June 21, 2005

Hello from Southeast Asia!!!

Last time I wrote I was just about to leave Australia.  I did some interesting things before I left, such as sleep in a big teepee, take a lovely 17 hour bus ride back to Sydney, and stay with Dave and Sarah once again before I boarded my plane and left Oz.  When I was saying goodbye to Dave and Sarah it felt so normal, like I was going to be back there in a month or so, as usual.  But, no, this was not the case.  I was leaving Australia for good.  I was really excited about it for at least a week beforehand but when I knew the time had come, I was having very mixed feelings about it.  It all really hit me when I when I was on my bus ride back to Sydney and we drove over the harbour bridge.  I looked out my window at the brilliant Opera House and smiled.  The smile on my face quickly turned to a confused look when my brain registered that this would possibly be the last time that I would see it's beautiful sails. 

I took an overnight flight up to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia where I would spend two days with some friends of my cousin.  As soon as I stepped off the plane I realized that I was no longer in an English speaking country anymore.  The languages on the signs were different, the masses of people weren't white but they were a melting pot of all ethnicities, and the smells that were wafting through the air let me know that I had arrived in Asia.  I got my bags and went through customs to find a taxi and then immediately entered into the world of haggling.  Oh my goodness, I forgot how annoying it can be. 

I bargained with a few taxi drivers for what I was told would be a reasonable price out to the house where I was staying.  It was about 45 minutes outside of the city and cost me no more than 30 USD in a cab.  You would pay about five times that amount back in the states.  That's when a smile hit my face and I realized that not only had I entered Southeast Asia, I had entered my dream world full of cheap food, goods, transport, and entertainment!

The minute I arrived at the house I would be staying at for the next two nights, the MAID and Carol, my cousins friend, ran out to greet me.  The MAID immediately took all of my belongings inside and put them in my room.  She then proceeded to cut me fresh mango and honey dew melon along with preparing my a fresh glass of orange juice.  I was told to give the MAID all of my dirty laundry, which I had plenty of, and then it was off to the pool for the day.  I came back while Carol was at work and the MAID cooked me a three course lunch fit for a queen, obviously!  (Wink Wink!) She gave me all of my finished laundry which had been ironed (even my t-shirts and towels-ridiculous!) and then continued the rest of the house work.  I was in heaven.  I wanted to stuff her in my backpack and bring her home. That night Carol and her husband took me out to the Beverly Hills of Kuala Lumpur for an amazing Malaysian dinner. The following day I spent most of my time in the city exploring everything from the markets to the Petronas Towers, the two tallest buildings in the world.  I went out for a girls dinner with Carol and her friend that night to another posh restaurant with fabulous food.  All in all, it was a "tough two days in Malaysia" and I would definitely NOT want to have to live through them again!  Ha!

I took a 5 hour bus ride down to Singapore the following day and spent the next three days SHOPPING!  It is, by far, the shopping capital of the world and the Great Singapore Sale is going on right now so I was just in time.  I got to see a bit of the colonial district as well which was stunning.  The city itself is immaculate.  Everything from the gutters to the subways to the malls, to the people themselves is just clean as clean can be.  And, yes, the rumors are true, there is no chewing gum allowed in the country.  It's just another effort to keep the streets clean I guess and, clearly, the system works!

I headed down to Jakarta in Indonesia next, where I met up with two friends of my brothers named Irma and Jeff. Indonesia has a travel warning right now and advises Americans not to enter so I decided it was a really good idea to go and check out what all the fuss was about.  Leave it to me to break the rules!  They are only made to be broken, right?

Upon arrival in Indonesia I was not able to enter the country and pass through immigration because I didn't have a ticket proving that I was leaving Indonesia and that is not acceptable in their terms. Before I went, I figured I would get there, see what happens and buy one eventually in case my plans changed while I was there. So begins a huge scene in the International terminal of the Jakarta airport. The worst part of the whole situation is that Irma and Jeff, people I had never met before in my life, were waiting outside to pick me up. I had no way of getting in touch with them to tell them what was going on so I was terrified that they were going to leave and I would be stuck in the Jakarta airport all by myself all night until the ticket offices opened again and I could buy a ticket out of the damn country. Welcome to Indonesia, Lauren!

I had tons of officials questioning me and there I am with tears streaming down my face trying to explain that I needed to get in touch with Irma and Jeff or else they will leave without me and I'll be stuck there all night by myself. After they got tired of me crying, they escorted me through immigration and customs so I could meet these people for the first time. I walked out and tried to smile and all I could say was "This is a nightmare, they won't let me into the country!" Jeff smiled and said not to worry about a thing and Irma, his wife who is a native, came with me and thankfully helped solve the problem.

After about 45 minutes of talking to different people, she managed to get one of the managers to put a fake ticket on my credit card and cancel it right away, just so that I had the stupid paper proving that I was "leaving" which I wasn't at the time. They escorted both of us out and she slipped them some money. It was ridiculous. Something like that would NEVER go over in the states. I was almost thankful that the system is the way it is for the simple reason that I was going to have a safe place to be for the night in a country the US government and my mother warned me not to go into in the first place.

Despite a terrifying entrance into Indonesia, it turned out to be absolutely amazing, and quite possibly a new favorite on my list of visited countries. I loved the views, I loved the people, and I loved the food (I even tried brains and lungs for lunch one day-the brains were too mushy but the lungs weren't too bad...they tasted like over cooked bacon-Mmmm.). I spent about four days in Jakarta, two days at the beach in Pelabuhanratu, and three days in Bali.

Jakarta was full of traffic, massages and facials. The beach was where I went surfing for the second time in my life and the waves kicked my butt. The under toe was just WAY beyond me. I tired and after about an hour gave up because I was knackered. After surfing Jeff and Irma took me to hot springs where the water just shoots up in spouts out of the ground. It was so neat and very hot! While we were there, we hired motorbikes and drivers to take us up the mountain to a path that lead to a waterfall. It was about 400 meters down (a little further than a football field) and when we got to the bottom it was all worth it. It was beautiful! The current down there was very strong as well. On the hike back up the path, I went barefoot because I was unprepared and ended up trekking in my bikini and sandals. At one point there was a patch of red ants and there was no getting around them. What's a girl to do but step in a patch of red ants so that she can get back up the mountain? Seconds later one was at my knee biting the crap out of me. It did NOT feel good, that's for sure.

I would have to say a favorite of the whole trip was the motorbike ride to an from the waterfall pathway. We went through little villages that the typical tourist would never get to see. There were old, woven houses that looked as though they should be in museums and there were views of rice fields that someone from National Geographic would DIE to photograph. It was such a neat feeling seeing these things first hand and that's when the smile hit my face. It has yet to go away.

Bali was fabulous. I surfed some more and cut my knee to shreds on some stray coral that was lying on the bottom of the ocean. That was not fun either, but I guess it's the trials I must go through in order to become a surfer chick. I am actually getting the hang of it, although I am still dwarfed compared to the pros that were out there on the waves with me. It's all good fun, nonetheless.

For the following two days I spent my time in Ubud, Bali, which is the cultural center of the island.  I stayed at a place for $6 dollars a night where the owner, "Mama," took care of me.  She was the sweetest woman on earth!  She cooked every meal for me and drove me around the whole island of Bali because I was the only person staying at her place.  She loved me and I loved her.  She took such good care of me and showed me beautiful  rice fields and terraces, temples, mountains and lakes.  The views were out of this world.  I even got the see a show one night where beautiful men and women dressed and danced as the traditional Balinese once did. 

There was a guy named Steven that had been staying with her for almost a year and he joined us in all of our travels around the island as well.  One day he actually took me by his motorbike to his friends art gallery where I set my eyes on some of the most amazing art I had ever seen.  He also took me to his friends house that had about six artists living there.  I walked in and some of them were carving bamboo cups, others were working on paintings and another one was working with leather.  It was so cool to hang out with these guys!  The one guy that was working with leather showed me some of the stuff he had made.  I saw a few belts and asked him if he could make me one.  We designed it together and then he made it up, right then and there.  It took him an hour and I had the perfect belt in the end.  It was so cool!  These people are so incredibly talented!

Mama and Steven took me to the airport that night and I got out of the car to grab my stuff, which I have been acquiring more and more of. How can I resist a fabulous $2 shirt here and there?! I gave her and Steven a hug and then sadly smiled, said my goodbyes and walked away.  I stopped and turned around halfway to the door and yelled, "I don't want to go!"  and Mama covered her mouth and had tears in her eyes which then put tears in my eyes.  I really didn't want to go.  If I wasn't meeting Janelle a week from then, I would have changed my ticket and stayed.  It's the first time in so long that I have felt like I truly wanted to be where I was.  Indonesia has the most amazing people, the most incredible food and a beautiful countryside.  What's not to love?

I made my way to the Kuala Lumpur Airport in Malaysia where I spent the night sleeping on a bunch of chairs with cushions that I pushed up to the window and left enough room to squeeze my bags in between the window and me.  I slept on my small backpack in order to protect my camera, ipod, passport, and airplane ticket. I didn't get much sleep because I was worried about someone coming and taking some of the few things I have to survive on.  The airport was actually quite nice and air-conditioned which was a BIG plus.  Not many places over here are. 

I boarded my plane for the Philippines the next morning and arrived in the humidity pool of the pacific ocean.  The Philippines are okay.  They are nothing compared to Indonesia though.  The people just don't seem as friendly, although they do seem quite happy because they all like to sing out loud as they go through the motions of their day.  Karaoke is a really big thing over here, maybe they are practicing?!  I am leaving Manila tomorrow to check out a volcano and a crater lake down south. Hopefully I will find that the Philippines are actually really good outside the dingy scenes of Manila. 

In exactly three days, I will be picking Janelle up at the Bangkok airport and we will, TOGETHER, explore Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos.  I am SO incredibly excited to have a travel buddy to share these experiences with! 

Until next time...

Lauren P. Coker