Remember Tang?

Don't worry, it still exists and can be found in great abundance at the Doha, Qatar airport.

Which reminds me...  I'm on my way home for the holidays!  Yippee!

The blog will be on hold for a few weeks.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Time for a happy thought!

There's been an abundance of WTH posts lately.  Can you tell I'm oh-so-ready for a little holiday break back to the States?
Well, today I have a happy flowery post for you.

It seems that when (wealthy) Jakartans get married everyone who knows them sends what I call a flower board.  I haven't had the chance to ask an Indonesian about this yet, so I really don't have much info for you. Other than the fact that whenever there is a wedding at the Kempinksi, the sidewalks are completely filled with colorful styrofoam boards that say "Happy Wedding" in flowers.  Which makes my morning walk to work exponentially more scenic, fragrant, and pleasant than usual.

There will be hundreds of these when setup is complete.
Happy Wedding!

Eat This: Boxed Lunches

At every offsite meeting, and I mean EVERY offsite meeting, we are presented with boxed lunches.  Even if it is not lunch time. We will always receive some kind of box filled with supposedly edible items.

I didn't mind this so much in the beginning, before I understood the evil that Indonesian food can hold, particularly since many of my meetings were in large group settings where no one would notice if I didn't consume every last little nugget of goodness.

However, things got progressively worse.  I learned just what a box of ill-prepared room temperature meat could do to a person. Furthermore, I started having smaller, more intimate meetings.  Where there might only be four or five of us at the table.  And I couldn't just not eat.  I couldn't be the asshole American who defies protocol and manners and refuses to eat the food that has been generously provided.

Thus began my intense fear and loathing of the boxed lunch. A daily peril of expat life in Jakarta.

I do not return the love, nasty boxed lunch.

WTH: Winter Woolies

The upside of being stuck in bed for a month with gastrointestinal affliction is weight loss.  I may have been too weak to walk the equivalent of 2 blocks to my office, but I suddenly looked awesome in a bikini.  The downside is that suddenly none of my pants fit.  Happily, even once I started feeling healthy again, a good bit of weight stayed off, which meant I needed to go shopping. It's hot here. Hot as in 80s or 90s every day, so I wanted some new lightweight pants, possibly capris, you know, pants that you wear in summer.

Unfortunately, all of the fancy globalized shopping malls that surround me in this upscale commercial corner of Jakarta happen to think it is winter.  Every store is filled with winter items.  Heavy, insufferable fabrics for this climate.  Long sleeves. Long legs. Layers. Thick denim. Wool. Down.  Whatever is on display at Banana Republic in blustery cold NY or London right now is on display here as well.  I don't understand it.  Who the hell buys this?

Obviously some Jakartans.  They must have an entirely different system of body temperature regulation. I actually see people walking around outside with winter clothes on.  It's the rainy season, people.  It's not going to snow. I still need air conditioning. It's like, maybe 5 degrees cooler than the rest of the sweltering year.  It is impossible (at least for me) to wear any of this in this environment.  Yet every single store has out their winter displays.

Every.single.store.

Break out your puffies! It's only 87 today!

Eat This: Another New Theme

Yesterday's post inspired the creation of an entirely new theme, "Eat This", which has been a long time coming.

Have you ever encountered an Indonesian restaurant in the States?  I challenge you to find one.  Even in DC.  I have it on good authority from an Indonesia who recently returned- There is not a single Indonesian restaurant in DC.  Why? Well, I won't pretend to be an authority on market forces.  But I suspect just perhaps that it might have something to do with the extent to which those of us who are not Indonesian find Indonesian food delightful.

Setting aside issues of taste, texture, and appearance, which I must admit are not aways completely unbearable, I have developed, thanks to getting sick on countless occasions during my first few months here,  an intense fear of food in Indonesia.   Am I just a paranoid hypochondriac?  Authorities say no.

Here's a few quotes:
Lonely Planet: "Never drink tap water." "Avoid ice." "Avoid fresh juices."
Everyday Indonesian: "Intermittent bouts of indigestion or mild diarrhea are to be expected... More serious, however, are intestinal parasites that can be picked up from food and utensils that are not hygienically handled." "Avoid all uncooked foods, including salads and garnishes."
Passport Health: "Always choose food that has been thoroughly cooked and is served hot, since heat destroys most contaminating bacteria." "Avoid raw foods, shellfish, pre-peeled fruit, and salad."
My new Indonesian doctor: "Here, take these four different types of pills and call me if your symptoms don't improve."

So, there you have it.  Now that you have a better understanding of the ominous nature of  sustenance for me here,   I will begin sharing some of the many culinary delights I encounter along the way.

I had the pleasure of enjoying this at a recent meeting.
Gado Gado, an Indonesian favorite.
Luke warm chunky brown sauce over raw vegetables.
Thank you!  Just what my intestines were craving!

WTH: Canned Sweat

Nothing seems more refreshing after a long, hard, hot, sweaty workout than a nice cold can of SWEAT! Wait, what??? Gross!

This stuff is everywhere.  It's like the Gatorade of Indonesia.  I can't entirely fault Indonesia, however, as apparently Japanese are the creators and ingenious marketers of this thirst quenching delight.

Refreshing!

WTH: Plastic Wrapped Chairs

Shortly after I arrived, I attended a meeting at another office and was surprised to see the room filled with office chairs covered in plastic, as though they had just been taken out of the box.  It seemed a little odd that we were sitting in them, since normally one would remove the plastic on something before initial use.

Two weeks later I returned and the chairs were still wrapped in plastic.  I have since been to four different places where I have observed office chairs with the plastic still on.  Are these people immune to swamp ass??

After my initial torturous month here in a moldy long-stay hotel, I finally moved into a real apartment.  The landlord informed me he'd be providing me with new chairs for my balcony.  Yay. I came home to find two hard plastic patio chairs....plastic patio chairs... wrapped in plastic.  Furthermore, each piece of the chair - legs, seat, back, feet - had been wrapped individually in plastic. Before assembly.  So it was nearly impossible to cut out the plastic in the seams and joints of the legs and seat.
Why do you need to wrap a plastic chair in plastic???

Want to sit in this for 8 hours?

Partially deplastified balcony chair.
I ran out of patience by the time I got to this leg.

WTH: A New Theme

I decided if I am going to keep this blogging thing up, I need to have a series of themes.

The first is WTH. In case you lead a sheltered life, it stands for "What The Hell"or "What the Heck" if you are more easily offended.

Before I started this blog I toyed briefly with creating a blog entitled "WTF Jakarta?!" to document all of my frustrations and culturally ignorant observations.  However, I quickly realized this posed the problem of my having to explain what "WTF" meant to my most loyal readers. (Hi Mom, Dad, Grandma) Plus, such a narrow focus would deprive you of seeing all my fantastic beach getaway pics. We couldn't have that.

So, all my frustrations and culturally ignorant observations will now be coming to you here in the form of WTH posts. I hope you enjoy.

An incomplete theory on Jakarta's eyes

As the memories of the four weeks of hell that was Typhoid Fever began to fade along with the motivation and patience to cook dull tasteless food for one, I started venturing out to more eateries again.  Namely two pizza/pasta places in the mall adjoining my office building.  And I quickly discovered that the bar phenomenon was not a unique occurrence.  The second time I went to both of these new places, my waitress remembered my name.  And the third time, my order.  I know you probably aren't believing this, because if it hadn't happened to me, I'd probably be calling b.s. myself.  But, I have theorized, that along with ALWAYS reciting your order immediately after writing down your order, starting with a polite, "May I repeat your order", restaurant staff here must be trained to recall names as part of the server duty.  When they return my credit card and receipt, they always say "Thank you Miss Bethany*." This doesn't explain how exactly they remember the names of the probably hundreds of people they encounter each day.  But I sleep a little better at night thinking that it's all just part of how things are supposed to work here, and I'm no different than any other diner.

Of course, that doesn't explain the sudden appearance of this sign, in English, outside the entrance of my office building right after I went through a rather traumatic break-up with my now ex-boyfriend.  

Random coincidence?  

Or is Jakarta playing games with me?  

Not so sure. 

* See A Note on Aliases and Blurry Pics

Jakarta has eyes.. and a really good memory

I'd been told that you have no secrets and no privacy in Indonesia.  That somehow, everybody will know every detail about you.  I don't really have any deep dark secrets, so this didn't trouble me much.  If the office staff somehow manage, for whatever unknown reason, to find out and chat about where I went to dinner on Saturday, fine by me. Don't care.

I wasn't expecting random strangers to observe my every habit, however.  

About a month or so after arrival, CT and I decided to check out a local happy hour within treacherous walking distance from the office.  We enjoyed one or two delicious half-priced cocktails, then decided to brave the empty pool table, even though neither of us have the skillz.  A few minutes later two guys came up and asked if they could join, probably realizing that since neither CT or I have any talent, playing with us would largely be like playing by themselves.  

And so it went. I teamed up with the Indonesian who worked with expat companies doing something, and CT teamed up with his buddy, a quiet expat who worked for a development org. I thought they might be a couple of some sorts, but I wasn't sure. We chatted a slight bit, but as all of us had been drinking quite a bit the conversation did not delve too deep. We mostly just laughed at CT's and my lack of talent, finishing 2 rounds of pool before calling it a night.  

A week later CT and I headed back, this time for dinner.  As we were walking up the stairs behind the waitress, she turned and asked if Tim* would be joining us.  "Tim?", I asked.  "I don't know a Tim." I couldn't quite understand what all she was saying, but at one point I made out "boyfriend".  "No, sorry, I don't have a boyfriend," I replied.  Then she started gesturing wildly and CT and I finally figured out she was talking about us playing pool last week. "Oh, the tall guy?  No, I don't really know him. But thanks for reminding me his name."

Then another waitress came to give us our menus and said "Hello Bethany*. No Tim?" 

She remembered my name too?? 

As bizarre as all this was, the place has amazingly good and cheap cocktails by Jakarta standards, so since there's nothing else to do, CT and I decided to make a weekly habit of it.  The next time we just hit the bar.  "Hello Bethany. Caipiroska and Mojito?"  Huh???  The waitress had remembered our drinks from two weeks prior.  We'd each had three.  8, maybe that's worth remembering. But 3? 

Oh well...  Odd and little creepy, yes. However, the truth is, it's nice to be remembered and to be able to greet people by name.  After repeated attempts, our waitress finally learned how to pronounce CT's name, so I wasn't the only one in the spotlight.  This made the weirdness of it all decidedly more tolerable. She also seemed to finally accept the fact we had no established relationship with Tim and Aron. We jotted down the waitresses' names too, so we could hold up our end of the greetings the next time we returned. 

And so the friendly exchange began.  Since everyone there was so friendly and the drinks so refreshing, we made the conscious decision to embrace this phenomenon and consider this our own quirky Jakarta version of Cheers.  We had no friends in Jakarta, really, but when we walked into this bar each week, everyone knew our name. And our most recently ordered beverage. And the last people with whom we conversed. 

* See A Note on Aliases and Blurry Pics

In case you are wondering what happened with Tim and Aron, we ran into them several more times and briefly became drinking buddies. Until Aron started acting rather psychotic over a girl he had only extremely briefly dated. And then suddenly became very flirtatious with me and texted me to go out for coffee. Just me, not me and CT and Tim, and so I clarified I was happy to hang out but wasn't interested in any kind of dating. To which he inevitably replied, "We can't plan romantic intentions. We can't plan love, Bethany."

Hmm. Well, uh, actually, I just remembered I'm kind of busy tomorrow....

Giving thanks in Thailand: Phuket and Ko Phi Phi

Of all the U.S. holidays, I'm probably most thankful for Thanksgiving.  It always means at least a four day weekend to travel and/or enjoy time with good friends and family. It's a brilliant beacon of light at the end of my absolute least favorite month of the year. 

November starts the rainy season in Indonesia, meaning it's gloomy and wet much of the time.  I don't mind it when I'm stuck in the office all day, but I'm already a bit tired of it dampening my weekends. So, when CT and I sat down to figure out where to plan our last minute turkey day getaway, we explored four priority questions:

-Where in Southeast Asia is it currently not the rainy season?

-Where are there still cheap flights available?

-Where can we arrive, preferably non-stop, in less than 5 hours? 

-How many extra days will it be possible to take off in addition to the holiday?

All signs quickly pointed to a 6 day trip to Phuket, in the south of Thailand.

While in flight I read my Lonely Planet and made a list of desirable activities:

-island hopping

-snorkeling

-swimming in blue water where I can see my toes

-surfing if conditions allowed, which they did not

-parasailing

-kiteboarding

-hiking

-if the weather turns bad: cooking class and yoga (luckily the weather was gorgeous the entire time)


CT's sister informed us that the Amazing Race had also just been here, but they didn't do any challenges that we felt the need to repeat for the sake of our own adventures.  Apparently they built some structure around coral and lined up the zillions of chairs and umbrellas on the beach.  We decided going snorkeling and lounging in the aforementioned chairs was good enough.

We didn't book any hotels in advance, knowing we might want to limit our time in Phuket in favor of heading to the Ko Phi Phi area, a quieter but just as renowned set of islands 45 minutes away by boat.  Phuket had all the watersport activities, but sounded an awful lot like Bali's Kuta (overrun, overdeveloped, less beautiful than reputed, and all about the intense nightlife).  Ko Phi Phi seemed like it would be much more peaceful and  beautiful and would have much better snorkeling and beach areas to explore.  We were right on.   

Here's some of the more memorable moments:

Me parasailing at Patong Beach, Phuket 

I'm the tiny dot 

 Best bar idea I've ever seen! Roaming VW bus bar.

 Phuket nightlife.  This is a man, by the way.

My intro to kiteboarding lesson.  Apparently it is key to learn to manage the kite before adding the board.

 Ko Phi Phi definitely deserves its paradise reputation

 Sunset over Ko Phi Phi after hiking to the lookout point

 You are never too old for a beach bucket! They sell these buckets everywhere in Ko Phi Phi.  Each is filled with some kind of bottle of liquor, a mixer or two, and a handful of straws.  Each evening, people walk around drinking out of them as they explore, chill on the beach, or party in a beachside bar...

... and/or get drunk tatoos. 
I personally opted for my own serving of rum in fresh squeezed mango juice. (Yum!) And no ink.

 We spent an entire day snorkeling and exploring different beaches and islands in the Ko Phi Phi area. Travel by longtail boat of course. 

Swimming with the fishies.  

 Beach front fire-twirlers

One of the places we stayed  

 Not a bad way to spend the holiday 

Monkey Island

 Getting closer to the inhabitants of Money Island than I should.  I was not the first to attempt this pose. 

Beer, pringles, and sunset over Maya Bay, where "The Beach" with Leonardo DiCaprio was filmed.

Sunset near Ko Phi Phi

Life is about the journey, not the destination 
— The internet seems confused as to who actually said this, but it’s this basic idea that inspired the name of my blog. 

Serendipity in Singapore

Living in Jakarta is not easy.  It's chaotic, noisy, dirty, smelly, extraordinarily polluted, and near impossible to navigate thanks to poor planning, ever increasing congestion, and roads that are in a constant state of snarled gridlock.  There's no greenspace. Food-borne illness lurks everywhere. Outdoor recreation is virtually non-existent.  Walking and biking anywhere is virtually impossible. Work is demanding. There is a dearth of social outlets if you are not into all-night clubbing. And I'm not.

Needless to say, I am happy to have any opportunity or excuse to leave.  And, before you pass judgment, I'm not alone.  It seems that most Jakartans with the means take every opportunity to vacate their beloved city too- here's an example: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/07/16/the-madness-bandung’s-traffic-weekends.html 

I was, therefore, extremely happy when it came time to renew my visa.  This essentially meant that work had to pay for me to leave the country for a few days.  And Singapore happens to be the closest and easiest renewal destination.  
Having now been there, I can honestly say I wouldn't typically go out of my way to go to Singapore.  It doesn't seem to be favored for any real particular charm, originality, appearance, or culture. It's beauty, in my opinion, is that it is a beacon of cleanliness, modernity, and order amidst, well,... the rest of Southeast Asia.  It is where you come when you are temporarily living elsewhere in the region and need to recoup and enjoy all the amenities of home.  It is a tree-lined breath of much-less-polluted fresh air.

CT was in the same boat visa-wise, so we made the trip together. Due to work obligations, we couldn't leave until the Wednesday before our visas expired.  We arrived Wednesday afternoon, did some work, and then headed out on the waterfront for some yummy Mexican food with very well-made Margaritas.  It was a true pleasure hopping on the MRT and arriving at our destination on foot with ease only a few minutes later. 

The next morning we headed to the embassy to drop off our passports, waited around for a small eternity, and were greeted with a brilliant stroke of luck.  Our visas would not be ready by Friday as we had anticipated.  We could not pick them up until Monday.  Until then, we were stuck in Singapore. On work's dime.  A whole weekend to explore and have fun, and, thinking ahead, one less day in Jakarta the following week.  Walking between those banyan trees in Yogya a week or so earlier had worked.  Luck was on our side.

While we did spend the rest of Thursday day, Friday day, and a good chunk of Monday telecommuting from our hotel rooms, there was plenty of time left for recreation and relaxation. 

Thursday we celebrated with Singapore Slings at the world-famous home of the original Singapore Sling, Raffles Hotel Long Bar. 

Friday we visited the world's largest (not to be confused with tallest) fountain.  There's a mini fountain inside, so when the larger part is turned off, as it is intermittently, visitors can circle it 3 times for good luck.  But you must keep your right hand in it the entire time!  The fountain circling left me feeling very refreshed and energized and I decided I definitely need to take advantage of any other good luck rituals I come across in my travels. It can't hurt. 

Saturday we attempted a hike through suburban rainforest, but before we got to the good part we were turned back by torrential downpour and trail closure.  Still, it was great to be walking around out in the sun and fresh air while it lasted.  When attempting to find an initial section of the trail we got turned around in the middle of a college campus that was not well mapped. We ran into a super nice student who spoke perfect North American English thanks to his Canadian mum.  We chatted for a bit and he ended up giving us a lift back to the area where we were supposed to be. Although we felt a little stupid for having gotten so turned around, pleasant encounters with total strangers always contribute to the sense of having had a great day.  

Saturday night we ventured out again for a delicious steak dinner and some meandering.  One of the highlights was stumbling upon exhibits from the Elephant Parade, the "world's largest open air exhibition in conservation of the Asian elephant". This was one of my favorites: 

On Sunday, our last free day to explore, we ventured over to Sentosa via cable car.  It was odd to take a cable car without any snow beneath me or skis in hand, but a pleasant way to take in the scenery all the same. This still-in-development theme-park-like play ground has surely contributed to Singapore's reputation as "Disneyland with the Death Penalty".

We headed over here in search of "Asia's most extreme zipline", which takes you from jungle canopy to white sand beach, and which of course happened to be featured on the Amazing Race.   Unfortunately we learned upon arrival that the zipline had been "closed until further notice".  A little Googling led me to believe it might have had something to do with this, less than 2 months earlier: http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_714142.html.  Bummer.  

This left us with some extra free time to find other adventures, which we luckily found without difficulty. The absolute highlight of the day, and probably the entire trip, was happening upon the new "indoor skydiving" venue.  I had never heard of such a thing before, but when it started to pour down rain outside we decided to give it a try.  SO. MUCH. FUN.    Unlike anything I've ever before experienced, considering that real skydiving has never much appealed to me. Absurdly expensive, but I would definitely try it again.  

An excessive amount of rain foiled our weekend plans to ride the Singapore Flyer, the world's largest ferris wheel that also happened to be featured on the Amazing Race....but we will no doubt be back.  

The Amazing (non)Race: First stop, Yogyakarta

Considering that there are only two of us that came over here from the home office aside from the boss, and that we’ve been too busy working, sick, dissuaded by Jakarta’s impossible traffic jams, and/or too sleep-deprived to get out and make friends, I’ve come to spend a good deal of time with my co-worker. I’ll refer to her as CT (Co-worker / Travel companion - because I'm sooo clever) to keep her true identity hidden.


CT loves the show The Amazing Race. She actually auditioned to be on it with her sister, and based on everything I’ve since learned about the two of them and the show, I frankly can’t understand why they didn’t make it. I had never seen the show until the evils of Indonesian food-borne illness struck me down. Then, to help pass the time between bathroom breaks and sleep sessions, I downloaded and watched an entire season. Thanks to that valuable time investment and her many anecdotes, I’ve quickly gotten up to speed on what it’s all about. In case you’re not familiar, Wiki can help:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Amazing_Race

By November I was finally starting to feel human again. We’d been here nearly two months and hadn’t traveled anywhere yet, thanks to the aforementioned reasons that also prevented us from making any friends.  When we realized on a Thursday that the following Monday was an Indonesian holiday, we wasted no time requesting off the Friday in between. We had no idea where to go, but since we hadn’t been anywhere yet, choices were abundant. It just so happened that many people had mentioned to us that Yogyakarta was worth visiting, it is on Java (same island as Jakarta) so it’d be quick and easy to get to, AND, most importantly, the current season of Amazing Race had JUST been there. 

CT's sister is also a huge Amazing Race fan, and fortunately for us, seems plenty willing to look up Amazing Race facts and text us clues and travel tips at all hours of the day and night.  We don't get the Amazing Race in our budget apartments cable lineups, so we've relied on her more than a few times to help guide our last minute travel endeavors.

Following are the main highlights of the Yogya trip:

To get to Yogya, we took the 8-hour train trip rather than a short
 flight in order to view the scenery, which we'd
been told was well worthwhile. 
It was lovely, however it poured the entire time.
3-4 hours of this probably would have been sufficient. 

We walked around. A rare and wonderful treat.
You can't really just walk around in downtown
Jakarta, unless you count inside a shopping mall.
We came across some well-painted and idle
becaks so I hopped in for a quick pic.

Spent time at Taman Sari instead of the main Kraton (palace), 

which was closed for the holiday by the time we found it.  

I really don't mind sometimes not reaching the intended

 destination if the rest of the trip itself is fun.  This place was 

interesting enough in that this was the Sultan's pleasure 

palace, filled with pools and waterways for him and his
harem to enjoy separate from the main palace.

Walked blind-folded between the two large banyan trees
in the square south of the palace, as it is supposed to bring
good luck.  We didn't have real blindfolds to work with so 
we had to get creative and take turns tying  CT's bag
 around our heads.

Visited Prambanan temples, the largest hindu temple
complex on Java, and an UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Visited Borobudur, an enormous Buddhist monument
that is Indonesia's most popular tourist attraction,
an UNESCO World Heritage Site, AND a recent stop
on the Amazing Race. CT's sister texted us the AR task there
(counting different types of Buddhas), but due to some
construction and confusion, we were unable to complete
the mission.  Enjoyed exploring and climbing to the top
 all the same.

* NOTE: I've decided to anonymize myself by slightly smudging all pics of me on this publicly accessible blog, in case I decide to write while intoxicated and/or otherwise say things that may be used against me in the future. If you want to see my smiling face untouched, log into my password protected Smugmug account, where I'll eventually have a much larger collection of pics from all my Indo adventures.

The real highlight of this trip, however, was visiting Jomblang Caves. We chose this destination for the simple fact that the Amazing Race stopped here. Unlike many of their stops, this is not at all something that is on the beaten tourist track. It’s not in guidebooks, local travel shops and agencies are unfamiliar with it, and you can’t find tour guides on the internet who run trips here. I suspect this will rapidly change now that it has been featured on international television, however in the meantime it created a perfect challenge. 


Luckily we met two very friendly and helpful young women in the small travel agency next to our hotel who made it their mission to help us. It just so happened that, despite this being a heavily Muslim country, these two were Mormon converts and had sponsors in Utah who’d paid for some very effective English language courses. The girls called around until they found someone familiar with the particular caves we sought, and eventually got in touch with some guys from a caving club nearby there. They negotiated price and details, and since it was a 1.5 hour drive from Yogya and the cavers didn’t speak English, the girls drove us there, and one of them joined us on our trip into the caves.

I'm pretty sure the gear and techniques we used to rappel down and ascend back up will kill someone at some point if this venture continues.  Luckily we were told the place had been recently purchased by an investor who plans to set up a formal guiding service. In the meantime, our makeshift guides put CT in her harness (regular climbing harness), and didn’t even bother to double back the buckles. Although they used a multitude of anchors, several were of frayed webbing tied with granny knots. CT had no previous climbing experience, and I’m not sure how exactly she would have made it through with the non-English speaking “guides”, who clearly had no experience actually working as guides, if I didn’t chime in and provide some explanations.  However, we hadn’t come all this way to not actually make it down into the Amazing Race caves, so I made a few adjustments here and there and we forged ahead. My pictures do not do it justice, but it was absolutely fantastic. And pretty sweet to know that we were among the first Yogya tourists to venture there. 

Since it happened to be the Eid al-Adha holiday, we also had the unique pleasure of watching many cattle and goats being gathered, slaughtered, and butchered in public places in the middle of the city and many villages we drove through along the way.  Unlike our Thanksgiving, where we stuff ourselves silly but are perfectly happy to get the dead bird from a store, the actual act of slaughtering (sacrifice) is key to this particular observation.

Before we departed for our day of caving, the travel agency girls relayed to us that it would be about 2 hours plus travel time. It ended up being over 10.  When we were in Yogya proper, we never actually made it into the Kraton. When we were on our way to Prambanan, our taxi broke down and we had to get out and walk the rest of the way. All things that probably would have eliminated us on the real Amazing Race. So I’m very happy to just be on our own little un-timed pretend version. One of the best aspects of travel is often figuring out how to get places, not knowing who you might meet, not knowing at all what to expect along the way or once you get there, and being able to relax and enjoy it.  But when you finally get there, and you’re like “okay, now what?”, it’s great to be traveling with someone whose sister will jump on the internet and text you some kind of crazy challenge to complete. A bit absurd, perhaps. But I foresee a few more Amazing Race-themed excursions in our future…

The beginning of a project I've been putting off

So, yes, work has sent me to Indonesia for what will probably be a year.  And now I’m starting this blog to capture and share my experience.  Not so much the work part, since that can be grueling and chaotic and consuming and I spend more than enough time on that already as it is.  The rest of my time.  The adventures, musings, and scenes that occur along the way.

I’ve been here two and a half months already.  So I should quickly recap what happened before I got around to starting this….

• Arrive
• Crazy, frantic, demanding work mode- do nothing but work, work, work, sleep in little fitful bits, and occasionally eat. Wonder what the heck I got myself into.
• Despite non-stop work, become poignantly aware that Jakarta, where I am based, is NOTHING like the tropical Bali-themed Indonesian paradise you may have conjured in your head. 
• Work trip to Thailand. Wish the office was there instead, like it was originally supposed to be.  The food is delicious. They have the clean and efficient sky train. You can actually walk around.  
• Get Typhoid Fever, lay in bed and be miserable for 2 weeks, function in weakling zombie mode for 2 more weeks
• Go through break up with boyfriend of nearly 3 years 
• Can life get any shittier?!?!?!

    Deep breath…  Focus on the highlights….

• Finally start to get healthy and eat and function like a normal human
• Daily carpe diem mantras. I’m making lemonade, bitches!
• Spontaneous trip to Yogyakarta (blog entry forthcoming)
• Already time to renew my visa in Singapore. Ya-hoo! (blog entry forthcoming)
• Thanksgiving / some kind of Indonesia holiday. Yippee! Fly to Phuket / Ko Phi Phi (blog entry forthcoming)
• Finally sit down and start my blog