Jakarta, Indonesia, Asia This morning started out with a stupid 5:30am alarm wakening. The hostel called a cab for me and I left at 6am to head to the airport. I checked in and got through security without an issue, and it occurred to me how different it was than going through security anywhere else. I didn’t have to take my laptop out of my bag, I didn’t have to put liquids and gels in a clear little bag, I…
Yogyakarta, Indonesia, Asia I did pretty much nothing today. There wasn’t much more in the city of Yogyakarta that I wasnted to see and didn’t get to, so I took today as a planning day. I figured out a lot of the flights I’m going to take after Indonesia, and picked out some hostels that I hadn’t booked yet. There were quite a few new people at the hostel today so I got to meet a lot of travelers. A…
Yogyakarta, Indonesia, Asia I went on a tour around Yogyakarta today with five other people and our hostel driver Nanda. We got to see so much stuff, It was really incredible. The morning started out with an excellent breakfast at the hostel of toast, cereal, watermelon and orange juice. It might not sound excellent, but when you consider that at most hostels the breakfast is only toast with one kind of jam. That’s all. The fresh fruit and juice and…
Yogyakarta, Indonesia, Asia Today started out with a ridiculous 3:45am wake up call so I could catch my flight at 6am. I got to the airport in plenty of time and had some time to just watch people at the airport. I figured something out that I’ve been wondering for a while. I thought some Asian people wore surgical masks to combat the smog in the cities, not true. It turns out they wear the masks because they all burp…
Tuban, Indonesia, Asia I had a great day touring Bali today! My tour guide, Bruce, picked me up at 8:30am, just after I said bye to Esther, and we headed north to see a traditional Barong dance. We arrived in Batubulan at 9:30am and had missed the first act of the dance, but it didn’t really matter. I was given a kind of playbill when I entered so I could recognize where they were in the dance, but I couldn’t…
Tuban, Indonesia, Asia I woke up this morning to a rather disappointing text message. Andrea wasn’t feeling well so she wasn’t up for going to Ubud for the day. The trip is too expensive to go on my own, so I didn’t end up getting to see it today. I did book a private tour of Bali for tomorrow though, and one of the stops is in Ubud to visit the Monkey Forest, so at least I’ll get to see…
Tuban, Indonesia, Asia Good news, I didn’t die in my sleep last night. I don’t know what that headache was all about, but it wasn’t cool. I felt fine this morning. I was meant to move out of my hotel today, and I was going to head up to Ubud until I called a few hotels only to find that they are all booked up. I decided that my better option was just to stay here for a few more…
Tuban, Indonesia, Asia I had the most incredible day diving today! It started with an early morning wake up to be picked up by the tour at 7:30am. I got on the bus and met two of my fellow divers for the day, an Italian couple named Silvia and Gabrielle. They were a very nice couple cardiologists from Genoa who have travelled all over the world together. They were very cool to talk to. We picked up another two guys…
Tuban, Indonesia, Asia I got up today hoping to have breakfast at my hotel, like they said I would last night, but they never came. That was a disappointing start to the day, but hey ho. I set off into Kuta to explore and it turns out my hotel is not that far from there at all. I am only a 10-15 minute walk to Kuta beach, but I’m far enough away that it’s fairly quiet. The only thing that…
Tuban, Indonesia, Asia I called it a night on the train at about 11pm and slept for most of the ride. I woke up a few times to check that my bags were all still where I’d left them. I have locks on all my zippers for my big backpack, but that wouldn’t stop anyone from picking the whole thing up and taking it. Of course, nothing like that happened and all was good when we pulled into KL Sentral…