Ko Tao to Bangkok (17.5 hours)

Because of all the riots in Bangkok, the government has issued a city-wide curfew. Apparently, no one's allowed out during those times, but they're a little more lenient toward the foreigners (cuz we probably won't follow it anyway). The riots in Bangkok is making diving in Ko Tao a lot busier though, because everyone's trying to get out of Bangkok.

The curfew caused huge problems for us when we tried to find transport back to Bangkok. Initially, we had planned to take a morning boat out of Ko Tao and get to Bangkok around 8:30PM, giving Josie just enough time to get to the airport. Actually, the last airport shuttle was 7:00, so maybe she wouldn't have made it anyway.

Either way, becasue fo the riots, all the morning boats were cancelled, so had to take an overnight sleeper boat, 12 hours after getting to the island! We finished our dive, filled in our divelog, ate dinner, then took a taxi and got to the pier at 9PM. We boarded the boat and went upstairs to the upper deck and to our surprise, there were mats laid out for all the passengers. Because it looked so comfortable, my trust went down, so I used my pack as a pillow (but my neck hated that in the middle of the night).

We met two brothers from Finland. I forgot their names, but it was something like Orle and Larlen, or Orale and Vato, or Orville and Wright. I don't even know how to make fun of a Finnish name. Larlen was doing a six-month study aborad in Malaysia and his brother came to pick him up. The funniest thing was the 10 shades of difference in their tans. Larlen said Finalnd was -15 degrees centigrade (5F) when he left and Malaysia was 35 (95F) when he got there a day later.

We left the pier around 10 in the middle of a huge thunder storm. The boat was rocking like crazy and I had images of the Titanic going down ... only in tropical warm waters, and a boat about a tenth its size. It took about 6 hours to get to Chumpon, but since we hadn't slept very well the past two nights, I slept like a baby the whole way.


The bathroom at the pier was probably the worst one I used since I left Japan (although the porto-potty in Taiwan with the step-by-step instructions with pictures of someone's shit was pretty bad). This squatter came equipped with a bee hive and a colony of mosquitos.

Next, we got in a minivan and they took us to a restaurant to wait for the actual bus that was going to take us back to Bangkok. Thailand is very smart with their waiting areas and bus companies. I mean, I'd prefer waiting at a restaurant over a bus station with nothing to do, but I want it to be my choice, not the bus company's.

The bus came to the restaurant right on schedule, at 7:00AM. Very very reluctantly I decided to put my bag in the luggage storage on the outside, kinda also becasue the driver was yelling at me to. All I have to do is get to Bangkok and I won't have to take anymore long-haul buses, just the 45-minute one to the airport.

The bus started off going really slow and I read stories on the internet that this is usually the point where some guy is in the luggage compartment going through all our stuff. I kept nervously looking outside, but I think the driver was just trying to fill up the bus before heading off. It's crazy, some people stood up the entire 8 hours back to Bangkok. It's hard to give up your seat on a bus that long ... no matter who's standing.

We got in around 3:30PM and my bag was slightly unlatched, but that's happened twice already. I don't know if it just happens by accident, or if someone's trying to get in it. I have locks, zipties, and bungee chords all over my pack, and I tie all the strings together so to actually open it up, you'd have to do a lot of work ... or just simply cut it open.

Bangkok to Ko Tao (16 hours)

We got off the bus from Siem Reap at 5:30 in Bangkok and bought a bus/ferry ticket for Ko Tao that left at 6:00PM. Basically we'd been travelling from 8:00AM one day and we wouldn't be done until 10:00AM the next day. It's going to be the longest stretch of transport yet, but mostely AC buses, so it wouldn't be that bad.

I still don't trust my pack in the storage compartment on the outside of the bus, so I have it on the floor in the 1-foot space in front of my seat. It's not comfortable, but at least it's safe. I couldn't recline my seat, though, and I think the girl in front of me couldn't either. I guess I'll stow my bag from now on because I felt kinda bad for her.


They played a movie with Antonio Banderas and Morgan Freeman for the first two hours. I don't know what it was, but it was pretty good. Even as a bad guy, Morgan Freeman seems like God. .... it was called Thick as Thieves.

After the movie, I knocked out until about 2AM when the bus dropped us off at the pier. This place was much better than waiting for the boat to Tioman in Malaysia. They had a small hangar-like area with tatami mats and leather pillows for us to sleep in. Maybe it was to accomodate the foreigners because there were about 30 of us. I knocked out, but woke up to a stinging pain on my toes because I had gotten bit by something. I've been bitten by a whole lot of bugs on this trip, but these guys really hurt. Anyway, we got up around 6AM and waited another hour for the boat to take off.

I still worry about eating new foods in a new country so I haven't eaten since Cambodia (almost 24 hours), even though they are neighboring countries. I bought a big bag of Chips Ahoy on the boat and I'm hoping that it will last me until after my dive.

The boat was an easy, 3-hour, smooth ride. When we got to Ko Tao, it was beautiful with its crystal clear blue oceans that you can see clearly to the bottom. We got the free taxi service to the dive shop and signed up for 2 fun dives. Then after looking for transport bak to Bangkok, we realized that we had to catch an 11:00PM boat - five hours after we finished our dive. It's going to be a long, long, LONG day.

Siem Reap to Bangkok (9.5 hours)

From all the reading I did, the land borders between Cambodia and Thailand are supposed to be the part where I'm supposed to watch out for the most. The road from Siem Reap to the border is supposed to be a very bumpy, move you to your bowels type of ride and at the border, lines are so long, you might as well have lined up at the Siem Reap bus station. Immigration at the corssing have been known to jack up prices for Thai visas as well. I was a bit worried about this day for almost the entire trip.

Apparently, all this was a thing of the past. The roads have been redone recently, so our ride was very smooth in our AC bus, and there were no breakdowns. It took about 30 minutes to get through the border and then another 10 to 15 minutes of waiting for our transport to Bangkok. Also, there was no visa fee for tourists who stay for under 30 days.

We were expecting the bus to pick us up on the Thai side of the border, but a pickup truck came and we piled into the back, but I was lucky enough to get the air-conditioned inside. At this point of the trip, if we piad for a bus and got someone to pull us in a little red wagon, whatever. As long as we got to where we wanted to go, that was a goal met.

We only went about 15 minutes and got dropped off at a nearby restaurant where we wanted and a half for our "minibus" to pick us up. I suspect the bus company is in cahoots with the restaurant because it was just long enough to get bored enough to buy some food, but we had packed sandwiches we bought from the Cambodian street vendor that morning, so Josie and I played our usual 2-hour long "Big 2" card game.

Finally, the minibus came. There were 16 seats and ... 13 people. Not the same minibus as Indonesia. Although not the worst ride I've been in, it certainly wasn't the most comfortable either. I sat in the back right corner next to the metal car frame where the tire is. I had to deal with a radiating 100 degrees (37C) burning my leg plus about 6 inches of leg room. Sometimes it felt like we fell off the road with how bumpy the streets were.

We finally got into Bangkok around 5:30PM and then from there, we bought a bus ticket to Ko Tao for 6:00. That gave us 30 minutes to rest after about 10 hours of travel before we had to take off for a 16-hour trip to Ko Tao.

Phnom Penh to Siem Reap (6 hours)

We got up today at 5:30 so we could catch a 6:15 bus to Siem Reap. We were traveling almost the entire stretch and Cambodia so it was going to be a long morning. I've made it a habit not to eat at least 12 hours before a long bus ride, but even so, I wasn't hungry. We, still reluctantly, put our packs in the bottom storage and got on the bus. We only waited 5 minutes, which is nothing compared to that crazy Indonesian minibus.

The bus was equipped with a sub-zero AC, which eventually everyone turned off, and a TV/DVD so about a half hour into the ride, the Cambodian karaoke DVDs came on. Honestly, despite being very strange, they were quite catchy. After about 2 hours of karaoke videos, we made a pit stop for about 15 minutes. Then the weirdest movie I'd ever seen came on. It started off with Guy Pierce (I think) in a courtroom with a Chinese guy dressed up in a Kung Fu outfit. The Chinese guy was doing some experiment and brought back another Chinese guy back to life, but as a zombie vampire who hopped around. In the next scene, the 2 Chinese guys parachutes into an Andricam tribal village somewhere in the serengetti. The rest of the movie was him fightig off every African animal imaginable ad tryingto become chief of the tribe via his zombia.

After the next pit stop, I just started looking out the window at Cambodia. The inside of the bus was comfortable, the road wasn't too bumpy, and I was tired of Cambodian entertainment. Where Malaysia has its jungle and Indonesia has its trash, Cambodia had a very strong agrarian feel to it. There were fields everywhere and from *KLANK!!!*

... either we ran over something metal, or something fell off the bus. Either way, the bus slowed down and eventually stopped. Most of us got off and watched as the driver tried to fix the problem ... in the blazing hot heat. About an hour later, another bus pulled up and everone got on that one. The driver apologized to us, but neither Josie nor I felt any irritation because Cambodia has been great so far. We moved our packs to the new bus, got on, and took off. As we were driving along, I noticed that not everyone had gotten on ... and we were stuck in a pretty remote place about an hour outside the city. The new bus wasn't as smooth of a ride and there was no TV, but the music was Cambodian pop, which I think I might go out and look for.

We got to Siem Reap at around 2:00, only a half hour behind schedule. We soon got our bus tickets to Bangkok and found a driver to take us around Angkor Wat tomorrow.

Probolinggo to Surabaya (5 hours)

So we get into the bus station and the bus drivers were all yelling "Surabaya?" "Bali?" "Jakarta?" "Malang?"  I really appreciate the Japanese style of minding your own business unless someone asks you ... then you yell the truth.  So I asked the Surabaya guy how much it was to get there and apparently, he was about to say something, but I blurted out "$2.00?" and he agreed.  Our guidebook said $2.20 so I thought it was okay.  Josie said we should shop around because we had time, so we left.  When we walked back, he told us $1.50, so we took it.  Before I got on the bus, he grabbed my arm and asked me, "Where are come from?" so I answered "Japan" and he had a look that looked like relief.  When he came to collect the money later, he only charged $1.40.  I know I didn't make a mistake because when he told me $1.50, he kept saying "FIVE-TEEN, FIVE-TEEN, not FIVE-TEE."  (15,000 rupiah is roughly $1.50).  Maybe I got the "Not American" discount.  (Thank you immigration officer).

This bus is definitely the most interesting one I've been on.  The usual touts were there, of course, but this time, we also had the battle of the bands (Something that Elly had told us about in the morning).  

Performance #1: a trio of singing 8-year-old boys with ukeleles.  They were cute and not too bad, so for karma's sake, we gave them 100 rupiah each (about a penny).

Performance #2: a trio of teenage boys with a guitar.  Not so good.

Performance #3: an old man with a guitar.  I was expecting some out of this world finger shredding, but it was some mumbling senile old man hamming away on an out of tune guitar.

Performer #4: a lady in her 40s with a mic and speaker.  She sang Indonesian karaoke folk music.  Not too bad actually. 

We're sitting in the back so we have more roomfor our packs (or because we're foreigners), but there is a dirty bucket full of water (I hoe its water) sloshing around behind me and sometimes the back door flies open and the brakes are giving off that loveley odor.  By far, the best public transportation in Indonesia so far.

We got off at Surabaya station a little after sunset and it just looks so shady, but again we're bombarded with swarms of taxi drivers lying to us.  Before we got off the bus, other bus drivers were tring to get us to get into theirs.  We had three options
1. Stay near the station, but that seemed like a bad idea
2. Stay near or at the airport, but we weren't sure if it closed or not so maybe we couldn't sleep in it
3. Stay in the city, which was the opposite direction of the airport and our Indonesian money was running out, so that was a bad idea.  

We walked around the station for a while, but no one spoke English and there were no other foreigners.  We tried so hard to find out if the airport closes, when it closed, and if we can sleep there, but all we got was 1 hour.  Everyone was trying to get us to take their taxi or motorbike to the airport.  

Eventually, we took a break and wentto go buy some chips.  The guy told us "five," but we weren't sure if it was 5 cents or 50 cents, so I asked in Indonesian "Lima nul nul?" (500?) and the guy laughed and said "No, 5000."  Then someone said "go-jyu en.  go sen." A few Indonesians spoke a little bit of Japanese, but this guy was completely fluent so he helped is out a lot.  I was soooo relieved to meet him and to speak bit Of Japanese too.  He told me that he's been to Nagano and that the airport closes, but we CAN sleep there. He finished with trying to get us to take his bike to the airport, but we kindly refused and took the bus.

The bus was no problem at all and when we got to the airport, we saw a lot of outdoor seats so we thought, no problem, but we still had 24 hours before our flight.  We walked around and found a tourist information center.  He told us of a nearby hotel that was $13 for an economy room and $25 for a superior room.  I was almost 100% sure that he would tell us that there were no more economy rooms, which he did, but then later called the hotel again and said one opened up.  

The hotel picked us up, and when we were signing in, the staff was very friendly, until I showed my American passport.  They started saying stuff in Indonesian and they seemed really upset, but we got our room and we don't have to check out until 1PM tomorrow.  Only a few more hours in this country and I think I'm never coming back.

Cemoro Lawang to Probolinggo (3 hours)

The minibus from Cemoro Lawang to Probolinggo wasn't as bad as the ride up.  We paid $2.50 this time, but the driver was still tryingto squeeze money out of us.  He told us that we could go with the $2.50, but it would take about 2 hours because we'd have to wait for more people to get on and off.  Or we could rent the whole thing out and get there in an hour.  We didn't even give him a chance, we said 2 hours is fine and got on.  

Josie and I, and this time Liz, got in the back and we left pretty soon.  We picked up more people along the way, but it wasn't too bad ... until we got down about 20 minutes.  The minibus stopped and we waited about 10 minutes.  The driver told us, "You go that bus," pointing to the minibus in front of us.  We asked why, but he kept saying, "No pay."  I didn't trust the situation at all, but what can we do?  We got off, pit our bags on the other bus and got on.

Josie and Liz sat in the front and I sat way in the back this time.  We waited a good 20 more minutes before we took off.  I counted 11 seats, but 20 people, with one guy hanging off the side outside the bus too.  I sat next to the window so, although it wasn't a pleasant experience, it wasn't unbearable.  The worst part was that there were all these old ladies around me and they had all their vegetables, grains, and fish.  So I got my medley of interesting smells wofting my way for about another hour and a half.  Aside from that, not too bad.  

We finally arrived back at Probolinggo bus station.  Now we have to find our way to Surabaya.

Probolinggo to Cemoro Lawang (5 hours)

The sun finally came up around 5:00 and I felt a little safer, but then the adventure of finding transportation to Cemoro Lawang started.  Erwan from the agency told us that a bus left at 7:00 so we still had about 2 hours.  Then we had a number of people come up to us and tell us that there was no public bus and we'd have to take a minibus.  It was only a difference of about $2, but I didn't like being lied to. 

In their defense, I confused minibus and public bus, so I kept asking for a minibus.  Even so, I kept getting varied responses.  "It leaves at 6:00."  "It leaves at 7:00."  "Go to Ijen instead, they have the most expensive coffee in the world.  It passed through a cat's digestive track before being brewed."  (Yeah, that one's true, we read it online too).  We asked the guy sweeping where the minibuses are, and he took us out the station, around the corner, and to this muddy parking lot with 3 or 4 partridge family buses.  We were like "WTF?"  They quoted us $3 and we said we would come back (because the public bus was $1.20).

We went back to the station and kept hearing that there were no public buses and getting fingers pointing back to the minibus lot.  We decided to wait it out, but by this time, we'd gotten up at 5 the night before, walked around two temples, rode an 8 hour bus, and waited 5 hours at this station, all on about 4 hours of sleep.  So we "gave in" and decided to go with the minibus.  I feel so defeated ... all over about $2.

... we've been waiting since 7:30AM and it's 11:00AM right now.  Apparently, the driver won't leave until the bus was full.  It sat 10 and there are 9 so far ... not only are they keeping us waiting, the stupid kid who came to us in the first place tried to get me to buy a tour from him! NO!!

... finally, we got moving, but now he's been waiting on the driveway for about 15 minutes. It's 11:20.  We waited another 4 hours for this stupid minibus to take us to see a volcano

... a minibus is not just a small bus, it's a 30-year-old 10-seated van that can hold 20 people.  I couldn't believe how many people fit on the bus.  It was really something else.  The guy who sold us the ticket was even hanging on outside the bus, holding the door closed because there were too many people.  Some kid gave up his seat next to me fir an old lady ... I thought he got off, but nope, 20 minutes later I saw him climb off the roof.

This was the first 30 minutes, once we started going toward Mt. Bromo, it satyrs to empty and I got to relax a bit. 

The weather cooled down a bit, and there were really beautiful green hills with thick fog.  I was excited to feel cold air again, after 3 weeks of hot and humid.   


(This isn't the exact one, but something like this)
  

(We didn't ride this, but it's another type of transport)

 

Probolinggo Bus Station (6 hours)

Back at Yogya, we told the 4PM bus driver that we were waiting for the 7PM bus and he looked at his friend and just laughed.  I didn't like that.  I thought that maybe there was something that he knew that we didn't ... so I told Josie that we should take their bus ... we probably should have waited.  

We got to Probolinggo bus station at 1:30AM and at first glance, it looked so shady that Josie said we probably should have taken the later bus ... I agree now.  

I'm being very cautious out here.  Maybe even a little too cautious, but everything I gave for the next 2 weeks is on me and if I lose it, I'll probably give up backpacking forever.  Naomi's lucky she and Regan lost their stuff (TWICE) in Japan and not here.  Had it been here, she wouldn't have gotten it back.

My friend from UCLA ... she used to be an avid backpacker and when she was touring south america, some taxi drove off with her pack and the lesson she learned was not to be so materialistic.  I understand her feeling in a way.  I'm so worried about someone stealing my stuff, that I'm probably not enjoying my trip as much as I should.  

Even though it was this early in the morning, there were plenty of taxi drivers waiting to give us a ride to Mt. Bromo.  It was maybe a difference of only a few dollars, but it's supposed to be about 40°F (10°C) up there and we'd have to wait in the freezing cold ... We'll take our chances with the shady station.

For the first hour, it was all fight or flight ... with a 25 pound (16kg) pack.  I studied everyone around me with CIA precison, except I didn't notice the security camera right above me until 3 hours later.  I didn't trust ANYONE!  I strapped my pack to my leg, ziptied my bag, strapped that to my waist, doubled wrapped everything to my arms ... geez, I'm so stressed out here.  Josie wanted to sleep, but I was worried, so I didn't let her.  

Eventually, I eased up, but only a little.  I started seeing women and children, so it couldn't be THAT bad right?  Also, most of the people around us were just waiting for the incoming buses so they could sell stuff.  It really put a humanity side to them.  They'd hang out at the station for hours just to sell a couple of things on the 5 buses that would pass by.  These guys have a tough life ... also, Josie fell alseep.

Yogyakarta to Probolinggo (10 hours)

From our hostel in Yogya, we took a 50-cent, 30-minute bus to the main bus station that would take us to Probolinngo, the transit point for Cemoro Lawang, where the volcano is.  

Erwan, from the Borobudur tour agency told us to watch out for pick-pockters on the bus to Probolinggo so we decided to sleep in shifts (kinda like how we had to do it on the Pilgrim in 4th grade ... which I think was a small form of child abuse to make a 9-year-old kid stand quietly for 2 hours on the deck of a freezing cold ship).  Anyway, we got on the bus (AC this time) at 4:15 and we're scheduled to get to Probolinggo at 2:00AM.

Josie decided to sleep first because she only got 20 hours of sleep the day before.  Right when she got comfortable, we heard two guys in the front of the bus singing and playing the guitar and I thought, "Not again!"  I thought this bus ride would be a repeat of yesterdays train ride.  But these guys actually sounded really good (for bus performer).  It sounded a bit like Mexican Pop, and you know me and my Mexican Pop.  I watched "My Name is Earl" on the plane from Malaysia to Jakarta so I thought I would play karma's game, so I gave them 1,000 rupiahs (about 10 cents) and talked to the guy a bit.  

He asked me where I was from, and I promptly answered "Japan" to which he responded, "すばらしい！"  He them counted "一、ニ、三、四、五."  I told him, "すばらしい！"  When he asked me my name, I told him "Lawrence," then realized it didn't sound very Japanese, so I said, "Takashi."  I forgot his name though, I think it was Jalin.  He left the bus at the next stop and said, "Obrigado Gozaimasu."  He was a funny guy.  Let's hope that karma liked that and we'll get to Cemoro Lawang safely.

...

The sun sets around 5:30 on Java Island so it's only 6PM right now, but all 10 people on the bus are sleeping, but I still don't feel safe.   

...

We stopped at the next station around 6:10, and as soon as the doors opened, a rush of sellers barged on ... I knew it!  All the stuff from the trains made it to the buses.  I could have gone pee here, but I wasn't sure how long normal pit stops are, and I didn't want them to leave without me, so I gauged it this time and figured I'd go at the next stop.  

2 hours later, still no stop.  It was maybe 8:30 and by this time, Josie had woken up, so I went to sleep.  I felt a slap on my leg, woke up, and went to the bathroom.  When I checked the time, it was 12:30.  The driver drove 6 hours without a stop!  Luckily, falling asleep made me forget, but poor Josie held it for 4 hours.  Now she's sleeping

... 

It's 1:30AM, we finally arrived, but the adventure is just starting ...   

Jakarta to Yogyakarta (8 hours)

We got up at 5:15 this morning to catch our 8 hour (very bumpy and very hot) train halfway across Java island.  The guy at the hotel told us that a bajaj (rickshaw) would be about $1, so we went looking for one.  

Josie asked the first taxi how much he would charge ... $4.  She said $1, and whined, "noooooo.". Then I asked the next taxi driver how much he would charge for a ride to Pasar Senen Station and he said $2, but he eventually agreed to $1.  He took us to the station and then tried to get us to pay for the 20 cent parking.  We argued and just left because he didn't mention when we got on.  It was only 20 cents and maybe we're giving a bad name for foreigners, but he was being shady with that.  It was 50 feet from the parking lot entrance to the ticket counter.

The hawks don't even end at the station.  In the train, there were soany people walking up and down the aisle selling stuff.  Most of them would just walk up and down yelling what they had.  Others would just throw their stuff on you and come back to pick it up later.  At every major stop, new sellers would get on selling the exact same stuff, so you get it coming at you hard the whole way.  
• newspapers
• slippers
• pillows
• blankets
• tissues
• bags
• cell phone batteries
• coloring books
• rubix cubes
• tea in glass cups
• keychains
• foot massagers
• smoothies
• nasi goreng (fried rice)
• beefsteak
• bottled water
• cigarettes
• some weird herbal cigarette
• extra large lighters
• coffee
• bags of tofu 
• chips
• fans
• action figures that would spin their arms when you squeeze their legs (my favorite)
• books
• noise makers 

There were also all kinds of people just asking for donations ...
• nuns
• children
• mothers with babies
• a trio of girls singing and playing a guitarrita (their names were Guadalupe, Maria, and Lourdes)
• an old guy who just moaned
• some guy doing a Muslim chant on a megaphone
• a guy who would sweep the floor around you and then his friend would ask for money 
• a blind wan with a child
• an old lady who'd wake you up for a hand out

It was very annoying at first, but these guys are just trying to make a living.  Spending a whole day walking up and down a train must be very tough.  If they have to buy a train ticket first, then they'd have to make up forthat first before they can make a profit ... Kudos to these guys, but stop throwing shit in my lap.

This is basically how the train ride was.  There was no air conditioning and the window only opened about 5 inches, which was fine when the train was moving, but it would stop on average every 10 to 15 minutes.  Sometimes it would stay stopped for 5 to 10 minutes and that's when we'd start baking in the 90 degree Indonesian oven train.  After sweating profusely, that slow crawl the train started on was terrible, desperately waiting for that hot air wind to squeeze its way into that tiny crack.  It was 8 hours of this.  At some point, the storm clouds rolled in and the weather cooled off a bit, but only a little bit.  The bathroom was a toilet with the drain emptying onto the tracks.  It was interesting to use, but never dodge an Indonesian train by ducking under it.

This was one off the craziest endurance trials I've eve had to go through, and hopefully never again.  I killed most of my time writing a few blog entries, playing Sudoku, reading my book, and getting bit by mosquitos.  Only an hour and a half more to go ...

We finally got off the train in Yogya after a brutal 9 hours.  It was raining so at least it was a little cooler.  Now I'm relaxing in the courtyard of the hotel and enjoying wi-fi.    

Mersing to Kuala Lumpur (6 hours)

The bus between Kuala Lumpur and Mersing is a 5 hour stretch of road through a bast jungle with an occassional town or shop along the way. Going from Kuala Lumpur to Mersing was fine. I slept the whole time. The ride back, however ... It's a two lane road the whole way, but the bus spends more time in the the middle of both lanes than the one he's supposed to be in. Whenever there is a car in front if him, if he has a chance to pass it, he'll pass it. Even when it's damn near impossible, he'll still pass it. If there are 3 cars, a motorbike, and a truck in front of us, he'll pass them all just barely missing oncoming traffic. The bus we're in is the fastest thing on the road. If you drive slow, you'll know because EVERYONE will pass you. There's no waiting on the road.

At one point, I did manage to fall asleep, but I woke up to a near accident. All I felt was the driver suddenly hit the brakes. When I opened my eyes, I saw us almost smash the small, little, white car in front of us. The driver had to veer off to the side of the road to avoid it.

I'm also starving because I don't want any bowel problems during a 5 hour bus ride.

Right now, we're at a rest stop which looks like Boca del Rio, about double in size. If you're reading this entry, I didn't die ...

... it's been about 2 hours snce we took our break and it started raining really hard. I'm sitting right next to the roof emergency hatch and it's leaking water. Oh, also ... WE ALMOST DIED!!! The driver wasn't paying attention and all the cars were stopped ahead of him so he slammed on the breaks, everone lurched forward, and then he swerved across two lanes, and barely made into the shoulder before he almost hit a car. Josie said in her head I was screaming like a little girl. Everyone on the bus got mad and some of them started yelling at the driver.

We're drivng again, but he's still diving like an &?$@ing maniac! I honestly may die today ...

... nope, didn't die

I just want to shower

It's hard to believe that we were eating shaved ice in Taipei with Shirley only two days ago.  It feels a lot longer.  Getting to today has been so insane.  The last time I showered was 3 days ago in Taiwan, but I feel so grimy and smell pretty bad I'm sure.  The past few days have been such a blur ...

7:30PM - 11:30PM  
Flight from Taipei to Singapore
- slept 2 hours
11:30PM - 7:30AM  
Layover in Singapore
- slept 3 hours
7:30AM - 8:30AM
Flight from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur
- slept 20 minutes
8:30AM - 10:30AM
Bus from airport to KL
- no sleep
10:30AM - 1:00PM
Looked for Bakit Jalil bus station
- no sleep
1:00PM - 6:30PM
Walked around KL
- no sleep
7:30PM - 11:30PM
Waited at Bakit Jalil bus station and played cards
- no sleep
11:30PM - 4:00AM
Night bus from KL to Mersing
- slept 4 hours
4:30AM - 10:30AM
Waited for boat to Tioman Island
- slept 1 hour

I just want to shower and brush my teeth ... So far, Malaysia's not so great.

Singapore Airport Terminal 3

So Singapore Airport's Terminal 3 is supposed to be one of the best airports in the world. It's very green and plays elevator music. Josie and I found a little niche at a coffee shop, where I had rambutan juice and kaya butter toast ... we slept on the seats for 3 hours, woke up, checked in, went through security, and now we have about an hour before we leave for Malaysia. We're tired and I smell pretty bad ...