British Adventures

We're on the train. There's a torrential downpour going on outside. Where are we going? That's right....
Camping.
Tom and I sat on the train, looking out of the windows, wondering what the hell we were thinking. Not really, we were actually really excited to be going camping. Which one of those statements is true? Even I'm not sure.

Anyway when we arrived in Brighton Tom annoyed a few people in the cash machine queue by accidentally pushing in, then we found a cafe to have a breakfast-brunch and optimistically wait for the rain to ease. Whilst doing this we were in a great position to watch many a sorry soaked soul pass by outside. And free black pudding, best cafe ever.

Finally the rain stopped and we got a bus to the campsite. Destination Woodingdean, yaaaaay.

After we had walked away from the main road, up a massive hill with all our bags, and back down the other side we arrived at a farm which may or may not have been the campsite. Turned out it was. We confusedly looked around and a man with long blond hair in two plaits poked his head out of a porta cabin. We signed in and he apologised in advance about the stag party which had arrived about two minutes before us, already merry at about four in the afternoon. (In the end they caused no trouble at all but the nice campsite man said if they did he would make them pay for our stay LOL.)

We pitched the tent, which took thirty minutes instead of the ten as stated on the label. Then we went back into Brighton on our day saver bus tickets to pick up Yoon and get some food supplies. Fifty pounds worth of Aldi shopping later we returned and got the campfire going. The sky was all kinds of reds, oranges and pinks. Such a beautiful sight - people think I'm weird when I use the word magical to describe sunsets but it truly was. I took way too many photos of it because each time I looked again I thought it looked different or better. Something about sunsets just makes you feel calm and relaxed and appreciate life. Aahhh how nice. Then night fell. None of us slept well.

No sign of the bucketing from earlier for the rest of the weekend. Saturday was a beautiful day. We boiled some water on the little stove that my dad was very excited about being used again after twenty years - just enough to make one cup of sachet coffee at a time. Rock 'n' roll. After breakfast we asked Plait-Man if there were any good walks we could go on from the campsite and he suggested following the paths over the hills and that to Lewes, another town a few (seven) miles away. We took his advice, packed a picnic and set off.

The hills were so green, I don't think I've seen anything that naturally bright green and it was very refreshing to see after so much time spent in London. Everything's grey there. There were sheep, cows, mountain bikers and dogs. All jolly and not thinking about boring every day life. Well, the cows probably were because that's what they do every day anyway. But still, the must be pretty happy in that case. Ooh we saw calves as well, very cute.

The only problem on our trip was that we changed our plan mid-way. Ohhh let's not go to Lewes, that direction looks more interesting. Is a dangerous thought which could end up with you walking for hours on end to a destination which doesn't exist. This is definitely what happened to us and our feet were very painful when we finally reached a small town on the coast. We paid a quick fleeting blink-of-an-eye visit to the sea and then sat down for a hot drink. We got a taxi back to the campsite, retracing our steps was less than appealing. A wonderful and happily tiring day. There was no impressive sunset this evening as there were a lot of clouds. Bushman-Plait-Man warned of rain, at precisely eight to nine pm, due to last all night. We hastily got the fire going, a much more successful and flamey one than last night's. We'll be proper fire demons by the end of this. Despite the warnings the rain didn't start till much later, until we were safely tucked up in bed. I slept really well and didn't hear a trace of the apparently near gale force storms going on around us. In the morning it was still howling and raining, and I'm impressed with our little tent for withstanding it. Eventually we had to get up and pack our belongings, take down the tent. Not an easy task in these conditions. We said thanks to Bushman-Spoonmaker-Campsite-Man and were on our way. What a fabulous weekend. Let's do this lot's more, I hear lots of people say. Good plan, I hope it happens. Back soon. I'm trying to write these more because my Gran thinks I can be a journalist.

Aceh :D

So this was meant to be my Super-Sumatra end of contract tour, but being such a surprisingly big island, I only managed to cover one province, Aceh in the North. And because I’m feeling lazy I’ve just taken pictures of my notes I made and you can read from there if you’re interested. You’re welcome.

I think I forgot to write about Takengon though. While I was there I couchsurfed with I think the nicest and most generous person I have ever met. Maulida sent me an offer to be a host after she saw my request for a host in Banda Aceh. She said she was unfortunately not in Banda Aceh at that time but if I wanted to I could stay with her in Takengon. I did some quick research and thought why not go there. 

Takengon is a 10 hour journey south away from Banda Aceh. The roads were very bad and windy but there was some beautiful scenery along the way. I arrived at about six in the evening and went for a quick tour around the hospital where Maulida works. We dropped my stuff off at her house then went out for some Gayo coffee, deliciooooous. We chatted about many things and realised we have almost the same birthday and the same camera. Ooooooooh.

The next day we went on a little tour around with the motorbike (keliling-keliling): to the big Hollywood style “Gayo Highlan” sign (the D had somehow gone missing, despite the letters being about 6metres high). We then went down the winding road to the lake, Danau Lut Tawar and travelled along the road that encircles it. We found ourselves at a beautiful waterfall tucked away in the hills. Apparently the waterfall was only discovered six years ago. Before that no one knew it was there. Crazy. After that we went to some caves, known in English as the Cow Caves. Also nice. 

The next day Maulida had work and I just chilled out watching her whole collection of the British TV series “Sherlock” which I’ve never got into before, but now I think I love it. In the afternoon we went out for some more delicious coffee and just had a nice day of doing not very much. The next day I would embark on the crazy journey to Ketambe.

 

 

Padang & Danau Toba!

Hello there.

I've been back at work now for three days, so it's time to try and get this all written down for you. My most recent holiday off work was because of the Eid-ul-Fitri holiday to celebrate the end of Ramadan and we had ten days to play with. Me and my housemate/colleage/friend Paddy decided to go on holiday togevaaaaa like.

Paddy set off a couple of days earlier than me to the West Sumatra city of Padang; he wanted to climb the island's highest peak, Gunung Kerici. This wasn't my cup of tea so I headed to the city to do my own thing and we would meet up a few days later. The first part of my trip I managed to keep a diary so here's what I wrote:

Wow, a lot has happened today. Mainly involves meeting a number of different men, with some discovering of new places th rown in. But mostly meeting different men.

Mbak Mel had booked a taxi fore me the night before, for 4.30am! Whooooaaahh. Cue boy number one. The taxi man called me at 4.10 in the morning and I, in my basic Indo-skillz was able to get him to wait at Grand Zuri where Mel had told him to pick me up. Luckily he was waiting there and I hopped in. He started playing some English songs but I was half asleep still and wasn't able to really communicate. He dropped me off at the airport and obvioulsy I assumed that that was that. About 20 minutes later my phone buzzed and it was a text message from him in not bad English for an Indonesian taxi driver. So that was nice. I replied saying I will call him if I ever need a taxi.

The first stage of the journey was a flight to Jakarta. This was nice and easy, no problems. Hmmm that's making out like there were problems in the next stage. There weren't really, just that I had to rejoin the back of a really long queue after having reached the front all because I didnt' have a particular sticker attached to my boarding pass. And then a man was in my seat on the plane, but that was easily sorted out too. Wow, bet you're glad I got sidetracked into telling that story.

When I arrived in Padang I was bombarded by taxi men all trying, I would imagine, to rip me off. Not knowing what a good price should be, this was a tad on the stressful side. In the end I agreed on an ojek (motorbike taxi) to take me to the  bus stop 5km outside the airport. He was a nice guy, we had a good little chat on the way. Proably still ripped me off though. Some advice he gave me was that not everyone is a nice person so if I am lost in Padang I should only ask the police or a security guard.Thanks. Then the bus came. It was like the modern Trans-Musi buses in palembang, but called Trans-Padang. Nice. The driver and his assistant guy were both really friendly and we chatted for most of the way, teaching each other new words in our languages, cool eh. On the journy I saw some of the traditional Padang architecture. The tops of the rooves are concave, like a crescent moon has been taken out of the top, and the walls are usually decorated with intricate carvings. I got the bus to drop me off outside the main market, Pasar Raya.

...... That's where I stopped writing. But basically I had a wander round Padang, found the beach which is not really sittable or sunbathable on or swimmable in. There I met two boys who bought me a coffee. I think I was lucky to get that as it was still Ramadan and Padang was a lot stricter than Palembang. Nothing was open. Anyway I spoke to them for a while before trying to make my way to Bungus Bay where I had booked myself into a guesthouse. I got another ojek. Managed to haggle down from 50,000 to 20,000 rupiah, nice one. At first the guy seemed quite normal but when we arrived at Losmen Tintin he didn't seem to want to leave. I asked him when he was going home and he said "tomorrow." This was my alarm bell ringing to confirm: whoooaahhh he's crazy and I told him that he had to go home right at that moment. He left then.

That evening I took some nice photos and met the family also staying there, a dad, mum and daughter from Denmark. The next day I went on a boat trip with one of the owners, Al and we explored some of the secret beaches and islands of Padang, along with a Canadian couple, and went snorkelling too. Saw lots of amazing fish but my snorkel kept on leaking.

The night before I had received news from Paddy that he had finished his little mountain adventure and would be in Padang the next morning. So on Sunday I got an angkot into Padang. Soon after arriving within the city centre I saw another westerner walking along the road. He was tall and thin and Paddy-like. I got the angkot to stop and walked after the Paddy-like figure. Luckily he had turned to walk in my direction. We went to the hotel he had checked into and caught up on travel stories. Later that day we went out for some Padang food. Famous throughout Sumatra for its spice and delicious flavours. Lovely.

Our next destination was Medan in North Sumatra. From here we would make our way to Danau Toba, the biggest volcanic lake in the world. In the middle of the lake is a big island called Pulau Samosir and we decided to stay here. It was basically a few days of relaxing, meeting other travellers, drinking beer and a little bit of activity by the way of bicycling or wandering around. Stunning views and beautiful things to see. Very nice indeed.

Now I'm back at work and there are only seven weeks left before I'll have completed my full year here in Palembang. It's pretty crazy to think about how much has gone on in the past year. Definitely unforgettable and educational about life. So I'll be off now, back again in a while with something I think is Megs-Meanders worthy and hopefully you will too. Byee.

Lampung Lagi!

Lagi means again... Lampung again!

Before I start, apologies. I went to Bali in between these two Lampung trips, but didn't get round to writing about it. It was pretty awesome again. I stayed with my friend Septi and we went around on the motorbike and had a few adventures including staying in some locals' house overnight. Crazy.

Septi and me at the Antonio Blanco museum in Bali, with traditional frangipani flowers!

So, Lampung. I told Desta that I wanted to try and go to Krakatau. The 1883 eruption of this volcano was a much-studied topic in my geology A Level so it's amazing that I'm here and have the opportunity to actually go there and see it. Desta agreed to help me and I got the travel there on Friday night to meet him at about six in the morning on Saturday. We made our way to Kalianda, right in the south of Sumatra and to a little village called Canti, where the jetty was. We happened to bump into two of Desta's friends there who then joined us on our adventure. Whilst waiting for our boat to leave, the other boats seemed to be offloading a neverending supply of bananas. I've never seen so many bananas before in my life. Boats were literally filled from floor to ceiling with bananas.

Ready to depart for Sebesi. Maybe you can spot some bananas in the background...

Our boat was due to leave at one. In the end it was more like one-thirty as the guys loaded on motorbikes to the roof, other supplies and things like watermelons and stuff. We sat ourselves on the roof ready for the journey. The trip took about an hour and a half, past countless little deserted islands, many of which look like they were once fiery volcanoes.

The boat stopped at our destination - Pulau Sebesi. This island is a few kilometers away from Krakatau and Desta says that you are usually able to find tour groups from Jakarta staying here, before their voyage to the volcano the next day. However this weekend was not just a normal weekend for most people in Indonesia. Saturday night was the start of Ramadan, the Islamic fasting month. On this night most people go to the mosque and celebrate, have a feast before fasting begins. So we weren't able to go to Krakatau this time. Don't worry I'll get there one day!

Anyway, we hung out on the beach a while and took lots of photos. Probably about a million, as all Indonesians seem to love taking photos. After sunset we walked deeper into the island to find the village, and the mosque. It was great being able to visit a tropical island that is not overrun by tourists. You can really see how people live their normal lives. At the moque there were masses of people all there to pray and welcome the start of Ramadan. We found the leader of the mosque who said I could wait in the little house at the side. I had a little nap as I hadn't got much sleep the night before and by the time the others came back from praying, the whole mosque had cleared out and was deserted again. I told them I thought that was very quick for the start of a big festival and they assured me that everyone would be back again in about an hour at eight pm. Sure enough this was true, and the mosque leaders shared their food with us. They also offered for us to stay in the mosque overnight, as our other option was to camp on the beach under a threateningly overcast sky. We were grateful for this and after watching some of the village boys practising on the giant drum that would wake people in the night times for their meal times, we went to bed.

Sebesi Island - looks like an extinct volcano.

The next day after arriving back on the mainland, we went to Desta's friend Yuni's house for a while to have a rest. Despite the fact that she was fasting that day, she had still made me some food to eat, which I thought was a really nice and thoughtful thing to do, seeing as it must be difficult to be around lots of tasty food when you're not allowed to eat it. Anyway, it was delicious and after that I joined the others for nap time!

From Yuni's house to Bandar Lampung, where Desta lives, we decided to save money, be adventurous and hitchike. Many people just passed us by, but after about thirty minutes a lorry driver stopped and allowed us to climb onboard. He had come from Jakarta and would finish his journey in Bandar Lampung, perfect. I'd never been in a truck before, it was quite slow-moving, many things overtook us on the way, but it was still pretty fun and exciting and novelty for me. I don't think I'd try hitchiking on my own, but with other people it's good, I think it shows you the generosity of a lot of people.

Once we got back to the city we found a travel company for me to get a ticket for my journey back to Palembang. Everyone at the office was excited to see a white girl, photos and questions as usual. We then went to eat something for Desta to break his fast. A nice meal of soto, kind of like soup with rice noodles and chicken, and other ingredients. A detailed description, I bet you can taste the distinct flavours on your tongue as you read this.

The driver on my journey home was possibly the craziest I've encountered. Driving at about 100 miles an hour he would not stop for anything in his way, but just beep beep beeeeeeep while us passengers prayed they would get out of the way in time. No accidents so that's good. People say that the Palembangnese are loud and sound like they are angry all the time. This man was obviously from Palembang. Everything he did was like normal volume times five million. Voice, music, whatever. There was also a prolonged torrential downpour in the middle few hours of the journey. In the darkness it was impossible to see more than one or two metres in front of the car. Very unnerving, especially when there are no cat's eyes, white lines in the middle of the road, street lights, or lines showing where the road edges are. So what did the driver do? Just kept on going of course. Can't say I wasn't a little bit nervous for the safety of everyone in the car, but we made it back in one piece. And the benefit of having a MENTAL driver was that I arrived home a couple of hours earlier than otherwise, and got about four hours snoozing before going back to normal everyday life. Back to work again, the crazy weekend behind me, all but a memory.

It's July now. WHOAH. In roughly 4 weeks it'll be the Idul Fitri holiday, the celebration at the end of Ramadan. Planning a trip to Padang and Medan with Paddy. I'll DEFINITELY tell you all about that. Bye for now!

Lampung: A Few 1sts! :D

Woooohooooo! Another holiday two weeks after the end of the last one! This time I had 4 days to play with and had heard that Lampung province, just south of South Sumatra (where I live) was beautiful. I searched out a Couchsurfer to stay with and started planning.

I left on Wednesday night by travel. (Noun: a vehicle too big to be a car, too small to be a bus, but not a minibus because there are only seven seats.) The driver gave me not much choice but to sit next to him, so I agreed. He said it was so I would be able to look at the view through the front window, despite the fact that it would be dark for almost the entire journey. We left Palembang at 9pm and I was able to scrutinise the driver's crazy driving skills closely. Who needs hands to drive? Is probably a popular belief of his, as he would often use his elbows to steer whilst completing other tasks with his hands like texting, lighting a cigarette, or rooting around in the top mirror and sun shield to find money and then counting it. Safe. He lent me his cushion so I could sleep against the window. A delightful fleece fabric with a lovely design of two creepy looking Victorian doll girls. After about ten hours we arrived in Bandar Lampung. He wouldn't drop me at a bypass to wait for my friend Desta because he said I'd get killed so we went to the office to wait for him to come and get me. In this time I chatted some more with the driver, and he found it weird that I hadn't eaten on the journey even though people don't generally eat at night because thery're sleeping then. Anyway he bought me bubur ayam (chicken porridge) and soon after that Desta arrived and we were on our way to start our adventure in Lampung.

So we walked a while to the central market of the town, and caught an angkot (public transport - van thingy) to the bypass that I ideally should have been dropped off at. Here we sat down in some shade to wait for two of Desta's friends. While waiting here many curious people came to say hello and ask for photos. One of these people went by the name of Nova. He owned a motorbike shop just across the street and invited us to wait in there. We went over, he made us coffee and put some tunes on that he thought would impress us, including Gwen Stefani and Fergie's London Bridge. All very weird, but funny. During this time Desta and Nova also became friends on Facebook. More about this later, this case is yet to be closed! Anyway, Desta's friends Dee and Ritha arrived and we could continue our journey.

Our destination was Way Kambas national park. We took countless angkots and buses, halfway in met up with Desta's friend Deddy who would be joining us, and finally hired an angkot to take us directly to the park for the last leg of the journey not covered by public transport. On the way the rain started to bucket down, so fun times riding along the bumpy roads with no windscreen wipers. A quality vehicle. And then the angkot broke down, so we spent about an hour waiting for it to be repaired before we were on our way again. We got to the park and drove in, and then deeper inside. When we got out we walked a few hundred metres and the elephants came in to view. So many elephants! Quite a beautiful sight, but then we noticed that they were tied there for the night. I'm not sure if they also have wild elephants in the park but these ones were kept there for people to ride and see the elephants up close and stuff. First first (see title!) - touching an elephant. We took lots of pictures and hung around for a while before heading back towards home.

In a way the journey back was more challenging as public transport all stops after a certain time in the evening. We decided to give hitch hiking a go. Finally a man stopped in a nice car. He asked us to pay him as he would be going out of his way. When my friends were agreeing on a price in Indonesian, I heard him say the word "bule" which means foreigner/white person. I thought hmmm. So I asked Desta what he said and apparently he thought the price was ok because the rich bule could pay for everything. This made me go off him a fair bit, but at least we got a lift home. We arrived back at Desta's house and soon after went to sleep. Loooong day.

So that was day one. Day Two! We got up relatively early and got on our way. A few angkots later, after saying goodbye to Deddy and Ritha along the way, we arrived at the seaside. Beautiful blue seas with a view of the peaceful, green, little islands just offshore. Deddy then reappeared with a motorbike and we went to find "Desta's Spot" - his favourite secluded snorkelling place. We stayed under the water for hours. I was amazed by the colourful and weird-looking corals and aaaaalllll the little (and some big) fishies swimming around. SO many fish!!! Dee had an underwater camera so she took lots of cool photos. Unfortunately the water was quite shallow and I didn't realise coral was so sharp, but I managed to cut up my leg, hands and feet quite nicely. It was painful for a few days after. Now at the dry and itchy stage mmm nice. Also, suncream does not last long underwater, aaaaghhh sunburn. Need to remember to learn from this for next time. Second and third firsts of the weekend: snorkelling and lying in a hammock. Lovely.

We found a camping spot on the beach for the night and were joined by another Couchsurfer from Egypt, Mustapha. Very cool guy. Got attacked by mosquitoes during the night. Cooled off in the morning with a morning dip in the sea. Amazing way to start the day. We said goodbye to Dee and Deddy and made our way back to the city.

In the afternoon we found ourselves at Lampung Urban Day, an event set up to show off the talents of the skaters and BMX-ers of Lampung province. We watched a BMX competition and ate some mie ayam (chicken noodles). After this we went back to Desta's house to clean ouselves after two days of swimming in the sea and getting dirty, nap and just chill before the evening's antics. We got back and were greeted by Desta's mum. She was talking to him in Indonesian but some of it I managed to get. The guy from the motorbike dealership had come the the house four times looking for me. Creeepy. Anyway after showering and napping etc. we left the house again to go to Lampung Fair, celebrating all things Lampung. There were giant scary masks, stalls, exhibitions and information about different places in Lampung. It was really crowded and we had lots of photos taken of us and lots of "hello misteeer" shouted at us. They don't seem to realise that there's a difference between mister and miss in this country. There was a firework display comparable with that of a back-garden bonfire night to top off the celebrations. Overall a really enjoyable and nice evening. We went home tired and ready for sleep.

The next day we all got up late. Mustapha hadn't slept properly for over a week due to many crazy and unfortunate events so we left him to it and went out to try and purchase me a train ticket to go back to Palembang that night. Unfortunately all the seats seemed to be sold out so we had to go with plan B. I would be taking the bumpy road back to my city. Booked it, all good, the would pick me up from the petrol station at eight. Went back to have brunch and Mustapha was now up and about. Desta's sister came in to warn us that Nova was coming over and told me to hide in my room. I did so but after about half an hour he still hadn't left. Desta came up with a crazy plan of sneaking out the back way and going to his uncle's cow farm. We did this and it was a nice way to escape from a creepy man you've only just met. We walked past rice paddies and little countryside homes. The cow farm was on a little mound with a pretty pond with lotus flowers and cool frogs. Desta's uncle also had a damp shed type place where he grew mushrooms to sell. A nice little insight into the lives of real Sumatran people.

The journey back to Palembang was not as fun, eventful or comfortable as on the way, but for some reason it didn't seem as long. I arrived back at seven am Monday morning. Time to relax before work. A super-amazing weekend of discovery and firsts. I will be back in Lampung before I leave this country to visit the Krakatau volcano, I really hope anyway. This weekend I'm leaving for Bali, May is definitely holiday-tastic. I will write about that too I can tell you're excited.

Ok, well I hope you made it to the end of all that and are still awake. Bye bye!

Notes on a Starbucks Napkin

At Palembang airport, drinking a coffee, waiting for a plane to KL to see MY SISTER!! Whilst drinking my coffee I was looking around me and thought it would be a good idea to keep some notes to remind me later of what to put on here. Here goes... enjoy.

1. Watching a guy label his pempek.

Got a taxi to the airport with Brodie as he was travelling to Surabaya the same day. Having a coffee whilst waiting for my plane to board, I was reminded of the reason most people visit Palembang. Sipping my coffee, I noticed a man with a great big box, like so many others at the airport, containing pempek. This is Palembang's speciality food consisting of fish powder and various fillings, like egg or papaya. Sometimes fried, sometimes grilled. Surprisingly not bad. So as everyone has the same cardboard box with this delight inside, it's important to write your name in big letters on the side.

2. A guy doing pull-ups from under the plane in Palembang.

Waiting for the plane to take off in my window seat, I was looking around and I noticed one of the baggage guys hanging from under the plane doing his daily exercises. Glad they know how to have fun at work.

3. The hilarity of not knowing left from right. Went to the wrong side in Jakarta LOL. He said go to the right and I went to the left.

Not much to say on this, apart from that I think it is impossible to learn left and right. If I hadn't noticed I was in the wrong place I could have found myself on a plane to Singapore instead of KL.

4. Haven't played "Judge Men's Shoes" in ages.

Whilst waiting to board the plane I played my favourite game that I liked to do when travelling to and from work in Central London. I think you can guess a lot about a man from his shoes. Fun game, you should try!

5. (KL)

When the Lion Air flight landed I was surprised to find myself in the posh terminal, as I'm pretty sure Lion Air is classed as a budget airline. However this was fortunate because it meant I didn't have to faff around finding a bus to the other terminal, I was already there! So I came out and had a look around, got some food. Then I went to wait at the bit where everyone comes out. Was there for a long time, watching and judging how German everyone looked (as Hazel was arriving on Lufthansa). Eventually she came out and we said hello and stuff. After finding our hostel we went out to explore Chinatown and get some food. Mum provided Hazel with a Christmas cracker which we pulled in the restaurant, much to everyone else's amusement (or confusion, I'm not sure). Inside was of course the paper crown, a bad joke, and a miniature ten-pin bowling set. Pretty good!

The next day we had a wander around. Found Merdeka Square, with the tallest flagpole in the world, and went up the KL tower before catching a bus to Cameron Highlands.

6. Got asked to have our photo taken with a group of guys. Of course they were Indonesian.

The bus to Cameron Highlands was quite long, with some very narrow and windy roads for a big coach. We got there and found our hotel, the Camellia Budget Hotel. It was ok, but could do with some redecorating. The next day we went to a lot of places including a rose garden, honey farm and tea plantation. The tea they grow there is for a Malaysian tea company called Boh, the biggest company around I think, owned by a Scottish family. Whilst there you can look at the rolling tea fields, see how the tea is processed in the factory and sample the tea they have on offer. As we were walking around taking pictures, a guy asked me to take a picture. I soon realised what they actually wanted was to be in a picture with us. I thought this is weird, and asked him where they were from. Indonesia. Surprise surprise. Those guys are not shy. Had a quick conversation and practised my skillz. I think they were impressed. Lucky I was wearing my represent Palembang t-shirt that day.

7. The things people mention when you say you're from England.

"London, Paris, New York!" "Ahh, David Beckham!"

8. Don't forget to write about seeing the giant flowers n that.

 We went for a trek into the jungle to seek out the giant Rafflesia flower. This involved climbing up and down little tracks through the forest. Saw loads of amazing flowers and a wild millipede! Also many a cool butterfly. We eventually made it to the site of the flower up a very steep slope. It was amazing. Inside there is what looks like a detachable spiky bit and it's probably about a metre in diameter. Our guide showed us the different stages of the life cycle from bud to dying. Awesome morning.

In the afternoon we were taken up a windy mountain road to take in the Mossy Forest. Definitely mossy. Definitely magical. Walking felt like stepping over sponge and a mysterious mist filled the air. We saw insectivorous pitcher plants in the wild, never thought I would see that. I remember looking at pitcher plants at Cambridge Botanical Gardens back in August last year. Also wild orchids, yay I love orchids!

The last stop of the day was at a butterfly farm. In addition to butterflies we were all shown and had the opportunity to get up close to the animals that you can find in the surrounding area of Cameron Highlands. The guy was very funny. "Sisteeeeer come here. Don't bite" and shoved an (insert name of animal here) into my hand or just onto my head or something. Animals held include snakes, giant stick insect, leaf insect, praying mantis, chamelion, butterflies, SCORPION!

9. Mutley laugh is ON. Fun times losing your voice on holiday :D

After our fun high jinks (unsure of spelling) in Cameron Highlands, we caught a bus to the Kuala Kedah jetty and got a boat over to Langkawi. We booked to stay at The Cottage, where I stayed with my dear friend Joyce back in 2012. Sadly the owner Zul wasn't there but I met his brother again and made sure that I practised my Indonesian on all the staff there as much as I could. I think it went down pretty well considering Indonesian and Malaysian are two different languages. Anyway, the reason for note number 9 on the Starbucks napkin is that I somehow managed to lose my voice whilst in Langkawi. Luckily it was only fully gone for about a day, a day of whispering and mutley laughter.

So, apart from that we had a great time on this lil island. One of the days we went to some different places around Langkawi. First stop the cable car up the mountain, which was closed due to rain at the top the last time I was there. Upon reaching the entrance to buy tickets - "Closed due to yearly maintenance." For all of the days we were staying there. Unfortunate, guess it's not meant to be. We also went to a nearby waterfall called "Tujuh Telaga" I think, or Seven Wells. It involved many many steps, but a really nice waterfall and at the very top you could see out to sea and all the forest and stuff. Good substitute for the cable car, and we got to do strenuous exercise in the tropical heat. Win win. After that we went to relax on a nice, less crowded beach.

The next day we went island hopping, which was really cool. Went to one island called the pregnant lady island or something, and in the middle there was an amazing freshwater lake, sooo nice to swim in. Also saw eagles and went to another island with really nice sandy beaches.

Bought some mugs for my student of the month prizes. I'll leave Langkawi at that.

10. I bet cats love a fish restaurant. Mmmm snapper.

Just thought about this while at a fish restaurant. I bet that was hard to guess. Hazel's first experience of eating a whole fish, where you can see the eyes and head and stuff.  I think she liked it.

11. Remember KL!! And AirAsia pilot serenade.

So on the way back to our first destination of KL, upon landing the plane the captain decided to serenade the passengers with his take on "Unchained Melody". Bizarre but amusing, he did manage to get a round of applause and some cheers. Especially from me and Hazel. Well done old chap. Back in KL we visited the Petronas Towers, just took pictures around, didn't go up. Still fun. We went to Batu Caves and saw fireflies by the river in Kuala Selangor. A really nice last day.

 12. Making friends on the bus.

At 7am I had to leave the hostel and catch the bus to the airport. A man came and sat next to me. He started talking. At 7am. I though I didn't really feel like talking to anyone at that time but he was actually a really interesting man. He was an old guy from Sabah, Borneo, living in KL and going back to his home town for a few days. He knew all about Palembang and the origins of Malay culture. Felt a bit bad that I was pretty much just listening and saying yeah and agreeing most of the time. He was very interesting to listen to though, and people like that always inspire me to try and learn more about stuff in general. Thanks man!

So that's all my notes on a Starbucks napkin. An amazing holiday and so nice to see my best sister again after seven months. And still time flies on! I'll be going to Lampung in Sumatra and Bali again. I know you're eagerly watching this space so I will do my best to write something. Bye bye.

Bangka!

Wooooooooooooooo finally a weekend away!! This time, Bangka Island, Sumatera Selatan (aka. South Sumatra to those non-Indonesian speakers among you). The previous day I had met a Polish couchsurfer called Wes in Palembang, and invited him on my trip with me.

We got up early on Saturday morning to catch the ferry at 7am from the jetty at Boom Baru. We got on and made ourselves comfortable for the three hour journey along the Musi and across the sea to Bangka. It was cool to see life along the river banks which is very industrial, also saw a few ships from Jakarta. When we reached Muntok on the island the first thing we were greeted by was bright blue sky, brilliant blue water and yellow sands. With a cool lighthouse to make it different from all those other paradise beach views. We pointed to a town on the map that looked vaguely large and decided to get a bus there. After making sure that we weren't being ripped off by the driver we were on our way.

About ten minutes in the bus came to a stop. A coffee break. This little pitstop ended up being an hour long, as apparently the driver was tired. This wasn't really a problem because it was fun to chat to the locals, practise my Indonesian and find out a little bit about Bangka. After that the bus trundled along for a further couple of hours, until we stopped again at a roadside restaurant for lunch. It was a self service affair where you could choose from multiple things to accompany your white rice. Pretty good. After lunch it was just another hour into Sungailiat, our town of choice.

The bus driver said we had to go to the police so they could help us find a hotel. The police were very friendly and excited to see us. One of them was called Welly, and one Bagus (which means 'good' in Bahasa Indonesia. He was called Good!). A guy went off to try and find us a hotel, which we stated should be between 100 and 150,000 per night. He came back with a little minibus which took us to a hotel. The hotel was definitely not in our budget so we decided to go it alone. After asking a few people for help we managed to find a place to rent a scooter and set off in search of somewhere to stay. After a while of looking we decided to venture off to find a beach. The light started to fade and we decided we would camp on the beach in Wesley's tent. It was all good apart from the seemingly infinite number of mosquitoes. I never realised how amazing the moon can look before. And it's nice to hear the sound of the waves breaking calmly on the shore. A nice accompanying sound for thinking.

The next day I found I had a message from a friend of a friend in Palembang. She invited us to meet her and a group of others at a coffee shop near Sungailiat. To find the place we asked for directions many times, each time someone gave a different answer. Eventually we found it and ate some food, very hungry after our night on the beach. We also visited one of the group members's house. We ate yet more food and just hung out, also visited a Chinese temple or shrine thingy across the road from his house. We then went to a beauuuuutiful beach, dropping the scooter back at the hire place along the way (on a little bit of a detour).

The beach was awesome. Beautiful clean yellow sand and glistening water. There were no buildings ruining the view inland. On the beach were unusual huge granite stones and prehistoric looking plants lining the beach where the sand finished and things could grow again. We spent the afternoon and evening swimming in the sea and climbing on the rocks. I'm not really a climber but all my new friends helped me gracefully (not really gracefully) get up there, and despite it being a little bit scary to be up that high, it was brilliant from the top everyone was really happy, so nice.

As it started to get dark, the moon came out again, even prettier than the night before. We good back on the motorbikes and headed to Pangkal Pinang, the main city in Bangka. We went to a roadside stall for dinner. They specialised in soya milk drinks and chicken noodles. The milk was sugary and delicous, and the noodles quite good too. My friend of a friend offered for us to stay at her house and we went back to unwind and meet her cute and crazy dog. After a nice shower we all went to sleep after a satisfyingly tiring day.

This morning I came back to Palembang on the plane, and I've done a full day at work since. It all feels like a distant memory now aaahhh. Need to go back there again! Next time Belitung, an island just to the north east. Apparently it's eeeeeven more beautiful.