Part 1: The first half of my 40 hour day Sunday July 27, 2008 - A day that began with indecision. Really not that unusual for me these days. I arrived in South Korea around 9am and had to decide what I would do with my twelve hour layover. The original plan was to go into the city for the day, and just look around. Then, after a night flight with little sleep, I thought maybe I would stay in the airport and just rest. Then there was also the option of a tour that started and ended at the airport. [View Full Entry]

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Wednesday July 23, 2008 - After saying good bye to Indonesia, I boarded my afternoon flight for Singapore. The flight was fine and once I landed in Singapore I picked up my luggage and found the train into the city. I had already pre-booked my hostel here, which is unusual for me, but I had been told that the cheaper places filled up in advance, and I am nothing if not a cheaper place kind of girl. On the train I saw a couple who had just gotten on at the airport as well, and who were clearly foreigners as well. [View Full Entry]

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Thursday July 17, 2008 - This is another one of those longest days ever feeling days, but admittedly, it was more comfortable than the longest busride ever. I woke up at 6:30, made sure all my things were together, and then discovered white spots on my tonsils. Again? I had already started this trip on medicine for tonsilitis. Now I was glad to be leaving this tiny paradise island for Bali - at least I could get some medical attention. I then went to get the boys so we could get to the wee boats that would eventually take us to [View Full Entry]

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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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