Bandung - JKK - Singapore (and wait) - JKK - Bandung - and onwards....

I found myself deeply troubled by leaving E alone in Bandung - a feeling that was exacerbated by a terrible dream which I can still remember to this day.  E was, in the first scene, surrounded by all of the people we had met in town - but I couldn't see her face.  The next and final scene was to see her rise towards me - face first - with dark eyes and hollow cheeks.

It turns out that my fears were unfounded - although she would have preferred to have stayed in Bogor, it wasn't so bad - she took a trip out to see an artists studio and, in general, hung out with the other backpackers that had swung by this area.  I found it particularly amusing that the guesthouse staff were particularly nice - something that I found contradictory when thinking about how unpleasant the town was in general.

My journey to Singapore was pretty uneventful - lots of uncharacteristically smooth connections.  I stopped by the old JKK guest house in one of their dorm rooms with the successful intent of leaving at 330am.  The bus to the airport was waiting for me but the destination was closed.  It seems I was particularly looking forward to a Dunkin Donuts breakfast there - alas, the disappointment!

The lack of legroom is all that appears to have been notable about the flight and I do remember sitting in the airport lounge for 5-6 hours waiting for my return flight.  I read the Daily Telegraph and worried about the state of the world.  I wondered about the cleanliness of the airport and my contradictory appearance.  My return to Indonesia was met with a raised eyebrow or two from immigration but I proudly sported a new two months visa with little trial or tribulation.

And back to Bandung.  A long-ish 'stopper' train that was notable for a long chat to a student for the duration - only to be criticised by another passenger, after he got off, for it being too long and noisy!  I also, by the way, got chatted up by two boys in Angie's restaurant in JKK.  I called them 'fags' in my diary - something that made me frown disapprovingly on reading it.  I simply can't remember (but doubt) whether than was an acceptable term even then.

And, as I said, E was perfectly content - the room was a little noisy but she had gotten herself into an early habit of being somewhat uncompromising on such things.  There was nothing holding us there so - so were were straight on to Yogya with a little ado as possible.

Bogor

Bogor was the most spectacular of revelations.  A hill-town-style jungle village, set on the side of a hill with a morass of shanty town below.  I found a guest house that I will never forget on the edge of town, next to a church, surrounded by transvestite prostitutes.  All of the rooms were set around a covered courtyard with battered lounge furniture to....lounge upon.

Bogar's botanical garden is the town's only 'sight' and is little more than a municipal park.  That said, it's surprise sight was a leafless tree, covered with bats.  The people, from one end of the town to the other, are consistently charming and welcoming.  I have my picture taken endlessly and a multitude of invitations to come and see homes and meet families.  I accept a couple of these invitations, to find myself deep in 'suburbia', sometimes acting as 'cover' for an illicit meetup between boyfriend and girlfriend.

I decide, at one point, to start learning Indonesian - on the suggested of 'Teddy' in the guesthouse, the terrible weather and hearing numerous travellers having picked it up with seeming ease.  I spend a couple of days on 'cat' and 'dog' and the numbers and 'that's expensive'.

And then it's time to go back to Jakarta to meet E who couldn't be more excited to arrive.  She's also terrifically well prepared for the trip (unlike me a number of months ago).  That said - her pre-travel nerves are quite similar to those that I experienced.  I had been very much looking forward to seeing her - by this point in proceedings I was feeling a little lonely and a little homesick.  Although I was talking, in my diary, about coming back soon and the 'chitchat' with others was much more pleasant and numerous than in might have been in the past.  E brings many things to the game - from someone to tell my 'tales' to (including a full photo viewing) through to someone to have a drink with - having long been a little teetotal.

After a terse exchange with the Jalan Jaksa guesthouse about their enthusiasm to get rid of us rather quickly, we headed straight back to Bogor.  E was particularly impressed and, it turned out, would have preferred to stay there instead of Bandung.  Because stay she must - on her own - I was headed to Singapore to renew my visa.....

Trans Sumatra

And so to the other semi-mythical story of my travels.  The way I remember it is that I realised that I had a too limited amount of time, now, to reach Jakarta in time to meet E.  The very practicalities of travelling were a little alien to me after these two weeks on Samui.  The chaotic unpredictability of minibuses, boats and buses was an unpleasant realisation to say the least.

Penang had mixed reports to say the least and a cramped minibus of a mixed bag of individuals arrived in this outpost and all concerned suddenly realised that they were in Malaysia now.  It didn't make much of an impact to say the least.  But I don't think I really wanted it to.  My only real memory of this spot was of an enormous cockroach coming out of the overflow in the sink in my room and needing to be scooped up into a newspaper and thrown out of the window.  I'd only seen its tentacles pointing out and thought that a burst of Lynx deodorant would real with it - said burst actually enticed it out rather than sent it packing!

And so to Medan.  And into a different country again.  Our arrival bus was swarmed by rickshaw wallahs - it was like being back in India - the shouting, hawking and deal-doing.  After getting momentary settled, I was overcome with 'advice' from travellers and locals alike about how to get to Jakarta.  I was worried how.  Boat vs Bus vs Plane were debated at length and I plumped for the bus only to be taken around town umpteen times by an increasingly irritating individual who wanted to get me on the right VIP bus, in the right place at the right time.  It seems I was to pay for him and his friends journeys around town and their return journey too!

And so a long 2-3 days of leaky-roofed bus travel began.  My notes use the word 'unbearable' quite a lot.  The bus was packed, the heat intense, the next seat constantly occupied - sometimes by people, sometimes by a box with a chicken in it.  The 'bus boys' thought I was bearing my lot calmly - they thought I must have been on something.  I'd wrap my head in the curtain to protect it from leaks and to use it as a pillow.  The stops involved inedible food and vomit-inducing lavatories.  The 'company' almost always insisted on resting their hand on my knee.  Although my mental state was calm - indeed my head was empty - I do remember letting out a hefty 'sigh' when I realised we had made to little progress.  Oh - and I think it was here that we crossed the equator too.

I arrived in Jakarta battered and bruised - hungover without the fun.  And it wasn't too bad - modern (I did, indeed, have a Burger King) but interestingly cultured - I went to the Museums and the Parks and realised that I was on time - by about three days.  So it was time to explore.  So I headed to Bogor.

Koh Samui Part 2

The second half of my stay in MaeNam was punctuated most notably by the Special Omelette episode.  A memory that has quite literally stayed with me for ever!  Not that it was bad - quite the opposite.

A 'normal' evening in Rasta Baby commenced.  The rather over-hasty announcement that we were having the 'special' resulted in a swift change of tone and a trip, we suspected, on the part of the staff into the jungle to dig up the goods.  Or maybe that's something I've made up since.

The omelette was served with due ceremony and we slathered it in tomato ketchup in the expectation that it was going to taste appalling.  Not that you'd know.  Thanks to the ketchup.  And nothing happened.  We paid the bill and went for a walk.

And then.  The most extraordinary evening/night ensued.  A star-filled dome of sky became the most fantastical thing.  A cat came and joined us on the beach and then came and sat on my table whilst we chatted and hooted.  There were parts of the beach that were eerily desolate and other parts where you could run your fingers through the sand for hours on end - it seemed.  No hippy-speak nonsense about the meaning of the world - just fireworks and fun.

We finally settled back on the balcony - MamaSan was stalking back and forth with a typical scowl on her face.  Something about the generator.  We failed to roll up successfully and thought seriously about getting the kiwis up to do so for us.  I had a shower and upset Jacquie by spraying her with mossy spray.  I slept, at two in the morning, the best sleep I'd had for a long time.

And of course the morning was similarly blissful.  Continued but enhanced relaxation ensued with a vague thought or two that I'd need to leave some time.

And leave I did - after two weeks, the naive exchange of addresses and the clumsy hug or two. It was day 70 and I needed to be in Jakata on day 83.  Not too much of a stretch but a considerable distance by land.   At 5.30am in the morning, I was off, not to return to Koh Samui for another three years or so, under entirely different personal circumstances.

Koh Samui Part 1

The return to BKK was pretty uneventful by the sounds of things.  My disdain at other travellers appears to have increased in magnitude - notably around their somewhat clean and well-kept appearances.  So - it was off to Koh Samui - with big ideas about meditation and thai chi in my mind.

My departure was of an afternoon/evening and was punctuated by a 'drive past' by the royal family - something that required all present at the bus stop to be upstanding.  The bus itself was, we subsequently found out, an 'upgrade' and actually allowed a little bit of sleep.  Lots of couples on board and lots of clubbers heading for the delights of Chaweng Beach.

The longest part of the journey, as I remember it, was the boat across to the island.  Maybe I was a touch seasick but I remember thinking 'is that it' and 'maybe that's it'.

The arrival brought me into contact with some 'greasy Italians' and Jacquie.  On the back of a pickup heading for the North of the island.  'Boguns' she called them.  And off we got at MaeNam Villas.  A complex of buildings that surprised and delighted me.  A little balcony, a chair and table and a double bed.  And a bat.  My other memory - which doesn't seem to be noted in my diary is of a shower without a head and a loo without a seat.

Jacquie and I hit it off particularly quickly.  Our first bonding was over a 'green tea' down at Rasta Baby - something that resulted in me passing out in my seat on her balcony.  Rasta Baby was to become a particularly regular haunt.  A Danish girl and her thai boyfriend who would put the grass on your bill and subtly encourage you in the direction of the Special Omelette.  Many an evening was spent there - racking up a huge bill and watching the crazies dance.

Some kiwis next door also became friendly - a couple with a toddler called Joe - on their way back to NZ from Tottenham.  He (the father, not Joe) became our guiena pig for the special omelette - but he was considerably larger than me - not that that held me back - more on that anon.

Motorbikes were another delight.  The first fifteen minutes were notable for ending up in a ditch on my side (memories of that fete and my parents having to administer St John's finest).  But we soon got the hang of it - until a small selection of bikes were impounded by the police for parking offences - an episode that resulted in a new phase of bartering...

Muesli seems to feature large at this time - as do late breakfasts and late lunches.  The occasional bout of homesickness and paranoia and interesting hints about 'out of control daydreaming' that I enjoyed just as much as I was disturbed by.....

And my birthday.  A birthday in Koh Samui punctuated by a phonecall home and the news that Mum was in hospital.  'It's my birthday', I said to my rather distracted father.  'Is that the only reason you called' said he.

A bridge from Kanchanaburi

The journey to Kanchanaburi was particularly marked by an Israeli girl arguing for a 'no aircon journey' which seemed to irritate me particularly.

But on arriving all irritation slipped away with the realisation that I was going to be staying in an idyllic bamboo hut right by the river.  The nights were cool, the accompanying restaurant was populated by charming staff and interesting people - as well as taxi soup, pancakes and newspapers - and I decided to take it particularly slow.

The walk into town and the bridge itself was short and untaxing.  There were a number of museums commemorating the war and the bridge itself - one, notably, had a temporary exhibition on Miss Thailand for some reason.  I was particularly struck by the war graves and the fact that many of those who fell were little older than me - cue lots of meaningful poetry writing.  

The second day saw me somewhat unpreparedly join a trip to some waterfalls.  I, of course, thought that this would be a somewhat sedate affair - sitting at the bottom reading the odd book or two.  It was, in fact, a full-scale climb up the waterfall itself - in flipflops.  Danes, Irish and Israelis abounded and we arrived back at the guesthouse exhausted but happy.

It seems I was reading DH Lawrence followed by 'Love in the Time of Cholera' at the time - I have no memory of the former and little of the latter.  'Disco Boats' went past my bamboo hut whilst I wrote diary entries and poems about 'falling in love with who you fall in love with' (!) and my neighbour (who had been keeping me awake at night by merely rolling over in bed) decided to go back to BKK because it was too cold here.

The restaurant staff did, it seems, think I was particularly lazy with my 1030 breakfasts and not going out exploring until 1.  But it sounds like I was finally on holiday!  My final night included a drunk old american guy who wanted me to believe that he was CIA and a descendent of Roosevelt - he'd been infiltrating the Burmese border for years and sending intelligence back.  You do wonder how these people ended up here and if/how they ever got 'home'.

Headed back to BKK - to the Merry V.  Laundry and a shave a preparations for Koh Samui.  I'd already decided that I was 'above' the party-seekers and that a quiet spot was just waiting for me.

BKK KSR

So - onwards.  The departure from Bombay was, of course, fraught with negotiations with over-enthusiastic Sikh taxi drivers and their brothers and the airport wait was supplemented with my remains 50 Rps.  But that was it - India done.

There was something of a relapse from the very first flight of the trip with paranoia about crashing and paranoia about everyone else on the plane being more friendly to each other than they were to me.

But the change once touching down in BKK could not have been more marked.   Got a taxi from the airport to town with a couple and a chap called Michael.  The couple had come from Thailand to India and back again - had only lasted a couple of weeks before the dirt got the better of them.  And Michael - a lone traveller who was gradually trying to get his motorbike home.  

And The Khao San Road - that famous backpackers Mecca of banana pancakes, street food and drinks over a pirate copy of Back to the Future II.  We naturally chose a spot off of the road, at the far end - just to prove our 'distance' from 'them'.  But I couldn't have been happier - a comfortable bed that was the location of my first siestas of the trip and a sense that this place was going to be considerably easier than the last five weeks.

Temple hunting is, of course, a must in BKK but these, as you'll know, redefine the word 'breath-taking'.  My natural propensity for not having prepared myself properly resulted in my being taken entirely by surprise as to the beauty and the meditative glory of these places.  The sitting, reclining or standing buddhas - every single one was a source of delight and wonder.

Even the 'last day of the gem sale' hawkers were worth a chat.  Even the 'getting lost looking for a meditation centre' was stress free.  Michael and I hung out (occasionally with others, mostly alone), celebrated his birthday (33), went to the weekend market, went to see 'True Lies' and lay in the guesthouse room, reading (where he had the rather unedifying habit of playing with himself whilst doing so).

It seems I was rather preoccupied with looking out for those girls from Hampi whilst tucking into my latest banana pancake with condensed milk and chocolate.  But to no avail.  I was overwhelmed with wonder at the ease of arranging my next 'leg' and that was it - onto the River Kwai!