iamlauracita

Our last week in Bangkok was bittersweet. We had spent a total of three months in Thailand with almost half of that time in Bangkok, and it had become a very comfortable southeast Asian home away from home. We did some Christmas shopping at the mall, which was surprisingly decked out in red and green decorations. We went to the Chatuchak weekend market, ate at our favorite restaurants, saw a movie in "VIP" seats with blankets and reclining chairs, wandered through a local market in search of a giant clay mortar and pestle to take home, and helped Joey decorate his apartment with Chirstmas lights. A few days before our departure to Japan was the Thai King's 80th birthday. The city erupted in celebration of yellow, the King's color. Parades marched through the streets carrying candles, ... read more

During our flight from Bali to Bangkok we had a four-hour layover in Brunei. Realizing we might never have another chance to visit the tiny country, we decided to leave the airport to see the city and get some lunch before our flight back to Bangkok. We flagged a taxi driver willing to drop us off downtown and pick us up two and a half hours later. We had no idea what to expect from the tiny Muslim island. The drive from the airport took us through a sparse, bright, wealthy city with wide open spaces and perfectly manicured gardens. Slick expensive cars slid in and out of traffic around us. The taxi driver seemed a little baffled by our request to "just take us to the most popular part of town" but he obliged and ... read more

Back in Bali, we spent the first few days in the obscenely touristy city of Kuta, soaking up the air conditioned shops and thrilled by the wide array of food options. Kuta is Bali's most popular tourist vacation, particularly as a surfing destination for Australians and Europeans looking for a beach vacation. The streets are packed with surf shops, trinket stands, bars, nightclubs, coffee shops and relatively expensive tourist restaurants. If there is any Indonesian authenticity remaining in Kuta, it is hiding far from the swarming city center. After a few days of gorging on the thrilling array of varied food options and pushing our way through hoardes of desperate street vendors, we grew tired of Kuta's hectic pace and rowdy nightlife. We checked out of our hotel and took a taxi back to Sanur, returning ... read more

The bus from Ruteng to Labuanbajo took about four hours, and Jeff and I sat near the front, constantly readjusting our feet so as not to burn them on the hot engine that churned beneath the metal bus floor. A woman nursed a week-old baby in the seat in front of us, apparently traveling back home after a trip to the hospital in Ruteng for a C-section. (We learned this from her husband, who was clearly very proud of the fact, and made elaborate tummy-slicing motions on his own stomach by way of demonstration.) Nearby, a couple held onto their two young sons, both dressed in orange T-shirts. One of these boys was absolutely terrified of Jeff. Every single time he glanced in Jeff's direction, he burst into horrified tears and grabbed at his mother in ... read more

The bus from Ende to Bajawa was the same jam-packed insanity as always, although we did manage to get seats inside this time. It took six hours of bouncing and jostling and blaring music and screeching breaks and puking passengers and clucking chickens in the bus aisles pecking at our feet and other people's babies sleeping on our shoulders and and suffocating clouds of clove cigarette smoke filling the bus to reach Bajawa, but we finally did, in the late afternoon of October 25th. We checked into Edelweis Hotel, which, despite its name, was run by a group of ever-changing Indonesian teenagers, a nice older man and a cranky old woman. Our room was particularly nice: clean, tiled, attached bathroom and a porch. There were signs advertising internet inside our hotel, but when we asked one ... read more

We took a small plane from Bali to Ende, a city in the center of Flores island. The views of the Indonesian archipelago from the air were stunning: impossibly blue water, countless tiny lush green islands rimmed with perfect white sand. We were the only foreigners on the flight, a fact that would set the tone for the rest of our time in Flores. We chose Flores as a destination mainly because of Keli Mutu, a famous volcano with three crater lakes of different colors, and because it was well off the usual tourist track. This latter reason was confirmed as we descended, landing on a tiny runway with goats grazing beside it. At least fifty people were gathered along the runway to watch the landing, waving excitedly as the plane pulled to a stop. We ... read more

We flew into Singapore’s shiny modern airport in the late afternoon on October 12th. We’d made reservations at Bugis Backpackers Hotel, the cheapest hotel we could find, which was still a whopping $50 a night for a room without a bathroom. We were able to take the MRT (Singapore’s mass transit system, an above and below-ground subway) directly from the airport to the Bugis stop, which was less than a block from our hotel. Bugis neighborhood is known for its cheap “street” shopping, with countless covered stalls selling plastic watches, printed T-shirts and clothing, fake designer handbags and shoes. Our hotel was around the corner from the main shopping area, on the third floor of an old building. We checked into a room with walls painted varying shades of purple. Despite the lack of bathroom, it ... read more