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 cafe (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.

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 cafe 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.

the spaghetti was good, btw…

day 31 – today was another lazy day. after i ate and checked email i decided to go for a walk, however my plans were conveniently foiled by an afternoon thunderstorm. instead i read my book, fiddled with my ipod (checking email and updating settings courtesy of kassandra’s wifi). in the evening i packed my bag in preparation for an early morning start.

day 32 – i got up at 6.30 because i wanted to make sure to say goodbye to kassandra before she went to work. i thanked her for her hospitality and got a cab to the airport. i arrived before 8am and there was nobody at the counter to do check ins. i cursed waking up so early and sat down to wait.

an hour later i was still waiting so i wandered over to the check in counter to make myself conspicuous (in the way that the only foreigner in a small airport is conspicuous). the ploy worked and an employee, realising i was waiting, called the other staff members to come and help me. i checked in and made my way to immigration.

this is when things started to go wrong … again. you’d think that i’d be used to things going wrong involving immigration and visas … especially with the word ‘bangladesh’ thrown into the mix. seriously, i’ve never had any of that crap to deal with until i tried to go to bangladesh. two immigration officials looked at my passport and visa. they refused to give me an exit visa so that i could board the plane. thankfully, i was still 2 hours early for my flight and had time to sort it out.

here’s the story, as explained by the senior official who was extremely friendly and very, very helpful: when i crossed the boarder between bangladesh and india, someone wrote on my visa that the border was my entry and exit point … meaning i was supposed to, according to my visa, exit via india at the same border through which i entered. to make matters worse, they’d only issued me a 7 day visa and today was my last day.

the senior official was furious. not at me, but at the immigration people in kolkata who’d given me the visa, and the guys at the border who’d fucked up my visa. he also told me that australians are now eligible for an arrival visa at dhaka airport for half the price i paid for the visa in kolkata. wonderful … just bloody wonderful.

the senior official, despite is helpfulness, told me that he didn’t have the authority to override the visa. my heart sunk. i thought “i’m fucked”. but he made a few phone calls and chatted for a while. i picked up a few english words and realised that he was explaining my situation to someone. he got off the phone and told me that the head of immigration, whom he’d just spoken to, gave permission for them to stamp my passport with an exit visa.

smiles, hand shakes, stamping and i was ready to leave bangladesh. only one formality remained – changing about $100 worth of taka back to dollars. i went to the exchange booth and handed over my taka. he wouldn’t accept it. apparently (and this might have been a scam) i need a receipt of withdrawal from a bank, to prove that i took out the money locally. smiling, i produced an atm receipt and slapped it smugly on the counter … i was prepared for this, since i had heard similar stories in india as well.

no!
what?
no. we don’t accept atm receipts.
but it’s a receipt. from a bank.
it has to be from inside the bank.
fuck!

the smile had gone from my face. instead of demanding evidence, i pondered my options. $100 in local currency was worthless once i boarded the plane. nobody would take it outside bangladesh … and i didn’t want to risk trying to change it for baht once i entered thailand.

the money exchanger then told me that the stores in the airport can change money … unofficially. great, just great. i’d get to change my money, but i’d get screwed in the process. i walked over to the store that he’d pointed to. i asked about the exchange rate, and wasn’t surprised to see that the commission was going to be about 10%. the exchange cost me $12 but i walked away with $120 in US greenbacks … which is better than nothing.

to celebrate, i decided to get a nice breakfast. i headed upstairs where kassandra told me there was a quiet bar/cafe. it was run by the sheraton. they had a buffet breakfast, wifi and bbc news. i filled three plates of food, got some cereal, orange juice and coffee … and settled in to a comfy chair to watch bbc and check email. the food was good and i was a happy camper. with 20 minutes before my flight i boarded the plane and flew to bangkok.

when i arrived in bangkok’s enormous and revolting airport, i made my way to the taxis and headed straight to khao san road. i’d taken a gamble and not booked a hotel. the gamble paid off and i got into the first hotel i saw. it was a cheap, comfortable place and i have a shared bathroom. i settled in and took a walk along bangkok’s famous tourist avenue.

i bought a new earring (which is too big and i’m going to have to stretch it out a little) and i traded my lonely planet myanmar for lonely planet’s “shoe string south east asia”. i don’t know why i hadn’t thought of that earlier. since i plan on spending time in asia, it makes more sense to get a shoestring guide with multiple countries. i was happy to make the switch, especially since myanmar is in the shoestring guide anyway.

after that, since it had been such a long day, i treated myself to a subway sandwich and got some needed sleep.

day 33 – i woke up early so that i could get to the myanmar embassy and process my visa. there wasn’t much open, so i ran to mcdonalds for breakfast (it was disgusting) and got a cab to the embassy. i lined up outside and at 9am they opened the door to let everyone in. i filled out the forms and handed them in. the visa official kept asking me a lot of questions about my job. i told him i was a teacher and that i’m from australia. i stretched the truth a little and said i had a job in australia and i was traveling until the end of the year. he asked why i was going to myanmar and i told him it was for tourism. i listed a few places i wanted to see. he took my passport, application and money, telling me i was to come back on friday.

i had a bad feeling about the visa interview and spent the rest of the day worrying that they’d deny me a visa. i headed back to khao san road and did some shopping. i got a proper ipod case (which is nice), some great linen pants and a tshirt. the tshirt is a parody of the “mr men” series. my tshirt says “mr jihad” and the little man has a beard, a hook for a hand and dynamite strapped to his back. i think it’s funny as hell … but it’s not the kind of shirt i can wear on a plane or in any muslim country! lol … oh well, i don’t care … i still like the shirt.

i’d been spending a lot of money in bangkok, so i stayed home in the evening to read my book. i considered going out late to watch the liverpool game, but went to bed instead (good thing too, the reds got smashed 3-1 by chelsea).

day 34 – this morning i decided to go temple hopping. i headed to wat phra kaew (which houses the emeral buddha) and wat pho (home of thailand’s famous gold reclining buddha). that took my entire morning and i walked back to khao san in the afternoon heat. the day was hot and i wanted to avoid the heat and spending too much money. however, i liked the linen pants i had bought the day before, so i bought another pair. i bought another earring too, this one titanium. i spent some time adding audiobooks to the ipod (my music/audiobook collection is now complete). then i went to my room and listened to the first two cds of ‘v for vendetta’.

day 35 – i was nervous all morning about getting my visa to myanmar. i don’t know why the whole thing had me so worried. i spent the morning in my room under the fan. i listened to some more audiobooks, played some sudoku (which i downloaded to the ipod) and relaxed as much as i could.

after lunch i got up, showered, ate, and headed to the myanmar embassy. the whole time i was lined up and waiting i wondered what i would do if they denied the visa. do i go to chang mai and visit ryan? do i head south to malaysia? do i re-apply and hope they let me in?

after an hour i got to the front of the line. the guy before me, an american, was being grilled about his engineering degree. was he really a tourist? was he planning on working? was he there to inspect myanmar’s facilities? he did a lot of talking to convince them that he wasn’t up to mischief … listening to him get the third degree made me even more worried. finally, i got to the window, handed over my receipt (yes, i remembered it this time) and they gave me my passport, with visa, no questions asked.

i held my excitement in check until i got out the door. then skipped and ran and giggled to myself half way down the street. i got back to my hotel and immediately went to a travel agent. i bought a flight to yangon for the next day. now i have a busy night ahead of me … i have to pack, update my blog (done), charge my ipod and my camera battery, and figure out how to put my finances together in preparation for a country which does not accept visa cards!!