lines everywhere in this place but on the plus side , there are warning signs just in case you miss the mass of wires.

Look at the amount of power lines here..eep!!

But on the plus side, there are warning signs.....I think!!! (By The way, notice the year 2555) this is the Buddhist calendar year, I think so technically, i have gone 543 years into the future!!! (I can tell you the future is VERY different!! but the food is good!!)

It only rained for 20 minutes but the puddles built up in no time at all!! I am not sure if you could fit a third bench running parallel to the other two in this bus!

The public bus/jeepney idea is really cool. It would definately be a winner if someone was allowed to set it up in Blanchardstown/Tallaght.Clondalkin as the public bus system back home is archaic and these come along all the time!! Now, to persuade Dublin bus and politicians that competition is a good thing could take a bit of time but it would be a good idea in the long run!!
          I went for a quick stroll around the town, paying a visit to the local footie stadium (which, by all accounts is an impressive site)

stars of the future in action!

A video clip of the stadium (If you are interested) can be found at http://youtu.be/8QsMcLJYH8g

         and I went to have a look at one of the local menus at a street market. Unfortunately, it was too local or me as I hadn't a clue what anything was!

Which one is the Thai green curry?

I guess it's just called green curry here though. Right?

I passed by a couple of Chinese firework stores. A few days later, I heard that fireworks are used quite a bit when couples become engaged/get married....Ah, so that's why they are used. I genuinely never knew!!

If you want to get engaged, come on in. We will help you celebrate your engagement!!

Right in  the heart of the town, There is a nice clock tower. It's no Big Ben but at the same time, It's no 'time in the slime' either!

Is that the time? time to find some dinner!

   
       There seems to be shrines outside quite a few places around the town And most of these shrines always have spare joiss sticks if you want to light one up, I guess you can but I didn't bother as I was not sure if the owner was supposed to light them or a passerby!

Nice shrine and very common in Hat Yai

In fact, there are tonnes of buddhist figurines up all over the place here. I am afraid my knowledge of buddhism is up there with my knowledge of knitting (is it add one stitch or drop one stitch?) So , I have a couple of photos but I am not sure of names.

These gods represent different days of the week

ditto, the ones here

Wait a minute, how many days of the week are there!!!!

Serene looking Buddha here

All the lads looking peaceful

These are really colourful tributes

Some people worship a different kind of god.

This is The big mall in Hat Yai...named after a princess ...allegedly( ....by me) 

Some of the architecture seemed cool to me .... Have a look at the apartments above the shop here . Also, the block of apartments in the following picture looks very westernised. I took a  pic of a wood carving of some other building also.

nice setup behind the house

This could be Anywhere in the western world

wood carvings of a temple

An actual temple

           Don't forget, with the praying , there is a more important flipside. Yep, you guessed it. An advertisement to see who can wear jeans in the best possible manner. What do you mean you have not heard of that competition???? shame on you! Here is an advertisement that will bring you up to speed!

I am confused (nothing new there then) 

So, is the competition for the jeans or the woman?

            I noticed some similar looking shops seemed to have signs that were written in 2 languages.....yes!!!! One of them was Thai (of course) The other one was...

Mandarin.....I need a Thai-Mandarin-English dictionary. Is there any such dictionary out there?

I decided to have a look at the local market. This market seemed to 'appear' around 4pm and I just walked around all the stalls in a effort to understand what was actually on sale.

Is this tea in a bag?

MMMmmm Fish and a 'surprise' bag

Local women gearing up for the evening sales

Some nice flowers

           A few hours later, I had a look at a night market. This was really cool  as I have ever seen a place completely barren and within a few hours, it was jam packed with clothes and bikes from punters!

I think this place was called green fields

The vast majority of people in Thailand (and Indonesia come to think of it) use the motorcycle so parking space is always at a premium

I found a watch that I was looking  for for the past 20 years! yay!!

       

            On my way back from the market, I kept walking into more and more shops that just appeared from nowhere...an example is a shoe shop that appeared on the side of the street and a womens clothes shop.

These shoes appeared out of nowhere ! (sorry for the quality of this pic. the shoes look like they are running away from my camera!)

Those mannequins were moved to the side of the road around 9pm. Maybe, people come ou at that time to buy these clothes? I don't think this would happen back home (but that could be due to the inclement weather!)

           If you are wondering to yourself, what was John eating durng his stay in Hat Yai. I have a question and a answer. question: why would you be thinking of that question?!? and answer to initial question....I tried out some sambos and milk of course!

you can't beat the sandwiches with milk combo anywhere!

           I headed for a jog for the couple of days that I stayed in Hat Yai. It's tough jogging out here as it the weather is sooo warm but the people seem to be genuinely friendly and willing to cheer me on when I jog by them! There are a fair few bikes to avoid when jogging (but nothing in comparison to Indonesia)
           I went for a foot massage in a shop in Hat Yai (It cost 250 Baht) and I have to say that it really felt good at the end..

The sign says it all!

I think that this statue is known as the is the god of massages 

As most of you know, I can be a bit of a wuss when it comes to cracking your fingers but the woman cracked both my fingers and my toes...At one point,I thought she was trying to rip the toes of my feet! She put all her fingers through all my toes and that felt really strange though it was cool! This massage was a million times better than the one in Melaka (Malaysia). I might give it a go at some other stage in Thailand just to see the differances but my feet felt a billion times better after a few hours...
        Anyway, My time is up as regards Hat Yai! On to Songkhla  by the best means of transport ever, the local bus!

First person on the bus! that bag took up a lot of space so I had to put it between my legs  and hang out the window to make room for the other passengers

how many passenger could fit in this bus? have a look at the following clip... http://youtu.be/xnd3IH4IZZ4

See you Hat Yai, hello Songkhla - home of Bruno Bread...

sounds like some tough bread! 

more pics of Hat Yai can be seen on http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.395948647131030.90594.100001476944065&type=1

Kuala Lumpur - The return (again)

The accompanying photos can be found on
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.394427810616447.90058.100001476944065&type=3  

         So here I am back in K.L for a couple of days! I have decided to head on to Thailand (The reason that I keep coming back to K.L is due to the fact that you can fly to quite  a few destinations from here and it is asy to get the 30 day visa to enter Malaysia whereas in other Asian countries, it's not so straightforward (and they don't charge entrance and exit taxes at the airport here!)) Anyway, I decided to stay at the Serenity hotel (in Bukit Bintang) again as I have stayed there before and at a place called 'punjana' (I think) The atmosphere at the serenity hotel is always really good. In fact, I would say that it's probably the best hostel\hotel that I have stayed at during my trip as nearly everyone (the staff and the guests) seems to want to talk.
         I landed back at the airport in K.L and followed the familiar drill at this stage... i.e: forget where to collect bags...fret....collect bags....forget the way out....take a detour to the toilet to get the thoughts together...walk in random direction until I am outside the building...Jump on bus.
         Anyway, as Git in the bus I started talking to a guy who was just here for the day and then heading on to London for a 4 week holiday. He was telling me that he  represented South Africa in water polo but had to give it up as the family moved to oz when he was 16 and the distances that he needed to travel to play for the new south wales team were too big to contemplate (He used to get up at 4 in the morning to train!) I asked him if he ever swam competitively and he said that he represented his state but did not make the national team.... I was going to tell him that I nearly made the Irish football team but that would have been a lie and I am a brutal lier!
He was telling me a story that happened to him when he was a lifeguard in Australia.  He had to save a girl (She was around 22years old) that was drowning (co-incidentally ,she was Irish but that's not important , but I thought I'd throw that in anyway) and she was caught in a whirlpool. He swam out to her and as she tried to grab him , she kept clawing him in frustration.He told her , either to stop clawing or he would have to knock her out with a punch or they both might die...So, a word of warning, if you are struggling in the water and someone comes to save you,try to resist clawing them!
        So, what to do during this stay in Kuala Lumpur?? hmmmm, I decided to have a quick look through the couchsurfing website and see if there was any activities happening . I noticed one guy posted up a request for people who were interested in a game of table tennis so I mailed him and put the thought in the back of my head for the day...
        At one point during the day, I was filing out an oline form where it asked for my height and weight. I hadn't a clue if there
was a weighing scales in the hostel so I asked the guy at  reception and he told me that there was none here but why 
did I need it [In case you were wondering, it was an application form ].(He asked 'Was it for a dating website?' A dating website where they ask for your weight???? I am not sure if that would catch on! Will people give their real weight on a dating website. I would hazard a guess and say 'no'!)
         I talked to a guy called Ronnie from the Philippines .He has been working in various far flung locations (Turks and Cacos islands
, Vietnam) for the past few years. (half the people I hve met at   this stage seem to be from the Philippines. Does anybody stay in the country!!)  I had a look at the stamps on his passport and I have to say ,there was a pretty varied selection of stamps to be found there!
         I started talking to Jose from Argentina . He has been traveling for a couple of years. He is trying to improove his english. He was 
telling me that he lived for the past 4 months in Jakarta. Now, From what I have seen of Jakarta ,that takes some guts!! His plan is to move on to Australia and work on a few farms for a few months. Sounds good to me. Actually. he mentioned that he heard of a place called hurlingham near Buenos Aires... The locals call the place 'hurling' and apparently they play hurling there!! don't believe me? check this link out on the web!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttjS-7828BY
while I was looking at the clip abov e.g: I saw another one with Che Guevara (you know, The guy that's on all the t-shirts (He did other stuff apart from merchandising t- shirts you know!!))
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBYUOOEHbJw&feature=related
             I went for jog to butterfly park and back again (The Botany gardens (where the butterfly park is located) can be found close to Merdaka square and It's a nice place to jog , once you can avoid being hit by the traffic!). I nearly collapsed with heat exhaustion but made it (barely!) I think I feel a 10km road challenge needs to be attempted soon (I am not sure if I should try anything much longer than that baring in mind the state of me after the Amsterdam half marathon last year!) It's good to start the jogging again although , I am not sure how long my clothes will last due to the heat and my propensity to sweat (what seems like) half my body weight during a jog!
http://www.marathon-photos.com/scripts/event.py?event=Sports/NFNL/2011/Amsterdam%20Marathon&match=26223

I like jogging around various places a it keeps the weight off and the attitudes of people to me when jogging in various countries interests me sometimes! Here are just my observations about various peoples attitude towards me when I have jogged in their country (Well, That sounds like , 'their country' means that people own a country!!)

Israel - I started jogging when I stayed in Israel. The people over there tend to completely ignore the jogger as I think most people are used to keeping fit (You have to attend the army over there so i guess fitness is ingrained wothin you from an early age.) At that point in time, I was carrying a bit of weight and I remember a guy asking me at one point, 'why are you fat?' I wondered what he meant by that....as normally, at that point in time , people would never ask me the reason behind having extra weight!!! I decided to start jogging at that point!

Ireland - I usually jog in the phoenix park.Over there, most people tend to stare at you when you jog! I find that a bit fnny as there are many people out jogging. Also, I notice if I jog in the evening time, there always seem to be many women walking around the park and it seems like there seems to be an unofficial uniform to wear when walking around the park. Usually,it consists of a pink shirt!! (Note to self: sell pink shirts at the phoenix park and you will make a fortune!)
          You will get a few people shouting some 'hilarious' quips from a car when jogging. This has only happened in Ireland and it's frustrating as I can't answer back as the car has already passed by the time I hear the quip!

England - Jogging here was cool as I jogged in quiet neighbourhoods. Some of the local teenage blokes would jog alongside me but that was only because they were trying to make the girls that they were talking to laugh at them!!!

Holland - I only jogged there for that half marathon and it was an experience! Actually, it was very enjoyable as there were live bands playing music all along the route and there were pacemakers who you could measure your pace against....class!

Philippines - I only jogged once while there (in a place called Pagudpud) and I used runners that are not really used for jogging. I was stopped a few times by the locals and asked , 'what are you doing?' so maybe I should change my style as it might look like I was running from something! (Actually, my style does look like I am on the verge of collapse all the time!!!)

Malaysia - K.L is a good place to jog (specifically the botany gardens) but it's tough as the weather is very hot out there. Also, I must remember that Coffee is a diuretic. I tried some before one of my jogs and during the jog, I had to make a quick pitstop in Burger king (Thanks for allowing me to use the toilets there guys!!!)

Thailand - I went for a couple of jogs at 'Hat Yai' and the locals were out in force willing me on!!! I was not sure wht they thought of it as I did not see many joggers there (but I have seen a fair few in Songkhla but they have the sense to jog as the sun goes down in the evening time!)


                                               Anyway, after the jog , I decided to head to the city and buy some goggles as I lost the old ones...making that the 5 millionth thing I have lost/broken since I started this trip.
                  I took a train from KLCC (K.L CONVENTION CENTRE) to Meruli..[This was the location of the table tennis championship of the world* ] I had to change the train 3 times and after the 3rd train I realised that My hostel is VERY close to Meruli (aaarrrggghhh!!! ) It's only 2 stops away.
                   So, at Meruli ,I went into the local fish shop to look for directons. A chinese man brought me right up to the
security guards at the condo  (Both of them were from Bangladesh, one of the guys was telling me that 500 Banladeshi's
went from there to Ireland a couple of months back. I would say that that would be a bit of a culture shock for those
lads! Anyway, we talked a bit about the 20-20 cricket and how Bangladeshs team is slowly becoming more competitive.
(Note to self:  must watch more cricket ) They rang the guys who had organised the ping pong and they showed me around
the condo before the games began. The condo was class.They had a swimming pool there as well as a place for ping ping
and squash. I hope they take advantage of the facilities because they really are cool!!! They even have a library room
in the building!
               Four guys showed up and they were all fairly handy. One of the lads (Alfred) had the chinese grip! (His bat had a
different shape that would compliment th way he held the bat.) I won a couple of games but I think that was due to
pity from the other players! But it was good craic so that was the main thing! Jeg was an interesting cat....Of indian
descent, he spent 5 years attending university in Kiev studying Russian despite not knowing a word of the language
before heading out there!! Still not as impressive as  his table tennis skills though!
             The guys were telling me that normally the couch surfers in kl organise climbing events.I am not sure if I would ever attend one of those but they also said that there was a pool party the day before. I must look out for those things in the future!
              I came back to the hostel around 10pm and  went out for some food and beer with Chriex (better known as chiqui  (better spelt as chheky!)) ) ...Jey came along later (I met the two guys at the hostel the day before...They are both from the Philippines (I am still not fully convinced that Malysia is NOT the Philippines as I have met so many guys from there at this stage!!!!) ). The street food is really nice. I must stick to the street food in future!! (mmmmmm satay) They are trying out their luck in Singapore at the moment. Actually, Jey is a trained nurse - so if there are any nursing jobs going anywhere - give him a shout!!!!!! Chiqui qas telling me that she is one of 6 kids (I think!!) and she is the only one that is not married yet...  You better get your skates on Chiqui (Only joking!!) If you guys are in Singapore for a while longer, I might come and visit if I end up travelling close to that region again!! 
               Actually, before we headed out for food, I remembered i left my phone charging all day.I was lucky it was not stolen....I did this back in Manila and the guys at the hostel took the phone and pretended not to know anything about
it util I could prove it was mine (which is fair enough). I have to remember not to leave my stuff lying around the
place or it will be nicked!
             The next day, we decided to head for the aquarium at the K.L.C.C. Juan had booked out of the hostel  on the previous day but as we were walking towards the K.L.C.C, he spotted us and tagged along (the more , the merrier!) The price to enter the aquarium was failry steep (45RM for a foreigner) so we ddecided to hang out at the food court for a while. After this, Chriex and Jey headed off to Merdeka square, Kim headed to Chinatown and I decided to kill time by doing my favorite leisure activity, eating copious amounts of food!! yum!! 
               Later that evening,  I could any find any paper (to print my boarding pass for the flight to Hat Yai [Thailand] ) at the hostel so I had to find an internet cafe at 12.30 a.m .yikes!! I found one though and it only cost 4RM (around 1 euro). I was fairly tired from
walking around K.L  all day and I had to get up around 6.20 the next morning to get ready for the plane journey.
              I woke up at 6.45 20 minutes after alarm was supposed to go off ....eep!!! This was  no hassle though as it doesn't take me long to 'fix' my hair. I  grabbed a monorail with Chiqui and Jey (as they were heading back to Singapore around the same time )and then a bus to the airport. The airport at K.L is like a home to me at this stage as I have seen it a fair few times over the past few months!! If you ever go there, TAKE ADVANTAGE of the KFC allowing you to have free refills of soft drinks!! (but be careful as they do have a kick if you drink soft drinks consistently for 8 hours straight!!!)
         

*may not be true

Jakarta .... The Mecca of Indonesia

photos cn be found on the following page
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.393559987369896.89775.100001476944065&type=3


Ok.... So I commenced my bus journey from a place close to Batusnagkar (in Sumatra) to Jakarta (in Java). The journey itself took 49 hours. This was tough on the old noggin as
a.) There was only 1 other person on the bus who could speak english and I found that out after a full day of looking lost!!
b.) I forgot to wear a jumper. The temperature on the bus drops very low at night and I was sitting on a kick ass air conditioner which refused to stop blowing lovely fresh air (like a gale force) at me throughout the 2 nights on the bus!!!


 Still, at least I started talking to Riah...He was in his final year at university and he was moing to Jakarta to finish his studies so he had never been. In one way I was lucky as I had 2 seats on the bus for the first 5 hours.After that period of time a woman sat in the seat beside me and proceeded to use me as a pillow why she slept. When she heard me speaking english to Riah, she asked him to ask me why I didn't take the plane from Padang to Jakarta as that would only have taken an hour. I replied in a universal language by rubbing my thumb and forefinger together to indicate saving some money.She replied by laughing at me and checking my trouser pockets for  money..
       We reached BanderLampung (the last stop before the bus was driver on to the ferry ) after nearly 2 days so it was time for a quick kfc (minus the forks.I think I could get used to eating without utensils!) We boarded the ferry around 3.30 am.At 4.30 most of the guys disappeared as they had to prepare for morning prayers at 5. I decided to enjoy the view of sunrise overt the ocean which created Krakatoa...well, as much as you can enjoy a sunrise when you are in that state between awake and asleep.
         I had to stick like a limpet\leech to Riah as I had already forgotten where the bus was parked on th boat and after a few minutes I realised hat if I lost Riah, I might as well have lost all my luggage/passport.....eep!!! Thankfully, Riah was  in no mood to lay hide and seek.He seemed genuinely interested in talking about hus dream of seeing man united play (which seems to be quite a common dream in these parts.) Anyway, after morning prayers, the ferry eventuall made it to Java and we only had another 3 hours to go! 
            When I got off the bus in the centre of Jakarta,a policeman helped me get a taxi and then the taximan asked for 100,000 . I said '  no way ' and he said 50000..I told him to get lost as I knew he was taking the piss (although I wih the policeman could have helped me out more when the taximan asked for 100k)..... Riau helped me get a taxi  but the taximen looking for tourists were terrible ,. Riau and I started talking to the guys on the beja .Riah asked one guy and 5 guys answered 5 different prices and started shouting to maximise the confusion.I ended up paying  50000 for  a trip that should have cost 20000 . This pattern of shouting with the beja drivers is really horrible and at the end of this bartering session, they all started laughing again ....I asked the driver 'how many km to jaksa street and he replied 20 km..... I found out later that it was 4 kms. Actually, at thhe end of the journey, the guy asked for 20,000 more to help with his studies and I cam very close to throwing his helmet at him...
            After reading the lonely planet book,I decided to stay at at the Wisma Delima...According to the book,that place seemed cool.When i went to look for it one guy who was standing 10 meters from the place told me that the  Wisma Delima  had closed down a couple of years ago and to try his place...I am used to this kind of blatent lying at this point so I just ignored him and saw the hotel 20 seconds later. I stayed i the cheapest room there, (the dorm room) For 40,000 rp a night, you could have a bed and all the mosquitos that could fit into your mouth while you sleep!!
          Anyway, I started chatting away to  a girl from London or what I perceved to be a London accent. She was in fact a dutch girl who had a brother studying as a border in Saint Columbas (I think, Rathmines) and I met another bloke from  Holland. The girl was heading on later that evening and they guy was heading on in the morning.He was telling me that  he was helping some kind speak English the following day so I ended up seeing him for a grand total of about 5 minutes the next day...  
Both of the guys said Jakarta  was a bit of a dump.....This didn't fill me with a great deal of confidance as I had 4-5 days to spend here before heading on!
I started chatting to another guy in the hostel. Max is a geman guy travelling through asia before heading back to Berlin in the Autumn.  He was telling me that he wanted to have a look at the local flea market. That sounded like a good idea to me so we walked to the location (I have never been offered so many lifts in my life!) When we got there, we discovered that the flea market really consisted of pricey Batik stuff which neither of us had any interest in so we moved on. I wish the shop owners would give the buyer some room to breathe though. The minute you enter a place, they are all over you.I think this is counter productive as it frightens away a lot of customers.
       The following day..I ended up talking to Max for some time. I noticed that he had a guitar so I asked if he would play a few songs.... and here are some of the songs which he played!!!


Traditional Irish (A german guy singing a trad irish song to an irisih guy who doesn't know the words....shocking stuff!!!  ) http://youtu.be/VVipsC9iEr8

German (Selig)  http://youtu.be/HmPgxbk5j1g
French:   (Noir Desir) http://youtu.be/7L_uoq-lB-4
Singing 3 songs in 3 different languages takes some beating!

I went for a drink or 2 outside the 'Circle K' shop. They have chairs outside all their shops and nobody seems to mind (well, mostly because it's a free place to hang out and they hav free wi-fi there!)
Anyway, I went back to get my book and update a blog (Sometimes I scribble down a few words during the day. If I remember that I wrote them, then they all go in this blog!), I ended up meeting a guy called Jon from the Basque country. He was told there was no room in the dorm. I told him to change to the dorm and save money so he rechecked and this time, they said it was ok! He seemed like an interesting dude.He was telling me that most people from his area do not see themselves as Spanish.He wanted the Spanish national team to lose in the euro finals such that the politicians would not use it as an excuse to forget about the E.U  crisis for that week (Actually, that did make sense to me!) .
      He had to fly home amd come back within 3 days as his workmates needed some help urgently. That is some flight though!! Halfway across the world and back again within one week! I should stop moaning about my bus trip! .
       we were in Bukit Lawang  at the same time [This has happened a fair bit during my time in Indonesia.I would bump into various people who have travelled to the same places as me!].....Jon (Remember he's Basque so it's Jon ,not Juan!!) came back with me to the 'Circle K' shop and I proceeded to show Max and himself a couple of youtube clips of the sport of hurling.  Jon had studied sport in uni. (and I think Max studies some sport in uni also.)  so he had an interest in the game . During the youtube clip, mam decided to skype so it was fun trying to talk to mam while half of Jakarta could hear her (I didn't have any earphones so I had to turn the sound up on the laptop to 11 just to hear her....Don't worry though mam!!! I don't think anybody can understand you over here as people are not used to hearing other speak English so quickly!!)  After discussing the merits of Jai Alai (you know the traditional basque country game.Actually, Jon mentioned that he played a game that seemed like it is EXACTLY the same game as the game we call Handball back home. Apparently, their version of handball is very popular in the Basque region!) we all decided to call it a night. The 2 lads were heading off in the morning.Max was going to India to find himself/ find a paragliding trip that Jon recommended and Jon was off in another direction. Before we all headed back to the room, Jon booked the a motor bike to the airport.The guy on the motorbike seemed like the most nervous Indonesian guy that I have ever met but he seemed cool and we arranged for me to be picked up for my flight back to kl on the Friday. 
     I woke up around 9am   ( after the 2 las had left) and thought that I  might do something today so I went to the mall and bought some runners.I think it's timee to start jogging again as I haven't jogged in quite some time "only once in the last 3 months" -
At this oint , I took it easy and bought some grub at the food court of the mall. I headed back to the hostel for a ew minutes before deciding that I should really take a tour of the area.
I went out again. while walking ,I  noticed a girl was lost . Miriam was just finishing her Masters and was flying back from Perth via Singapore...She was going to kota so I decided to tag along as I really had nothing better to do.
Miriam was telling me that she couldn't get over flying 5 hours from Perth to Sydney  and the people in both places  were very similar.This does not happen in central Europe at all (although, come to think of it, it probably does happen in the states.)
         Anyway,we took the Trans Sumatran bus  and got off at Kota...A guy started talking to us and brought us to see the snake (He didn't want to show Miriam the snake as the snakes blood had powers that only men could understand (I think he meant ... drinking snakes blood will give a man the same ....ahem....'buzz' as trying viagra. As far as I am concerned , the snake can keep his blood though!) ) and a turtle and Kotas version of  Chinatown/..(We saw some battery chickens here...  http://youtu.be/24RYVAmmONw).Then he demanded some money which was fair enough as  he had brought us to a fair few  locations. 
         We went to pnang  market ..... people really stared at miriam (She was telling me at one ppint at the start of the day, some lads were shouting 'hey honey' at her.) While we were walking up and down the night market, a little girl called her 'a loser'. Actually, she found that quite funny!.
At one stage we sat down for a few minutes by a mall as Miriam had a thorn stuck in the bottom of her foot. A few lads (teenageers) 'overtly' took photos of her while she sat down but she was more concerned with the thorn (which actually looked very sore). At one point, I got a cup of liquid (water) thrown at me from a  car window. I know 2 foreign people might stick out a bit in this part of toen but the reaction from the locals at that time of night was a little 'festive'! I thought at this point that it might be a good idea to get a taxi....we stopped 6 taxis (The first 5 asked for quite a bit of money!) and got one for 40k...
            Then we got back to the hostel, Miriam was looking for a bandage for her foot. a guy stopped her on the street and asked if she was interested in going to a concert....she said no but he then proceeded to help Miriam get some mosquito repellent.Actually, he seemed like a good bloke! He worked in Holland for 1.5 years as a hotel manager. He hung out with us for a couple of hours, even driving us to the train station and seeing if he could get the ticket to JogJakarta that Miriam was looking for. He drove us up to the national monument and gave us a quick history of the area so all in all, it was a cool 'chance' meeting!!! He mentioned meeting up for beers the following day.
  The next day , I met a  japanese guy and a french guy in the hostel. The french guy  had travelled to tasak chini! (I was there at the start of my trip but I met nobody else (until now) who had gone on a similar journey! He ws telling me that he met a woman who was travelling around the world on a motorbike while he was there and apparently, she is only one of 4 people who are doing this!)
       I was going to visit 'taman puring' to get some cheap gear but then I realised, I always wear cheap gear anyway, so there would be no point going there!!!
       I went to the mall and the  independence tower with Miriam. Actually, if you ever go Jakarta, go here as it's quite an interesting place to visit as you can read all about th history Indonesiia has with Holland and how the country developed into the place it is today. (A quicke mp4 of the tower: http://youtu.be/Hfudk_I2GIM) Also don't worry about getting lost. I lost my barings at one point and one of the street sellers saw me looking around and said   'you are going home that way. you came from jaxsa' ....and you' will prob see your friend this evening... Wow, I was kind of stunned as a few days earliier, i though nobody had heard of Jaxsa .Now, it's obvious that nearly all foreigners stay there so EVERYBODY knows exactly where it is!
We headed back to our respective hostels and a guy who was selling the blow dart gun came over to me again. I have never seen somebody try to sell one thing to me so many times ver a 4 day period. The thing is, I show absolutely NO INTEREST in buying the gun at any stage!
        I decided to take a rest back at the hostel. A guy saw me lying on the bed and stared at me for about 10 seconds.... I said ...'hi, i'm  John'  and he responded, 'It's Sam!'  I had met the 'Grizzly Adams' version of  Sam in Bukittinggi and 2 weeks later (and maybe 1200 km later also) a shaved headed Sam (still with beard) was in town!! This is happening more frequently now! It was good to see Sam as he had lots of movies that I could copy to my hard drive.....hang on!!! I gave him something in return...Although I am not sure if a computer virus is a good thing...sorry Sam!!! Sa was thinking of trying to cycle his way from the UK to Australia next year.....Sounds like a good idea Sam . Just use this guy as your inspiration ! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinz_Stucke) 
     Anyway, Sam notice the mosquitos straight away....I think they must have a mosquito community living in the dorm room! Sam was saying that the Wisma Delima was the first hostel established in Jakarta way back in the day. It's an ok place to meet people but the mozzies are something else in the dorm room!
        I headed off with Sam to the mall and we  ended up heading to the wrong mall...Eventually, we went to the correct mall (which was a round trip of maybe 4kms!) where they had traditional instruments and postcards! I had a go at some of the musical instruments.I saw the security guard giving me the evil eye so I thought I'd better move on !
         Anyway, Sam made his way to the airport that evening and the following morning I went to the postoffice to get some stamps for the postcards. The postoffice woman started laughing when I gave  her 8000, Miriam had paid 7500 and 4000  for various stamps the other day....so i knew I was being duped but I had no tim to go to the otther post office...dang!
           The Blow dart guy tried to sell me the blow dart today but he got the same answer as before ! He didn't hang around for too long though as I think he is coming to the conclusion that I have no interest in buying the damned contraption! He told me , he had them specially shipped in from Kalemantan every 3 months but Sam bought the exact same one in the shops the other day!
           I got a lift to the airport with the nervous guy. He drove like a madman but he was cool, his English was not great and the helmet that he gave me to wear  kept falling over my face (which was a good thing as then i could not see where the bike was going (i.e: at some point, the wrong way up a 1 way street, at another point, diectly into a bus.)) but he wished me well and told me to come back to Jakarta next year..Anyway, next stop Kuala Lumpur and then Thailand awaits!

Extra stuff!!!!!

Things I dislike about Indonesia:
1. People will try to make friends with you before asking for money. I would prefer if they just asked for money. e.g: th tourist guides would start talking away to you for a few minutes and walk around with you. Then, some might ask for money at the end of the talk and some others woukld not.
e.g2: the guy who tried to sell me the bamboo blowdarts was super friendly but when he realised that i would not buy the blowdart, he stopped chatting and moved on.

2. people getting on buses and playing musical instruments really badly and then looking for money. Normally, you can sit down outside restauants and some 'musicians' will come up to your face and shout/sing/hit the guitar and wave a bag in your face. as soon as you give money, they stop playing and move on.

3. The state of the traffic. Without a shadow of a doubt, there is a God and I know this as I am still alive after a month of being here. The rules of the road here state that people drive on the left hand side but I see people driving from the left , from the right, up the wrong side of the road, on the paths (beeping the pedestrians to get out of the way.) Using the horn for any useful purpose is rendered a bit obsolete if it used all the time!

4. Knowing that you re being ripped off and at the same time, knowing that you are being laughed at. I experienced this at the post office when the lady asked for 8000 to send the postcards....Now, I knew for a fact that they are cheaper than that but I had no time to go back to the other place. I don't actually mind being ripped off as I am not losing too much money. The killer thing is ....she started speaking to her friend in Indonesian and was laughing like crazy at the same time. I don't need to know the language to know why she was laughing. The same thing happened with me in Bukit Lawang.The tour guide asked me if I wanted to share a meal with me after our 3 days of trekking. I had no problems with that until he asked for an extortionate amount for the meal...Then, he proceeded to invite half the tour guides to the meal and speak in Indonesian for the whole period of the meal.
when I arrived in Jakarta from the 2 day bus journey from Bukittinggi, I asked the policeman to help me out and he told me to get a cab .The taxi man then asked for 100,000. I hadn't a clue where I was or where Jalan Jaksa (the only place (for the most part) where foreigners stay) was but i guessed that it was too much so I told the driver to go away so he dropped his price to 50000 straight away.... I said no but then i got a lift on a motor bike for 50,000. The guy told me the place was 20km away when it was only 5 km away and when i asked him how much it would cost, you would get 8 or 9 people shouting different values  at the same time and when you accept a price, they would  always laugh... I ended up asking 3 or 4 people for prices of everything just to see if anybody would say the same price and for the most part this was not the case.When I went into a shop to buy something and they had a calulator on  the desk ,I tended to walk out as they would always type in an amount when I wanted to buy something.This amount was always a random amount.

5. The feeling that you know they know the answer to your question but they are siizing you up for money....An example of this was in Jakarta. I was lost on a side street and was not sure what street to take to get to Gambir train station so I asked a guy. He looked at me and repeated the word gambir as if I used a word that he had never heard in his life. I guess he was going to ask me if i wanted a lift after a couple of seconds so I walked off.Another time, I got to the Jalan Jaksa andlooked for the wisma hotel. I asked a guy for the location of the hotel as I knew it was closeby, he told me that it had closed down 2 years earlier. I thanked him and continued walking for another 15 metres before I saw the Hotel ...and it was open for business!!!

6. The exit tax (150,000 RP) and entrance tax (25 dollars). Apparently,a few years agio , you could get a 2 month visa for  Indonesia and it would not cost you anything. This is not a big problem though as people have to get money some way although you do have to pay the entrance fee by cash so that money could go missing quite easily.

7. When I go into fashion /clothes shops, nearly all the models are westernised or are from Europe...(This seems to occur over all of South East Asia that I have visited). The local people are EASILY as good looking as western people in all the places that I have visited    (Although beauty is in the eye of the beerholder!) and the preoccupation of selling whitening creams to woman is something that I will NEVER understand!!

Things I like about Indonesia:
1. For every person that will come up to you and chat you up so they can take your money, I have met people who will come up to you and chat with you because they are genuinely interested in why you have come to visit their country.Some people would like to practise their english speaking skills and some just have an inquisitive nature (similar to me.) I have had some interesting conversations (re: the man I met on the streets of Bukittinggi 3 times) with people who have maybe 200 words of english but that would not bother them when speaking to me so why should I be bothered!!


2. Some people are genuinely willing to help you out.I remember getting off the Bus from Bukit Lawang and some guys kept shouting at me so they could sell me stuff.I found a place 50 meters away (beside a warehouse)  I wanted to gather my thoughts before going to the next place and needed a few minutes of peace and quiet. One particular guy who only had a few words of english noticed me and clocked that I just needed some space so he advised me about chea places to eat and where to go to get the next bus and how much it would cost.He talked to me for maybe 5 minutes before moving on and this was REALLY appeciated. He wasn't in my face and didn't want anything in return. That was nice and it happened a few times over the few weeks that I was here.

3. Being treated as a family member - not a Bule by the zakaria family. While staying at various hostels/hotels I was made to feel like I was a tourist who was here to pump money into the economy and that was all. This is na horrible feeling as it feels like I am just using people for me own needs. My whole point about traveling is to see how people live their daily life.It is really cool for me to learn various things along the way (e.g: experiance climbing a volcano, see various fruit trees,coconut trees) but it is noce to see people going about their daily business and how different/similar it is to the way I go about my life back home. The Zakaria family could have treated me like a tourist but they went out of their way to invite me to various gatherings and events ans that's something that I would never see as a tourist. Thanks guys!


4. The people who are genuinely friendly will give you the clothes off their back (well, nobody would give me their clothes as I am 5 sizes bigger than anyone here!) If you are sitting on the side of the road and looking tired, the chances are that somebody will come up to you and ask you if you are ok (Even if they can't speak english.) The trick is knowing which of these guys are looking for a way to make money and which are being genuinely friendly.


5. Peoples honesty: Everybody kept asking me , why was I traveling alone and why wasn't I married. These were genuine questions and it showed that people took am interest in where I was going/ my state of mind. [ By the way, in case you were wondering, the answers to the questions are ... I am traveling alone as I never really know where I am going next and I am not sure if there are many people who are willing to travel with someone who does not know where they are going next (Although, there are many,many ,many people who are traveling alone.I am surprised as I never realised that most people that are traveling around this part of the world are doing it by themselves. This is a pleasant surprise to me!) and I am not married as I am still a bit on yet over my shyness at some stage...I hope]

6. When traveling on the buses, most people will stare at you but that's because you look different so that's no big deal. Also, most will try to speak english.This can present a bit of a challenge when trying to hold a decent conversation but it is an interesting way to pass a few hours! I have never talked with my hands so much!

7. Eating with your hands. This is something that I have done in the past but that was due to the fact that I was too lazy to use a fork. Over here, most people eat with their hands and I noticed that they made no mess while eating (unlike me who seemed to drop rice / chicken / vegetables everywhere while I was eating!)

8. Peoples willingness to help. People over here will always help you out. some people will look for money and some will not but people will always ask you if  you are lost or where do you want to go!

9.The haggling woman in Tomoc. Now, I HATE haggling but when the woman trying to sell me the shirt tells me to haggle, then I found that strangely amusing. I felt like haggling upwards!


I always have to remember the following....it's easy to have an opinion when you have money in this country. There are quite a lot of people who have nothing here and it's completely understandable that they have to sell anything and everything to get by. I would rather they be completely honest and not pretend to be friendly before looking for money but then again I was never in that position that I needed money to survive or I would starve.

Bukitttinggi (with a short stop in Batusangkar)

 (Note:) I have placed all my pic of Bukittinggi up on
 http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.392532717472623.89472.100001476944065&type=3        

             I arrived at Bukittinggi around 4p.m and felt completely lost! I asked the guy on the bus for directions to the hostels but he didn't really want to know so I ended up walking up and down the main street and eventually finding my way to the bus 'terminal'. I asked one of the guys at the terminal , 'how much does it cost to get to the location of all the hostels'. 2 guys responded. A guy in Indonesian said 7,500 and a guy responded in English said 2,000 RP and directed me towards the car... I landed at the hostel around 5 but Ullrich (the hostel owner  (Actually, Ullrich told me that the word 'Bule' literally means 'washed out' so when somebody uses that word, it's not really a compliment!)) said that they were full and to try Maninjau .So, back I went to the terminal where someone told me it would cost 50,000 to get there. I thought I'd be better off trying to look around all the hostels here so I took  another public bus back to the hostels and grabbed a room in na place called 'Nirwana hotel' for 70,000RP. It wasn't too bad and  they had free tea and coffee so I drank a fair few pints of tea!
            The following morning, I decided to go for a walk around the area.At one point, a guy stopped me on the street and explained that he was an english teacher in Bukkittinggi and an Indonesian teacher in Melbourne and he wanted to chat to me...I am getting used to these kinds of conversations at this stage so I said 'cool' and gave him the address of the hotel.
            Another 15 minutes down the road, I decided to take a rest.While I was sitting down, a guy on a motorbike pulled over on the side of the road and gave me a big talk on how he gives 3 day treks to people.I wasn't really interested in that but then he sid he knew a guy called 'Mr Edy' who ran an english school in Batusankhar and would I be interested in teaching a class. I told the guy that I wasn't really interested and he didn't seem to bothered.
             I changed the hostel from Nirwana to Ulrichs hostel and got chatting to a couple of lads staying in the hostel. Sam from england had an unreal amount of movies on his hard drive so i grabbed some of those. I was in 2 minds if I should take these though as I might be wasting my time watching movies when I could be looking at some scenery!!
            I decided to randomly walk out of the town.I walked for a godd hour and during this hour ,at leas 4 people stopped me and asked where I was going and do I want a lift! This seems to happen all over Sumatra!
           The following day, I headed down to the market where one of the locals started talking to me and showed me around the place. He  liked talking a language which I would describe as one fifth English  and four fifths Indonesian so I haven't a clue about the majority of the stuff he was saying (although he did say the word 'pasir' quite a bit so I reckon that means 'but') He told me to come back the following day so he could show me some more sights.I was not so sure if this was a good idea but the following day , I bumped into him  and he invited me to go into the local market to visit his friend who had studied agriculture in university.  His friend was REALLY knowledgeable about Ireland, He was telling me that he bought a stall at the market 10 years ago for 3 million Rupiah and the value hhad increased to 10 Million .He was hoping it would increse to 30 million  by the time he  hits 60 (He was saying that it's a bit of a struggle to get by if you are over 60 in Indonesia so he was trying to make some hay now! ) He mentioned his love for texas hold em which was interesting to me as It's frowned upon in Muslim culture to bet!
              I decided that I was going to take a tour  of Bukittinggi on the back of a motorbike as I don't really  want to drive around here with no license! (and  the tour guide knows all the places to visit anyway. )
              I spent most of the next day visiting various places from a coffee plantation to various fields (full of cinnamon trees,coconut trees, cloves,Mangos (They have a lot of fruit over here!) ) The tour guide told me that he was able to take off 2 days every month such that he could see his 4 kids. He seemed like an interesting guy and throughout various stages of the day , He stopped at couple of places off the beaten track to chat to the locals. This was really cool as I was offered free food at some point! (As usual, the locals seemed to come from everywhere to stare at me. This was ok though as in this instance I get the feeling that these people rarely see anyone that is not Indonesian and they made me feel welcome...)
             I decided to head on to another place but before I deecided to go anywhere, another guy stopped me in the street and asked me If I was interested in teaching English to some students as it would be good for the soul....I don't know if he was trying to freak me out or trying to help his friend (which happened to be 'Mr Edy') but I agreed to go to Batusangkhar for a day.  In the meantime, I wanted ti buy some runners as I was getting a bit bored from not getting much exercise. I went into at least 5 shops in Bukittinggi. I told the guys my shoe size was empat puloh lima (45) but none of them had a shoe that big. I found out later that day that my runner size was actually a 46!
            Anyway, I got a lift to Batusankhar .Mr Edy was at a meeting so I ended up talking to one of the teachers at the private school. She had never heard of Ireland. In fact during the 3 hours that I was sitting down at the front room of the school, I noticed that Ireland is not really a well known place in this side of the world! I went for a quick walk around the town.When I asked some of the guys in the shoe shop if they had size 45 runners, they laughed me out of the shop!!
            Edy arrived around 5pm .He seemed to be fairly stressed out as he was attending meetings all day. The school year was due to start the following day and I was leaving for Jakarta at 10am. So, I ended up talking to random students for a while before heading back to Edy's house. He had a specially built room built on to the side of the garage which catered for guests of the school. To be honest, I founds this a bit offputting as  It seemed like I was put into a prison cell away from the main house!!! Don't get me wrong, the room was really nice but it would have been really cool to interact with Edy a bit more. In fairness, he gave me a nice dinner and the bed was perfect but the atmosphere felt a bit cold. His house was in a gated community (This is the first time I have been in a house which had an electronic gate and I am not sure if I like it! )
           Anyway, I was here to teach so at 8 a.m the following morning Edy introduced me to one of his classes and I proceeded to teach them a few random things (just to get the kids talking.) At the end of the class, the class prefect shook my hand and then headbutted it (which was a bit different!)
            Edy  booked an ojek so at 10, I jumped on the back of the bike and headed to the bus stop. The Ojek driver ended up taking me to the wrong place and he had to dive 15 kms in the another direction to catch up with the bus driver!!! In fairness, he had plenty of time to catch up to the bus as that Bus (one from (close to Batusangkar)
 to Jakarta took 49 hours!!)

My Muslim family ...a.k.a: Pasir Pangaraian - Riau a.k.a : Hey Búle (Tourist) ,BúLE!!!! Misterrrrrr, Misterrrrrrr...Hi!!

   I left Danau Toba around 8 o clock. The boat was supposed to leave at that time but had actually arrived 5 minutes earlier so , being me (i.e: Leaving everything to the last minute) , I had to grab all my gear and throw it together in a bag even though the clothes were not fully dry yet! Nasrun had to tell the captain of the boat to wait a couple of minutes as he was ready to pull off without me!! Thankfully, I was able to jump on board. I was able to take a few  photos of tuk-tuk and Samosir island as I was leaving and ere they are!

At this point in time, I had jumped on to the ship with no time to spare! 

Nice scenery looking back at Tuk -Tuk

Seafront view of  traditional houses at Tuk Tuk

combination of mountain and sea! 

Message wrote on the side of the mountain in Samosir (With trees!) 

I think this is my cue to stop taking photos (I have taken 7,000 of them at this point!!)

Nasrun on the boat from Tuk Tuk to Parapat

Parapat

          The boat from Tuk Tuk to Parapat took an hour.During the journey, I started talking to an aussie guy about random stuff (E.G: Jim Stynes , The state of the economy in perth [Apparently Western Australia is the place to be if you want to indulge in a spot of mining.],  how poofters (his words not mine, have influenced the Aussie economy to such a state that they are now respected.))
          Nasrun had booked a private car to take everyone back to Pasir Pangaraian but the car was not ready so I had another hour to kill when I landed in Parapat so I had a quick walk around the town....I tried some more Indonesian: I went to a shop and tried to buy a notebook ....Berapa an (how much)? the woman replied 'Tiga belas ribu' (At least, I think that was what she said! Thats 13,000) I was not used to hearing responses so  I did not have a clue what she said until a couple of seconds later!! Trying to speak a language can be tricky!!

I grabbed some tea in this local shop (Parapat)

Downtown Parapat (Every place seems to have a traffic jam!)

There are plenty of attractions to Parapat you know!

and we are on our way to Riau!

Leaving the Christian churches behind ....heading into Mosque territory  

The car journey was 11 hours , plenty of time to see people working in the fields

Sumatra really has fertile fields!

We stopped at one point for a toilet break . We were able to feed the monkeys at the rest room (you know that whole toilet  + feeding the monkeys combo? no, me neither but the monkeys were happy!)

Look, I just want to go to the toilet!

They REALLY like rice here!

This pic . looks like it could have taken place in Cork!

         After about 4 hours , we stopped at a traditional muslim restaurant.Over here, they bring out all the food on small plates and you take what you want (You start off with some rice on your plate.) When you are finished , the remaining food is taken from the table and  brought out for the next customer.

Can you recognise most of the dishes here?

        The guys had the heart to let me use a spoon and fork as (contrary to popular opinion) I am not great at eating food while using my hands. It is second nature to Nasrun and all the guys. (Normally, you use the water in the grey tray to wash your hands and then you can work away at the food sans spoon and fork with no mess!.)
After the meal, I went back to the car.As I was standing by the car,  a man of maybe 65 came up to me  (about 2 foot from me) and just stared at me for about 20 seconds. That's one moment I will not forget for a long time!

I ate the egg cake, chicken , a potato cake and some rice. num num!!!

After lunch, it was field spotting time again!

During our journey to Pasir Pangaraian, we passed a football match.There seemed to be a good sized crowd at it but once I started taking photos, the focus of attention shifted from the game!

                                       
                                                                                             local football match

Follow that river!

       We reached Pasir Pangaraian around 11.15 that evening and I was introduced to Rantung (Nasruns son) and Salmie (Nasruns wife). The Euro championship final was on that night (at 2a.m local time) so I was able to grab a couple of hours sleep before the big game (the only game in the tournament that I saw live!) Rantung and I woke up around 1.15 and went downtown on a motorbike to the showing of the game (The game was screened on a huge screen in the centre of town.) I can't remember the last time that I saw a football game where everybody that was watching the game were stone cold sober! In case you were wondering, nearly everybody over here wanted Spain to win and they duly did (with lots to spare.) Rantung drove home soon afterwards to end a long day!
      Muslim people start praying at 5 a.m every morning. This means that the mosque usually blares out parts of the koran around 4.50 EVERY MORNING! This is some experience , especially when there are 2 mosques which are situated in close proximity to each other. The noise can be fairly deafening (This has been happening for many,many,many years so it is second nature to everyone here!) So, when I get up around 7a.m for breakfast, I feel like I am a really lazy so and so!
      Salmie had breakfast prepared when I went down the stairs..

Breakfast (rice, Tofu,vegetables and an Omeltte)

I think there was some chilli mixed in with the vegetables (Chilli is VERY popular here). I think Salmie and Nasrun noticed my aversion to chilli at an early stage so they started rationing out the chilli to me so my body could get used to it! (Thanks for that!) In fact, as the week progressed , the meals became more western such that I was able to eat as much as possible (again, thanks!)
       After the breakfast, Rantung showed me around the local market and the Newest Mosque in Pasir Pangaraian.

How can you fit so much stuff into one small area!! 

(Meticulous organisation!)

Sorry, I had to show fuel prices within Indonesia at some point in time!

The mosque (Masjid) that you will see when entering Pasir Pangaraian

Rantung outside the mosque

A huge drum greeted us outside our entrance to the mosque (Arabic writing was inscribed on the side of the drum)

There are lots of taps within the mosque. Usually , people will wash their hands and feet before entering the main hall of the Masjid

Men will kneel on the floor and pray in this room

The stage, you can see various times in various places throughout the world on the left hand side of this picture

Closeup of a Chandelier in the main hall

Monument outside the Masjid

         We had to get back to the house as Nasrun told us that I had to sign in with the police to inform them that I was staying with them (Normally, In Indonesia, if you stay at a hostel, the hostel takes responsibility of your location and wellbeing.If you stay at a house, then you have to go to the police and tell them this.) So ,after lunch ,Nasrun drove me to the Police station where I had to fill out a form stating when I had arrived in the country and when I was leaving.The main police officer did not speak much english although one of the other guys was happy to translate from english to Baha Indonesian for me. He told me mostt people called him
Ardiansyah but I could call him Mr Smith!

Mugshot of me with crime rates in the region over the past couple of years in the background

Mr Smith 

Ardiansyah was saying that it was a good idea for me to come down to the station as people sometimes go missing in this area...eep!!!
He was saying that the minimum height to get into the police within Indonesia is 1 metre 65 cm....I think that's a lot shorter than Ireland.The police over here look a lot shorter than back home (but hen again, so does everybody else!).
I didn't feel nervous though as everybody made me feel welcome. I had the usual photoshoot with a couple of the police and the secretary before we headed back home on Nasruns bike (Coincidentally, I think I am getting used to riding pillion on a motorbike now. The hands should be around the waist of the driver , NOT around the shoulders!!!)

Random picture of a swan showing off his neck 

Later that evening, I went for a quick walk around the town to see what it was like. After hearing 'hello misterrrrrrrrrrrr' about 50 times and getting an invitation to stay with one of the street sellers, I decided to head back to the house....But not before , I thought I saw my surname written on a sign!!!

Just missing a 'h'!

I Noticed Nasrun was swinging some sort of squash raquet shaped thing which seemed to produce bursts of electricity. This implement was a mosquito killing machine!!!

Just hold down the button on the side , start swiping away ad watch the sparks fly!!

I had a quick spot of dinner before bedtime...

Omelette mixed in with various vegetables (with the exception of cucumber as that is an evil vegetable for me!!!!) and some sweet tea

Rantung mentioned going down to the river and going for a swim the next morning. I though this might be a good idea so I slept on that idea..... The next day, we headed down to the river but there was a lot of rain during the night so that idea was kiboshed for safety reason. I did get to see some fisherman fishing due to the high level of the river though..

Grab those fish!

Nasruns students visited the river quite a bit so they were able to practise their english with me when I visited the beach (another name for the river.)

high tides = multiple fishermen

I forgot to say....In muslim tradition, it is quite common for  a newly married couple to live with the parents of the bride. I saw this a few times during my stay in Pasir Pangaraian (This used to occur in rural areas back home but I am not sure if it happens that much anymore.)

After coming back from the river, it was time for some coconut flavoured bread...num!!!

This sweet is very addictive!! (and coconuts are found EVERYWHERE around here!)

Salmie cooked some fish for lunch. This took me an age to eat, not because the fish tasted bad (It didn't) but because there were a lot of bones to be picked at and I have a bit of a phobia about bones!

mmmmm , lovely fish!!!!

followed by a spot of water melon....

Nasrun doing the honours

At one point, we decided to visit the waterfall , locally known as 'Aek Martua'. In case you are wondering where this waterfall can be found, don't worry!!! It's located at Tangun,Pasir Pangaraian, Riau but you will need a local person to help you find the place. Rantungs uncle lead the way to the waterfall.Along the way, we passed over a class bridge...

Try crossing this bridge as a pillion passenger on the back of a motorbike!

View from the bridge itself...We are entering real jungle territory here!

'

After the bridge, there was another 25 minutes on the bike before the 50 minute walk.I should keep fit!

Be careful here!

Take it slow here!

At the waterfall with Rantungs uncle

Standing behind the waterfall , behind the water!

Pic. of the waterfall hitting the REALLY slippy ground

wider view of the first waterfall

View of the bigger waterfall

Look at those colours!

wow

I can see an escape route!

small waterfall droplets everywhere!

At the waterfall with Rantung , Rantungs uncle and all the lads

While we were at the waterfall, a group of college students from Pecanbaru came over and asked for a photo. I could not really understand this as PecanBaru is the regional capital and I thought that they would see a foreign person there but I guess this was not the case. Anyway, I don't mind if people want to take photos but I am still perplexed!!!
      Later in the evening, I paid a visit to the internet cafe.This was a HUGE mistake! After 20 seonds, you could hear people whispering that someone who looked a bit different had entered the place! Then,. after about 15 minutes, a crowd of kids gathered around me when I was trying to write some facebook mails. All I was doing was typing but the kids seemed transfixed on me!! So, I opened up all my facebook pics and showed them all. This lasted about 10 minutes , they didn't move so I went ot plan B. I went to your facebook account (claire) and showed them a lot of your facebook pics!!! Your firends eyes look a bit ...ahem...drunk... in quite a lot of the photos you know!!! Anyway, the local kids enjoyed those photos , right up until the point where the owner of the cafe brought her 11 month old kid to me such that she could take a shot with the Bulé (the tourist- or the literal translation-- the washed out' looking person.') I dordn't mind this although the baby clearly did when her mother handed her over to me, she bawled uncontrolably!
I thought I'd better make a quick exit!
           When i got back to the house, Salmie had made some kind of corn sweets that really tasted lovel, I should have taken the recipe off her but I am a lazy person!

Corn based snack (I think it's called Martabak)...mmmmmm

The following day (Thursday) Nasrun asked me if I wanted to take part in the (once) weekly exercise session that civil servants take part in.As I have had hardly any exercise in quite a long time, I agreed ,so at 8a.m we headed off the the grounds of the civil service.Some sort of dance music was blaring as Nasrun introduced me to the dance instructor.
Then we took our places and we were ready for action!!!! well, I say we were ready for action but I had already thrown out my tracksuit bottoms and shorts were not an option here so I had to go through all my stretches in jeans....talk about sweating buckets !!!

Limbering up for some exercises!

Stretching the muscles in the morning sun

This is what I like to call 'the foxtrot'

and now  for the pirouette

   After the workout, Nasrun had to fill up his bike with some petrol...I am not sure if I have posted a pic of the queues for petrol but fear not.Here is a pic!

The motorbike queues for the petrol are always long

Nasrun broght me to a location where a guy was extracting the latex from the rubber tree (The latex (The white liquid seen flowing in the following pic. can be used in the production of condoms)) where the rubber can be used for multiple things...

Siphening off the latex

Tool used to make an incision into the tree such that the latex pours out and the remains can be used

Notice the outside of the bark has been shorn off

I got an escort off the premises where the trees were located.

The exit is this way......march in rows of 2!

Nasrun brought me into his office where I got the chance to talk to some of his work colleagues.They seemed a friendly bunch although they could not get over the fact that I am 36 and not married so they kept asking what was wrong with me.(This is a really common question in Indonesia.Maybe I should think of an answer!) Anyway, one of the guys decided to treat me to noodle soup.This was really tasty ..

Noodle soup with some prawn crackers

After about an hour of general chit chat ,it was time to visit a local wedding.Nasrun thought that it might be a good idea for me to take off my shorts and put on some trousers before attending the ceremony. Good idea! So, I grabbed a shirt and my jeans and we were on our way. We put some money in an envelop for the bride and groom (just like a christain wedding) and gave the envelope to some guys as we entered the party zone. At this point, I was able to grab some grub and I have to say that the wedding grub wasn't half bad!!

Good choice of food here!

I thought that it might be a nice idea to get a pic with the bride and groom but I didnt really expect to be in the photo myself! There was a sort of stage where the grooms parents sat on one side and teh brides parents sat on the other side with the bride and groom in the middle.We all took it in turns to shake hands with the families and then we took a photo.

smile for the camera now! (photo taken by the official wedding photographer!)

I didnot stay for long afterwards.On my way out a couple of woman in their 60's started asking me if I would allow them to have their photo taken with me .I did not mind as kids were asking for my photo at the same time...I think I was taking something away from the brides special day so it was better to go as soon as possible!

After this event, Nasrun took me to a village where they had trained a monkey to climb a coconut tree and throw down the coconuts.Sounds mad but in reality, it was pretty cool!

'They pay me peanuts , you know!!'

The moment where the coconut falls from the tree  (with help from the monkey)

extracting the coconut milk from the coconut

what coconut milk looks like

I decided to have a quick walk through the village and pretty soon I realised that half the village was following me as if i had 3 heads...

ah....hello everyone!!

We decided to head home as we had seen quite a bit during the day! On the way home , we passed another football game. I had thoughts of joining in but then I thought, i'd better not or I might have a cardiac arrest! So,Aldo drove on....right until he realised that the back tyre was a little flat! I guess this was due to my weight (I think  I am around 97kg at this stage.) Sorry about the tyre Aldo!

Possibly the new Beckham???

When we got back to the house, dinner was prepared . Rantung decided to wear a traditional Batik top from the Kalemantan area.

Traditional Batik top worn by (a startled looking) Rantung at the dinner table

Nasrun was telling me that this day was a holy day as there are 15 days left before Ramadan starts (Today is July 6th) so they were going to his in laws to celebrate  by praying for a while (One guy reading the Koran and everybody responding.) I decided that I would like to go and Nasrun allowed me to sit with all the other lads at the front room of his in laws. I have an avi here which shows the scene in action! see the youtube clip: http://youtu.be/AjWV0WyKR38
                       After the prayers concluded, we all had some food...Nasrun made sure to tell me not to touch the chilli as it might have a detrimental effect on my stomach (which was definately the case as i found out later on in the week after leaving Nasruns!! (note to self: train your body to eat chillis!!!))

some snacks after a hard pray

I retired to bed after this as it had been quite a long day!!
      The next morning, Rantung and his friends brought me to a Salak (Snake fruit) farm where I was able to try out some salak in person. On our way to the Salak farm the police stopped us as they were doing a check on everyone for a license! I was told to go back and get the form stating what I was doing in this part of the world so Aldo drove me back to get the form. After I handed the form over to the police, they were satisfied. I asked them if they wanted their photo taken with me but they were in no mood for joviality and told us to move on!!!
I don't ever recall seeing this fruit back home but it tastes really nice (onec you get the outer skin off!)

Salak

The salak tree was REALLY thorny ( I nearly walked  into the tree a few times during our visit, It could have been quite sore)

Photo with the farmer and his wife (who stopped smiling for the camera but started again afterwards!)

On our way back from the farm, I noticed a football field that was being 'cultivated' in a different way to the norm.

Footballl field being protected by some cattle!

rice fields in the background - inquisitive cattle in the foreground!

We decided to visit one of Rantungs friends for dinner .Before reaching the house, I took a quick snapshot of the small country lanes that we were using.

so much flowers and fauna!

We were a bit thirsty so one of Rantungs friends (Aldo) decided to get a few coconuts and cut them up so we could try some more coconut juice. He borrowed a knife and then set about making an incision in the coconut.

Be careful with that knife Aldo!

Actually, Aldo knicked part of his finger when cutting the coconut so it started bleeding quite a bit. But , since we were in the countryside and Aldo knew that there is a leaf you can use which cauterises the blood (the methadine leaf). Once he rubbed his finger with this leaf, the blood stopped straight away!!!

That's not a knife......THIS IS A KNIFE!!!

You cut the coconut until you see a small hole , then you can make an incision and drink the milk as well as peel off the inside part of the coconut to eat

As this was a friday, the lads had to attend the Masjid at 12P.M so I stayed around the house and the man of the house brought me a kick ass mango!

That was one HUGE mango!

When the lads cam back from the Mosque, It was lunch time (This was Raju's house) so we all gathered in the main room where we had the traditional lunch.

Sharing food with the lads! (mmmm rice curry)

I like the way you can have multiple portions here and nobody bats an eyelid!
        After lunch, it was time to head home to try out some of the salak. I am not sure if I showed  pic of what Salak looks like without the skin so here it is.

There are seeds in the centre of the fruit

Later that evening, we had a quick meal before bed (It seems like all I am doing is eating...I do other stuff but eating is good you know!!!)

Salmie, Salmon, Risé, Nasrun and Rantung enjoying an evening meal

Nazrun and Rantung went another house to pray in the run up to Ramadan. I was going to go but then then students wanted to have a chat and that was fine by me. I cam very close to wearing a sarong! I am not sure if the world is ready to see me show off my legs just yet!!

Chatting with DeDe, Rane and Rene (Ara took the photo)

I have to give a special thanks to Salmie for cooking lots of nice stuff during the week that I stayed. I noticed that the chillis became less fequent as the week progressed and that was REALLY appreciated!!
Anyway, it was time to move on to the next destination so at 7.30 the next morning Rantung and Nasrun accompanied me to the bus stop where I was going to get the public bus to Bukittingi. Nasrun asked the bus driver how much it would cost and he told him 45,000. Normally, you do not pay for a few minutes so when the time came to pay, the guy collecting the money asked for 50,000. I am getting used to that at this stage!
        Onward bound!!!!! I feel as if I should write a special thanks to the Zakaria family. Thanks guys!! I always wanted to see how a family functions in another country (I have seen in close hand in Ireland (my own family) and in Canada (when I stayed with another family back in the summer of 1996))  It was nice to see that the family dynamic in 3 countries is more or less the same!!! [Over here, you would never call your elders by their first name , you might call your elder brother - Abang or your elder sister Kaka but never by their first name]

Traditional picture of the Zakaria family (Nasrun and Salmie with their kids Rantung, Risé and Rimel)