the fellow sitting next to me was typing that in an email just now. my heart goes out to your lost moroccan love, sir. also, the girl next to me is picking her nose. ok.
now for an informational video on indonesia’s mt bromo. ok, click play.
so much has happened since my last food orgy that i really have no idea where to start, and even though i know i always say this, i am really going to keep it short and to the point.
mexican me!
jake is here! yay. jake doesn’t like big cities, doesn’t like traveling long distances, and didn’t want to plan where we were going ahead of time. this has lead to jake being a sad panda for about a week while we covered 2,500ish miles by land, sea, and air haha.
but before that odyssey there were some other countries. we were in kuala lumpur, the capital of malaysia, as well as singapore for a few days. they were both notable for their cleanliness, i’m sure everyone remembers michael fay! singapore was very strange, no jay walking, western prices, and everyone spoke perfect english. it was just like being in a really really clean and orderly american city(non come to mind for a comparison).
mt bromo
so back to our one week of miles. the whole thing wouldn’t have been such an ordeal if we had planned ahead a bit and just flown straight to the beach instead of wrongly assuming that java was relatively small, it is in fact one of the largest islands in the world and we nearly covered the entire length of it by bus and train(very slowly). part of the problem is the typical bus driver, during our 24 hour travel day(two buses, a train, and a shuttle bus) we experienced what is probably the worst driving in the world. driving so bad that if i tried to explain it you wouldn’t believe me, if you were to watch a movie of it you would applaud the special effects used, and so horrific that the only example of its wretchedness i can give is that after 20 hours on the road, we didn’t sleep more than five minutes on the five hour bus ride. weeeee!
snake fruit
so, jakarta, the capital. we got one hour massages for $6, then jumped on a train for the beaches of pangadaran. rented some scooters without helmets and experienced first hand what driving on the wrong side of the road in a third world country that treats horns like a turn signal and lane markers like the boxes in a game of hop scotch. unfortunately there were no waves, and the beach was crap, but on the last night we feasted on 2.2 pounds of chili prawns for about $10. AWESOME. after that we headed up to gunan bromo, a super awesome volcano near the east coast of java, drastic and beautiful are words that come to mind, only surpassed by COLD. woah, it was antarctica cold, we were sitting around 8,000 feet and our flip flops and tank tops weren’t cutting it. brrrrr.
streets of bromo
so we are finally here, at the end of what has become a pretty long trail, nine months, eight countries, and a lot of words. bali is beautiful, in fact the entire country is almost tragically awesome. these are easily the nicest people i have ever met, i feel bad that i am so guarded against scams here(from attempts in cambodia/thailand) that i am almost rude to people who are genuinely trying to help us. there has been a handful of people who we have talked to on buses to pass the time and even given us their food, others who have pointed us in the right direction, and even more who have gone completely out of there way to escort us across cities so that we can find a police station and lie to get motorcycle licenses hah!
tragic
i really can’t say enough about indonesia, and when i return it will be for far longer than the meager month i have afforded it this time around. oh yeah, the food isn’t thailand but it is ok! so we will be hanging out at the beach for the next three weeks and then flying home to carne asada, in-n-out, and some smiles. there will probably be another bloggity before the flight. happy cinco de mayo!
5 second exposure of a bus ride from hell
