Happy New Year!!

I realized I never actually detailed my departure from Diamond Bar: After a lot of goodbyes, Harry Potter, last minute packing, and crying, I left LAX on a 12:05am flight to HKG (Hong Kong). I missed Christmas completely... I was on the plane on Dec 24 and I landed in Hong Kong on Dec 26th. I had a 3 hour layover en route to CGK (Jakarta). Both flights were on a 777 from Cathay Pacific, which, btw, is awesome! Overhead bin space is abundant, seats are roomy, personal entertainment choices are many, and the food was great! Most people know I'm not a dessert person, but I ate all my cheesecake and my blueberry breakfast muffin. They were worth it.

Observations of HKG:

- beautiful sunrise

- going forward on the moving sidewalk is on the left side (is this the case in the UK too?)

- they have Popeye's Chicken - I ate there

Upon arrival in Indonesia, I waited for my sister who was supposed to arrive 15 minutes later than me on a China Airlines flight. But I arrived an hour early and there were no screens to check incoming flights.. I sat by the bathroom long enough to the point where people kept asking (eachother) about the strange girl who was sitting by the bathroom by herself for so long. My sister arrived 45 minutes later and we paid the $25 for our VOA (visa on arrival). They used to put a nice sticker in your passport but now it's just a piece of paper that I've already lost. We were met by an entourage of family members who were delighted to tell me that I'm skinny now when I was fat before. Not sure how I feel about that. We then headed to the Bellagio, complete with its own mock "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign. My uncle owns a luxury apartment in downtown Jakarta and my sister and I were staying there with two of our cousins. It's been a fun few days: I dont think I've ever shopped more in my life (!) and the eating has been good too. I am lucky to have family here that is so kind and generous. My cousin makes breakfast for me and my sister in the morning... I am taking notes so I can be just as good a host to people when they come visit :)

New Years: Unsure of plans at the moment.. Google tells me that there's some sort of street party on the goverment steps or party on the beach. I want to go, but my family doesnt look kindly on this type of "chaos" so we shall see what happens. I've also been sick since I've been here .... even with 9-10 hours of sleep a night, my body seems not to like being "awake at 5am.."

I'm back in Jakarta after the trip to Bandung. Belly full, eyes dry, ready for sleep. Wherever you happen to be at 12:00am on January 1, I hope it is wonderful! Happy New Year all!

Jakarta and Bandung

Jakarta is muggy and congested. Just like I remembered it. It's warm here - I can get away with a skirt/tanktop and only need a jacket when shops are being over zealous with the air conditioner. It rains everyday and sometimes hard, but it doesnt last very long and then sun shines again. Drivers are crazy. They arbitrarily follow lane lines and it's terrifying to watch the driver navigate traffic that is ever present. It's 11pm as I write this, sitting in the car in traffic, moving 0 miles per hour. There are a lot of seemingly arbitrary tolls that make the traffic even worse.

I've successfully acquired an Indonesian SIM card, putting my international phone to the test. So far so good! If you figure out how, you can call/text me at 082110 683936. Being on the receiving end is free... but that also means I get a continuous slew of spam. The worst(best?) part is that I dont understand any of it.

We spent one night in Bandung, a pretty big city about 90 miles from Jakarta. A city of about 8 million, Bandung is less congested and more welcoming than Jakarta. We stayed in a swanky hotel with really modern decor, an awesome free buffet breakfast, and free (but terrible) wi-fi, for only $60/night. The Aston Braga. I recommend it.

I know Bandung for the food - they call it Sundanese food here - it's just one of the many types of Indonesian food. Not bad, not great. The best meal I've had so far was at a Chinese restaurant: a la carte all you can eat. We ordered 25 dishes between the five of us. My aunt hid some onde onde (chin toy/sesame balls) in her purse to eat at home later. =) They charge you the full price of the dish if you dont finish it... We got charged a whopping $3 for the yang chow fried rice we didn't eat. Good thing we didn't try to stuff ourselves even more with it. I have not yet found marquisa (strange fruit with little bursts of citrusy passionfruit-like happiness [think pomegranite without the POM or granite]). It's a fruit you can supposedly only get in Bandung, but I am on the lookout. It's the one thing I've wanted from Indonesia since my last trip here in August 2008.

Now, I also know Bandung for the shopping. Of the 31 hours we spent here, we shopped for at least 12 of them. Crazy.

Welcome!

Hello~

This is my blog. Welcome and thank you for visiting! Here is where I will recount travel stories, post pictures, and let the world know that I am alive. Apologies for anything that is aesthetically displeasing or non-user friendly as this is my first blog and I am definitely not tech savvy. It took me a couple hours, but I set it up so that you can subscribe to this blog via e-mail and actually get each post delivered to your inbox if you want it. (See the "subscribe via email" box to your right.) And! Replying to that e-mail goes straight to my inbox! I hope you'll share your thoughts and reactions with me :)

I've been preparing for this trip for many months now... creating a blog, practicing languages, doing research on countries, etc.. In terms of funding, I've been saving for 2.5 years and am absolutely prepared to spend it all! Physically, I think I'm in the best shape of my life (see links below)... I should be ready to lug a big backpack around the world... Emotionally speaking, I've been saying a lot of goodbyes lately and I've been realizing just how lucky I am to have met so many amazing people so far. You, reading this, are probably one of those people. =)

On to the travel stuff! This is my itinerary so far:

January 2011-April 2011: South America

April 2011-August 2011: Africa

August 2011-September 2011: Middle East

September 2011-November 2011: Rest (Home)

November 2011-December 2011: Australia/New Zealand/Fiji

January 2012-February 2012: Indonesia

March 2012: Singapore/Japan/Korea

March 2012 -April 2012: Transiberian Railroad

May 2012: Europe

Will you be in any of those places when I am? Let's meet up! Or, if you have stories about any of these places, I would love to hear them! Even better, if you have friends who might want to hang out with me abroad, please let me know!

The first part of the trip is fairly set... I have a one-way ticket from Los Angeles to Buenos Aires departing on January 9th... a ticket from Caracas to Salvador on March 1 (so that I can be in Brazil in time for Carnaval[!]) and a ticket from Buenos Aires to Johannesburg on April 10th. I'm pretty much planning to travel until I run out of money which, I suspect, will be right after the Transiberian Railroad—and hopefully not during :) My first stop (December/January 2011) will actually be to Jakarta to visit family and see my cousin get married!

Answers to Common Questions:

1) Yes, it's just me on my own, except in Africa where I am doing an Oasis Overland tour.

2) Yes, I would love to explore somewhere new with you, please come visit me!

3) Yes, my parents/boyfriend are "letting" me go (they have no choice :P)

4) No, I'm not planning to move back to the Bay Area: The plan after traveling is moving either home or to Seattle where I will start the first of six years of pharmacy.

5) Yes, I'm super excited!!!

Thank you again for visiting and reading so far. I will do my very best to keep in touch, I hope you do too.