SAMBAL-HOT STUFF!

My first post since arriving in JAWAAAA... the most populated island in Indonesia, home to it's stinkingly massive and bustling capital Jakarta where in 2008 I gawped at the flyovers that were ten lanes wide.

I stepped off the plane excited to see Andreas, my friend, but first was greeted by the distinctive smell of Indonesia first. mmmm...cloves! oh how romantic! these exotic islands that have so much history in trading in this wonderful spice...ahhh oh how i love indonesia! and then i realized that what i could actually smell was Kretek cigarettes. coz everywhere in Indonesia people smoke; airports, buses, trains, on motorcycles (my absolute favourite thing here. motorcycle+indonesia=one awesome ride)
So really indonesia smells sweet and delicious because their ciggies smell and taste sweet and delicious.  This is a nation with a real sweet tooth, selling glorious donuts and other yummies on every corner and the often used coconut in their cuisine.

So, there is a lot to tell, and to summarise I visited a drive in volcano, my friends family in Bogor, and I am currently in Jogjakarta.  I will give more detailed personal and factual accounts when I have some more time, with photos to accompany as well.

Muchos love my friends!

xxx

p.s this is Sambal, and by 'eck it is delicious! gives Tobasco a run for it's money :-)

will bring some back for you pops.

Eyes look your last, Leila, pack your bags

So I now do not have so much to do.  I know that this is a travel blog and thus I should possibly wait to actually travel before I start blogging, but it seems that there are many folk like myself who are about to embark on this kind of adventure.  I have been asked questions and for help, which is loverly but since all this is new to me there isn't a lot I can say except how I am doing it.  This usually involves my blackboard To Do List ritual; see below!

Perhaps these posts may help some like-minded folk who are not quite sure where to start-alternatively, should anyone have tips for me please let me know! I would love to hear them.  And so now I have today and tommorrow to tie loose ends, I then visit with the lovely Ben my favourite valley in the world at my hearts home in Wales:

http://www.spirithorse.co.uk/village.html







Here we will dance to drums and the accordion, fiddle and voice in a large yurt as we celebrate all that is beautiful.  I will also listen to many stories, perhaps tell a few and assist my inspiring friend Fiona in the childrens circle, where children have open ears, hearts and minds.  I will shit in a hole in the ground and thank God for the splendid view over the valley and the talkative sheep who seem fond of keeping me company, praising life.
But, the following are the final preps to be done in the week upto lift off!

All that is left…and then bon voyage!

• Buy Malaria tablets
• A final Vaccination and the filling in of a vaccination booklet
• Manage my casheesh
• Booking internal flights
• Travel insurance
• A few last purchases
• A sketchy Itinerary and list of possible accommodations/hints to help me find my feet

And that, is all folks!

Gastronomic delights that await are...

OH YUM.  I will most definitely do some gastro posts!

The Fearless Abu

Is a nickname coined by a good friend of mine Neil, and he calls it me as he believes that I am Fearless.
Now, should we look at the previous post we may find that this does not appear to be true; fear was certainly present-I was VISIBLY SHAKING!


ZACH HILL - GREEN BRICKS from A2 B2 on Vimeo.


The name was given to me not due to a lack of fear, rather my ability to stand tall, with shaking legs and knocking knees, wide-eyed and teary, chin up and naff jokes at the ready, eyeing up Fear as it eyes up me.
We stand there, Fear and I, sussing one another out, and ach! he seems GIGANTIC! (I am small by ladies standards-see image of me and my dear friend Jilders)

Except reallyl he is  not so gigantic and it is more like the inflated shadow of some tiny monstrous thing instead. See image below.



And at first I do have sweat tearing down my sizeable forehead and I will either yelp or be momentarily frozen, but once that is over with I find DETERMINATION and then on this trusty steed I do not let fear stand in my way!

I discovered Determination as I did a Go Ape in February-I had the common height phobia.  Phobia has now shrunk considerably :-)




Unfortunately there is no video of yours truly but you get the idea-it is an awesome day out.
Previous to this I did not know what has now become My Mantra:

"My determination is always stronger than my fear"

I like Shrigley.


ciao for now, catch you closer to the time!

22 days to go! excitement turns to panic! panic turns to nerves...

It is now officially a countdown to when I go away-and I am trying to keep myself organised which should be easy as:
1. I am not working and have all day
2. I have spent a lot of time researching
The thing is, the closer it is getting the less organised I am-little things seem to be taking ages and I am finding myself getting awfully confused and when I feel overwhelmed I end up opening my eyes as wide as they can go, not blinking, eyebrows raised in an attractive wrinkling of the forehead fashion and I do not move from the spot for some time...I just sit and stare.  This may look peaceful from the outside but from the inside it is not peaceful at all, on the inside I am slowly getting more and more frustrated and I can feel the synaptic connections imploding into a "WHY AM I NOT MOVING TIME IS RUNNING OUT AND I HAVE STUFF TO DO WHAT DO I NEED TO DO OH MY GOD I DON'T KNOW IF I AM PREPARED ENOUGH" disaster zone and then it seems the only thing I am capable of doing is stuffing my face...

Perhaps because I am not at work and thus do not have a rigid time structure, and because I am spending too long thinking about it all because I have little else to think about, could be the reason I am sinking into pre-travel-inertia.  And I do wonder if this is a normal part of the traveller process, to get so excited and then to start wondering if you even want to go at all!  On the one hand people do it all the time and have incredible stories to tell and have an amazing trip of exploration and discovery, and it is not often you hear of these types of trips going wrong, and then on the other the more people I talk to the more it seems that not many people would actually do it, go to the other side of the world on their own for 4 months.  My close friend Ruth did it with her husband, which is nice and cozy and should they decide it isn't so great after all then they at least have one another to cling onto, as they huddle in an unfamiliar place, shutting their eyes and hoping all the un-english food and markets will go away...I instead will cling onto myself, my favourite books, and a little golden Buddha a nice Nun gave to me as a gift.   Now I know for a fact at least that I will enjoy the food and the markets, as I always love those things.  That I will enjoy spending time in Yogya with my friends and that once I find my feet in Bali that I will enjoy this time too.
However as someone who really doesn't like cities and can get lost in Halifax (small town where I grew up) I am somewhat nervy about Singapore, Bangkok, Malaysia and Thailand.  It is quite obvious that I am nervous of the places that I have not been to yet-though I know one thing, I really don't like Jakarta.  IT IS SIMPLY TOO BIG.  And thats a general rule for me anyway, I do not like places that are too big.  I like Amsterdam, which is easy to explore on foot and a city where you can cross one side to the other in approximately two hours.  Instead I am going to places where Megacities are the norm and where I walked for 40minutes in Yogya to find that I was still on the same street.  Thank God for Becak.



Okay, it is time for this Inertia to stop.  And now, with still half of the day left to be productive I will do some online banking, buy Malaria tablets, and a few online meds, check my travel items and pack my bag to get an indication of how much to take and the weight, and possibly nip into town.

But first, the stuffing of ones face :-)

Ta for listening!

LISTS LISTS LISTS

So far I have:

• Started my vaccinations
• Ordered a pacsafe
• A travel towel
• Travel clothes
• Pretty loose dresses
• Wind up mini torch and head torch
• Compass
• Map of South east asia, maps of Thailand and Indonesia and Malaysia
• Shewee
• Travel pillow
• Bodybelt
• Mosquito net
• Sleeping mask and earplugs
• Water resistant bag for passports/camera
• Medicines for tummy
• Antibac gel
• Luggage lock
• Travel toothbrush
• Waterproof poncho
• Mosquito coils
• Sunglasses
• Pen knife
• Passport & thai visa
• Batch of passport sized photo’s

I need:

• Malaria tablets
• Travel insurance
• Internal flights-to Yogyakarta, from denpasar to Singapore, from Thailand to Yogyakarta
• binoculars
• Allergy tablets
• Memory cards for camera
• Plug adaptor
• Ladies meds and doofs
• Eyewash
• Travel first aid kit
• Sun lotion
• Light clothes line
• Flower remedies
• Arty things-sketch book and pencils

To do soon:

• Upgrade mobile and arrange for it to be frozen during trip
• Monitor finances and do online banking
• Purchase the above on list of things yet to buy
• Buy malaria tablets
• Organise my stuff

Things to do week before departure:

• Buy flight from Jakarta to Yogyakarta
• Email andreas with eta
• Email any other fabulous folk I need to
• Buy travel insurance
• Make a list of accommodations to possibly stay in
• Change some currency for each place (pocket money)

28days later...

And I will be boarding a plane at Gatwick Airport to Dubai for the first of three legs to Yogyakarta, where I hope to be embraced by my  friend Andreas, who I will meet and visit for the first and last part of my trip.  Seeing Andreas will be a bit like the pieces of bread in the sandwich; topping and tailing either end of the adventure.  A sandwich is just a mess without Andreas.  He will no doubt hug me and tell me he is 'gonna kill [me] you man!' and we will drink Bintang, eat Nasi and have a good catch up.  Andreas is very dear to me and I am excited to see him and the other wonderful people who I got to know and have fun with on my last visit to Yogya.  Though we live on the other side of the world this will be the third year in a row where we will have been able to spend some time together, which I think is truly amazing.  The environmental impact not so amazing, but the friendship and crazy everyday reality that we can fly is totally breathtaking to me.
I am currently putting off a rather long list of jobs that I need to do, some of which I will share here with you so that you can really get a good nosy of how I am preparing.  This is my first solo travelling adventure and the truth is I don't really know what I am doing, and I am making it up and discovering along the way.
One of the jobs to do is to help me get my head around the different currencies, and last time I found that a little bit of paper with some conversions was really fantastic for me to budget what I had and what I could spend.

The abu south east asian Currency converter

Indonesian Rupiahs

                                                                                                               

1000                                                      7 pence                                     

2000                                                      14 pence                                     

5000                                                      35 pence                                    

10,000                              71 pence                                       

15,000                               £1.00                                           

20,000                               £1.42                                            

40,000                               £2.84                                        

50,000                               £3.56

100,000                            £7.12

      £5.00                                   70,195

      £10.00                              140,357

      £30.00                             421,042

      £50.00                            701,955

      £80.00                            1,123,237

     £100.00                         1,404,046

      £150.00                         2,107,003

      200.00                            2,809,338

Singapore Dollars

        £1.00                           2.13                                     

        £5.00                           10.68

        £10.00                        21.37

        £30.00                        64.08

        £50.00                        106.79

        £80.00                        170.89

        £120.00                     256.33

Malaysian Ringgit

1                                                                    20 pence                                    

5                                                                    £1.00                                           

15                                                                £3.00                                           

        

       £5.00                                   24.88

       £10.00                               49.76

      £100.00                             497.58

Thai Baht

£1.00                                   50.1879

£3.00                                   150.638

£5.00                                   251.025

£10.00                                502.050

£30.00                               1,506.03

£50.00                                2,510.05

£100.00                             5,020.06

So this is an example of what I pulled out of my bag and clutched at each stall, public transport and restaurant, though after a while you get used to it.  But seen as I am awful at maths, and like to make a speedy decision I used this a lot.

Now I must purchase some swim wear that is rather modest, to be respectful to the cultures and protect them from the sight of my little wobbly.  I must also do many other boring jobs that are also part of the prep, but anything of interest or use I will document here.  

Terima kasih!