Part #8 KL squared and Farewells shared.

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So it was off to Kuala Lumpur. Brilliant! I was not expecting such an odd flight however... Halfway through our flight to KL from Makassar, the AirAsia staff got everyone's attention and declared a competition. They started doing games where whoever could reach the front of the plane first with the correct answer to various questions won prizes... Crazy! Anyway. I arrived and immediately liked the place. Cheap bus transfer from the aiirport, and the hostel i wanted to stay in looked great.... but was full. However i checked in for the next day, and went to the closest place....BAD IDEA. I went to my dorm, went to sleep and was woken at 2am by one of my room mates screaming and turning in circles in the middle of the room, he then started weeping, and fell back into bed.... Yikes. Anyway after a 30 minutes session of "what the hell was that" i fell back to sleep. However at 3:30 i awoke again this time to see same room mate running into the wall as hard as he could and drooling and babbling. Not the greatest rest. Anyway moved out quick smart into my other hostel and started my exploration of the city. LOVED the chinatown markets, had an awesome meal, explored the square, checked out the cool mosques and train stations, and then headed back for a bit of a relax in my hostel. It was then that I met some amusing people. They were a French couple who were window cleaners by trade, who had never left France before, but had won tickets to Malaysia on a radio show.... to top it off they were Jehova's witnesses and wanted to talk at length about how travelling was not something they were sure they liked. There were lots of laughs to be had. Anyway then I went out for dinner on this chinese street, delicious, and back home to bed. Next morning I woke earlier than expected and decided to try and cram in KL tower before my flight. I wouldn't say it was worth the money, but i'm glad I did it, however it made it a pretty close thing when I arrived at the airport for my flight to Jakarta again! Jumped on the flight a bit a-fluster, As I sat down I noticed something a bit strange. The guy in the seat in front of me to the left was not only enormous, but was wearing gigantic wooden clogs.... Yet another Dutchy. He turned out to be a tiny bit weird, though I managed to use some Dutch so it was not a wasted meeting. He ended up being very into South East Asian prostitutes, and was kind of awkward, but entertaining for the bus into jakarta..

Upon arriving in Jak-Town/Jax/Jak/Jako/Jakarta, I went up to Jess' to meet the troops, as we had compiled an ultimate team to head down to the Embassy residence at Anyer as a mini farewell to Jess! After a few get to know everyone drinks with Jess Jimmy Russel (soon to be given a waaaaaay better name) Geoff (see Russel) Ash (see Geoff) Clare (see Ash) Christine Andrew and hope i'm not forgetting anyone, we all hopped in our cars and headed off for the 3-6 hour drive. We arrived safe at the beautiful beach-side residence and settledd ourselves in. It was a wonderful weekend of lazing by the pool, lovely home cooked food, guitar playing and sing-alongs, a few drinks, and contests to decide just who had the best Irish accent. And then it was back to Jakarta for a few brief hours before racing back to Makassar.

Once back I managed a couple of days work (not that it was necessary, by this point I had done all research and drafts for the articles I was expected to write) and then decided it was time to go explore some more of Sulawesi. I did some asking around the office and found the best way to get there and off I went.... to Cape Bira! Wow, now THAT place is spectacular. It was so beautiful and off the beaten track. While I was finding Makassar a little claustrophobic, and would have loved to meet more tourists (by this stage it was regular for me to be followed home by local kids every time I went to the supermarket, photos being snapped all the while), it was a beautiful enough place to just enjoy the scenery. However it was a bit of a journey to get there. After waiting hours for the car to fill up we went off to a place en route, then after 7 hours (that were supposed to be 4) I switched to tiny bumpy little thing and rode for 2 hours with some fun locals (photos again ensued) and there we were. Upon arrival I checked out the cheapish place I was intending on staying at, and decided to have a walk to the beach before checking in. I arrived at the gorgeous white sand crystal clear bright blue water with jaw dropped and bag feeling heavy. I noticed to the side a resort i'd read of in the lonely planet that was slightly out of my price range. However I decided to go ask anyway. They were struggling for customers so I got a beautiful 2-5 person raised villa on the cliff above the water with air con and breakfast for $10 Australian. Love it. So I put my stuff away and sat on my veranda looking at the sun set. I highly recommend you check out the photos on facebook. I spent the next two days relaxing, reading “year of living dangerously” (which is all about a journo living in Indo in the Soekarno period, and really puts into words some of the feelings you get for Indonesia after a while...), swimming, and responding as patiently and kindly as I could muster to the calls of mister and photos requests. After a weekend of recharging I figured it was best to head back to Makassar before I got too attached to the place.

Once back, I was informed that my promises to take part in a “Makassar Backpackers” trip were about to be called into action! In 3 days we were off to Dutungan Island...

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