The Topless Woman on the Street.

I was walking around Bangkok and trying to find somewhere to rest in the shade for a while, I seemed I was the only person walking along what was a pretty big boulevard except for the person walking towards me, as she got closer I could see it was a woman and she was wearing very little, looking very unkempt and trying to cover herself while tears were running from her eyes. I wondered what got here there in that state but I was just too confused to do anything more than wonder.

Beggars

Ok you can see them anywhere but one stood out to me, all of his limbs had been amputated and he balanced on his torso outside Borobudur in Indonesia in the searing heat with a bag in front of him he looked totally improvised yet completely content and showed a sincere gratification in his eyes to every person who placed whatever small amount of money into his bag. Normally these types have someone to help them around but this guy was alone, at least while he was begging.

Prostitutes

They are almost literally a dime a dozen in SE Asia, if you are male and especially if you are traveling alone you are bound to see it. From Thailand’s GoGo bars to street walkers or Taxi girls, “hostesses” and “massage” houses it can seem like it is everywhere you look and that literally everything is for sale. While many people will demean them they are actually really interesting people to talk to, especially in regards to their trade and how their views of the world differ from the “normal” locals.

Stoned Children

Grabbing a bite to eat outside Heart of Darkness in Phnom Penh, Cambodia I was approached by a kid of about 6-8 years asking for money, I was about to give him some but was stopped by my local friend who tried to explain why he wanted it but with average English it wasn’t easy, the food vendor collared the kid and pulled a plastic bag out of his pocket and opened it to reveal a small tub of either resin or glue. The kid now crying snatched it back got rather angry and covered his face with the bag and started sniffing asking me how I liked it. I felt sorry for the kid at first but when he tried the guilt trip on me I just couldn’t believe how pathetic the situation was, it was really pretty disturbing.

Happiness

Traveling in the developing world amongst all the poverty and sadness in the lives of many people you also see a hell of a lot of smiles. Kids don’t worry about if their clothes are branded, they want to go to school and they still get to be kids. As for the adults, most of them in jobs that bring them in enough income to give them enough of what they need never seem to hate their jobs and they love their home lives. Maybe it’s the higher focus on family in the east, or maybe they just know something we don’t. You might end up reassesing your values after a trip to these countries, I hope you will.

Climbing to the top level of one of the temples of Angkor to watch the sunset was one of the most amazing things I have done. I only hope I can do it again soon and share it with someone. When I got there there were a few people enjoying a bottle of wine and a picnic (no joke), but the all left before the show got really good, leaving me to enjoy in all by myself. Next time though I want to do it from one of the temples that has a view of another. From this this one all I could see was the flat Cambodian geography covered in jungle, which is still pretty impressive.

Prambanan Temple, Java, Indonesia

Prambanan is a very interesting temple, unfortunately because of past earthquakes you can’t really get close to them for safety reasons. In fact earthquakes have gradually destroyed most of the temples within the grounds, if I remember correctly only 6-7 of the original 200+ Shrines remain, fortunately those that do are the largest and most spectacular.

Bali was quite overwhelming at first but I pretty quickly got the hang of it, mostly it was handling the touts and figuring out how much I should pay for things, I did learn the hard way on more than one occasion. To be honest I did no think that much of Bali but I did only see the Kuta and Legian areas, if I had gone to Ubud and other areas I may have formed a different opinion but I was only there for 3-4 days, I can’t even remember already.

I was very impressed with Yogyakarta but I don’t know why, as for the city itself, it was not at all impressing. Borobudur, Prambanan, Merapi and more were though. In most places the streets were rather dirty and there is a lot of pollution. I got around almost exclusively by motorbike and almost always the same driver too, it payed off, on my third days he took me to his village and explained how his house had collapased in the 2006 Earthquake and showed his scars to prove it, his replacement house was a hut made of many different materials with a dirt floor, no electricity, etc. I was a little taken aback by the poverty and one particular begger at Borobudur who had all of his limbs aputated. I followed the lead of the locals and generally gave 1000 Rupiah to beggers, about 11c AU. For my driver though after my last tour with him I gave him 500,000 Rupiah a little over $55AU which should mean he can make a few upgradees to his home.

I bought lots of souvenirs in Indonesia, Batik, Paintings, Puppets, Silver, Books, Keris (Maybe regretfully) and more. I posted it back to my mother today as my back is already full and just barely make it under the baggage allowance today by 500g. I will have to offload some clothes somewhere. I also lost my bankcard the other day, I think I left it in and ATM machine, so I will have to use cash advances on my credit card until I get it replaced.

So far my favourite things I’ve done have been riding through the villages on the way to my drivers house and the beach and Merapi. After he showed me his house and the beach he took me to a place to try Cobra blood and meat. The owner brought out a King Cobra from a room full with bags of snakes and proceeded to make it very angry on the floor in front of me, I was pretty surprised actually that with the greif he was giving it it didn’t try harder to bite him. Eventually he took it to the chopping block broke it’s neck and severed it’s head pouring the blood into a cup. The blood is usually mixed with beer, water or it seems in the case of tourists and mine, Red Bull. After gutting the snake and adding a few inards of I don’t Know What to the mixture of blood and Red Bull it was handed over to me to drink. After a bit of hesitation and a countdown from my driver I downed it in one go, hardly tasting it. The mild blood flavour was mostly overpowered by the Red Bull. I talked with my driver, the snake man and his sons for a while while the meat was cooked and was given a small non venemous snake to hold, actually they were giving it to me to take home with me but of course I had to leave it behind. The snake meat eventally came out and looked fairly appetising, when I was told it is like chicken I took it with a grain of salt thinking they always say that. It does taste somewhat like chicken and similar texture, actually it was one of the best local meals I have had so far. Unfortuneately I didn’t have my camera with me so no photos, I have no photos from the last 2 days in Yogya as the battery went flat and I have had no way to recharge it, I am hoping I will be able to find an adapter or charger in Phuket tomorrow. I will upload photos ASAP once it is recharged.

More later from Thailand.

I was supposed to be going to the Gold Coast with a my ex but she pulled out a couple of days before so I ended up cancelling that giving myself a few extra days in Sydney and some extra time in Airlie as well, then off to Bali! In Airlie I will be doing a sail charter, I hope I will be able to get the one I want.

It wasn’t until a few days in that I started to feel the excitement I guess I should have been feeling before I left, a few people commented that I didn’t seem excited, I guess it was just what went on the couple of weeks before personally.

I’m not sure what I will do tomorrow, it’s going to rain again, checkout is 10am and my flight doesn’t leave until just after 5pm. Hopefully when I get to Airlie I will have access to a computer where I can upload some photos. I bought a new camera before I left, it’s waterproof to 3m so hopefully it will give me a few good photos when I get to do some snorkeling.

See you in the Whitsundays

This weekend I will by flying to Melbourne with my Cricket team, I’m hoping to have a good time there without spending too much money. I’m already pretty sure my budget for Australia is going to blow out. So I’ll update on my weekend in Melbourne and as I get closer to leaving next week.

I still don’t have anywhere for my dog while I am gone, it’s really stressing me out now to the point where I can’t even bring myself to try. I can’t give him away though.

I had almost forgotten about Visas until the other day and I looked for the Chinese visa application and found that back in April the requirements were strictly tightened for the Olympics, return travel and every night of accommodation must be booked and provided when applying. This really isn’t the way I want to travel in China so I have decided to delay China until after the Olympics when visas are back to normal and re-evaluate then. So instead of doing a sort of anti-clockwise loop through SEA, China, Nepal and India I’m thinking I’ll do India and Nepal before entering China. We’ll see how things go. I’m sending my stuff of for a Thai Visa today and an India one will probably be next.

I’ve made a couple of further small changes to the site again. I’ve added a map which I’ll hopefully keep updated as I get around and there is a link to my Travel Plan that actually, truly, really does work this time. Both are accessed through the top navigation bar.

The other week I booked the last of my pre-booked flights, they were Yogyakarta to Kuala Lumpur and Kuala Lumpur to Phuket. I was lucky to check the Air Asia site a day before the sale they had going finished, so I think I saved $20-40 on each flight. Thailand is Visa free for Australians for 30 days but a return\onward ticket is required, I believe if I organise a Visa before entering the “out” ticket is not required. I’m planning on doing this so I don’t have to pre-book anything else and can just go when I please within the Visa limit.

So with 38 days to go I’m still feeling pretty relaxed although I can’t wait for work to finish. I’m getting excited and a little bit scared, I think I’m organised but how would I know so I’m working on a packing list so that I can do a dry run to see just how much I will be taking so I can then work on keeping weight and space down. Since the the last 99 Days to go post they days have gone by pretty fast, this year has been really. It seems like it was only a couple of weeks ago Jodie broke up with me. I am worried that this trip is not worth it, I still love her, but I don’t think I’ve been told the whole story.