travel diary — day 275
day 271 — the trip to borobodur required a 4am start. there were only three of us on the tour and when the car picked me up we headed straight off. after an hour we arrived at the ‘lookout point’ which was where we were supposed to watch the sunrise. we walked up a steep hill for about 15 minutes to reach the lookout. the sun was rising but it was cloudy and the lookout point had no view of borobodur at all. i was disappointed and we headed back down. i discovered that the two girls who were also in my group were both australian. one seemed nice, the other was very fat and never made it up the hill to the lookout point. she waited about half way for us to return.
we drove to borobodur and headed in. i spent a couple of hours looking around and taking photos. borobodur was awesome and it was a lot of fun to wander around the massive temple. sadly, as with many buddhist temples in non-buddhist countries, many of the buddha statues had been beheaded. when i returned, the girls were still away, so i played a game of chess with the local vendors (i lost) and had a coffee.
after that, we moved on to prambanan, a hindu temple complex, which was under redevelopment. i could only walk around parts of the temple complex, but the grounds were enormous and i wandered around other areas as well. i thought that borobodur was much nicer than prambanan but enjoyed both places.
in the afternoon we returned to jogjakarta. i went for a swim in the pool, checked email and went out to find a train ticket to jakarta. i got the ticket and decided to see if i could get a local sim card for my phone. the phone was an australian one with some credit left on it. however the phone didn’t work in indonesia (it did, but only in one or two places) and local sim cards wouldn’t work in the phone either. i gave up, had a nice indonesian massage, returned to my hotel to pack and sleep.
day 272 — i had breakfast and checked out. i got a taxi to the train station and jumped on my train to jakarta. the trip was fun and i finished my book. i arrived in jakarta and had to wait for another train to take me to gambir station (which was near my hotel). i waited an hour and, getting frustrated, asked a security guy about the trains. 15 minutes later he ushered me on to a train (for free) which was stopping in gambir. i was happy for his help and when i arrived i got a tuk tuk to jaksa, the main backpacker street in jakarta.
i had a few cups of coffee and some noodles on the train. i suspect that some of the water used hadn’t been boiled properly and when i checked into my hotel i started to feel sick. with nothing else i could do, i tried to sleep it off.
day 273 — i was still sick and my room was full of mosquitoes. i got a blanket from the reception and went back to sleep. i slept most of the day. in the evening i felt better so headed out for some food. i had some dinner and a little beer. the café turned into a bit of a live bar in the evening, so the place filled up fast and the music was loud. i got talking to a few guys and i was hit on by the local queers. i returned to the hotel, starting to feel a bit sick again, and slept.
day 274 — still feeling sick, i decided to get out of the hotel and away from the mosquitoes. i sat in a different café and spent the morning stealing wifi.
when i arrived in the café (remember, this is 9am on a sunday morning) there was a group of five guys drinking beer. they were either still drunk from the previous night or had hit the booze hard that morning and were already drunk. i suspect that it was a bit of both. two guys had merged with a group of three guys and it was very clear that one guy (a young welsh bloke) was annoying the hell out of the others … even his own friend. over the course of four hours, the welsh guy got beaten up (literally) by all four of the others. his friend punched him in the face 3–4 times for saying stupid shit. another guy at the table grabbed the young welshman, threw him on the floor, and kicked shit out of him — which had to be broken up by the staff.
the welsh guy, taking a beating, left the café … only to return about 20 minutes later. a third guy was now angry at the welshman and physically threw him out of the café. twice. the welshman, bleeding from cuts to his face, black eyed, scratches on his arms from being thrown onto the concrete, returned again. not only was he incredibly drunk, but he was also stupidly resiliant. the other four had started to feel a little sorry for the guy and let him sit at the table. he fell asleep in his arms for about 15–20 minutes. when he woke up he kept drinking and finally managed to provoke the calm fourth guy. the fourth guy, a man who could very clearly handle himself well, kicked the chair out from under the welshman and in a flash (despite his drinking) had his finger’s around the welshman’s throat and was throttling him on the floor. nobody stepped in. the man was telling the welsh guy how stupid he was, constantly provoking everyone, starting fights he couldn’t finish, getting beaten up. he wasn’t trying to hurt the guy … he was trying to make the welshman ‘wake up’ and use some common sense.
the lesson wasn’t really learned and eventually all five men left the café. the remaining patrons were left shaking our heads in utter disbelief. i’d spent the entire time online, chatting and playing chess, watching humanity at it’s most barbaric.
i left after lunch and had another sleep. i was feeling better but still had attacks of stomachache related to the bug i’d picked up. in the evening i checked the rooms in another hotel, made a booking for the following morning, and went back to my mosquito hotel to sleep.
day 275 — i changed hotels (a much nicer hotel, same price, fewer mosquitoes) and had some breakfast. in the afternoon i met yulia, a local girl who’d written to me via couchsurfing. we met in the café and spent the afternoon and early evening talking.
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