I hate racism!

You know, when something bad happened, the other bad things could follow just as rapidly.

I arrived in Kuala Lumpur this morning at 5. I went to Pudu Hostel, my favourite place compared to the other places in the area, and the Indian caretaker said that it was full. No beds, no rooms. Great!

Then I went to the next hostel, and the guy said, dorm was full, they only had rooms for RM 40. Come on, I'm only staying for a night, I don't need the whole room for that!

I checked the next hostel, and the guy said the same. They only had rooms, not dorms. Dorms were full. I asked if I could wait until 12 o'clock and see if someone checked out (I was soooo tired, guys and it was only 5:30 in the morning!). He said yes.
After a while he came to me and told me that he was not sure if he could accept me here, cause I'm an Indonesian.

whatthefuck????????

I asked why he made that statement. He said cause they never had an Indonesian guest before. Normally they would only accept European people.

Mwah...

I'm done with all this shit.

It reminds me that a similar thing also happened in Thailand a week ago when I wanted to book a bus ticket from Bangkok to Krabi.
The girl at the travel agency said that she needed to check if I could be admitted on to the bus cause I was an Indonesian. I asked her why. Last year I could get on to any bus without any bugs. She said, "Well yes, that was last year. This year is different. We have so many riots in the southern part of Thailand, and we don't want our bus get busted."

"Well, the riots are between Malaysia and Thailand, no? What does Indonesia have to do with it??"

"Cause it is a religious matter. Indonesia is a muslim country. So I need to check just to make sure everything will be alright."

"Guess what, I'm not taking your bus. Bye bye."

So Indonesia is a muslim country? Alright, it probably has 85% of its huge population muslims, but what about the other 15%?
Is MUSLIM written on my forehead or what? Or is it the automatic assumption once you open my passport? And why do all muslims get to get the bad names just because a very small percentage of the community mess around? Why do Indonesians (whether muslims or not) get all these troubles just because we are INDONESIANS?

Can't I be proud of being an Indonesian any longer?

Fuck.

5:38 am

Mood: Fucked up but grateful

I don't understand it.

Usually if you started a vacation with good things happening, it'd tend to be good till the end, right?

Well, I had a seriously AWESOME time in the beginning of my travel until I got in Krabi.Krabi is a wonderful place, heavily touristy and way too expensive for Thailand standard, but it's got the most amazing huge rocks I've ever seen.

But then again, I had a really hard time when I was there.

Let's start it with losing my flip-flops at the beach. Yeah, FLIP-FLOPS. Broken ones. Yet, somebody stole them, along with a travel mate's shoes.
Marvin got really upset when he found it out. We had to ride the motorcycle with bare feet to our bungalow. And guess what I found out once we reached it.

SomeFUCKINGbody STOLE MY CREDIT CARD!!! AND USED IT!!!

It got me down and FURIOUS and fucked up the whole evening. I had all these craps to do:

• Emptied (I mean literally emptied!) my bank account and booked a bus ticket to Kuala Lumpur in the morning (or otherwise worse thing would come up --> Missing my flight back home, that was!)
• Went to the Tourist Police and reported it. And asked him for a solution how I should cancel my credit card cause I hardly had any money! I couldn't even afford to buy an international phone card (I only had 140 baht). So.. well, this may have been a rare thing to hear from a Thai Tourist Police, but Mr. Nui (the police officer) gave me 200 baht to buy the international calling card! Thank you sooo much, Mr. Nui! He also offered me to have my dinner at the police station (cause I clearly couldn't afford to buy myself a dinner). I had to reject that for I badly needed to call Citibank to block my credit card. ASAP!
• I bought the calling card and called Citibank. As usual, it took so long to get to the officer, but when it did, I asked him to block my card permanently, and I checked, too, if any transaction had been made between 12 May till 27 May. And as expected, YEZ! A transaction had been made. 770 Baht. I didn't exactly know if I should be grateful or sad about it. Yes, I lost 770 Baht, but I actually thought I would lose 15,000 Baht or something. But hey, losing is losing. And cause I didn't have my card with me, I practically was the poorest tourist in Krabi.

Marvin insisted to buy me a dinner, but I refused it nicely. I lost my appetite. All of it. I sold my phone card to him, though (it still got 180 Baht credit in it), and he gave me 300 Baht. Thanks soooo much, Marv. That way, I could survive on my journey back to KL.

Good thing above all that was this morning, I could get to the Western Union and claimed for some amount of money Mark Mulder sent me to help me survive until I'm safe and sound back in Indonesia.

So in short, I was so pissed off in the end of my holiday in Thailand cause this had to happen. But in another sense, I was grateful I found such nice people around me who were willing to help when I needed it the most.

Now to survive for a month in Indonesia until I get my next salary............... :-S

BAH!

Lend your shoulders when I'm home, mates. I'll need to wet them up with my tears.

5:26 pm

Me and Heather.

I don't know what's wrong, but I can't post the other pictures.

In the mean time, I uploaded some of them on flickr.

Check this.

Be good, peeps.

2:02 pm

mood: relieved a bit

I've been having a great time in Chiang Mai. This city is absolutely lovely. I went with Ana, the Spanish girl who stayed next to my room, to Doi Suthep temple on the hill. We rented a motorcycle and rode it up there to take some pictures (she has a great camera). She can't drive a motorcycle, though, I had to take control of it all the time. It was fine, as long as I still can cut cost and have fun at the same time.

The temple was okay. But I've never been too interested in historical thing anyway. We met some cute little girls in Thai hill-tribe traditional costumes, though, and I think I quite like the pictures I made. Maybe I shouldn't go to those villages after all.

We had a really nice evening. With the other girls from the guesthouse (Heather and Mira) we went to the Sunday Market, which is held every Sunday by closing most of the main streets in the central Chiang Mai area and people erect stands of souvenirs, food, clothes, even massage services! They had some relaxing chairs in the corner of the roads and people who would like to have a massage can sit there and relieve some stress.

It was amazing and I was so much drawn into it. I was tempted to buy those cute little stuff there for a million times, but every time the want kicked I had to remind myself that my vacation hadn't ended yet and I still needed to be careful with my money flow. (bummer)

Anyway... my previous plan was to go to Pai, another neighbouring old village about 4 hours from Chiang Mai, for 2 days. But now it's already Monday morning, and I have to leave for Bangkok on Thursday morning, I don't think it's that wise to go. I was thinking that actually if I went to Pai, I would get the feeling of a great farm life with only 50 Baht a night (which saves quite a lot) and a completely different view to see. But then again, I'm too lazy to have 2 moving days (Monday and Wednesday), and only 1 real day in Pai. So.. last night I already decided to just stay here until I have to fly back to Bangkok. But this guest house problem needed to be solved.

I asked the weird owner of the Kent's Guest House if I could get a discount for staying there for a week till Thursday and he said no. So I told him I'd check out. I mean 150 Baht is pretty cheap, but I'm sure I can get less with more or less the same facilities somewhere. Then I can get 50 Baht more each day that I can relocate for some other useful things.
I did and when I walked out to the place where I rented the motorcycle to return it, I just had this idea to just ask away to the staff there if they knew some place that cost 100 Baht.
Of course they knew it. They're local. I got to check the room and it was even bigger than the room I had at Kent's guest house, though probably not that appealing. But it's basic and clean and that's just all I need. I don't stay too much at the guest house anyway.

So there... I'm kinda relieved now.

Gonna have breakfast now then go to Chiang Mai zoo, take loads of pics, and read my book at the Fitness Park.

Ciao.

10:18 am

Yay!

I just rent a bicycle! For only 35 Baht. Gonna stroll around the city of Chiang Mai today and visit some art museums and crafts markets. Tomorrow gonna change that with a motorcycle and I'll go around the temples up in the hill (or is it a mountain?). Probably gonna visit one of the hill tribes near by and make cool pics.

So far Chiang Mai has been great.

I'm staying at Kent Guest House, whose owner is fucking weird, but hey, it's cheap and I've got my own bathroom! Clean, too. So nevermind. I actually went around for some other places to stay and found one for 100 Baht with 3 beds (crazy!). If only I went here with someone and shared the costs, it would be freaking cheap in here. Though it already is.

I'm really dying to do the trekking and water rafting up there, but it's sort of expensive for my budget cash at the moment. Really a BUGGER!

But hey, it's cool here. I hang out with the girls in the same guesthouse last night: Heather from England (I swear she looks so much like Hermione in Harry Potter movie) and Marene from France (she's hot and crazy). And we had a great time having dinner at a Japanese restaurant and later at a Reggae club somewhere (also visited a club that had a live hip hop music, Marene loved it, but another fellow whose name I forget, didn't. So Marene decided to stay there and he and I went to the Reggae club and met the other fellow travelers: a Dutchy boy, a Brittish girl and an American girl Hillary).

Awesome. I went back to the guesthouse at two and this morning had a hard time waking up. Got a little hangover, but it was gradually better when I had a cold shower.

Later!

1:53 pm

"No, I'm not Thai."

I always knew that I would have to say that perhaps a hundred thousand times later when I was already in Thailand. But never had I expected that I had to get to hear that BEFORE I reached Thailand.

I got to go to gate 46 to board on to the plane at Changi Airport. And there were these two girls in front of me in the line. At first they talked to themselves (I suspected it was in Thai), then one of them looked at me and said something in Thai.

"Sorry?" I said.
Then she looked at her friend and said something in their language that seemed to mean "She is not Thai."
"You no Thai people?" asked her.
"No, I'm not." I smiled.
"You Filipino then?" asked her.
"No."
"Malay?"
"No. Indonesian."
"What?"
"Indonesian."
"Ooh. Indonesian."

Silence.

"You go to Thailand one people?"
"Sorry?"
"You go to Thailand one people?"
I tried to think fast and guess what she meant. Oh!
"You mean if I go to Thailand alone? Yes, I'm alone."
She didn't seem to understand, so I said again,
"I am alone. NO friends. Only me."
"Oooh."

"You go study or work or holiday?" asked the other girl.
"I'm on vacation."

Having arrived in Thailand, similar conversations occured.

Until now.

How can I assure them I'm not a Thai? Plastic surgery?

2:52 pm

mood: happy

Yesterday and today have been fantastic!

My boring 1st day in Singapore abruptly changed yesterday when I got into a cool chat with some other backpackers in the same hostel.

We started off talking bout some cool places in northern Thailand and we seemed to click in talking about everything else. So in the end, I hang out with these guys: Pete from England, Fabian from France, Chris from Canada, and met at the bar later on the young couple Tom and Lisa from England. We had a GREAT time. Either that only sitting on one of the couches in the hostel's lounge talking about nothing to everything, or dancing at the bar near our place, called Baa Bar Black Shit (hehe funny name). I limited myself drinking only 2 glasses of beer that night since my cough had not fully disappeared. But seriously it was a wonderful time. I'm glad I met those people.

Chris left in the morning for Canada, though (he was AWESOME!), and Fabian left earlier for Australia. So in the next day (this morning) it was only Pete and me left. We spent the day visiting the Fort Canning Park, but then we split up cause he wanted to see all the historical Brittish stuff at the Battle Box inside the park, and I wanted to write my travel book.

And soon I'll be leaving for Bangkok, too. About an hour from now I gotta get my rucksack and take the MRT to the airport.

So in the end, Singapore is not that bad afterall. You just gotta need to find the right companions.
;)

4:16 pm

mood: tired
reading: the bags of bones
Day 1. Jakarta.

My flight was delayed. I gotta wait in the new Juanda airport Surabaya for hours... but hey... since it's new and oh so luxurious, I had quite a good time browsing around.

Arriving in Jakarta, I called Cynthia, my sister. She suggested me to meet her from the airport at Grand Indonesia and asked me to take a bus to Blok M.
Well it was the rush hour and I spent 2 hours on the bus! And it appeared that it didn't stop at Bundaran HI, so I thought I'd just go on to Blok M.
So in the end, I didn't meet Cynthia at all, but I found a garage sale on the sports station. Bought a really cool 2-piece swimwear for Rp 83,600. There were some others of Rp 50,000 (freakin cheap for Speedo!) but I liked the colours on this 2 pieces best!

After that I called Sam and we met up. We had a reasonably nice dinner in a restaurant called YaUdah on Jalan Jaksa, then Tony, one of the other EF teachers joined us. We then went to Absoluut bar and there we met the other teachers! Alah. It was a great fun, though. I just had a big bottle of Heineken and no more. My throat was (is) still fucked up.

Day 2. Jakarta-Singapore

Woke up early this morning and took a Damri bus from Gambir to the airport.

On the plane, I sat next to a preacher and his wife, and we were having a good talk (not about religion, just about traveling in general). They gave me good advices when taking the ferry to Singapore and even how to haggle a taxi. So in the end, I was so much helped with Mr. Pardede's help in getting me the taxi.

4:00 pm, in Singapore. I took the MRT to Little India, and stayed at the CrowdsInn where Brian, a fellow traveler, used to stay.
It's kinda expensive for a hostel standard, but hey, it's Singapore. And with these free 30 min internet facility, hot shower and aircon-ed room... I got nothing to complain. :)

Till later,

7:26 pm

Mood: BT

My hand phone, Nokia 6030, which I bought JUST last month, is broken. It got soaked when I was posing for Pyor back in Yogya last weekend in Taman Sari Palace. Since it was still on warranty, I brought it to the Nokia Care Centre Surabaya today, hoping I could take it to Thailand with me next week.

Fact #1: The warranty doesn't include when they find dampness, extreme heat reason, virus, etc (most of the reasons why a cellphone broke). That means I should pay for the service, which is Rp 200,000 + spare part (if any) of at least Rp 100,000. (What's the use of warranty then?) I remember my ex-boss at CDU, Hanny Westrik once soaked her cellphone (her fault) and she got everything covered by the phone company. But hey yeah... I'm a kinda loyal person, so rather than finding another phone, I'll just stick to this one.

Fact #2: They'll finish examining it in 5 days. Which means I'll be already in Singapore by then. So no cell when I'm on vacation. Not that I mind it that much.

Fact #3: There's a possibility that when examining it, the phone can break down completely (no more usage) and Nokia will not be responsible of it. They'll free me from any charges, but they will not get the phone to the state when it was first brought there, which still works a little bit. The faults are in the charger connector and the inability of the phone to detect the SIM card (sometimes).

Fact #4: Nokia sucks a lot!

5:47 pm