Wednesday July 9, 2006 - Today begins as quite an adventure. We had to get up at 6am, to get ready and have breakfast before the minibus came to pick us up. We decided to go to the Gili Islands for (hopefully) beautiful beaches, snorkeling, and diving. There are three Gili islands - Gili Air, Gili Meno, and Gili Trawangan. Trawangan is known as the party island, Meno is quiet, and Air falls in between, by reputation. We decided to go to Trawangan and then change islands if and when we felt like it (we never did). We had to catch [View Full Entry]

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Monday July 7, 2008 - I have another cold. Two colds in one trip? Is this possible? We had a slow morning. After breakfast we found an internet cafe and decided to check email and see if we could cancel our reservation for the remaining days in Kuta so we could get out of there. Miranda took care of it in the nick of time and we checked out at noon. Our hotel booked us seats on the bus to Ubud and we got directions to the Perama office and walked over there. Ubus is a place I was more interested [View Full Entry]

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Saturday July 5, 2008 - So yesterday was the fourth of July. I almost forgot. Today we got up early and got a cab to the airport. We arrived quite early and decided to sit at one of the restaurants for breakfast. Of course all the restaurants are on the outside of the airport. And crazy expensive as it turned out. We paid 30000 for the same breakfast we had for 5000 the day before. It was yummy both times. It's bobur ayam, some kind of magical rice porridge and chicken concoction. Wonderful really. The flight to Bali took only an [View Full Entry]

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Monday June 30, 2008 - I arrived in Yogy at 3:15 pm and called Miranda. She came to get me around 3:45 and it was nice to see her. It's been almost three years. We walked to one of the guesthouses where I could leave my bag and meet her boyfriend and then we sat down and chatted for a while. Then we went to a travel agent to arrange tickets to Bali for the coming weekend. Bought our tickets and then went for some dinner. We had fried noodles at a little stand outside. Super cheaper than anything I'd had [View Full Entry]

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Sunday June 29, 2008 - I arrived back in Medan around 10am, in plenty of time to use the internet and get to the airport for my 1:30pm flight to Jakarta. I had to get a bus into the city but wasn't sure exactly where to get out. Luckily it was Sunday and the Christians were out. One started to talk to me and said she could show me the internet that was by her church. Ok. And yes, I said, I'm a Christian too. It's easier that way. So she showed the way there. As we were walking we met [View Full Entry]

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Thursday June 26, 2008 - Leticia and i got on the bus to Bukit Lawang with a local who asked us a few questions but not too many. Could this be our guide that the Lonely Planet said would be waiting for us? It was indeed. After three and a half hours of being stuck like sardines in this bus and sleeping (everytime I'm in a moving vehicle now I get sleepy, like a baby) we were there and he was asking us where we were going to stay, etc. He was a guide and he had two people signed up [View Full Entry]

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Wednesday June 25, 2008 - After breakfast I met Sebastien at my guesthouse. He was right on time at 8:30am. One of the woman there told us we could catch the ferry from the dock at the hotel, that we didn't need to go to the ferry itself. So he ordered a coffee and brought it to the dock and we waited. She was right. We flagged it down and it came over. The ride is about thirty minutes back to Parapat which gave me plenty of time to learn something about Sebastien. And what I learned was that he forgot [View Full Entry]

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Monday June 23, 2008 - So after a long bus ride from hell, I got off in Parapat and got a lift to the ferry. Lake Toba is a large lake, about 450 m deep, and is the largest lake in SE Asia. It has an island inside of it called Samosir, which is about the same size as Singapore. This was my destination. Specifically a small town called Tuk-tuk. The ferry left almost as soon as i got on, and being the only westerner, I was talked to for the entire thirty minutes so the boys could "practice their English." [View Full Entry]

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Sunday June 22, 2008 - Well today is a day I'm not likely to forget. Or remember hopefully. I woke up early to have breakfast at Lake Maninjou and be on my way. I knew I had a long way to go. I just didn't know how long. Once I was ready to go, Jerry walked me to the road where I would catch a bus back to Bukittinggi and we said goodbye. I tried for two buses which blew past me. Then a guy on a motorbike came over, and hailed one for me, no problem. So I took the [View Full Entry]

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Friday June 20, 2008 - I originally decided to come to Lake Maninjou because yesterday when I left Malaysia I felt a cold coming on, and I thought it would be a good place to recooperate. I thought it was a terrible sign that I had a cold coming on, as i was still taking antibiotics for the tonsilitis I developed just before my trip started. But the whole bus journey to Bukittinggi I was sick and really needed some time to rest and sleep. I had had no quality sleep since leaving the states. So Lake Maninjou it was. It [View Full Entry]

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