Christmas on the beach

Well, I've ended up in yet another huge, noisy, polluted city. Jakarta -according to the guidebooks- has a nice little string of islands, called the Pulau Seribu or thousand islands (I wonder if that's where the salad dressing comes from?) just north of it. I went to the one I could afford, it was OK -they are definitely western prices and Indonesian pollution. Stick to Thailand for the beaches! But just spending Christmas on the beach was good enough.
Tourism is right down at the moment, I think due to last year when there were a number of incidents on Christmas eve. Nothing's happened so far, touch wood.
My airplane ticket got soaked, all the ink was washed off and the magnetic strip stuck to the next ticket. So I tracked down the Lufthansa office with the cunning plan of rearranging all my flights by one day - for free - so they'd have to reprint them all! Turns out I didn't need to do that, they took one look on their computer and offered me a new ticket. I like this service, its almost enough to make be stop buying bargain bucket tickets. Well, nearly enough. Dunno what's happening with United - I'm flying LA to Buenos Aires with them in Febuary, its just they're about to declare bankruptcy.
Next stop: Yogyakarta. Or Parangaranadarenan. Can't decide - one has huge temples (borodubur) and volcanoes, the other really good beaches. Ah, the stress of travelling, the hard decisions that have to be made...

Oook Oook!

Phew. I've had a slightly hectic two weeks, I'm now in Medan in Summatra. Surat Thani, Hat Yai, Penang, Medan, Bukit Lawan, Lake Toba and back to Medan. Where do I start?
Penang - in Malaysia- was nice, but quite expensive (Malaysia is reasonably developed!). Had a really good garden, with locals walking past the palm and banana trees to gape at some really exotic trees - evergreens, oaks, etc. It had a huge Xmas procession with marching bands, Christ squads, floats, charity collectors, dancers, the lot.
I basically spent too much time in Thailand - it was very good, very cheap and lots of backpackers. I'm now going to have to skip Malaysia and Singapore.
Summatra (Indonesia) is very cheap as well. I trekked through the jungle for 2 days trying to see an Orang-utan, then saw one 5 minutes away from the town! I think it had just been released back into the wild. There are no internet cafes here - well, ok, this one, but this is in a city of 2 million people.
Lake Toba was quite good as well - a huge volcanic crater lake and island 800m above sea level, maybe 50 miles wide? Completely deserted. Tourism is right down in Indonesia at the moment.
I'm now going to have to fly to Jakarta - I made the mistake of assuming that anything that fits onto a single page in the lonely planet is about an overnight bus ride accross. Its 48 hours solid to jakarta, and the plane is only 10 pounds more.
Now comes the expensive part of my trip: Hong Kong, Japan and Los Angeles. And my girlfriend turns up for 2 weeks!

Ko Pagn Nagn

I'm now an open water diver. There's a big storm coming - its raining a lot and the sea is incredibly choppy. Diving is great.
Ko Pagn Nagn is a bit quiet, not exactly what I was expecting. I'm on the relatively undeveloped north side - and there's no one here. I was going to try Bottle Bay, only reachable by boat, but the boats aren't running (that storm again).
Off to Malaysia -Penang- tomorrow, I've got to get a move on!

Going Diving

I'm now in Ko Tao (Turtle Island) just off Ko Pagn Nagn(lets-get-plastered-every-full-moon island). I'm just about to start a PADI open water diving course - 4 days, 100 pounds (inc. accomodation). The water is really clear out here, there are coral reefs you can snorkel to, the islands a bit of a mess though. Still, I'll be spending 4 days in the water! If I don't come back, I'm probably shark food. Or impaled on coral.
I've now seen Die Another Day and Harry Potter 2 on "DVD", I'm not entirely sure they're legit.

King's Birthday
It was the King's Birthday yesterday, lights up everywhere, free haircuts, the bars stopped serving beer as a mark of respect - aparantely, its one day you should actually be good on. I even had a tuk-tuk driver undercharge me when I was in a hurry in torrential rain. Now I've seen everything.

Wandering around Thailand

Nothing much to say really, Lopburi and Ayutheya are really quiet and full of ruins. Do them as day trips!

Cooking in Chiang Mai

I've just had a one day cookery course -10 pounds including all ingredients and stuff. Went to the market to buy all the spices, ludricously cheap over here - 3 pence for lemongrass, fresh ginger and coriander. Ate 7 dishes today, I'm feeling quite bloated. Thai food is very easy to cook, just add sugar, fish sauce and oyster sauce to everything. Then ginger and chicken for stir-fry "chicken with ginger"... etc.

Carrying on the theme of bizarre criminal cases, there's a journalist over here in prison for 5 years for abominable slander. The King of Thailand is incredibly respected, as is the entire monarchy, and the current king loves sailing. What's this journalist in jail for? He referred to the king as the "skipper" of the country! I bet our own royal family wished they were treated like that.