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!