Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
—
day 311 — today was a fairly easy day. i had breakfast and drank a coffee at an outdoor café. i checked email and walked around town. i spent a few hours online in the afternoon, had dinner and slept.
day 312 — my morning routine had settled into breakfast and coffee. the small café had a few seats in the sun and the owner had started seeing me regularly, but today would be the last day. after breakfast i bought my train ticket back to yangon.
the day before i’d spoken to a cycle rickshaw driver about where i could get another tattoo. so today he took me to a small place hidden in a back alley. the guy was a decent tattooist, so after a long conversation we decided on a design. two hours (and $15) later i had my tattoo. i returned to the hotel for a rest.
i had a really good hamburger and beer for dinner, then went to see ‘the moustache brothers’ show again. it was my second time to see them perform, and i was disappointed that i couldn’t organise a video camera to record the whole performance.
day 313 — i woke up early, had a quick shower and got the train to yangon. it was a long, boring day on the train with nothing much to see.
we arrived in yangon on time, which was nice, and i walked across town to my hotel. actually, my arse was sore from the wooden seats on the train, and i was quite tired. i grabbed a quick dinner and went to sleep.
day 314 — i returned to the indian embassy first thing the next morning. i paid for the visa, which i was able to pick up in the afternoon. i returned to the hotel and changed rooms, taking a room with a much nicer view. i read my book on the balcony for a while and then went for a walk around town. i stopped by the air india office and bought my ticket to kolkata
i hadn’t felt like taking photos, so i just wandered through the markets and streets. i had lunch and walked past a yangon united fc store which was just opening up. i bought some souvenirs to send back to craig and headed back towards the embassy. i collected my passport and visa, enjoyed another sugar cane drink from the local street vendors and went back to the hotel. i read my book and slept.
day 315 — after breakfast i decided to relax in the rooftop hammocks and read my book. i got talking to an american tourist, also called dave, who shared with me a prize collection of lonely planet pdf files. sweet!! i wandered into town, checked email and stumbled across a small group of locals playing chess. i stopped to watch and ended up playing three games. i got thrashed each game by a guy who clearly spends a lot of time playing chess!
i had dinner and returned to the hotel. in the evening i finished ‘the book thief’, messed around with some mp3s and went to bed.
day 306 — new years eve — the day began with breakfast and chess online, after which i checked out and headed to the airport. i flew to burma and met some other tourists (two koreans and a swiss guy) and we all agreed to share a taxi to town. i had a few errands to run, so after checking into the hotel, i called dhl (to find out about my camera’s battery pack) and visited the indian embassy to check on visa times and procedures. on the way back to my hotel, i got 24 passport photos for $1.50. sweet!!
story: customs and the battery pack.
during my first trip to burma, i dropped my camera on some concrete and cracked the camera housing. as a result, the battery compartment sits loosely and the battery doesn’t always connect. the camera is out of warranty and i don’t think there are many options for getting it fixed. honestly, i’m probably going to have to replace the camera. i don’t want to spend that much money, so i came up with a solution: use my battery pack.
it was a simple, good idea. i emailed my friend in korea who is holding some gear for me. he agreed to send the battery pack via dhl to burma, where i could pick it up. a mutual friend in burma would receive the pack, hold it for me, and i could collect it upon my arrival.
and thus, a problem arose. the battery pack was valued at $60 (actually it’s worth $150, but that’s irrelevant). burma’s customs (ie government) said that any item over $50 requires an import licence. this ridiculous rule is accompanied by the rule that any items that aren’t permitted will be automatically confiscated, rather than being returned to sender, in accordance with international laws … i guess when your government is a dictatorship and you’re under economic sanctions, you don’t really have to care about anything else.
after a lot of wrangling, arguing, cajoling, talking, emailing and begging, dhl agreed to try and help me get the battery case. i was blaming dhl for the problem (since they didn’t warn us that this would happen) and eventually they got me to fill out some forms, which they took to customs. they convinced customs to release the battery pack and i collected it (after paying $12 for “fees”).
i was glad to get the battery pack, but really annoyed at how this could happen.
that evening i had dinner with u myo aung, the friend who’d been trying to help me collect the battery pack. i had also agreed to meet the koreans for beers on the balcony (to celebrate new years). however, i fell asleep and missed new years in burma. damnit!
day 307 — new years day - i went to the indian embassy and submitted my visa application. then i faxed the documents required by dhl. i walked around town, had some ice cream and returned to my hotel. i bought a bus ticket to mandalay, then spent a few hours drinking beer on the balcony, lying in a hammock, reading my zusak book.
later, i walked around the markets and bought a pair of cheap sunglasses. i had noodles and sugar cane juce for dinner. when i got back to the hotel, dhl called and told me that customs had released my package.
day 308 — i had a big breakfast and walked to the dhl office to pick up my battery pack. i walked around the flight agencies to figure out an itinerary for getting to india. i also went to the train station to get prices for trains from mandalay.
i packed, checked out, and got a taxi to the bus station (which is a long way out of town, for some stupid reason). i had dinner, chatted with the locals (who rarely see foreigners) and got the bus to mandalay.
the trip was really uncomfortable. it’s the middle of winter and they insisted on using the air conditioning on the bus … at full blast. the music and shitty burmese dramas were also playing at full blast on the tv. i was freezing cold and at a break stop i convinced the driver to turn off the a/c.
day 309 — the bus was still cold and i managed to borrow a blanket. i finally got some sleep and arrived in mandalay early in the morning. i got on the back of a bike for the cold trip into town, found my hotel, checked in, curled up in the warm blankets and got some more sleep.
i must have been tired, and i know i was on the verge of getting sick, since i slept all day. i had a hot shower and returned to bed, sleeping all night.
day 310 — i woke up feeling good. i had breakfast and walked around the early morning market. i bought two longyes and a long sleeved shirt. i had some coffee and went to the train station to inquire about tickets. it turns out that i can only by tickets one day in advance, so i had to return later.
i bought some razors, soap, shampoo and organised a ride to amapura (ubein bridge). arriving at amapura i hired a boat, walked across the bridge, checked out the little temple on the other side, and hit the water to get my sunset shots. the sunset was awesome and i got a bundle of good photos.
after dusk i returned to the banks of the lake and bought a tshirt. i also discovered that my driver was drunk and didn’t want to return to mandalay. i paid him less than agreed, but still enough to keep him satisfied. i got on a horse cart to the main road and rode in a pick up truck to town. it was a long ride and i was a little annoyed at my driver. but i wasn’t too bothered, and returning to town i had a beer with dinner, then went to bed.
top — mountains, ice, snow and rocks in the himalayas
middle — everest base camp, looking up at the khumbu ice flow
bottom — a crow amongst the prayer flags and the clouds
day 300 — christmas day - i woke up early and got the first ferry back to kota kinabalu. i arrived at my hotel and spent the afternoon online updating my blog. it’s christmas day! what other excuse do i need to be lazy?
day 301 — i spent the day finishing my blog, playing online chess and chatting. i booked a scuba diving trip (two days) and had dinner and beer in town.
day 302 — in the morning i headed out to one of the small islands just off kota kinabalu. it was a beautiful little place with a long jetty leading out of the small cove. me and another guy (from brunei) did a beginner’s diving course. we learned how to use the equipment and practiced basics in shallow water. we went out into deeper water and looked around amongst the small coral reefs of the island’s point. i spotted a moray eel, which was pretty cool.
we headed back into the beach, took a break and had lunch. in the afternoon we went for a longer free dive on the boat. the fun bit was doing my first backward dive off a boat. the dive was good, but i didn’t see anything spectacular, except for lots of clown fish.
we returned to town and i celebrated with a pizza for dinner. i was really tired after the day’s scuba diving and hit the sack early.
day 303 — i returned to the island for my second day of diving. today i had three dives and i was diving by myself (with an instructor, of course). it was good to have the one on one. i joked with the staff that if i didn’t see a turtle today they had to give me a refund.
on the first dive the instructor found a sea turtle. pretty awesome. it was resting underneath a rock shelf, but our presence disturbed it and the turtle swam away. i was quite close and got a good view of it. i tried to take some photos, but they didn’t turn out very well.
the second dive was uneventful, except for the fact that i had trouble submerging. being a beginner, i hadn’t experienced submerging during choppy seas. there was a swell and the current was pushing me up. i was about to give up, but on the third try i got under the current and we headed off for a look around the coral reefs. i got to about 10 meters, which is the max for a beginner, and had fun looking around.
after lunch i was starting to feel tired, but i still went for the third dive. this time i got everything right and i felt that my diving skills had improved. the dive was fun, but i didn’t see anything interesting.
i returned to the hotel and went for dinner and beer on the harbour boardwalk. afterwards i packed my gear, booked a taxi for the following morning and got some sleep.
day 304 — i took an early morning taxi to the airport and caught my flight to kuala lumpur. i had a few hours wait between flights, so i checked email in the airport lounge before flying to bangkok.
i arrived in bangkok and, tired of staying in khaosan, i got the bus to sukhumvit and found a nice hostel. i had decided that i needed to go to the hospital and get a rash examined (too much information, sorry!). the rash turned out to be a mild case of contact dermatitis. i got some cream and also got an aids test. the test was part of a free govt study, so i figured “why not”. i had a couple of felafels and a coke while waiting for the results. i returned to the hospital, found out that the test was negative (of course) and picked up my prescription for the cream.
just for fun, i went for a wander around the famous soi cowboy, which was about a twenty minute walk from my hotel. the place is a freak circus! i had a beer, spending the entire time rejecting offers for sex, and went back to the hotel to sleep.
day 305 — going to khaosan road in bangkok is virtually unavoidable; most of the good deals and travel agents are based there. i headed to khaosan in the morning, had breakfast, and organised a flight to burma. the cheap flights were all gone (damnit!) so i had to spend more on an expensive airline. i went off to change some baht to dollars and returned to the travel agent. in the time that i was away, one cheap airline had a cancelation and i’d managed to get a seat. nice! i saved myself a bunch of cash, and thanked the travel agent by buying them ice cream
(plug: mama’s travel agent in khaosan road is a great place. i always go there for flights and tickets. they’ve always given me good deals and honest advice).
i sold my old guide books, bought a ‘genuine’ photographer/journalist id card, found a copy of mark zusak’s ‘the book thief’, had lunch, changed more money and returned to my hotel. i had a great chili for dinner, checked email and slept.
the year 2009 was the most amazing year of my life. i quit my job and spent 10 months of the year on the road. i visited 20 countries and spent new years even in myanmar.
2009 was a year of extreme highs and lows. i had a lot of fun traveling and seeing so many new places. i returned to australia for the first time in 8 years. on the reverse side, i didn’t get to see some important family members when i went home, i had my ipod stolen in mongolia, and i endured some horrible bus rides, embassy blackmail and constant struggles to negotiate visas.
while the year ended on a high by reaching myanmar in time for new years, it was soured by the fact that customs won’t clear my camera battery pack (delivered via dhl) and it looks like i could lose the battery pack forever (the govt doesn’t return stolen confiscated items).
for me, 2010 will hopefully eclipse 2009 in terms of sheer awesomeness. i’ll be bagging at least 50–70 more countries, hitting africa and hopefully getting out before the craziness of the world cup. i’ll be meeting up with “the girl” in turkey. i’ll be driving through europe this time next year.
well, that’s the end of 2009 and i’m sad to see it go. i’ve had a great run … so far.
happy new year to one and all … i hope your 2010 is as prosperous and incredibly awesome as mine will be (if i survive it!).
btw, 2010 will be year of the tiger when lunar new year passes.
kick a poo … in a can!!
i found this in malaysia while i was in kota kinabalu (borneo). i walked past a store and the title on the can caught my eye. best brandname ever!
btw, it was actually quite delicious.
day 300 — for sparta!! the 300th day of travel coincided with christmas. i got up early and checked out of my hotel on the island of palau labuan. i got the ferry to kota kinabalu. we arrived at lunchtime and i checked into my hotel.
i had lunch in town and returned to the hotel. i spent the afternoon online catching up on my blog and drinking dry martinis.
merry christmas everyone …
top — trekking towards everest base camp
middle — boom doing yoga
bottom — the dangerous khumbu ice flow
day 296 — in the morning i walked into town again. i checked a couple of travel agents and realised my plan (to fly to bangkok via brunei) was going to be too expensive. i gave up and walked back across town. on the way i found a korean restaurant and decided to grab some kimchi jiggae for lunch. the jiggae wasn’t very good, but the owners were extremely friendly. we talked for a while and after lunch i left.
near my hotel was the air asia office. i managed to get two tickets out of borneo, flying to bangkok via kuala lumpur. i relaxed at the hotel, had some beer and spent the evening online.
day 297 — i checked out, storing my bag at the guesthouse, and bought a ferry ticket to palau labuan. i had lunch and got the ferry across to the island. palau labuan is an intersting place and its importance in history is significant, if not overlooked. when japan surrendered to allied forces, the surrender took place on palau labuan. there’s a memorial for the event, as well as another memorial for australian soldiers killed in borneo.
i’m saying all this from tourist books, because i arrived late in the afternoon didn’t get time to reach either memorial.
i had dinner and some beer in town. while i was eating (and drinking) it struck me as odd that the beer and food was so cheap. it was a riddle i later solved.
day 298 — i got the morning ferry to brunei and a minibus to the capital badar seri begawan. i was a bit shitty at having to pay a B$20 visa fee (which i thought was free). brunei is small and so is it’s capital, however the city is very nice. it’s a clean, compact town set on the intersection of a major tributary and a smaller river. i walked over to the central mosque and took some photos. but i’d arrived at the beginning of midday prayers (and non-muslims aren’t allowed inside during prayer times) so i walked to the nearby shopping mall to buy lunch and check email.
i returned to the mosque and took some photos outside (not allowed to photograph inside). then walked around to the museum which was shut. i walked down to a small ferry port looking for boats to the nearby town of bangar. it’s famous not because it’s an interesting place, but because the high speed boat ride there through narrow canals is quite fun. however i was too late to get a return trip. i could have got to bangar, but i wouldn’t have got back.
foiled again, i returned to my room for a shower and a rest. then i headed down to the river to watch the sunset and eat a truckload of chicken satay. to my complete disappointment i also discovered that brunei is a dry country. being strict muslims, there’s no alcohol in brunei … well, i’m sure there is, but i didn’t go seeking it out. so i had to wash my chicken satay down with coke.
i later returned to the central mosque to take some night photos, after which i checked email and headed to bed.
day 299 — i checked out and got the fast boat to bangar. the trip was fun as the high powered boat jetted and sliced through the canals. i had breakfast at bangar and got the next boat back to bsb. i had to wait nearly two hours to get a bus back to the ferry, which meant that i couldn’t make it all the way back to kota kinabalu.
i got as far as palau labuan (again), checked into the same hotel (the woman called me daniel) and walked around town. i took some money out and did some duty free shopping. that’s when i discovered why my beer was so cheap on my previous visit … palau labuan is a tax free zone … there’s no tax on alcohol and other luxury items.
i took advantage and bought a big bottle of pre-mix dry martini and a packet of 10 dominican republic, hand rolled cigars. i had dinner outdoors (fried chicken and gold label carlsberg) with a cigar. i returned to my room and spent the evening watching movies through the haze of beer.
top — prayer flags on a mountain pass
middle — those who fall from everest are remembered
bottom — more prayer flags
day 291 — i got another early start and headed to kl central station. i bought a flight to kota kinabalu and a return train ticket to singapore. it was a busy morning, so i raced back to my hotel and checked out. i stored my bag and returned to the train station to make my 1pm train to singapore.
when i got back to kl central i had lunch and checked the ticket. the ticket said 9pm departure, not 1pm (which i’d asked for). damnit! i returned to the ticketing counter and asked for a 1pm train. the train was sold out and the staff were unwilling, and unable, to help. having no other choice, i sat at starbucks to wait it out. i plugged in my computer, used the free wifi and chatted for seven hours.
i finally got the train to singapore. i bought some magazines (442 and national geographic) which actually came in handy for the trip.
day 292 — we arrived at singapore immigration early, finished quickly and continued on to singapore’s main station. i had breakfast nearby and walked into town. on the way across town i found a nice buddhist temple, which is fairly new, and took some photos. i had a coffee at mcdonalds and while at the department store i found a cool little photography book shop … that’s all they sell — photography books. he had an awesome steve mccurry portrait book which i bought.
i walked across to the hotel to check in and went to a market for lunch. i then mailed the book to christina.
i walked around a market and took some photos. i had a lot of fun. wandering around near my hotel i also found a flea market. it was mostly junk placed on blankets. i walked around the stalls, looking at their wares. i considered buying a buddhist statue but it was too expensive and i didn’t want to haggle.
i had dinner and a few beers at the hotel then went to bed.
day 293 — i checked out early and started the walk back across town to meet my train. i stopped by the famous raffle’s hotel and had a beer at the long bar. nearby was a subway station so i decided to experience singapore trains. i got off near the international terminal, had lunch and boarded the train back to kuala lumpur.
the trip was uneventful and i returned late. i checked in and had dinner at the same street café (with the burmese waiters) as before.
day 294 — i went to kl central, had a quick mcdonalds coffee/muffin breakfast, and got the bus to the airport. the girl at the checkin counter wanted to charge me extra because my bag was 2kg over the 15kg limit. i took out my computer and lonely planet guide. the bag was now 15kg and she let me check it in. i mentioned that my total gear weight was the same, i was just carrying the extra 2kg on with me. she didn’t appreciate the point (or the irony) and just grumbled at me.
i checked email while i waited for the plane then flew to kota kinabalu.
i waited ages for the bus, which didn’t come, when i discovered that there was no bus. i had to walk outside and down the street to find the bus which, when it arrived, took me to town.
i found a nice guesthouse, checked in, checked email and walked into town for dinner. i stumbled onto an environmentalist event which was raising money for sabah’s environmental groups. i had dinner, a few beers, and took a few photos. i got talking to another tourist from canada. her name was chantelle and, coincidentally, was working in korea. she’d just flown in and was beginning her holiday. we drank margaritas and long island ice tea. we got very drunk and danced a lot.
we met up with a bunch of other foreigners who were going to a club called ‘razamataz’. we joined up with them (i spent most of the time talking to a cute black girl called sharon) and drank some more there. i returned home and absolutely crashed.
day 295 — i had a hangover and slept in, then spent the morning at the hostel playing chess. at lunch time i walked around the street market and took a great photo of an old beggar woman. i went to the boardwalk, walked around, and checked some travel agents (which were all closed).
i returned to the hotel and played chess and chatted for most of the evening.
day 286 — being on the lake made me feel lazy (well, lazier than usual) and i decided to stay and do some reading. i sold my copy of ‘the beach’ (which was actually very, very good) and snagged a copy of ‘american psycho’ by bret eaton elis. i’ve read it before, but it was actually good to read it again.
after lunch i checked my email and walked around town. i bought a bus ticket to medan, a very cheap tshirt and returned to the hotel for dinner. i had a few beers with a finnish tourist, packed and slept.
day 287 — i had a fantastic banana pancake for breakfast and jumped on the ferry across the other side of the lake to parapat. i got on a minibus which raced up the highway to medan.
i reached town and headed to the bus terminal. my destination was bukit lawang, where there’s an orangutan rehabilitation centre. when i got to the bus terminal i was told that i needed to go to a different terminal. i hadn’t gone to the wrong terminal, i just hadn’t realised that after 3pm there are no more buses from that particular terminal … stupid fucking bus terminals. what bizarre system.
i finally found a minibus but encountered a second problem — i had no money. there was no atm anywhere near the bus terminal (the nearest one was 5km away, in town). i had barely enough to cover the bus trip but i knew that there were no atms where i was headed — buket lawang was a small town with no banks.
i gave up. i’d had enough of buses and bullshit transport problems in indonesia.i got into a local bus and rode into the city centre. i looked around at the limited hotel options, which were crap, and managed to find a nice hotel (which had just opened) not too far away.
my next priority was food and an exit strategy. i had decided to leave indonesia and make for malaysia. i began looking for ferry ticket to get to georgetown on the malaysian peninsular. i had no luck and discovered that the schedule had been changed. instead of daily ferries, they were only 3 times a week. the next one wasn’t for 2 more days. screw that! i checked my email, set my alarm and went to bed.
day 288 — i got a taxi to the airport early in the morning and, despite checkins being closed, talked my way onto a flight to kuala lumpur. i had breakfast on the plane and when we reached kl i jumped on the bus into town.
i found myself in chinatown. i looked around and found a hotel next to a cool reggae bar. i had lunch there, checked email and walked around chinatown. then i got a taxi to a big shopping mall (B&B i think) where i got the nikon 85mm f1.8 that i’d been lusting for. i didn’t get a good price, but i didn’t care.
i returned to chinatown keen to put the lens through its paces. i took some photos and found a cool little hindu temple. despite being small, the temple was actually the main hindu temple in malaysia.
in the evening i went to a street café for dinner. i discovered that all the waiters there were burmese refugees … one of them even showed me his united nations refugee status card. pretty cool. we talked for a while and i told them that i’d been to burma. we had a great conversation about it.
back in my hotel i figured out that the wifi from the reggae bar (next door) worked in my hotel room. sweet! i stayed up all night chatting online. i also tried to update my linux, which broke the installation, making me curse and swear a lot. i decided to fix it in the morning.
day 289 — i reinstalled linux and headed to the myanmar embassy across town. the asshole embassy worker was so difficult. he kept saying that i’m a cameraman (because of my nikon) and that i can’t go to myanmar because i’d changed my passport but didn’t have a copy of the old passport. the guy was being such a douche. eventually he let me submit my passport and i paid the extra to get the visa in one day. i also had to get photographs, which fortunately, were available in the embassy.
i walked an hour across town back to my hotel. i walked past the famous petronas twin towers which used to be the tallest buildings in the world. i relaxed for a while, avoiding the heat of the day, and walked back to the embassy. i left early and i was very glad that i did. it started pouring rain about half way there and i was stuck at a mcdonalds for 30 minutes while i waited for the deluge to subside. i actually wasn’t far from the embassy and debated getting a taxi the rest of the way … but fortunately the rain stopped and i walked.
when i got to the myanmar embassy i was told (by the same embassy asshole) that i “maybe” couldn’t get my passport back today. it “maybe” will take one week. i was angry, but of course, it’s impossible to get angry at an embassy official who is holding your passport. then he said that he could get my passport if i give him something. he wanted money. i’d already paid $45 for the visa, but he wanted a “tip”.
it cost me an extra $20 and i got my passport. motherfucker!! i was pretty angry and stomped for a while back towards town. but my spirits lifted quickly. it was pretty funny in retrospect and i had my visa to myanmar. $65 was still less than i’d paid for visas to other countries (india and bangladesh), so i was in good spirits by the time i got back to chinatown.
i had dinner at the same restaurant so that i could tell the burmese guys about the blackmailing embassy bastard. they agreed that he was an ass.
day 290 — in the morning i went to the post office to mail my extra lens to korea. on the way i bought christina a birthday present and included it in the package. the post office was a freaking labyrinth and it took me 15 minutes to find the international parcel section. i sent the package off and headed back into town. on the way i found an indian visa office and discovered (which i had already suspected) that it would take five days to get the visa. i decided that i couldn’t get a visa in malaysia because i didn’t want to wait that long. i decided to take a risk on getting the visa in myanmar.
i returned to the hotel, had a short sleep, and walked to the travel agent. i didn’t get a ticket, realising that the schedules were really retarded. i had dinner and went back to the hotel.
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