Now in Indonesia

29/6/11

   Did very little just hung around the hostel catching up on Internet stuff and waiting for William to arrive. Court the train to the airport to and meet William and his friend Ian, then went back to Ian's place. Had my first Durian on the way there, was ok actually surprised at that, although the flavour does stay with you for quite a while.

  Great minds have the same hair style

30/6/11

   We went around some local places, and had some lovely Indian food. Also went to the Batu Caves in the afternoon which where interesting, now I have a new phone, thanks to William, I actually have some photos again.

  Some creatures would be scary in the dark cave...

1/7/11

   Walked around the local area in the morning, it is nice to be out of central Kuala Lumpur and away from all the touristy shit. Went with Ian for a drive south to see a Burmese monk who had come over. Lots of palm trees, apparently for the palm oil. Had some lovely vegetarian meals, nice to be in places that don't charge extra because your a tourist.

  So which is the more developed country....
  Yes you guessed it the satellite dishes are in a little village just over the border from Vietnam in Cambodia and the aerials are in Malaysia. Unfortunately i do not have the photo of a little bamboo hut, about the size of my hotel room squeezed in a gap on a 3 way intersection in Laos with a satellite dish.
  Why are they so expensive in New Zealand and Australia when people who cannot even afford a piece of land can afford one?

2/7/11

   Went up north with William and some of Ian's friend for a Durian run, well feast actually for Ian and friend, William and I had more fresh pineapple and other fruits. Once the feasting was done we headed out a back road to a Durian orchid which was very cool. As one person said luckily Newton sat under an apple tree or he would have died discovering gravity under a Durian tree.

On the way there this place had the biggest bananas I've ever seen, apparently for cooking.

 The feast.

  The orchard
  Know there is a problem with Durian, those who have traveled Asia will know, it is banned on most public transport and even in a lot of hotel. This is because of the smell, i didn't find that to bad, until it started coming out as burbs and farts from the 5 other people who had been gorging on it earlier in the day...

   Had a wonderful family dinner with Ian's brother and children and grand children, very nice vegetable Currey, king prawns, lemon chicken, fish. The problem with travelling on your own is the fact that when out at restaurants like that you have to order only one dish or waste lots, so was nice to be able to sample lots of different dishes.

3/7/11 to 6/7/11

   Had to rush the plans a bit last night but all has turn out good (so far). have made it to Port Klang in time for the 9am ferry, even though it was 9.15 when I arrived, to Dumai in Sumatra, saying all that the ferry didn't leave until 11am. Lucky I changed some American dollars to Malaysian Ringgit with Ian as the ferry cost $125MYR instead of the $80 advertised, it does mean I only have $5MYR left, which doesn't worry me as I'm on my way to Indonesia lol, I do have some American left tho and that is what I will need for the visa.

Once off the ferry at about 1400 I had no issues getting a visa or with customs, although I did get my first pat down. I walked into town and found an ATM, I had no idea of the exchange rate, so got the max out of 1.2mil turns out that is about $135 Australian. Then as I was getting conflicting information about where the bus terminal was I walk around a bit till I found a CFC, yes that's the Indonesian version of KFC, which had free WIFI, don't you love developing countries where Internet is often free unlike developed counties where they just want your money.

   I found out there was a bus leaving at 1800 for Parapat which is up towards the Orangutang place but could not find where the bus terminal was, so I gave in and let the old guy who had been following me for over 2 hrs take me there on his cyclo, the poor bastard he almost bit of more than he could chew there and unfortunately for him we agreed on the price before we left. He was hoping to drop me at a bus ticket place on the way to the station but kept going to the wrong ones and had to ride the whole way then tried to double the price because it was hard work, I gave him and extra 10,000 for the effort but was not paying 100,000 when he had said 50,000.

Sipoholon, I think, at about 0700 where I had to wait for the local mini van to take me on to Parapat, where I arrived at about 1230. so for those not counting that was up at 0640 on the 3^rd and off the last bus almost 30hrs later, I'll be looking for other means of transport in Indo probable ferry.

   I was obviously shattered by the time I got here and feeling a bit under the weather, sore throat, head ache, ear ache. So I walked into town a little way found a hotel, and have been laid up in bed for the last 2 days. Fever broke last night so only sore throat and head arch to go now.

 Lake Toba

Now if I've counted right this is the 55th place I've stayed, including the boat in Ha long Bay, and Ian's place.