I boarded the boat Taka on Friday, not really knowing much about the itinerary except we had 14 dives to do over the next 4 days and I would be eating well. I was informed of the latter by some of the guests who had just come off the boat. From the time we left the harbor until we moored at 8am the next day, we were heading north. Because we were sheltered by the Great Barrier Reef, henceforth abbreviated to GBR, most of us, including me, slept pretty well. We got 2 dives in, then we kept heading north more, and got 2 more dives in. And then we got the news that I would have known had I done some, or any, research on the trip. We would continue north, outside of the GBR on our way to Osprey Reef, which is in the open Pacific, and it would be a bumpy night without the shelter of the GBR. Time to take the dramamine!

Top End

From Australia

My journey from Gili Air, Indonesia to Darwin, Australia went like this:

• wake at dawn with the chickens and take horse cart from bungalow to harbor
• board public boat which is just a biggish canoe lest you get grand ideas by my words, to the island of Lombok by wading through the water and climbing in, stupidly wearing a skirt
• take another horse cart to a minibus "station," which is a guesthouse with a space for a minivan to park
• take minibus ride for 2 hours to a port in Lombok whose name I never caught.  The ride was beautiful, complete with monkeys hanging out on the shoulder of the road
• bake in the Indonesian sun for 40 minutes waiting for the slow boat to Bali
• spend 6 hours crossing the incredibly deep waters separating Bali and Lombok (the fast boat takes no more than an hour and a half but costs at least three times as much).  I paid a dollar extra to sit in air conditioning, but my comfort was compromised by the "professional karaoke" show going on in the same room.  One man playing the synthesizer and one young, heavily made-up woman singing all kinds of songs, many in Indonesian but she made time for Lionel Richie's "Hello" and Sinatra's "My Way".  No one seemed to enjoy any of it except for the performers and the crew, some of whom took the stage themselves.
• walk to another minibus and board it for a 90 minute ride to the airport
• take a 5 hour flight to Darwin that landed at 3am
• crawl into the top bunk of a 4 person hostel room at 5am

Good times, right? 

Change of Plans

The morning after making it to Ubud in Bali, I checked my email. My pal, Ieva, was in Ubud too, and we wanted to meet up. When neither of you has a phone and you're trying to meet up in a place that neither of you knows at all, this is a little more complicated than it would typically be. But Yande, the sweet guy who ran the homestay Ieva was staying in, had given us clearance to use him and his mobile phone as our go-between. I called him that evening, and he was at the airport - could I call after 6? Yes, I could. So I called later that night, and he and Ieva had come by my hotel earlier to pick me up while I was at dinner, but the hotel had no idea who I was.

Can you say Hamengkubuwono three times fast?

The train from Jakarta to Yogyakarta (pronounced Joag-juh-karta) was uneventful and scenic for a few sections. It was comfortable if not sparkling clean; my window was so dirty on the outside that it was a little hard to make out the detail streaming by. But I realized that even if westerners didn't wear such revealing clothes, I think Indonesians would still think we are crazy. And that's because of the crap American movies they show on the trains. These flicks are not even direct-to-video - they must be direct-to-Indonesian trains. The two I saw were both subtitled and the volume was down, so I couldn't follow them perfectly, but I don't think that was possible anyway. The first was about a family that moves into a house that just happens to have a playhouse that was used by devil worshipers. Isn't that always the way? There was a bad twin in a prison or insane asylum (it was hard to tell), and the usual overuse of pentagrams and swarms of beetles. The second flick was called Turbulence 3 - Heavy Metal, and it was even harder to understand.

Living Dangerously?

Apa kabar? Tranlation: how are you?  I'm good, but feeling the jet lag.  After a hotel-to-hotel journey of 26 hours across 5 time zones, I arrived in Jakarta yesterday afternoon.  I was a little bit intimidated too.  Everything you hear or read about Jakarta can be summed in at least one of these three categories:  dirty, dangerous, or chaotic.  Even the good characteristics are slotted under chaotic.  Things like "the driving is atrocious" or "lock the taxi doors and roll up with windows - they'll steal your bag at a stop light" or "don't walk - you will be mowed down - take a taxi, but don't get ripped off by the driver!"  The scaredy-cat part of me worried that Jakarta would be like Cairo all over again.

Turkish Delights (I couldn't resist the pun)

Tonight is my last night in Turkey. I plan to celebrate my birthday with a nice meal, a long bath and that stubborn bottle of wine. Wild times! But I always have things in mind to post here and then I forget to do so. Consider this a sampling from the grab bag of my observations. Scary, I know.

I've really enjoyed Turkish food. I was expecting to find and love all the eggplant and yogurt, and I've never put away so many tomatoes and cucumbers in my life. The deliciousness and variety of the bread did surprise me. Turks are bakers! Fresh is best, and I've been hard pressed to get stale bread anywhere (not that I was trying). There's loads of street food, which is a trait I admire in a culture. Today, in the Ortakoy district of Istanbul, I tried the kumpir.

Last night was spent on a bus*, making it my 5th night bus in 65 days and my third in Turkey. Whew. But don't worry about me because I'm now enjoying my birthday gift from my family - being pampered at the Hilton! I've got: a view of the Bosphorus from my room, a bathrobe and slippers, champers and birthday cake, red wine and cheese, a beautiful fruit plate, and a gal at the executive desk who is taking care of all my needs and wants to emulate me and quit her job and go travel (it's contagious). It's pretty slick but I can still find a way to thwart myself in such circumstances. As I write this, tomorrow is my birthday, so I was going to save the bubbly for then and dive in to the red wine tonight. I started to open the bottle, and I broke the opener. So I called guest services, they delivered another of the same type within 5 minutes and...I broke it too. I just couldn't call again, so I popped open the bubbly, lit the candle on the cake and sang the happy birthday song to myself one day early. Now I think I'm going to go finish it (don't worry, it's a small bottle) on my balcony and watch the boats, barges, and ships sail by me on the Bosphorus.

* published on a day lag - do not complain to management