Smack That...Mosquito!

As some of you may have heard (from my worried family), I was quite sick for a couple of weeks at the end of May. It all started with a simple headache and ended with four trips to the doctor for blood tests. Spoiler alert: the following story contains a LOT of sleeping, a little eating, and a few (technically, four) doctors visits.

Day 1: On Monday night, 12 May, I had a bad headache after working out after work. I drank a bunch of water and ate dinner, since those are usually the only reasons I ever have a headache. I also noticed that I had gotten VERY tired simply carrying my laundry downstairs to the laundry place. That’s not normal, but I thought maybe my work out had worn me out, which made me feel pathetic.

Day 2: I went to work the next day (because Tuesdays are my fullest days for teaching, so I didn’t want other teachers to be stuck with my crazy schedule), but I didn’t feel up to driving my motorbike. I only lasted teaching from 7.30 until 9.00. At that point, I was so exhausted, and just really not with it, that I told someone to take over for me so that I could go home. I got home from work and slept for the rest of the day until Wednesday morning. Did I mention I also had a fever and body aches at this point? I didn’t even consider leaving my apartment to eat or go to the doctor.

Day 3: Once again, I woke up to email my boss and give her a very simple explanation of what students should be working on in my classes for the day. Then, I went back to sleep until Wednesday evening. At that point, my roommate was home from work and concerned. I asked Kristina to accompany me to the doctor. I didn’t trust that I was physically strong enough to walk from my apartment, ride the elevator down and continue walking another hundred yards to the clinic nearest my apartment. As per usual, here in Jakarta, the doctor prescribed me an antibiotic and medicine to help with the fever and body aches…even though she didn’t actually diagnose me. She recommended I get a blood test, but they don’t do that at the clinic. I’m sure Kristina “forced” me to eat something for dinner, and then I went back to sleep.

Day 4: Holiday! No School! Kristina accompanied me to the S.O.S. International Clinic that she had heard about. At least there I was certain they would speak English. I didn’t have to wait very long until I was telling the doctor about all of my symptoms. He sent me to the lab for a long list of blood tests, and then I waited about an hour for the results. And, by waited, I mean I basically fell asleep in the chair outside the doctor’s office. My lab results showed that they had tested for thirteen different possibilities, and I had…Dengue Fever! This is a virus spread by mosquitoes, and there was nothing I could do or take to get better. The only way was to rest and wait it out until my blood platelet count was back to normal. At that point it was about half as much as it normally should be. No wonder I felt weak and needed to constantly sleep.

Days 5-8: These are mostly still a blur of a lot of sleeping and three more visits to the doctor. I had a mild form of Dengue, which is lucky for me, because the harsher virus sometimes requires a hospital stay. The blood tests showed that even though my platelet count wasn’t sky rocketing, it wasn’t getting worse. The doctor had written me a medical certificate (the paperwork required so I would still get paid even though I was missing a week of work). The blood test at the doctor on day 8 showed that my platelet count was still really low, but it had gotten a little better since previous tests.

Day 9: The doctor had written my medical certificate for one week, so I attempted to go back to work on Tuesday. This time I lasted my four-hour teaching block right away in the morning, from 7.30-11.30. I went home after that, but I only missed teaching my fourth grade class for thirty minutes. That had definitely been overdoing it for the day, and I slept as soon as I got home until Wednesday morning.

Days 10-11: More sleeping, but at this point I could stay awake for a few hours throughout the day, and I was forcing myself to eat at least two meals each day. Kristina kept me well stocked with sandwiches and take-out. Day 11 included my last doctor visit where I found out my platelet count was back to normal. Yippee! I had lost about five pounds, and I was still not back to 100%, but I felt immensely better than I had in about ten days. The doctor told me that my immune system wasn’t as strong as before, so I should be more careful about germs and getting sick.

Day 12: I was back to work, and feeling good. My students and colleagues were happy to have me back, and I was glad to be out of my apartment. The students hadn’t gotten too far behind, since they had mostly been doing revision papers to prepare for upcoming exams.

The Dengue couldn’t hold me back for too long. By 25 May, Kristina and I were running a 5k race. Not just any race, but the Jakarta Wine and Cheese Run! I was really slow and tired (which was to be expected, considering I had done little to no physical activity for almost two weeks) but I finished the race!

Yes, that says #cheesehead

And, now it’s mid-June. I’m feeling back to 100% and powering through these last few days of work. The students finished exams last Friday, we went over their tests on Monday, and we’ve been preparing report cards Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday is a prize-giving ceremony and class party, and Friday is the parent-teacher conference for parents to collect the report cards.

And, then it’s off the Kaliman to swim and snorkel with stingless jellyfishes. Then to Lombok to climb Mt Rinjani. Then, gallivanting around Indonesia until I come home in September for Britt and Jason’s wedding. The plan, as of now, is to go to Flores and Sulawesi before I leave and then Papua when I get back. That’s not the end, or even close, but it’s too much to write, at the moment, and who knows how much plans will change once we start traveling.

When I'm in Indonesia, I'll still have my same phone number. I'll also get wi-fi in most big cities I am in, so there will be some (maybe infrequent and inconsistent) checking of emails and facebook. I won't be totally off the grid, but just enough. I'll try to post a new blog every so often, so that you don't have to worry too much. 

Take My Tentacle

The diesel power station that was washed ashore.

Yes, this house has a boat on top of it...

Recently, I was lucky enough to have Good Friday as a holiday. Kristina and I took advantage of that long weekend by getting our dive count up to nineteen total dives! We stayed in Indonesia, but on Pulau Weh, a small island off the northern coast of Sumatra. We flew late Thursday night into Banda Aceh (pronounced Bond-ah Otch-ay) so that we could take the early Friday morning ferry to Pulau Weh. Banda Aceh was a place that I had remembered from when I was a senior in high school (December 2004). My science teacher at the time showed us a before and after aerial photo of Banda Aceh after a huge tsunami hit the area (which was caused by an earthquake in the Indian Ocean of magnitude 9.1-9.3, the third largest ever recorded). There is now a tsunami museum that we visited, a diesel power station that was brought in shore about 4 kilometers via the tsunami (and not moved back to the water) with a tsunami education park built around it, and even a house that has a boat on top of it, which now serves as a tourist spot and memorial. According to the city tourist map that was given to me, the tsunami destroyed almost 60% of the city with approximately 75,000 victims. Walking through that museum was very depressing, but it was amazing to see all of the help that was sent after the disaster. 

Here's a little history lesson for you, thanks to Wikipedia J Relative to most of Indonesia, Aceh is a religiously conservative area. It has the highest proportion of Muslims in Indonesia, who mostly live according to Sharia customs and laws. I believe this law became even stricter after the earthquake/tsunami. Aceh was the closest point of land to the epicenter of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, which devastated much of the western coast of the province. Approximately 170,000 Indonesians were killed or went missing in the disaster. The disaster helped precipitate the peace agreement between the government of Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM). The region has wanted to gain independence from Indonesia for quite some time.

Okay, enough serious sad talk. That was a very interesting part of the trip, but the reason we were there was to dive! We set up our dives and accommodation with a dive shop called Lumba Lumba (which means ‘dolphin’ in Indonesian). The dive shop was set up differently that others we had been to, as it seemed to cater to more experienced divers. This made me nervous at first, because we are definitely not in that category, but everyone was helpful as long as we asked. We even talked to some of the dive masters and got advice about options to become Advanced Open Water certified, and really just becoming better at diving so that it’s even more enjoyable.

The motorbike with sidecar that took us to the dive center.

Under the sea for four dives, each lasted about one hour…

1. We saw two octopuses (is that the plural?) for the first time. The best part about it is that one was dragging the other along by the tentacle as they both kept changing crazy awesome colors and patterns. Apparently, as our guide shared with us when we got back to the boat, they were mating! I think we watched them for at least ten minutes, which is a long time, considering we’re only underwater a total of sixty minutes each dive.

2. We swam against some of the strongest current that we’ve experienced yet. We even had to hold on to pieces of rock and coral on the bottom just to make sure the current didn’t make us drift away from our guide.

3. I learned that it’s a “tradition” to get naked underwater during your 100^th dive, which is typically done by men, and not necessarily by women, due to the logistics of the task (this was just a story the dive masters told us; it was not something that we had to witness underwater).

4. I’m going to need to invest in a dive computer (basically a fancy watch to wear while diving that keeps track of a bunch of important information about each dive you do, including your depth and rate of descent/ascent, so as to avoid decompression sickness).

5. Diving is still totally amazing, and I want to go on to the next “level” so that I can dive deeper and get a certificate/specialization in some areas to make me a better diver (buoyancy control, deep diving, night diving, underwater photography, identification of plants and animals…are just some of the options).

Believe it or not, I only have six weeks left in Jakarta! And that means only two more weeks of teaching, one week of revision for the students, two weeks for student testing, and the last week for preparing report cards (and getting ready to leave)! 

Time flies when you’re having fun!

That's me 15 meters (50 feet) underwater!

Underwater selfie!

Eel

Can you spot the Lion Fish? It looks like it has a mane.

Everything’s Better Down Where It’s Wetter

That title has me humming the Little Mermaid...while I scuba dive!

Hey Buddy! (that's Kristina, my diving buddy)

The school just finished the Term 3 break, which means, as of today, that I only have ten more weeks of work left before my contract is done. That’s exciting stuff! My week long break was even extended into ten days due to a holiday on 31 March, perfectly timed for the Monday we were supposed to come back from our break. Speaking of holidays, we will have three weeks in April when we only have a four-day work week, what with the government elections on 9 April, Good Friday on 17 April and one other holiday that I don’t know the details of.

Anywho, here is the rundown of the Term 3 break trip, because you know me, so of course I made it a point to travel for all ten days.

This Is Thailand

Kristina and I had been planning a diving trip to The Philippines, but the flight was relatively expensive (but don’t worry, because it’s still on the list of future travel). We heard from a friend about a cheap flight to Bangkok, Thailand, so Kristina had the brainy brainstorm to check out a place in southern Thailand. (If you recall, I’ve already been to Bangkok and Chiang Mai in Thailand in October 2012). A fellow diver in Bali recommended Koh Lipe (pronounced ‘Koe Leepay’), an island off mainland southern Thailand. When asked where his favourite place so far in his travels, he told us about the island’s beautiful diving, so we wrote down the name and kept it on the list of future travels.

We actually flew into Langkawi, Malaysia and then took a ferry across the (water) border into Thailand. The ferry only took 90 minutes, and they took care of the immigration for us. This means they put our passports in a dry bag, and then gave them back to us when we arrived in Koh Lipe to get them stamped at the little immigration ‘office’ on the beach (I assume there something official happened while they had our passports or maybe it was like their version of a head count, so they just could be sure no one accidently stayed on the ferry or fell in the water).

The most exciting part before the actual trip was our running through the airport, trying to catch our flight on time. We had a connection from Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia to Langkawi. Our flight from Jakarta was delayed for an hour, so we got into KL late, which meant that I had to get my checked bag and get through immigration before even checking into our flight to Langkawi. We landed in KL and had way too little time to get this done. We ran from the luggage belt to the immigration line, paced impatiently trying to figure out a nice way to cut to the front of the line. A man in line near us suggested that we go through the empty Malaysian citizens line. We showed the woman our ticket, and she was nice enough to stamp our passports and let us through without a hitch. We proceeded to run through the airport, making it to the check-in counter at 8.42 p.m. (our flight was leaving at 9.15 p.m.). The woman told us that check-in was closed, but she called someone and said we could check my bag as long as I paid 40 Ringgit (about $12 USD). We got rid of my bag, got our boarding passes and rushed off, still running, through the airport. We made it through security and to our gate by 9.00 p.m., and when we told the man at the door that we had to get on the flight to Langkawi, he kindly informed us that it was delayed. We collapsed in nearby chairs, let out a sigh of relief and then laughed at how ridiculous we must have just looked, especially to all of the people on our flight who we had just run through to get to the gate. It was awesome!

Koh Lipe (Koh translates to “island” in Thai) is a small island that is in its up and coming phase of tourism. There are three beaches, all within a 15-minute walk of each other. The main beach, with the immigration ‘office’ is Pattaya, and it’s by far the most crowded. We found both the Sunset and Sunrise beaches much more pleasant (less people and less boats).

 

View of Koh Lipe from Koh Adang

Ocean Pro Divers, the dive shop we went with, has been open on the island since 2003. They were fantastic! I appreciated their very organised boat and super informative guides. They were so great, in fact, that even though we had only scheduled three dives with them for Saturday, we dove with them again the next weekend. The visibility wasn’t so great on our first day of diving, but I now have an underwater case for my camera, so I attempted to get some pictures of the sea life. The coolest thing I saw was a Cuttle Fish that our guide snuck up on. When she put her hand near the fish, it changed its colour as it swam away. The second best part of the diving was learning the hand signals for all of the different fishes we saw. The strangest thing I saw was a Sea Cucumber. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera when we dove the second day.

After our first two days on Koh Lipe, we were ready to be even more off the beaten path. We took a taxi boat (the traditional Thai longtail boat, of course) to the neighboring island of Koh Adang. This island is a part of the Tartuo National Park system, and it was even better than Koh Lipe. We rented a tent for three nights and then proceeded to set up the hammock on the edge of the beach. We literally 1. read, 2. napped, 3. sat in the hammock, usually doing one of the previously mentioned activities, and 4. ate at the one restaurant on the island. This went on for four days, with the most grueling exercise being an easy hike to a waterfall on the second day (this did require some path finding skills and climbing on rocks), a not so easy hike to three look-out points for fantastic views of Koh Lipe, and then the last day included a little snorkeling/swimming. Side note: I’m happy to report that I did not get sunburn, thanks to many reminders to reapply sunscreen from Kristina (and the fact that I basically stayed in the shade unless I was in the water). I did manage to get a great tan, though.

The Giant Stride entry

When we took a boat back to Koh Lipe, we made it a point to stay on Sunrise Beach. We could still easily get to Walking Street, where all of the restaurants and shops were, but it was way more peaceful. We made many trips up and down that street, trying to decide where to eat brunch and then later in the day for dinner. The rest of the days on Koh Lipe were spent doing all of the same relaxing things we had done on Koh Adang, with a little more exciting nightlife (which means we could drink a Chang beer while walking around before dinner). We did go to a bar where a diver was celebrating her birthday as well as the fact that she had just become a master diver that day. All of her supportive co-workers and fellow divers played a trivia game where she had to answer correctly or take a shot. They also initiated her with a drink poured into a “snorkel bong”. Now that's true friendship :) 

Moral of the story...another great trip!

It’s Been So Long!

5 April 2014

I originally started writing this post right around my birthday (back in mid February), but have been slacking ever since. Work has been fairly busy, and I have had little to no motivation to do anything productive on the weekends. Sorry about that…

Here is the short but sweet version of what has been happening since you last heard from me.

1. I was home in December/January for three weeks. I had an absolutely fantastic time catching up with friends and family. A special shout out and thanks to Brittney and Jason for picking me up from the airport and not only bringing me a winter jacket, but also for humoring my request for fresh cheese curds and Kwik Trip chocolate milk. Love you guys! Of course three weeks was not long enough to see everyone or spend enough time with the people I did see, for that matter. I will be home again in September, though, for Brittney and Jason’s wedding. You can email to make your appointment to hang out anytime before then J  But, seriously, I really did have a calendar with my “dates” on it, otherwise I never would have kept it straight. I also recruited my very talented friend, Korena, to help me scrapbook the entire past year. It was a long few days, and it's still not technically done (it's just at my dad's house all put together, but I still need to write on half of the pages. But it's better than nothing). 

2. Upon my return to Jakarta, I tucked in for Term 3 at work. Work consists of my attempting to learn and do my best with the 3^rd grade topics and improving upon my teaching of the same 4^th grade topics I taught last year. The exciting news is that one of my third grade math classes “lost” six of its lowest students, because the school hired a teacher for them to have a pull-out class. My time and energy with the 16 current students in that class seems so much better spent than what had been happening with the entire class in the first semester. It makes my day so much less stressful.

3. We had a long weekend for the Chinese New Year holiday. Kristina and I went diving in Padang Bai, Bali, and Nicole came to snorkel. We scheduled two days of diving, for a total of five dives. Our dive sites were Blue Lagoon, Nusa Penida, and the visibility was absolutely spectacular. The best part was drift diving, which we’re not even (technically) certified to do. Our first choice of a dive site was too rough of conditions, so we went to a different site, typically for advanced divers. Once we descended and swam around a little, we followed our guide into the current along the reef. We literally were pulled along in the current as we floated past the reef, no swimming required.

Motorbike Adventure  

Why yes we would like to jump off the top of the boat.

Keep Calm and Scuba Dive.

4. Nothing else major has happened, that I can think of right now. I’m just trying to enjoy my remaining time in Jakarta with my friends before we part ways in June. On that note, I just watched the entire season 9 of How I Met Your Mother on Thursday and Friday night, and that finale made me cry and really think about all of the great people I’ve met since I moved here. 

Take Me For A Ride

(actually written)

20 February 2014

The cat’s finally out of the bag…in other words, Dad told Mom, about the fact that I am out and about on the streets of Jakarta driving my little motorbike. In November, I bought a bike to drive to and from school every day.  I usually had no problem with the school’s provided transport in the mornings. I could catch the bus at 5.45 a.m. and then get some work done before I started my school day at 6.30. The slightly annoying part was that the transport for taking the teachers home was rarely, if ever, on time. Factor that with it being a bus that usually gets stuck in traffic, and you have one reason for the purchase. Not to mention, the fact that a lot of the other teachers already had bikes. Catching a ride after school or going on motorbike adventures on the weekend was way too much fun to miss out on. 

Yes, the traffic is absolutely horrendous, but on the motorbike I can weave in and out of the cars, buses and baja (the small, covered three-wheel motorcycles that are hired for short distances). It’s the exact opposite of the first time I drove in Lombok, during the surfing weekend. I’m getting a lot better at driving, though, and it’s not as stressful anymore. So, there’s my intentionally “hidden” update about driving in Jakarta. Hopefully I’ll have a video of a typical drive to school or around the city before I leave. 

And, please don't worry about me driving...*cough MOM and DAD! Love you both!

My pink work uniform really completes the image.

Easy Rider

20 October 2013

Year two at school has already been in session for over ten weeks, as we recently had our first term break of this year. Here are some of the highlights from my trip (of course I traveled somewhere, because why not?!). My friend, Kristina, and I flew to Phnom Penh, Cambodia (pronounced as Nom Pen, I’m 90% sure), stayed there two days, and then took a 10-hourish bus ride north to cross the border into southern Laos, where we spent five days, and then back into Cambodia to fly back to Jakarta. I’ve listed some highlights from the trip below.  

 1. Kristina and I both managed to run out of passport pages while on this trip. You may wonder how we didn’t notice that we were running low on pages, but we actually thought the last two pages, labeled “endorsements only,” could be used for our visas. We needed one coming into the Cambodia airport, one to cross into Laos, and then one again to go back into Cambodia to fly out, so that’s three entire pages used just for visas, not to mention the fact that they also still stamped in the passport.  To attempt to prepare for the impending hassle, we tried to get a multiple entry visa for Cambodia, but they wouldn’t give us one in the Phnom Penh airport. In the end, we had no problem crossing the border into Laos, but they would not put the Cambodian visa (the second one) in our passports on the last pages. I reassured Kristina that they actually didn’t care if we crossed the border, but they’ll probably just ask us for some extra money, above and beyond the visa fee. Lone and behold, in addition to the $30 visa fee ($10 of which went straight to the man from our bus company who was “helping” us with the visas processing—Kristina and I had crossed the border into Laos just fine on our own for only $20 when we arrived) we each paid $20 extra and wrote a note on the back of our visa giving them permission to put the visa over something on another page of our passports. We made it across the border, after a bit of nail-biting waiting alongside the road, hoping that we wouldn’t have to make a trip to the nearest U.S. Embassy.

Notice the $40 bribe at the top of the picture?

Kristina took this picture while driving the bike!

2. Riding bicycles around Don Det to Don Khong islands in Laos. It was a nice ride until my tire went flat. Luckily, Kristina’s back tire had pegs…and she so graciously offered to haul me around while I stood on previously mentioned pegs. It was pretty difficult, and I can’t even imagine how much work it was for Kristina, but we managed quite nicely. Our new friend from Germany was also kind enough to drive my bike alongside for most of the way.  That was also the most physical activity we did for the entire week, besides a peaceful, leisurely walk on the dirt path around the island on a different day.

3. The Crazy Gecko, where we stayed on Don Det for the entire time. Not only was there a mosquito net (with no holes) surrounding the bed, but there were two hammocks strung up outside of our room, facing the Mekong River. We spent the vast majority of our time lying in the hammocks simply reading, napping and talking. There was even delicious food at their restaurant. Bonus!

The Crazy Gecko. Our hammocks in the background.

4. Phnom Pehn, Cambodia

a. Indian restaurant in the riverside area. There was absolutely amazing food there, but I have no idea the name of the restaurant…oops.

b. The Killing Fields. Yes, I realize that doesn’t sound like a highlight, and it was very depressing, in fact. Kristina and I rode bicycles out of the city, which was the bright side of the visit there. I did appreciate learning about the Khmer Rouge and horrific genocide that took place in Cambodia from 1975-1979. There were around 3 million Cambodians killed during that time, of the 8 million in the entire country. There was an audio tour that took us around a trail to see the remains of the mass graves while we heard the history and listened to some survivors’ stories. There is also a memorial that was built, and it is filled with skulls of bodies that were found in the mass graves. It was as creepy and sadly moving as it sounds.

"Please don't walk through the mass grave."

c. The U.S. dollar is used in Phnom Penh along with their currency, called Riel; both are actually used interchangeably and together. When we paid for dinner with USD, we got change back mostly in USD, but then the smaller dollars and cents change came back in Riel. I found that interesting.

5. What with all of the time to relax and contemplate the world’s problems, I came to a conclusion of my own. I’ll preface this with the fact that at my school, on the last day of school before our term break, we were given a letter of intent to complete by the end of October (so the school has a rough idea of how many new teachers they’ll have to hire for the next school year). Anyways, I had been debating whether or not to stay for a third year, and AS OF TODAY (that has been changing from week to week lately), I’ve decided not to renew my contract. However, I would like to spend an extended period of time traveling around Indonesia, mainland Asia, Australia and New Zealand after my contract ends in June. It’s just too great of an opportunity to be here and explore that I can’t pass it up.

As John Muir so eloquently put it, “I am losing precious days. I am degenerating into a machine for making money. I am learning nothing in this trivial world of men. I must break away and get out into the mountains to learn the news.”

That quote comes from a news story from the Upworthy news website, which a friend shared with me. Check it out if you’re interested. I really enjoyed it, because, of course it's about traveling. You can find it here at: http://m.good.is/posts/why-biking-7-000-miles-to-patagonia-is-essential-for-creative-living

She's a Man Eater...Komodo Dragons!

1 September 2013 (this is actually true, this time)

After a short three weeks of the new school year, we had two weeks off for the Muslim holiday Idul Fitri (the first two weeks in August). The school couldn’t guarantee we would have our passports back from immigration before the break, so we just planned to stay in Indonesia. We only had three destinations.

1. Bali (2 days): Impossible Beach to relax in the sun and enjoy the ocean. I also bought the Lonely Planet guide to Laos, so I can begin planning my next trip for October.

2. Flores island (8 days):

a. In Labuan Bajo, we chartered a fishing boat to take us on a 3 day/ 2 night trip to Komodo Island and snorkeling in the surrounding waters. This was no tour boat. It was legitimately a fisherman who had never taken tourists, but we were desperate.

We ate all our meals and slept on the boat…all five of us in very tight quarters, sleeping on very thin mattresses. It wasn’t the most comfortable situation, but it was such a ridiculous and fun part of the trip (and now we get to joke about it).

b. First stop: Rinca Island to see Komodo Dragons.  We did some snorkeling, afterwards.

Apparently, the guide told us, it’s their mating season. They remind me of a baby crocodile, but very slow-moving. We also learned that their bite is not poisonous, but they have bacteria in their saliva, which will slowly kill their prey after it has been bitten. Then, after it dies, they come back to eat it.

c. Second stop: Komodo Island seemed the same as Rinca, and we saw more dragons. We also did some more snorkeling at Kanawa Island, which happens to be my new favorite place in Indonesia. It was a small, private island with a restaurant and bungalows that are cheap. We spent our second night on the boat, but decided to send the boat and captain back to Komodo Village without dropping us off. We wanted to spend the third day on Kanawa and get a room for the next night. I lay in a hammock for a big chunk of the day, just reading my book and planning my Laos trip. We watched a beautiful sunset and chatted with the other travelers there. It was the most relaxing place I have been, and it was so gorgeous!

d. Back on the mainland (Labuan Bajo) we rented a car and driver to take us east, across the island of Flores. We drove a lot, but eventually made it to Endo (the site of Mt Kelimutu and the tri-colored lakes). Along the way, we stopped to watch a school’s outdoor volleyball tournament, but we didn’t have time to play. On the way back, a few days later, though, we stopped at a soccer match and played volleyball with some kids next to the soccer field (until Scott accidentally hit the ball into a kid’s face and gave him a bloody nose). 

e. We did a sunrise hike up to Mt Kilimutu. The view was amazing, but I was cold, until I started hiking around. Scott has grown up climbing and hiking around his home in the states, so he and I ventured on and off some trails to get closer to the lakes. At the edge of one of the crater lakes, we did rock baseball and rock bowling.

f. It turns out one of the places we went required the park (yes, it’s a national park) to send a park ranger to escort us out of the “dangerous” area. I never felt unsafe, but the ranger’s boss had to talk to us to make sure we understood that they were just trying to keep us safe because they don’t have the resources to evacuate anyone else (they had already had three deaths to deal with this year). We didn’t get into any trouble, other than that, but it totally made the 3-hour hike worth it! We were also convinced that we would have to bribe someone for breaking the rules, but that never happened either.  Kristina also got into trouble as she went off the trail searching for Scott and me.

g. The perk of talking to the Park Ranger ‘boss’ was that he arranged for us to ride in the back of a police truck down the hill (we were definitely done walking after that hike up in the morning). The police truck took us about halfway, and then Kristina, Scott and I caught a ride in a water truck. The driver had actually been a driver in Jakarta for years, so we were talking to him about that. Nicole and Mitch caught a ride in a tourist bus that had dropped off the passengers and turned around to come back to pick us up.

h. On our drive back to Labuan Bajo, we stopped by a roadside distillery where they were making the local moonshine called Arak. It is liquor made from boiling palm nuts. It was absolutely the most disgusting thing I have ever tasted.

3. Lombok (yes, again!)

If you remember, Lombok is where I have gone already twice to go surfing on the weekend. This time, though, we had five days to enjoy all of the beaches and attempt surfing on my own.

a. Surfing was great, as usual! I’ve been upgraded to a shorter board  (not really short, like the good surfers) that’s not soft. There was one point in the lesson, when two waves came at me quickly and took me out. As my board flew in the air, I knew there was a good chance it would come down and hit me, but I couldn’t avoid it. It hit my forehead hard, but luckily did not break my skin. I got out of the water quickly, because I didn’t want to risk getting dizzy in the water. I felt fine after it happened, but there was a huge bump on my head for about an hour, and now I may have a permanent bump on my forehead (it’s still there as I write this, nearly one month later). All of my friends were concerned I had been seriously hurt, but DON’T WORRY (MOM), it is absolutely okay!

See? This is 3 hours after and you can barely see it!

b. The next day, we rented boards and took our motorbikes back to the beach to attempt surfing without an instructor. Turns out, it’s quite difficult for me to read waves and know which one to catch, especially without my instructor yelling directions to me. It was still fun, and it was definitely interesting to drive the motorbike with Nicole on the back along with the surfboard in the attached rack.

c. The rest of the days were spent driving to the other beaches, sitting on the sand reading or sleeping and hanging out with my friends. I really had to rest up and be as relaxed as possible in order to be motivated to go back to Jakarta and school.