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 cafe 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 cafe and spent the morning stealing wifi.

when i arrived in the cafe (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 cafe … only to return about 20 minutes later. a third guy was now angry at the welshman and physically threw him out of the cafe. 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 cafe. 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 cafe and spent the afternoon and early evening talking.

i want to tell a strange story. during my stay in the yha (youth hostel australia) there was another guy in my dorm room. our room had 8 beds and this one guy was in the bunk opposite mine.

i’d been there one night when i was awoken in the early hours of the morning. the guy in the opposite bed was yelling in his sleep. he was yelling “help! help me!”. then he’d kick the wall or shout. this went on for about 30 minutes or so. then he finally quietened down. i ignored it, as one of those strange things, and forgot about it.

the next night he did it again. this time much worse. he was shouting and yelling in his sleep. he said quite a few things, including “help! help me!” again. he hit the wall next to him and a few times he kicked the bunk bed above him (which had someone sleeping in it). then the guy got out of bed and started walking around the room, talking and shouting … and he was still asleep!!

honestly, i was actually a little scared. i didn’t know what the hell was going on. eventually (maybe 30-40 minutes later) he went back to bed and quietened down. i got back to sleep.

in the morning the other guys in the dorm room started talking about the guy. i was having a laugh about it, but another roomie was angry. a third roomie immediately moved out and requested another dorm room. the guy who had the yelling nightmares woke up and i told him about what he’d been doing. he said ‘sorry’ and actually knew that he had this problem. i felt sorry for him … having this problem and not being able to control it … and, especially, not knowing whether you’d slept quietly or had been noisy.

i told him it was cool … even though i knew the other guys in the room were unhappy about it. i was leaving anyway, so i didn’t care. poor bastard. that’d be a really shitty problem to carry with you … especially traveling and sleeping in dorms.

when i went to check in, jetstar were indignant that i needed an outbound flight. they refused to check me in. although i was angry, they were reasonably helpful and let me use their internet to try and get an outbound ferry or flight. i couldn’t book anything online so i had to buy a $75 flight to singapore. i was pissed off at having to spend the money, but had no other choice. i went through immigration and customs and waited for the flight.

the flight was delayed three times (mechanical failure and then time to shift luggage to a new plane). the other passengers were getting angry at the delays and spent the extra time drinking. as a result, many passengers had drunk a fair bit of beer by the time the plane finally got in the air. i was stuck sitting next to two drunk young guys who yelled and shouted to people all over the plane. the flight was horrible, the food had to be paid for, the guys next to me were stupid and drunk, and i was still angry at the money i’d paid for the second flight.

when i arrived in bali, immigration never asked me about the outbound flight. they didn’t care. i even asked the immigration officer and he said they never ask. god fucking damn it!!! i made the decision never to fly jetstar ever again. hear that jetstar? fuck you! you can stick your shitty budget airline up your arse.

*i discovered too late that i could have got a cheaper flight (air north) to east timor. i’d really wanted to go to dili instead of bali, and that pissed me off too.

i shared a taxi into town with a canadian couple. it was nearly midnight by the time we arrived in kuta (thanks to jetstar’s constant flight delays) and i stayed in a hotel i had found in lonely planet. it was late, i was angry and tired, and i wanted to sleep.

day 262 – my first day abroad again – i got up and went to find the beach. i was not in a beach front hotel (there are none near where i was) and i walked through the narrow roads to the beach. i went for a long walk along the beach and watched the surfers. the cafe next to my hotel had wifi, so when i returned from my walk i had some lunch and checked email. i had an afternoon sleep, followed by dinner and a swim in the hotel pool. i read my book and then went to sleep.

day 263 – i went for another long walk along the beach. this time i took my camera and photographed some of the surfing. i got a shoestring south-east asia lonely planet. it was stinking hot, so i went for a swim in the pool, relaxed at the hotel and decided to spend the afternoon catching up on chess games.

day 264 – i spent the morning hunting around for information about how to get to medewi. the tourist offices were quoting ridiculously high prices. i put my pants and didgeridoo bag in for alterations, went for a swim, read my book, checked email and got a fairly early night.

day 265 – i picked up my pants and bag, packed and checked out.

i figured the cheapest way to get to medewi was by bemo (local minibuses which act as public transport). i got a bemo from kuta to denpasar. once there, i had to get a different bemo which took me all the way to medewi. the whole trip cost me about $7. the reason i’d decided to go there was that i heard it was a small, surf town which was largely off the tourist radar. i was completely caught off guard by how small medewi was. there was one decent hostel, two small ‘homestay’ style places and an expensive hotel on the beach. there was also a small restaurant and some ultra-cheap rooms around the corner on the beach. medewi was one street, mostly vacant land. i hadn’t brought enough money and there were no facilities in the single street town. so, i checked into the hotel and jumped on another bemo to the nearest town, negara, which was 20kms away. it cost me about 50 cents each way. i got off the bemo in negara, took money out at the nearest atm, bought a coke, and walked a few blocks to the bemo stop going back towards medewi.

when i returned, i went for a walk along the beach. then i returned to my hotel, had a nice chicken satay and rice for dinner, with beer, and read my book by candlelight (since the entire street had lost power since the early evening). i got talking to a south african guy, who was there to surf, and then i went to bed.

the day was crazy hot, but i braved it and wandered around a few pagodas. i saw that byin huy temple and climbed up minyein gon pagoda (which is a good place for sunset views). i visited some other temples and talked to some kids at hti lom min lo pagoda. it was hot, so i went back to the hotel for a break and a swim to cool down. at about 5pm shinya and i intended to go to pya tha da pagoda for sunset. the pagoda is quite a popular sunset destination. we knew the direction, but there were no real roads, just tracks through the sand and dust. we bashed our way through on the bikes and shinya’s bike got a puncture in the tyre. that put him in a foul mood and we had to abandon the trip to pya tha da. instead, we ended up at a nearby pagoda which we climbed and enjoyed the sunset anyway. the sunset cheered shinya up a lot and we also met some locals who were kind enough to help us get shinya’s bike back to the hotel. we arrived back at the hotel after dark and the guys who helped us wanted to show their paintings. a lot of locals work as painters and artists. their art is based on local sights and tradition. they sell the art to tourists in the high season. shinya and i bought a couple of paintings each … after that we headed, again, to the bbq kebab restaurant next to the hotel, drank beer, swam and slept.

day 47 – there was a wedding at our hotel today. it started at 7am and went on until about 11am. when shinya and i went out for breakfast, our usually quiet lawn was full of people in their sunday best. we got a table in the corner, sat, and had a big breakfast. shinya and i started talking and laughing about weddings. we wondered if myanmar weddings, like western weddings, were a good place to meet potential boyfriends/girlfriends. while we were sitting there we did notice a lot of young girls dressed in nice clothes. being the only foreigners, we were quickly noticed by everyone. some of the girls, looking about 20ish, noticed us and made eye contact. they started laughing and giggling to each other. shinya and i decided to eat a little more and stick around to enjoy the sideshow that we had become. a large group of about 10 girls eventually sat together in the shade looking at us and chatting amongst themselves.

we had some bottles of water on the table, and the girls gestured that they wanted some water. i gestured for them to come over and get it, which made them shy and giggly. a young girl, about 10, walked past and the girls told her to come and fetch the water from us. when the little girl came over i made her sit down and i said hello to her. the girl was laughing loudly and almost everyone on the lawn stopped what they were doing and watched us. eventually, i gave her the bottle of water and she took it for the other girls.

the girls kept giggling and looking at us. but eventually the novelty wore off and they went back inside to watch the end of the wedding (which had continued noisily the entire morning). it was also getting hotter, so shinya and i also gave up and headed back to the room. i went for a swim and a small sleep. after i woke up we went to the internet cafe to check email and shinya cycled to the bus station to pick up our bus tickets to inle lake. while he was gone, i had another swim, and we went for dinner (more bbq kebabs and beer). i went for one last swim, packed my bag, and got an early night (the next day was going to be a 2.30am wake up).

day 48 – today was a hellish day. we got up at 2.30am, had breakfast (which the hotel prepared for us) and checked out. at 3.30 the bus picked us up outside the hotel and took us to naung-u. at 4am we were supposed to start our trip to inle lake.

the bus, however, had some problems and at first they tried to fix it. but eventually the bus driver disappeared and came back, two and a half hours later, with another bus. furious, we boarded the bus to finally make the start for inle lake. the drive was insanely slow. the bus stopped constantly to pick people up and load their tons of shit onto the roof. we also stopped for quite a few lunch and toilet breaks. during one break, i noticed that someone had dropped banana on the floor and my camera bag had been covered in squished banana and water from the floor of the bus. more furious, i spent the break cleaning my bag and cursing the dirty shitty people on the bus who spit and throw their fucking rubbish all over the floor.

eventually we got to kalaw, which is a town in the mountains, and knew we were close to inle lake. two hours later we got off the bus. a journey which had begun at 3.30am outside our hotel ended at 6pm near a junction to inle lake. we got a ride for the last 11km in the back of a pick up taxi, found our hotel and had some milkshakes at a nearby restaurant. coincidentally we ran into the german couple again that i’d talked to in mandalay.

after such a long, shitty travel day, i desperately needed some sleep.

day 49 – there were quite a few people at our hotel, despite it being low season in myanmar. we got chatting with a french canadian couple who shanya hated because they said he didn’t look canadian (he’s japanese born, but a canadian citizen). we also met two new arrivals, a spanish guy and a swiss girl, who’d both just flown in. they were traveling separately, but the hotel owner suggested that the four of us could pitch in together for the traditional inle lake boat ride. it was a good idea and would save all of us money.

the swiss girl’s name was sonia and we hung out with her for the full five days that we stayed in inle lake. the spanish guy was juan, a catalan and mad barcelona fan. he and i spent lots of time talking about football and the rivalry between catalans and the rest of the spanish speaking world.

the british couple from mandalay had given me the name of a good boat driver in inle lake. although we couldn’t find him (he was working) we did find his brother and arranged to meet again in the late afternoon. we had some lunch and sonia felt quite sick. so we took her back to the hotel. shinya and i walked into town to check out the market. i had the sleeves cut off my ‘moustache brothers’ tshirt, i bought an old one kyat note (about $0.001) with aung san’s face on it, had some tea and snacks (where we ran into juan again) and headed back to the hotel. that night shinya headed off on his own, so sonia and i decided to go to a restaurant which has a very good reputation in inle lake. we ate gnocci and pizza, which was pretty good, returned to the hotel and i went to bed.

day 50 – today was my 50th day on the road … a small milestone, but i was happy. our merry band of travellers spent the day on myanmar’s famous inle lake. we got away at 7.30am and went across the lake in the early morning sunrise. the lake is 22km long and about 10km wide. it’s a beautiful lake and is the lifeblood of the entire district. lots of people in boats were working on the lake. we saw men fishing and picking up the seaweed which grows in the shallow parts of the lake.

our first stop was at a nice little temple with lots of pagodas. at the temple was a celebration. although it was a little confusing, we gathered that the celebration was for a young boy who was entering his monkhood. many people were around and there was lots of fun. performers football juggling tricks, people ate, there was loud music, and everyone watched enthusiastically. we were welcomed into the festivities and went upstairs to drink tea. the celebrations were a lot of fun.

we continued further up the river to the markets. the markets move to different areas of the lake every day in a weekly cycle. this particular day the markets were at inn dein, near another big pagoda. we walked through the markets and i bought a flashlight. my maglight doesn’t work very well and the light itself is weak. i bought a light with 7 led globes in it. the light doubles as a headlamp, so it’s quite compact … that night we also found out that my new light is very, very bright.

we walked up inn dein pagoda and shinya took a side route up a nearby hill. we walked back down and met shinya near the boat, had some drinks and ventured back onto the lake. we had heard that there were kayin “long neck” tribespeople living around the lake. we asked our boat driver and he took us to a big souvenir store which employs 4 long neck women. we took some photos and bought a few little souvenirs. the long neck girls were quite young and only one of them was old. i was handed a coil similar to the ones that the girls have around their necks. the coils are incredibly heavy (5-8kg) and would be a hell of a burden. outside the souvenir shop was a group of guys sitting around drinking tea and playing a guitar. i took a turn playing the guitar, and we all drank tea and laughed.

the next stop was a village near the lake. at the village many houses make items to sell at the markets (moulded hammer heads, knives, etc) but this particular day was a festival for them too. most of the people were relaxing in the shade and we found a large group of women (and a small group of men) in a shed housing nine small buddha statues. everyone was sitting around, drinking tea, talking and relaxing through the heat of the day. in the afternoon they take turns offering food and bowing to the buddha statues. we drank some tea with them, while sonia and i took photos … it turns out that sonia is an avid photographer. she has a nikon d80 and we spent the whole day talking photography and shooting together.

we were getting hungry and had lunch at a nice restaurant on stilts which overlooked one of inle lake’s many canals which run off the sides of the lake to connect local villages to the lake itself. we wandered around another big pagoda (which was boring) and headed back to the lake to visit a fishing village. the village itself was entirely on stilts. most of the men were on the lake working, but the village was filled with children who laughed and shouted to the tour boats. we took photos, smiled and waved back at them. at a few places, there was actually dry land which had been built up on the outskirts of the lake. one such dry area in the fishing village had permanent school buildings. kids were playing on the grass in front of the concrete, brick and wooden classrooms.

the second last stop was a place i didn’t think would be interesting, but turned out to be quite informative. a woman had established a small cigarette making workshop on the outskirts of the fishing village. she employed about 12 girls (ages 14-19) who worked five days a week making cigarettes. these cigarettes were a local brand, rolled in leaves with very strong tobacco. the young girls talked and laughed, but their hands moved very quickly. i got into a conversation with the owner about this workshop. she told me that the girls make 3 kyat ($0.003) per cigarette and they must make between 800-1000 per day, which is a maximum of $3 per day. they don’t work weekends and, as such, can make up to $60 a month ($2 a day). although not a fabulous amount of money, it is a good living for girls living in this area.

we left the cigarette workshop and the boat driver took us through a massive hydroponic tomato farm which was also on the lake. the water (in parts) was quite shallow and they’d brought in soil for the tomato plant roots. the workers row past on small paddle boats and pick the tomatos.

the last stop was the jumping cat monastery. this particular monastery (i don’t remember the burmese name of it … nga something) is also in the middle of the lake and has become famous because the monks, perhaps due to the boredom of living on a lake, have taught the cats to jump through hoops. the monastery itself is quite nice and we came in through a back entrance which avoided the hallway of souvenir stalls at the front entrance. we walked around and one of the monks picked up a can of cat treats. the cats all came running and took turns jumping through a hoop.  he did this for about 5 minutes before returning to his other duties, but we all managed to get some photos. the monks, despite their newfound fame, often get annoyed at tourists constantly asking for the cats to do tricks. so we were happy to see the cats jump for a few minutes, after which the cats, and the monks, went about their daily routines.

back in the boat, we zoomed across the centre of the lake and enjoyed the red sunset over the mountains. we arrived back at the jetty and walked back to the hotel. we went for milkshakes, talked, and sonia and i compared photos. we went out for a curry dinner and on the way back noticed that one of the tea shops was showing the liverpool game. juan, shinya and i sat to watch the game (liverpool 3 – hull 1). sonia borrowed my new flashlight so that she could walk home … but 20 minutes later she returned, having got completely lost. she stayed 10 minutes until the end of the game and the four of us walked home together.