Batu, Java, Indonesia

"Saya suka tiket" I said at the booth - the lady gestured me inside the station. At security I said "Di mana tiket" and the guard gestured me though. I couldn't see any other booth, so assumed I could buy a ticket on the train. I got on the 8am train, heading for Malang. At the next few stops the train filled up, and I realised that I needed a ticket - seeing that everyone was waving one about and looking for their seats! I managed to ask the nice family sitting next to me where I should now get a ticket. They laughed then spoke to a train guard, who also laughed. By this time a few people, and more guards were interested in what was happening, and someone speaking a little English came to translate. I needed to get off the train at the next stop, get a ticket then get back on - they will hold the train for me. I got off and a guard came with me to the booth to make sure I got a ticket quickly, I paid the 4000 (from the stop I was at to Malang!) then got back on, in plenty of time. The people here are tremendously nice and very helpful. The internet said not to bother with the hassle of slow, crowded trains - I should get an AC minibus - but this is what I want from travelling, these are the best moments!

Arriving at Malang station I now needed to get to Batu. I first had to get a minivan to the Tlogomas bus terminal for 2500 Rupiah, then another minivan to Batu for 2500 Rupiah. These minivans are the size of a pea but can, remarkably, carry around 15 or 16 people - as I found out on the second journey. My rucksack and camera bag were piled up in my face, and I had a chair and electric oven at my feet, which an old granny was taking somewhere. An old man wanted to get on but no-one moved - he had to almost crawl his way over peoples legs to get to a space. We arrived at Batu terminal and everyone exploded out.

I'd not booked anything, thinking it was a small place and I could just walk about looking for a room. Not the case! Batu's quite big, and is slowly getting engulfed by Malang. I walked about looking for rooms, but all were expensive resorts - one place was 1,000,000 Rupiah per night! After an hour, and with the afternoon rains closing in, I was thinking about going to Malang when three men (one speaking good English) pulled up and asked what I was doing. I said I was looking for "ekonomi hotel". They told me to get in and that they could help. I showed them an area that wikitravel suggested and they took me there, asking people along the way, and even phoning his sister for advice on cheap hotels! I ended up at a place called the Arumdalu hotel - and they had rooms for 70,000 Rupiah (£5). The men and I had a round of photographs, they took my Facebook details and drove off.

Soon after arriving the heavens opened and it rained ALL afternoon and into the evening. I didn't go out exploring, had some dinner in the hotel and read a book called Bangkok eight that I'd picked up in a bookswap. Not the sort of book I'd normally go for but it's quite absorbing. I think I was possibly the only guest in the hotel. The swimming pool was empty and being cleaned - ready for the high-season and the influx of wealthy tourists from Surabaya and Melang.

Determined to see this cute colonial mountain town I was up at 5:30am and out by 6am. Nothing was open, and just a few people were wandering about - all of those people said hello! It was already misty and cool, and felt a little like rain. There's apple orchards here and you can buy apples and apple related products everywhere! There's supposed to be a Hindu temple but I could not find it at all, asking people left me a little more lost - time to learn a little more of the language! I went back for my free breakfast - an enormous buffet, I'm sure for only me! (I had seconds). The town is cute and serves as a great base for hiking - but I had lots of this to come further east - so I packed the bags and headed back to Malang.

Kathmandu, Nepal

I'm not going to post anything about Kathmandu, as my time here was fleeting; coming and going to Pokhara or the Everest national park. Not that I didn't enjoy Kathmandu though, I met some great people at Alobar1000, ate some fantastic vegetarian food at OR2K, drank unlimited coffee at the Himalayan Java cafe, greeted my sister and Dave with a placard at Kathmandu airport, got duped by the tiger-balm seller and did some hard-bargaining for Buddha's mother! All this coupled with general wondering around the streets, filling my lungs with the crazy pollution and, of course, the tourist attractions!

Buddy Steve's Everest snowboard in Sams bar - go see it!

Monsoon rivers of sewage!

Trinkets at the monkey temple

Masterchef Shiva cooks up an amazing curry in Alobar1000 

Prayer flags

Fake (Wild tiger) and genuine (tiger balm)

Kitty at the funky buddha

Helenas restaurant - the highest bar in Thamel

6am

Haircut sir!

Mandalay, Myanmar

I got on the overnight bus (10,000 Kyat), found my seat and got comfortable. The bus didn't sound too healthy but we lurched off anyway. I knew I would get no sleep; for me it's impossible on sitting buses so I plugged myself into my mp3 player and closed my eyes. I've almost developed a musical meditation state that gets me through the night.  We travelled not 100 metres when the engine groaned and we stopped in a cloud of brown smoke. For an hour the driver, conductor and technical passengers crowded around the stricken engine, banging stuff and trying to start it. At one point someone actually climbed into the engine bay. Eventually it roared to life, everyone jumped on and we quickly set off! Everything was sweet then for hours until we hit the hills, when the engine sounded awful, like two very old, rusty, robots arm-wrestling. Stopping at a service station it decided it'd had enough and again everyone crowded around the back of the bus, this time for many hours.

We arrived in Mandalay only three hours over schedule. Extremely tired I asked the tuk-tuk driver to take me to the cheapest room he knew. At the ET hotel I shared a twin room with a 19 year old English journalist, Chris, for $5 each. Many people told me they didn't like Mandalay, that it was dirty and busy, with nothing to do. I really like it! For one its drier than Yangon, and less busy. The roads are in an interesting grid formation which looks easy on a map, but the amount of times we got lost is ridiculous. I called MandalayMotorbike@gmail.com (092014265) to get some out-of-town action but they were $5 more than some bloke on the street, who offered his motorbike for $10 a day. My motorbike had no speedometer, no mirrors, and didn't like the electric start, but my journalist buddy's bike was good. Biking around Mandalay itself is intense, and for Chris this was baptism by fire - first time on a motorbike, ever! I felt a little responsible and kept an eye on him (being the now experienced rider I am - ahem), but he quickly picked it up and before long we were out of town and cruising brand new tarmac, completely devoid of other traffic. We had no maps, and got lost several times, but the beautiful people of Myanmar happily pointed us in the right directions, or literally jumped on their bikes and told us to follow them down winding dirt roads and riverside paths! Stopping at a village cafe for snacks we were soon surrounded by what seemed like the whole village; they sat and watched us eat. I'm guessing not many tourists have ever been here. We found the snake temple, the teak bridge and the other tourist sites, but the best thing was just being out there in the wilds, meeting the people!

Sunken temple

Curious village kids 

Are you sure we should ride these bikes through the river??

Maybe you'd like crab for lunch?

Who lives in a house like this?

Beautiful wilderness of Myanmar

Back in Mandalay we dodged the busy traffic up to Mandalay hill. A wonderful and never-ending set of steps through Monasteries and Shrines to the top of the hill gives some spectacular views of the flooded plains and distant hills. The sun glimmering on the Buddhist gold and jewels on the Temple at the top is blinding.

Breathtaking views and shimmering gold temples

Chris, as he's just here for a few weeks writing about Myanmar, came straight from England. He wasn't particularly interested in Burmese food, partly because the chances of getting sick are quite high. For this reason we ate mostly at Western style venues; burgers, chips and coke (I've never seen anyone drink so much coke) being the main diet. In Mandalay there's a place called V-club that caters for the weak-stomached!

We both wanted to get as far away from the main areas as possible (even though there was hardly anybody about anyway). Lasho is the furthest east you can possibly go before you get to military checkpoints, and ultimately the Chinese border; we decided this was the place to go. At Mandalay railway station we find a train to Lasho and tell the clerk we'd like to go there. The journey will cost $30 (one-way) and will take 18 hours. He suggested we take first class. I pulled out a $100 note and he inspected it at great length, eventually deciding that he didn't like the serial number sequence. Bewildered, I offered others, but being in the same sequence range he refused them also. We had enough money if we used all of our Kyats and a $20 note that Chris had. Unfortunately the $20 note had a slight mark on it and he refused that also. He told us to come back to the station later; I had no idea why this would be different but we huffed and left. 

Back at the station at 8pm and the same clerk straight away accepted my $100 bill. I wondered what sequence of events had occurred since. It can only have been government decided. Maybe they needed to check something, maybe us? Was it to do with the distant destination? We now had our tickets and were to catch the train at 4am the next morning.

Sunset from the hotel roof

Singapore

The enormous bus to Singapore contained only me and the driver; how I craved this situation on much longer trips, so I might snooze on the back seats. The journey was swift with only a small jam on the bridge from Malaysia to Singapore. Customs, as expected, was extremely shiny and efficient, and before I knew it I was standing in a dusty car-park in the middle of Singapore, with military fighter planes screaming overhead, obviously celebrating my arrival. Google have just launched offline maps and I'd promptly downloaded Singapore before leaving Melaka. I switched on GPS and sweatily trudged in the general direction of my "starred" hostel with more planes zooming about above (they were actually practising for an Independence day celebrations). The maps work great, maximum credit to Google, this could change the world! The only issue being occasional GPS signal errors and the battery life of our power hungry devices, leaving you stranded - always have an old-fashioned back-up plan!

Goodbye Malaysia, hello Singapore

Just the two of us

You can go shopping... in a boat

All-seeing cows

The price jump, even from Malaysia, was dramatic. Singapore, as everyone knows, is expensive. I initially opted for one of the cheapest places I could pre-book on tripadvisor, a place called Empire hostel (17 Singapore dollars per night per dorm bed), tucked away in a back street in the northern suburbs. The hostel is clean and functional, and the other guests are friendly. Apart from a German girl in the next bunk all of the other occupants are from elsewhere in Asia, and working long-term in Singapore; this hostel being their cheapest living option. I wouldn't recommend this hostel unless you're on a particularly tight budget as it's time consuming getting to central, as well as costing a few extra dollars in transport that you could spend in a central hostel. 

I had three tasks to complete: pick up my replacement credit card, find $700 of unused, unmarked, sequential bank notes and catch a flight to Yangon. The first task I immediately crossed from my list. I don't know if It was the incompitence of English banks (most likely) or the postal system, but the card never arrived. I spent the first day gawking at giant buildings, freezing in air-conned mega-malls and dribbling at things I would never be able to afford. Priced out of the city-centre I headed for the Chinatown markets. In a cafe two friendly Japanese businessmen asked me to join them, one was the Asian director of Audi sales. They were very interested in what exactly I was doing loafing about in Chinatown. I explained the unexciting story of me loafing about in Asia generally. They kindly bought me a few beers and some food and gave me some pointers on "good" massage parlours. Later I bumped into the German girl from the hostel, who said that someone she knew told her how to get to the top of the Marina Sands hotel without paying the $20 non-resident fee. At the hotel we told the concierge that we wanted to go to the top-deck bar for a tipple, where we were able to slip past security amongst the hundreds of people milling about. The vista is breathtaking. Every night at 8pm and 9pm there's an opulent light and water show in the bay.

Japanese businessmen

The ri-donkulous Marina Sands hotel

View from the top of Marina Sands

The (rather expensive!) bar

Samah, who I'd met in Melaka, was now in Singapore. She told me she was staying in a nice central hostel. I checked out of the Empire and lugged my bags to the Treetop lodge (eco) hostel (SG$23 per night / dorm); a clean, chilled hostel with VERY helpful staff, and walking distance from everything. Samah very gracefully followed me while I scoured the money-changers and banks of Singapore, looking for those sparkling dollars that would get me through twenty-two days in Myanmar. Most banks weren't able to help; some banks contained sofas and gold toilets and wouldn't serve me; most money changers tried to give me old or marked cash, which I had to refuse. On a steamy night walking home from a long days sightseeing (and another glittering trip to the Marina Sands top-deck) I decided to have one final stab finding clean US dollars in the Raffles (mall) basement. On seeing a remarkably unassuming stall with a bored looking man wedged inside I'd pretty much given up hope, but he jolly well came up with the goods! Seven super-crisp, untouched, sequencial one-hundered dollar notes! I quickly tucked the envelope safely into my laptop, thanked the man profusely and we left.

Hookers, boats and planes here I come!! Well, maybe not

You can see all of my photos here

Khon Kaen, Thailand

Khon Kaen is a large university town and this was kind of a stop off for us on the journey south. The usual bus munchies haunted us and we opted for a whole chicken on a stick. There's something so ridiculous about chickens on sticks, it fast becomes hilarious!

We get off the bus at the air-conditioned or the non-air-conditioned bus terminal, I forget which! There's not much in the way of tourists or tourist accommodation here, if anything. We ask at a few hotels but some have no free wi-fi (?), some are expensive and some are closed. We eventually find one called hotel Roma. It's like a 1980's business hotel with the biggest foyer this side of Las Vegas; which is fine, if you have something to put in it, like a giant fountain or fighting midgets. Once the 20 minute walk to reception is complete we check-in and are shown to the room. The porter opens the door to dimness and quickly puts the television on. Once he's gone our eyes adjust and start to investigate. The reason for lack of light is apparent; the two main light bulbs are missing, only the light above the odd-shaped mirror is working. There's no windows here, just a metal mesh that leads out onto a rooftop. There's a beautiful patch of damp above the mirror and in the other corners. The TV wires are lead across the wall and up to the ceiling. The bedding was clean and the bathroom fine so I'm not complaining, I actually like it; it wins an award as one of the most memorable rooms I've stayed in! I since did a little research and now realise that the room we had was in the old wing and we paid 230 Baht. People who left good reviews paid 600 Baht. If I went back knowing this I'd choose the 230 Baht room. 

Reception (echo... echo... echo... echo...)

Ceiling fan regulator

We took dinner at the Roma, as there were 2 live bands playing and they were good; playing 80's and modern pop classics. It's a shame that only about 10 people were watching. I guess that they were music students from the university although one or two of the band members looked like John Lennon might do if he was alive today.

Our bus was due to leave that evening so we powered around the town. It's hot, really hot. I had a few moments where I felt incredibly dizzy. Maybe I was a little sick, or de-hydrated; I found myself ducking to any shade I could find and had intense relief from air-conditioning (normally I'm the opposite). One Wat we ducked into had a hoard of 300+ Monks, all in robes, eating lunch. The sea of orange is a photographers dream but who wants to have their picture taken while eating? We decided against it and moved on to the huge main hall, expecting it to have an enormous Buddha inside. It didn't! (see photo)

There's a skate park near the top of the lake. I can't imagine anyone skating on it anymore! The quarter-pipes had huge holes and the paint was peeling off. The boxes were split and the rails rusty. I guess no-one skates in Khon Kaen anymore which is a shame as it could be a great park. In a similar state is a giant concrete open air amphitheatre a little further round from the skate park; I'm not sure when the last performance was here, but I would guess at a while ago! Getting on a stage is the last thing I would do with an audience present but it's usually the first thing I do if alone or with close friends. Underneath the stage is a local museum; It didn't look particularly interesting, maybe we just weren't in the mood.

Skate with your life

The turnout for Charlie Sheen's new show was bad

There is was. It knew our bodies were sugar-starved. Before I could open my mouth to say something Anna was there and schmoozing with the friendly owner. The Tasty Chocolate shop sells real Belgian chocolates, at a premium of course. We opted for the "lets treats ourselves" thought pattern and bought 4 individual chocolates each and one large tub of white freezing cold chocolate buttons. Anna also bought a chocolate cake and the lady gave us one free. Nicely bagged with a block of ice we happily munch our way out of the shop. I was first to overdose and flat-refused the second cake (I'm more savoury than sweet) which we gave to a surprised lady on the street. Anna, like a trooper, continued with the chocolate binge for a little while longer until the sheer number of buttons got the better of her. We now only had an hour before the coach left so I bought a new T-shirt and we hid in a deliciously-freezing McDonald's with some fresh orange juice (confession: I had a bouncy fillet of fish also). Next stop Nang Rong!