Guess what mom? I'm in love! With a place though not a person...sorry.
Seriously, I love Indonesia so far. I don't know what was in the air yesterday, but so many great things and good people have me already obsessed with this giant, mystical, simmering beast of a country. Yesterday, I left Thailand after leaving my hostel a classic 20 minutes and attempting to reach the airport via public transportation. It should have been a complete clusterf--k, but somehow there was magically little traffic in Bangkok and I got to the airport early and without any mistakes! I even had time to go to the post office and mail a bunch of souvenirs home. #winning
I landed in Jakarta with little plan but to somehow make it to Yogyakarta by midnight. There was a train or a plane BUT the plane tickets I couldn't buy online and I assumed day of purchasing of tickets was ridiculously expensive. I was wrong.
After taking 15 minutes to figure out how to find the ticket booth, the man behind the counter escorted me through the security line, back into the area I had just gotten to. He pointed to another ticket booth and walked away. At this counter were about 7 young workers, all about my age, male and female and one wearing a hijab. They told me I had to go back and buy a ticket online. Which was weird. Because I was at the ticket counter. And couldn't buy online. Which was why I was at the ticket counter. We consulted the same line back and forth for about ten minutes until one guy eventually took it upon himself to get me a ticket. I'm pretty sure he was a security guard and didn't actually work at the counter but somehow, a full hour later, I had a ticket to Yogyakarta that night and paid the same price as I would have online. I also had a bunch of new friends from the counter. They loveddddd feeding me these incredibly spicy dried spaghetti pieces and watching my face turn bright red and sweating, before quickly offering water and lemon biscuits to counteract the spice. They were awesome, but pretty horrible at their jobs....which was to sell tickets. Regardless if it always takes me an hour to buy plane tickets here, that's fine because I'll make soooo many friends.
No idea how I got a ticket. Literally none. Winning again.
After navigating the affront of maybe 50 taxi drivers waiting outside the airport, I made it to my hotel where I was the ONLY ONE in the air-conditioned dorm room for the night. The hotel has a pool and free beautiful breakfast (which I'm now eating) and it's so pretty and tropical! They make you eggs, you drink coffee, you sleep in air-conditioning with a toilet that doesn't leak and it only costs about $7.50 a night. Boom.
After an entire day of 7/11 yogurt and Ramen noodles from the plane, I was starving and craving vegetables, particularly a veggie burger. My hopes were low and I was sad, missing my first love, broccoli. The receptionist told me an area to walk to for food and literally the FIRST RESTAURANT I found had not only veggie burgers (for $2...with fries) but also LIVE MUSIC. and they were good. Like really really good. My book forgotten, I spent the rest of the night eating and listening to the blues band croon their way through American songs, the melodies familiar even while the lyrics remained a complete mystery as their thick accents rolled over the foreign words. The five men in the band looked straight from the 70s, long, flowing shoulder-length hair, flowered shirts and bell-bottomed blue jeans. The man playing the harmonic was wonderful and they alternated between smoking and singing with impressive fluency. In their second set, they invited others up (I think friends) to sing random songs. They ended with a harmonic battle for the ages, the original player being challenged by young guy in a trucker hat and a tie-dyed Nike t-shirt. All in all, it was such a random wonderful series of almost failures that got me so incredibly pumped to be here. And I slept like a baby with the room to myself.
