The Wax Conspiracy

The Fortnight of Living Dangerously

Taken Fri, 22 Nov 2013 20:58:24 +1100
This that shizz that begin again.

Taken Fri, 22 Nov 2013 20:59:47 +1100
Damn straight.

Taken Sat, 23 Nov 2013 07:35:26 +1100
There are worse places to be for four hours...

Taken Sat, 23 Nov 2013 08:02:29 +1100
Also this, in which Thalia Zedek liked my Facebook post! Eeeeeeeeeeeep!

Taken Sat, 23 Nov 2013 08:25:49 +1100
This bizarre government pronouncement.

Taken Sat, 23 Nov 2013 21:01:03 +1100
Yo, this how I'm rolling, y'all.

Taken Sat, 23 Nov 2013 21:02:32 +1100
View from my window in Jakarta. Word of warning: when I travel to hot, sweaty countries, I usually pack some talcum powder. Customs in Indonesia were particularly interested in my gigantic tub of white powder.

Still, I'M IN INDONESIA!

Taken Sat, 23 Nov 2013 21:11:03 +1100
These were just outside my room. I imagine they're for spying.

Taken Mon, 25 Nov 2013 10:12:47 +1100
No. 27. Why I'm glad I'm a vegetarian.

Taken Mon, 25 Nov 2013 10:16:16 +1100
All the comforts of home.

Taken Mon, 25 Nov 2013 10:36:03 +1100
Breakfast buffet in Indo. Not a patch on the Europeans but it'll do in a pinch.

Taken Mon, 25 Nov 2013 12:24:59 +1100
J-town, see you later.

Taken Mon, 25 Nov 2013 12:28:03 +1100
Neo-colonialist iconography.

Taken Mon, 25 Nov 2013 16:02:33 +1100
Jakarta to Bandung looks like this.

Taken Mon, 25 Nov 2013 16:04:10 +1100
Prettiest train.

Taken Mon, 25 Nov 2013 16:06:11 +1100
Modes of travel, fade to white.

Taken Mon, 25 Nov 2013 16:59:56 +1100
Good point wall!

Taken Mon, 25 Nov 2013 21:50:31 +1100
Street art.

Taken Mon, 25 Nov 2013 21:51:53 +1100
Waterfront views.

Taken Mon, 25 Nov 2013 21:53:00 +1100
The oldest cinema in Indonesia, built in 1905(?), and still going.

Taken Mon, 25 Nov 2013 21:54:56 +1100
Why? What's he ever done?

Taken Mon, 25 Nov 2013 21:58:46 +1100
The inside of the hotel was totally Art Deco, though.

Taken Mon, 25 Nov 2013 22:01:49 +1100
An hour and a half of traditional West Javanese stuff: singing, dancing, music, etc. This was ace!

Taken Mon, 25 Nov 2013 22:05:29 +1100
Re-post of The Savoy, which I posted sideways. Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford stayed here when they performed here back in the day. The guy said that the architecture was Art Deco, but the stuff on the left totally looks like Bahaus architecture to me.

Taken Tue, 26 Nov 2013 17:01:11 +1100
My hotel in Pangandaran. It took a four hour train trip and a two hour bus ride to get here.

Taken Tue, 26 Nov 2013 17:32:13 +1100
View from my balcony in Pangandaran I.

Taken Tue, 26 Nov 2013 17:33:44 +1100
View from my balcony in Pangandaran II. No, really, this shit is idyllic.

Taken Tue, 26 Nov 2013 17:35:32 +1100
Proper idyllic.

Taken Tue, 26 Nov 2013 17:47:04 +1100
This is the view from the restaurant I am in. Seriously, Indonesia, you can go and get fucked.

Taken Tue, 26 Nov 2013 18:15:22 +1100
Just in case anyone thought this trip was gonna change me.


Hike cancelled due to inclement weather. THUNDEROUS SIGH

Taken Tue, 26 Nov 2013 21:11:37 +1100
Harrison Ford in Force 10 from Navarone.

Taken Wed, 27 Nov 2013 13:00:02 +1100
Tell us what you really think, scooter with a trailer.


This cheeky fucker.


THIS cheeky fucker.

Taken Wed, 27 Nov 2013 21:29:52 +1100
Black sheep of the family.

Taken Wed, 27 Nov 2013 21:31:06 +1100
Fish heads, fish heads, roly poly fish heads.

Taken Wed, 27 Nov 2013 21:32:36 +1100
Blue eggs.

Taken Wed, 27 Nov 2013 21:33:32 +1100
Bags of pee, I assume...?

Taken Wed, 27 Nov 2013 21:34:27 +1100
Soya bean Jenga.

Taken Wed, 27 Nov 2013 21:35:46 +1100
We went on a boat ride up the Green Valley. Butterflies are wont to frolic here.

Taken Wed, 27 Nov 2013 21:37:35 +1100
View from where the Green Valley tour ended. There was a tiny rapid/waterfall here.

Taken Wed, 27 Nov 2013 21:40:29 +1100
Had to try a cigarette as they have cloves in them so they taste super sweet. Don't tell my moms.

Taken Wed, 27 Nov 2013 21:43:12 +1100
Saw this cutie. She was definitely pregnant, possibly rabid. For @killthesuperheroes

Taken Wed, 27 Nov 2013 21:51:20 +1100
I think this sign and others like it sprung up post the tsunami. THUNDEROUS SIGH

Taken Thu, 28 Nov 2013 19:02:01 +1100
A Musholla, which is a small prayer room for if you can't make it to a mosque when the call to prayer sounds.

Taken Thu, 28 Nov 2013 19:03:18 +1100
Last meal in Pangandaran. Seafood hot pot. So fucking good.

Taken Thu, 28 Nov 2013 20:54:50 +1100
Like Jenga for Chocolate.

Taken Fri, 29 Nov 2013 01:05:33 +1100
Anarchy in Yogja.

Taken Fri, 29 Nov 2013 01:54:14 +1100
Fucking sing it!

Taken Fri, 29 Nov 2013 01:55:47 +1100
Back just in time to catch the delightful @firazzle in the Killer Elite. Also, hey, Hollywood, that Jason Statham has gone back to Australia and is now fucking the woman he knew as a CHILD is just creepy.

Taken Fri, 29 Nov 2013 15:10:09 +1100
Candi - pronounced "Chuhn-di" - is just Indonesian for temple. This was not, in fact, a temple made out of candy.

Taken Fri, 29 Nov 2013 15:10:50 +1100
This scratching marks one of the eleven stupas that were rigged with explosives by terrorists. Nine were destroyed but have been since repaired.

Taken Fri, 29 Nov 2013 15:11:06 +1100
My attempt at the world's largest Buddhist complex in the world.

Taken Fri, 29 Nov 2013 15:11:20 +1100
View from the top of the temple. That's rain rolling in there.

Taken Fri, 29 Nov 2013 15:11:46 +1100
This is the temple at Borobudur, the largest Buddhist complex in the world.

Taken Fri, 29 Nov 2013 15:11:58 +1100
This thing was crazy huge.

Taken Fri, 29 Nov 2013 15:12:13 +1100
The guide kept on referring to the animal on the bottom as the otter, but the animal on the table is CLEARLY the otter. Also, OTTERS!

Taken Fri, 29 Nov 2013 15:12:36 +1100
This lion is happy because it is a vegetarian. That is what the guide said.

Taken Fri, 29 Nov 2013 22:07:27 +1100
I still went in.

Taken Fri, 29 Nov 2013 22:07:42 +1100
This shit looks spectral.

Taken Fri, 29 Nov 2013 22:07:57 +1100
One of the best preserved carvings of - oh, god, I can't remember!

Taken Fri, 29 Nov 2013 22:08:07 +1100
This temple housed the vehicle of whichever god it was sat in front of.

Taken Fri, 29 Nov 2013 22:08:17 +1100
Temple complex at Prambanan, one of the largest Hindu complexes in the South East.

Taken Fri, 29 Nov 2013 22:08:29 +1100
The Shiva temple from underneath it. Somewhere along the line our guide lost the quartz stone that was the eye of his ring. He said it didn't matter but as we walked on I could see him scanning the ground looking for it. He had Buckley's of finding it as the complex was huge, but I imagine it is that recalcitrant hope that drives human beings to build these things in the first place.


Ghost ride, as the think the filming technique is called, through the streets of Yogyakarta.

Taken Sat, 30 Nov 2013 18:26:40 +1100
Vodka and soda in the best pub in the world. Happy hour lasts five hours.

Taken Sat, 30 Nov 2013 18:41:47 +1100
I'm gonna miss you, Yogyakarta, you were a fucking delight.

Taken Sat, 30 Nov 2013 18:49:02 +1100
Fucking sing it!

Taken Sun, 01 Dec 2013 01:08:20 +1100
They call me MISTER Pancake. Huh? Anyone? Anyone at all? In the Heat of the Night. Sydney Poitier. 1967. No? No.

Taken Sun, 01 Dec 2013 01:08:32 +1100
Best believe.

Taken Sun, 01 Dec 2013 01:09:01 +1100
The main difference between Indonesian shopping centres and our own.

Taken Sun, 01 Dec 2013 01:09:14 +1100
Good fucking god.

Taken Sun, 01 Dec 2013 01:09:24 +1100
For @killthesuperheroes

Taken Tue, 03 Dec 2013 12:33:35 +1100
This is a shot looking into my bathroom.

Taken Tue, 03 Dec 2013 12:34:27 +1100
In Seloliman Nature Reserve, which is totally eco and mostly self-sufficient. The toilet and shower is in an outside covered area. This is what I can see from my toilet seat. Don't worry, I wasn't playing Turds with Friends.

Taken Tue, 03 Dec 2013 12:35:03 +1100
These are some of the garden beds where food is grown. There are trees from all over the world brought by people, which usually go unidentified until a botanist makes a pilgrimage to this place. Trees are signposted with their medicinal properties. For @muddywaterblues.

Taken Tue, 03 Dec 2013 12:35:29 +1100
The path that led to the cottages.

Taken Tue, 03 Dec 2013 12:36:04 +1100
My cabin in the woods. There's a little stone carving of a rabbit on my roof, which distinguished my house from the rest, which had their own totems.

Taken Tue, 03 Dec 2013 12:37:20 +1100
The view from where I got liquored up for the night.

Taken Tue, 03 Dec 2013 12:37:44 +1100
Seloliman was just amazing. People bitched because there were bugs and the place was a little basic. People can go to hell.

Taken Tue, 03 Dec 2013 12:38:16 +1100
Guesthouse + moat.

Taken Tue, 03 Dec 2013 12:38:30 +1100
The inside of the guesthouse. This was a two floor building.

Taken Tue, 03 Dec 2013 12:38:56 +1100
Managed to get this close to the frog before it hopped into the 'moat' that surrounds the guesthouse.

Taken Tue, 03 Dec 2013 12:39:46 +1100
The mosque in the local village. The call to prayer is sounded with the aid of that drum on the left.

Taken Tue, 03 Dec 2013 12:40:06 +1100
A hidden peanut stash.

Taken Tue, 03 Dec 2013 12:40:34 +1100
Punk rock goat.

Taken Tue, 03 Dec 2013 15:16:22 +1100
Last night's hotel, a few hours North of Seloliman and up into the mountains.

Taken Tue, 03 Dec 2013 15:20:55 +1100
The view for which we woke up at 3 AM and went hiking to see. Reminds me of the cover of the Apocalypse record by Bill Callahan.

Taken Tue, 03 Dec 2013 15:23:07 +1100
Sunrise peeking through the mist.

Taken Tue, 03 Dec 2013 15:24:28 +1100
The view from the top of the mountain.

Taken Tue, 03 Dec 2013 15:25:25 +1100
I think this was the mountain we were on. This was on the way to Mount Bromo, an active volcano.

Taken Tue, 03 Dec 2013 17:19:43 +1100
The climb to Mount Bromo was bullshit. Those white specks in the top third of the frame was where we parked the jeeps. There were people offering horse rides to near the top but some of the horses were drooling green and shivering.

Taken Tue, 03 Dec 2013 17:19:54 +1100
Mordor.

Taken Tue, 03 Dec 2013 20:34:19 +1100
Just off to the left of my room.

Taken Tue, 03 Dec 2013 20:34:42 +1100
My new cabin. This place is next to a shitty, shitty railway crossing so we weren't too sure what to expect.

Taken Tue, 03 Dec 2013 20:35:28 +1100
Just off to the right. LABYRINTHINE

Taken Tue, 03 Dec 2013 20:36:39 +1100
Saw the fruit bat in the cage and got in nice and close to take a photo. That was when I realised that there was one sitting just outside. The little bag of rabies scared the shit out of me.

Taken Tue, 03 Dec 2013 20:39:06 +1100
'Plantation' is always gonna have negative connotations, especially with the row of luxury cars there. Still, dairy farm!

Taken Tue, 03 Dec 2013 20:41:59 +1100
MOO COWS

Taken Tue, 03 Dec 2013 20:43:00 +1100
BABY MOO COWS

Taken Tue, 03 Dec 2013 22:42:59 +1100
I will! Thanks, thing!


Rubber trees, originally from Brazil.


Bags of rabies.

Taken Wed, 04 Dec 2013 23:47:53 +1100
OK, so this is what chocolate looks like before it's been processed. Processed cocoa here gets shipped to Switzerland. The one on the right makes milk chocolate and the one on the left is for dark chocolate.

Taken Wed, 04 Dec 2013 23:48:32 +1100
The first stage of cocoa drying.

Taken Wed, 04 Dec 2013 23:48:56 +1100
A mountain of cocoa beans drying over giant ovens.

Taken Wed, 04 Dec 2013 23:49:27 +1100
Not too sure what to make of this water feature, but the Dutch built it, so...

Taken Wed, 04 Dec 2013 23:49:42 +1100
Brak!

Taken Wed, 04 Dec 2013 23:50:00 +1100
Coffee as pooped out by a civet. I've yet to try this.

Taken Wed, 04 Dec 2013 23:50:18 +1100
The coffee here is sorted out by hand because it is cheaper that having machines do it. Consider that next time you have a cup of coffee.

Taken Wed, 04 Dec 2013 23:50:39 +1100
Clean is healthy.

Taken Wed, 04 Dec 2013 23:50:57 +1100
Rubber packed into 120kg bales. This was the worst quality rubber and would most likely stay in the nation. The good stuff, costing about five dollars a kilo, went overseas to be made into car tires, and with it goes the wealth of a nation. Yeah, I went there.

Taken Thu, 05 Dec 2013 18:30:01 +1100
Damn straight, boat!

Taken Thu, 05 Dec 2013 18:31:04 +1100
Bali, this way!

Taken Thu, 05 Dec 2013 18:32:32 +1100
Statues with sarong = protected by the government unless it's in a temple, in which case it's protected by the community.

Taken Thu, 05 Dec 2013 18:34:13 +1100
My kind of beach, no fucking sand.

Taken Fri, 06 Dec 2013 13:32:19 +1100
Tanah Lot, by the pool.

Taken Fri, 06 Dec 2013 13:33:29 +1100
The temple just down the street. It can only be visited by holy people.

Taken Fri, 06 Dec 2013 13:33:51 +1100
The views really are stunning.

Taken Fri, 06 Dec 2013 13:34:22 +1100
Sunset at the temple. No idea what that eerie glow on the bottom right is.

Taken Fri, 06 Dec 2013 13:34:56 +1100
New kicks.

Taken Fri, 06 Dec 2013 20:51:23 +1100
Um, Bali, we need to have a chat.

Taken Fri, 06 Dec 2013 21:20:10 +1100
This is just reception in the place I'm staying in.


The table I'm sat at in Ubud is made up of old sewing machine parts. This is pretty ace.

Taken Sun, 08 Dec 2013 13:46:22 +1100
Last night's dinner. Tuna steak burger with wasabi mayonnaise. New best meal of the trip. For @realfoodprojects.

Taken Sun, 08 Dec 2013 13:48:15 +1100
We should go here for breakfast @arfydog and @claredbear. Parisian cafe in Ubud.

Taken Sun, 08 Dec 2013 13:50:02 +1100
French press coffee.

Taken Sun, 08 Dec 2013 13:51:10 +1100
This place is fucking amazing! Again, for @realfoodprojects. The place is all organic and the bread is artisan

Taken Sun, 08 Dec 2013 19:05:59 +1100
NAWWW! Actually, that looks painful for mum. This is in the Monkey Forrest.


Oh, man! Meta-monkey.

Taken Sun, 08 Dec 2013 19:15:03 +1100
Man, these things is cute.


OH, MAN!

Taken Sun, 08 Dec 2013 19:22:51 +1100
Yeah, I know, monkey! I know! But we've all been there and in any case the shame will go away soon enough.


How to groom a monkey...

Taken Sun, 08 Dec 2013 19:32:21 +1100
Big fuck off statues of Komodo dragons.

Taken Sun, 08 Dec 2013 19:33:36 +1100
One of the temples in the Monkey Forrest.

Taken Sun, 08 Dec 2013 19:34:40 +1100
PUNKEY. See, what I've done there is taken two words, in this case "monkey" and "punk" and fused them together in an amusing pun. I did this because the MONKEY looks like a PUNK because it has a little mohawk.

Taken Sun, 08 Dec 2013 19:37:27 +1100
It's about time White history was commemorated in Indonesia.


Don't know if you can see this dance but hopefully you can hear it. The music is made by close to a hundred people vocalising. This is a Kecak dance.

Taken Mon, 09 Dec 2013 01:41:42 +1100
Prepping the fire for the fire dance.


Kecak fire dance.

Taken Mon, 09 Dec 2013 01:52:48 +1100
I found this poignant piece of street art created by a person who clearly just wants to be treated like a human being on the same day I heard an Anglo-Australian with a Waratah tattoo say that she didn't like Chinese people because, "hello, they're annoying!" I... I'm still not sure where I stand on this whole thing...


Best breakfast view in the world!

Taken Mon, 09 Dec 2013 20:12:22 +1100
This spiky motherfucker is where snake fruit grows. Snake. Fruit.

Taken Mon, 09 Dec 2013 20:16:36 +1100
First cafe I've been to where tobacco was freely available along with rolling papers.

Taken Mon, 09 Dec 2013 20:16:59 +1100
I'm tired of all these bullshit, manufactured and completely false binaries. Destroy patriarchy!

Taken Mon, 09 Dec 2013 20:17:22 +1100
This here fucker is gonna brew me a Luwak coffee. Science coffee!

Taken Mon, 09 Dec 2013 20:17:47 +1100
The beans that made this coffee were pooped out of the butt of a cat-thing. It was a bit nutty.

Taken Mon, 09 Dec 2013 21:52:24 +1100
Fuck, yeah, Indonesian television! Alfred Hitchcock Presents! For @liahologram

Taken Tue, 10 Dec 2013 23:32:50 +1100
What's that Dick Diver lyric, "I turn my lemons into slices & I put them in my beer"?

Taken Tue, 10 Dec 2013 23:35:12 +1100
Camouflage!

Taken Tue, 10 Dec 2013 23:37:16 +1100
Dinner tonight. For @killthesuperheroes and @sarahjire. The tuna burger fell through.

Taken Tue, 10 Dec 2013 23:42:23 +1100
This piece of street art.


THUNDEROUS SIGH

Taken Thu, 12 Dec 2013 17:19:34 +1100
"I say we take off and nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."

Taken Fri, 13 Dec 2013 13:19:32 +1100
Breakfast spread this morning. Oh, man...

Taken Fri, 13 Dec 2013 15:02:28 +1100
HELLOOOOOOO LADIES!

Taken Sun, 15 Dec 2013 01:53:09 +1100
That's it. I'm done. Thank you, Indonesia, you were a fucking delight. This is your correspondent, Guy Hamilton, signing off from Indonesia.

Published on Friday, 22 November 2013

By Belvedere Jehosophat Belvedere Jehosophat

I hope that what I have written will be of some assistance.

The Wax Conspiracy

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