quick check in

Hi all. I just wanted to let everyone know that I am safe and sound and in Luang Prabang, Laos. WHICH I ABSOLUTELY LOVE!!

I've got a bus to catch so I'll have to fill you in later. Must go trekking through jungle and swimming through waterfalls!

LAOS IS AMAZING!

Indonesian Adventures

I love Indonesia.

I'm not ready to leave. I don't even feel like I've explored the islands of Java and Bali properly, and there's still thousands for me to explore (literally).

I got very settled into Yogyakarta and was able to rest up and get over my stomach flu. I took a 2 day course in batik while I was recouperating and was able to make my very own small square of batik cloth (Batik = South East Asian method of creating artwork on cloth by putting wax on the cloth and dying it different colors). Naturally I made a design with a fairy and a tree, sun, moon, and swirlies =) And only burned myself once! Good god that stuff is hard to do. And soooo time consuming. Although my instructor told me I had "batik talent". =) I think I will never be able to bargain for it again now that I know how much work goes into it. I'm going to have to try to do some more when I have more time stateside.

I also got to see some of the most amazing runes.

I took a day trip to Borobudur, only a few hours away and one of the great South East Asian monuments. I think its also the biggest temple in Indonesia. I got there in the early afternoon and hiked around it until sunset. Truely unreal. Literally thousands of carved stone reliefs and hundreds of buddas--mostly hidden inside of hundreds of stone chambers. And what a view from the top! I will post pictures when I find a place and time to upload them.

I also spent an afternoon and sunset in Prambanan--a HUGE Hindu temple complex that once consisted of over 50 temples. Unfortunately an earthquake in 2006 reduced a great many of them to rubble and many that are still standing are badly damaged and covered in scaffolding. But still larger than life. And set to the background of an amazing sunset (It was a little cloudy in Borobudur, but clear and stunning in Prambanan). It was so beautiful and I was so awestruck that I thought I was going to start floating on air.

Yesterday I sadly left my headquarters in Yogyakarta (or "Jogja" as it is nicknamed) and bused out to Cemoro Lawang. It was an 11 hour bus ride! We got in around 8pm. Due to an unfortunate chain of events (long story that involves misinformation, places closing when they weren't supposed to, and several people lying to me...I hope unintentionally), I was unable to get money exchanged or go to an ATM before heading to Bromo, and there wasn't any banks nearby. I only had $28,000 Indonesian Rupiah (about $3 US dollars!). So I ended up skipping dinner. Which wasn't so bad. I ate whatever I had in my pack: Oreos, a Kitkat, some crasains. I saved the power bar for the hike. I had a cup of noodles, but no hot water. I tried eating it raw. Yuck. I've eaten Ramen noodle packets raw before, and they're pretty good (don't knock it till you've tried it). But Cup of Noodles, not the same. I think they were pre-seasoned. Ick.

And then I tried to sleep at 10pm or so, but some annoying European kids were hanging out in the hallway being as loud as hell. I was sooo annoyed. Damn kids! I felt like such a cranky old woman. Complaining about people (honestly probably not much yonuger than me) having a few beers at 10pm. In my defense however, I DID have to get up at 3am!! I was in Cemoro to see Bromo--a big, active volcano which looked much more like it belonged on the moon than on Java. And everyone said the best time to see it was at sunrise, so sunrise it was. And Bromo was still an hour's Jeep ride away. And then a 12 km hike.

I finally got some sleep and got up a few hours later and faced the challenge of dressing. I had brought one light jacket with me from the states. However, after never using it in 2 months, AND after confirming that no place that I would be going would ever be lower than 70 degrees, I left it (along with my laptop and some of my other belongings) in Singapore (I'm going to pick them up before I fly out). However, I had failed to look up the temperature at the TOP of the volcano. Bromo was supposed to be 4 C that morning (around 39 degrees F). Damn it. I basically ended up wearing everything that I had in my pack -- two pairs of socks, zipoff cargo pants over jeans, over underwear. A tank top, a tee shirt, another tank top, arm warmers, my one, light long sleeved shirt, a bandana, and my sarong rolled up around my neck like a scarf. =p. While I was not toasty warm, the get-up worked surprisingly well. I didn't freeze at all (the hike helped).

First I went to a look out spot for views of the sunrise over the mountains. Then I returned to the base to hike to the top of the crator. The views, sunrise, hike and the volcano were all spectatular, if a bit too crowded for my taste. But it was packed for good reason. Bromo is one of the most unreal things I have ever seen. If I blocked out the other backpackers, I could just about imagine dinosaurs roaming around the mountains, hills and volcanos of Gunung Bromo.

Covered in about 12 layers of dirt and dust and smelling like surphur, I got back to my hotel, showered and headed out to Surabaya. Or at least I tried to. Although I booked an onward bus to Surabaya that was supposed to drop me off at my next hostel, it seems there was some confusion, and/or they forgot about me and/or they ripped me off again (all of which happens when you're a little girl traveling solo and there's lots of groups of tourists clamoring much louder than me). Anyway, I ended up waiting for an hour for a bus that didn't come, and when I complained they put me on a public bus. Which was well and good except for it dropped me off at the public bus station 10 km from Surabaya with no ATMs or banks or money exchangers and I still had no money for a taxi (and hadn't had a proper meal in over a day). I was just about to get up the gumption to start walking into town, when one of the security guards took pity on me and came over and (after some explanation) helped me find the public buses to downtown. But even then, I didn't have enough money to go on the nicer bus (which cost $4000 Rupiah..or about 50 cents). However, after going through my pockets, purse, and pack, I was able to come up with $2500 Rupiah of coins--enough to get me onto the cheap bus. A rusty clunking thing that looked like it might have made an ok school bus about 30 years ago. But it worked and I had no choice.

In fact, once I was settled in, I had a great time. There was no AC, but it wasn't as hot today as it's been some other days. And yes it took over an hour to go the 10km but it was an interesting ride -- people playing music for money, and selling things. And I got to meet some of the locals who were quite entertained that I ended up on their bus. And if I still had to walk 4 or 5 blocks to find a hostel, at least I found one. And at least they had an empty room.

I have since checked in (promising to pay them tomorrow), FINALLY got to a money exchanger, FINALLY ate food (ok, it was KFC, but it was the closest thing, and I was ravenous). Am now pretending to be a guest at the Sharaton in order to use their internet (couldn't find a cafe).

All and all, I think my trip to Java was a huge success. Especially considering some close calls.

Tomorrow, Malaysia!

No Worries

Quick update in case the last post left anyone worried.

I have found a place to stay! Not only that, but I *LOVE* it. I may never come back. (just kidding, just kidding). The place is owned by an artist. He has a hostel, a restaurant and an art gallery. And I absolutely love his work. All three places are covered in it. I got the blue room. Muralled up in swirls and dolphins and sea turtles. His style is totally Dali meets tribal meets SE Asia and I'm in heaven. My room is really nice too. Normally I go for the diiiiirt cheapest. Which usually means shared bunks, no AC, and a gross, shared bathroom down the hall with a non flush toliet and cold shower. Here, since I had no choice, I have my own room, with a queen sized bed, AC and a private full bathroom. Granted the water was still cold, but who cares.

Good thing too. After I walked around the palace grounds for a few hours I was totally exhausted. Went back to the hostel in the afternoon and slept half the day. Feeling much better now.

I booked the room for 3 nights. I love Yogy and its in the heart of Java so it makes for good day trips. Then I'm doing a two day trek to Mt Bromo, then heading to Surabaya, from which I will fly to Malaysia.

It's going to be a busy week.

Java: More than a cup of joe

Bali was awesome. There are pictures on facebook and I will try to blog about it at some point. Perhaps when I'm back stateside.

I went back to Singapore for all of 3 days because I had to give my presentation on my research and attend the closing ceremony. Except I got back to Singapore and got really really sick. I don't know when I've felt so bad (figure skating regional championships when I was 14 is the only time that came close). So I missed all of it, and spent the whole time in bed. Finally went to the clinic worried that it might be Malaria, but the Doc said it was probably just a bad case of stomach flu. He ordered lots of rest and fluids. So what do I do? hop a flight back to Indonesia of course. I didn't mean to. Not exactly. See I already had a flight out for the next day, and I tried to cancel it, but after half a day on hold with Air Asia I got fed up and said screw it. So I threw my meager belongings into my backpack, turned in the keys to the apartment in Singapore where I've been living for the last two months, and taxied out to the airport.

I thought I was going to miss the flight for sure, but as it turned out it was running very late.

* * *
I stepped out into Jakarta and knew that I couldn't deal with it. The plane was inexplicably an hour and a half late. Then there was customs and visas and lines. Then there was the hike to the bus, all the while fending off taxi drivers hassling me. Then there was a storm. It poured. There was traffic. It took over an hour and a half to get from the airport to Jakarta. As I emerged from the bus to darkness, smog and pouring rain, cab drivers yelling at me to hire them, children yelling at me to let them hold umbrellas over my head for a fee, and men yelling at me because I was a woman, I decided I'd had my fill of the city. I ran across the street to the train station and bought a night train ticket into Yogyakarta.

My main desire for visiting Jakarta was the nightlife. It was supposed to have some of the best clubs in SE Asia. Huge techno powerhouses that opened thurday night and didn't close until monday morning (In my head, they look like the club in the Matrix II). But in my current condition, i could barely walk, and was definitely not going to be dancing the night away anyway. And while the rest of Jakarta seemed fascinating, it was not high on my list of things to see in my short time in Java. From the bus ride looked exactly like you would picture Jakarta would look: poor, dirty, crowded. skyscrapers and slums and card board shacks (think slum dog millionaire).

The train ride was ok. 8 hours. From 8pm to 4am. I paid for first class (still only $35 US) hoping to get a sleeping berth, but there were none. Still, it was air conditioned (freezing actually) and the chairs reclined a bit and I was able to sleep on and off. 3:30am came and I decided I'd better stay awake so that I didn't miss my stop. Around 4am, the train stopped. But no one got off. I looked around. No announcements were made. I was just about to get up, when the train started moving again. I decided it must not have been my stop. 30 minutes later, I decided it probably was. The next stop was Solo, I knew, which was about 45 minutes away from Yogy. I asked the man next to me, who confirmed my fears. Still, not the end of the world. Solo seemed cool and I could always get another train back to Yogy in the afternoon. around 5am we finally stopped. I got out at Solo. ...only to find out that it was in fact not Solo but Yogyakarta after all. Go figure.

I walked down to the backpackery center of town, down to a place I heard was good but the rooms were all booked for the night, and no one was leaving at 5 am. Still, they offered to let me sleep on the roof top. Which was really nice of them. Still a bit on the sick side, I really really wanted to lay down. I slept for a few hours, and went back downstairs. 8am but still no vacancies. I walked around to some other hostels. All booked. Maybe I should have looked at 4am. But what can you do. The first place said that I have dibbs if anyone checks out. In the meantime, I plan on exploring the city. Yogyakarta is the old-school-cultural center of Java. Full of markets and tuk tuks. They even still have a sultan! I'm going to visit the palace this afternoon. I figure if no beds open up, I can see if they'll let me sleep on the roof again. And if not, I can always take the train into solo and try my luck there.

Either way adventures are sure to be had!

Quick update and travel plans

Hey all.

Just wanted to let you know that yes, I am still alive. It's been a crazy couple of weeks. Will hopefully start posting again for real, but for now, a quick update:

Research: Going messy and stressful, but going, so it could be worse.

Camera: Finally got a new one, after much hassle.

Highlights of the last few weeks: Went to Bintan (island in Indonesia), Sentosa (island off of Singapore), done hours of karaoke, eaten lots of yummy things like black pepper crab, experienced the dance craze that is Mambo Jambo night at Zouk, saw remote-control-glow-in-the-dark kites, went to Night Fest, saw some friends from undergrad.

EAPSI: only one week left of the program! Still working on analyses and putting together my presentation.

Travel Plans: Here's my current itinerary, posted for prosperity, and so that if I disappear, at least someone will have some idea of which country I'm supposed to last have been in:

July 30th-Aug 4th = Bali, Indonesia

Aug 7th-13th = Java, Indonesia

Aug 13th- 14th = Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Aug 14th - 21st = Laos

Aug 21st- Aug 29th = Cambodia

Aug 29-Aug 31 = Singapore

So excited! So wish I had more time. So hope I make all my flights! =)

Catastrophe!

Ok, so perhaps catastrophe is a bit melodramatic, it's not like I have malaria (knock on wood) or that the borders to Singapore have shut down. But I am not happy about several turns of events in the last couple days.

This last weekend was awesome in many ways, but will be forever marred by the death of my camera. Ok, death is not technically correct. It didn't die. It was kidnapped. ...Actually, it may not have been kidnapped. In truth, I do not know what happened to it. Saturday at 4:30pm, I took 4 pictures of the outside of that National Museum of Singapore. Then, four hours later, I reached for my bag to take some exquisite photos of the night city scape of Singapore from the City Space bar on the 70th floor---photographs that would surely win me a Pulitzer prize in my near future...only to come to the startling realization that my camera was not in my bag. Actually, the realization came about 20 minutes later. The first 20 minutes I was ferociously in denial. Sorting through my bag over and over, emptying the contents, and marveling to myself how my bag was deceptively large to have hidden my camera so thoroughly, and how jealous Miss Poppins would be if she were to ever find out. Even after my bag was turned inside out, I was not convinced. I walked all the way back to the National Museum, talked them into letting me in, even though it was closed. Spoke with the front desk. With security. Checked the corners and the bathrooms.

I still don't know what happened. However, my camera is no longer with me. I blame it on the lack of sleep. And the stress. I *always* lose things when I am sleep deprived and stressed. And I was up until 6am the night before, and am stressed out of my head with research. I am partly mourning, and partly still in denial. The stages of grief take a while to cycle through. That camera was probably the most expensive thing I own. And easily my favorite. Traveling without a camera to document my experiences seems tragically hollow. Traveling solo does not intimate me. But traveling cameraless feels like traveling naked. Or traveling in a dream. With no one else to hold my hand and validate my experiences, I feel so much more alone. Cameras make great company. When I'm all alone I need a camera to witness my life. How else am I supposed to know it's real? How else am I supposed to hold my head up and PROVE that I have seen the world. Without silly, materialistic, tangible pictures, tales of adventure fall from the pedestal of reality into the throngs of mere claims. How different things would have been if Columbus or Ponce de Leon had cameras.

....Ugh. I need to snap out of melodrama mode. But in my defense, it has been much more than just the camera. My laptop hasn't been working, which is frustrating because I can't update the blog, or Skype home, or make travel plans, and I've had to put in LONG hours at the office to make up for not being able to take work home. My phone has been out for the last few days, largely because my pocket dialed some random number and drained my prepaid card. Research has been the biggest clusterf**k I've ever experienced. Set backs, miscommunications, lack of communication, invalid data, lack of funding and every nightmare I could imagine.

Oh, and because my latop hasn't been working, I hadn't downloaded my pictures in weeks, which means that along with, and so much more important than my wonderful camera, I have lost hundreds of memories of the last few weeks.

Ugh.

But today is Monday, and a new week, and to take the advice of Emerson: I have done what I could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in. I will forget them as soon as I can. Today is a new day, and I will *try* to begin it well and serenely, and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with my old nonsense.

Playing Hooky and Getting Eaten Alive

On Monday last week, I decided to play hooky (I always wanted to say that. People don't use that phrase nearly enough). I was waiting on a number of people to get back to me about my project, so I couldn't really do much at work, so I figured, why go?

Don't tell NSF.

Anyway, I decided to check out the Bird Park. It was nearby, and I'd heard it was cool.

I'm really not super into birds or zoos and the like, but I have to admit, it was really really cool. A lot of the habitats were either totally open (clipped wings, perhaps?) Or in really big atrium type things that you could walk through. Which made for some very up close sightings, and some really cool pictures.

The place was huge. Must have taken me 4 hours to walk around it, and I didn't spend all that much time at each place. In fact, I'm not convinced I saw all of it. There were lots of little trails and stuff to go down, and the whole place was really well groomed. Thus the "park" aspect I guess.

(random aside, so I was walking around by myself, so I asked someone to take this pic. Which she did, and then she asked me if she could take her picture with me. So I said sure, and then we had to find someone to take our pic. This could have been the beginning of a very strange and interesting snowball game (you find someone to take your picture, then find someone to take both of your pics, then find someone to take all 3 of your pics...I say we try this sometime)....anyway, her friend came and took our picture. I just thought it was funny. I suppose taking pictures of strangers is no more different than taking pictures of birds. I got asked for my picture a lot in China, but this is the first time it's happened here. I was kind of surprised, since Singapore is pretty darn diverse.

Anyway, back to the park. There were lots of crazy looking birds that I do not remember the names of...

And a rather cool waterfall. The park claims that it is the largest man made waterfall in the world. I've noticed that Singapore is rather big on being the biggest, the tallest, the newest, etc. I think they might have a complex. I guess that makes sense, since they are a tiny island trying to compete against huge western first world countries while being drowned in eastern 3rd world countries.

But my favorite part of the park was the lories. There was this huge atrium of lories that you could walk through, and they had a tree top walk thing, so that you could walk right among them. I got there right at feeding time.

They were not shy.

After the Bird Park, I hit up the Chinese Gardens. They are just a few Metro stops from my apartment, but I'd never checked them out before.

They were absolutely beautiful. I totally fell in love.

Yes. This is me being eaten alive by a bush-dragon. Yes I know I'm a dork. You would have done the same thing.
They did a really good job of making it look like China! Aw Asia, how I love thee!

Since I was feeling so Asian, and since I happened to be walking around in a dress and carrying a very Asian looking umbrella, I decided to try to take the most Asia-st picture ever:

How did I do? I think I got an A. Of course, it would have been more authentic if I had done FOB fingers ( "Fresh Off the Boat" fingers...aka the peace sign that all Asians feel the need to throw up in pictures) but I just couldn't make myself.

I walked around until the sun went down and my camera died. Again, totally in love with this place.

* * * * *

The following night, I got eaten alive a second time. This time by fish. One of the girls from our fellowship found a "Dr Fish" spa and really wanted to check it out, so off we went. For those of you who haven't heard of this, this is when you stick your feet in a pool of water and a bunch of fish come and eat off the dead skin from your feet. Yeah. It's very popular in Asia right now. Apparently some people tried bringing it to the USA but it didn't pass health codes. Go figure.

I am *VERY* ticklish on the bottom of my feet. I have kicked many a person who thought tickling them was a good idea. So I dragged said feet quite a bit when people wanted to do it.I was really kinda afraid I would automatically kick out and squish the fish. How awful would that be?!

But you know me, curiosity WILL kill the Cat, and so either the fish or I was bound to die, so I tried it anyway. (no fish were harmed in the making of this blog)

I squealed, and squeaked and giggled and shuddered until my eyes were pouring water and I could barely breathe. Everyone else got a kick out of my reaction. Maya asked how I got pedicures. I don't. I only got a few pictures, once I calmed down enough that I could take out my camera without worrying about dropping it. Happily, as far as I know, all the fish survived.

I'll try anything once. Not sure if I'll be trying Dr Fish again though. On a scale of relaxing I think it was somewhere between going to the dentist and getting a cavity search. And the results? Nothing different about my feet that I could notice. Besides perhaps being a little wrinkly.