I admit, still have a nose for luxury. Got to this town, immediately sniffed out a mall & followed the scent.

Although it was a tough scent to pick up... this city's bigger than Chicago... picture a $10 room there... not surprisingly, my hotel's in the slums, surrounded by beggars & rotting filth...

But found it! Complete with a Banana Republic store that gave me the frenzied shakes! Tried everything on but was good & didn't open my wallet. Proceeded to an internet coffee shop, had a lovely conversation with an Indonesian man who did not hit on me! Then went to buy a movie for the night. Disappointingly, discovered the videos here are in the $10, not $1-3 range I'm used to. So rambled about...

AND found a movie theater... with American movies! In English! Saw 'The Water Horse' - with hot popcorn & all! Perfect! (Total, $3)

It finished after dark, so to be safe, took a rickshaw home & bargained the guy down from 30,000 to 5,000Rp.

(Again, this is a modern city, most people drive. So picture me sitting like a queen on the uncovered bench, with a guy cycling the bike behind me, pushing me headfirst down a 6-lane road, cars swerving around us.)

And to top of my perfect evening, there was a thermos of hot tea on the table outside my room waiting for me.

I know, only bitched about this place so far... but I do love it!

The countryside is lush & green with rice fields & palm trees. Jagged mountains surround you... plus several active volcanoes... took a motorcycle thru the jungle to the base of one.

City's just the right mix of old & new. Bicycle rickshaws & horse drawn carriages are the transport norm. But there's a nice air-conditioned mall with free wifi... where I've spent too much time :)

Oh, & the weather... it is monsoon season, but a good monsoon... rains just an hour. It's hot... but cooler than the other countries I've been in... only use my sweat rag every half an hour instead of 10 minutes! (Lovely, I know...)

The people are really, actually, very nice. Without asking, they'll go out of their way to help. The lady sitting next to me on the train this morning kept forcing to take her food! PLUS!... have had people around the world talk to me about religion & culture... but not as genuinely as they seem here.

But the BEST PART is the arts! Stuff I'd only studied... saw a dance performance based on the Hindu Ramayana... a style of dance I'd signed up to learn in college but chicken out of. Also saw a puppet show...high art, not kiddie stuff. And Batik textiles which are an art in themselves.

And lest I forget, Prambanan, a huge Hindu temple complex & Borobudur, a massive Buddhist monument, which after Angkor Wat in Cambodia, is the 2nd most impressive thing I've seen!

And back to the annoying men, between the ring & snubbing most of them the first few days, at the end, it was fine. But checking out of my hotel, one of the guys I'd apparently snubbed on the street said, "You from New York? You very rude." Right back at 'ya fellow!

No, haven't run out yet!

But discovered the book store where I bought my guidebook charged my credit card twice!! Went back & made a scene... scared out 2 westerners. Called AmEx & they resolved it no prob... but still!

And only used my card because I can't find an ATM that will give me more than 1,000,000Rp... which is only $100!

I'm going to Borneo!! Borneo!!! Seriously!

Borneo... where as recently as 1998 they were headhunting!!
Borneo... with its orangutan filled jungles!!

To quote Lonely Planet:
Deep, dark & exotic, the very notion of Borneo rouses something in the subconscious. Summoning visions of mythical people & ancient forest, it tugs at the adventurer within. A void on the tourist radar, it's a red flag to those hungry for the unknown.

I'm still researching the sites & my route... start in Banjarmasin with its stilted & floating houses... next to the orangutans... but it looks like the road there isn't finished... maybe there's a boat?? Dugout canoes & bamboo rafts seem to be common transport... Either way, then I'll meander north up the coast to the other big city where I'll take a ferry off the island...

To really explore the island’s magic, you need a budget way larger than mine, but I’m willing to bust the bank a bit. Besides, honestly, this is one of those places that will be so much fun mentioning I went there... if it turns out to be a disappointment, it'll still be worth the $28 flight!!

Yesterday was bad. Got completely fed up with, per my nicest description, the sexually repressed Muslim men! Maybe should be mad at the women or religion for not letting them have sex?? Either way. Twice shouted at people telling them I hated the men in this town... viciously yelled... no reason... shouldn't have.

Then went for a beer & the really nice & smart Indonesia waitress calmed me down...

First, the majority of the places I’m headed are Islamic... (Islamic/Muslim same thing)... if I can't handle these guys, who don't even grope, then might as well end my trip. Next, they're talking to me like they think Westerners talk... but I'm taking it as my time in India & Nepal tell me an Islamic girl would react. Finally, should just try to take it as a compliment.

Trying out my happy-go-lucky new attitude... can you tell?

Ended up having a fabulous time at the bar... played something like poker (for pennies) late into the night with 5 Indonesians & an expat from Los Angeles.

Plus, learned a wedding ring is worn on the right, not left hand... today, wearing it on the proper finger, things were much, much better!

I don't like flashy jewelry -- it's like a neon sign telling thieves you have things worth taking.

Western men are the best way to scare off local men. But when I'm not hanging with one, I wear a tiny gold band. Not too big to scare the men I'm interested in... but there, ready for me to point to, for the rest.

Today, bought a new fake wedding ring... with enough flash -I hope- to stop them before they open their mouth to say:

LOCAL GUY: You want boyfriend?
ME: No, I'm married.
LOCAL GUY: Where is he?
ME: Home, he has to work.
LOCAL GUY: Then you need a boyfriend here.

Even better... an Indonesian guy staying at my hotel asked me, "Where are you from?" No kidding, very next sentence, "What to come to my room?" Asshole!!

(And update: haven't seen my stalker today)

They treat me like a movie star here... complete with all the crap...

Haven't been here a week, yet they all know me. Normally that's good. When they know you, they watch your back. But these people... the ones that deal with tourists... they're slimy, sexually repressed amateur con artists.

And I have paparazzi. Strangers stop me in the street & ask to take a photo with me. Ok, it's kinda cute... when they're girls. But the guys...I don't know if it's the same, but in India & Nepal, these guys go back & tell their friends you’re their girlfriend... or worse...which perpetuates the easy white woman myth making it hard for western women to travel. So unless they're little boys, I always say no photos.

But that's just the ones nice enough to ask. Plenty just take the photo...& they're not even discrete. Ok, I'm traveling, taking photos of locals, but I always try to be discrete! From previous travels I've mastered the art of ruining their photos...either I curl my upper lip in disgust, or, like a movie star, turn my head & hold my hand up.

And also like a movie star, I have a stalker. Seriously. This guy followed me yesterday morning, even after I told him to go away... I finally got on a motorbike & speed away. He showed up at night, I told him to leave me alone -again- only to later find him following me down the alley to my hotel. Held my hand out & shouted at him while a woman walked by... he stopped & pretend to be lost. Meanwhile I ran around the corner into my hotel... luckily there's 3 other hotels so he doesn’t know which one. If he shows up today, I’ll let him follow me to a nice shopkeeper & have the shopkeeper yell at him. But I'll also carry my pepper spray today.

I've got really great luck meeting nice people. In Bangkok every time I walked thru a certain intersection, I’d pick up someone new... from old men warning me about Bangkok traffic to a woman sharing her umbrella with me... all really nice people, but so many, my hotel laughed on the rare occasion I showed up alone!

Oh, & sleeping in the airport... no problem... asked an Indian man where he'd bought his bottle of water & he insisted I drink his & follow him to the bench next to him & his wife so they could watch over me! Had a decent rest...but woke up when a cockroach crawled over my fingers!!

Earlier that day met a nice Englishman who's going to show me around Bali, Indonesia (where I'm headed soon) & had an interesting Frenchman buy me too much wine at the airport bar.

When I finally arrive in Yogyakarta...sleepy & kind of out of it...a hotel worker tells me it's my lucky day, his art school's having a special exhibit he'd like to take me to. While unpacking, the hotel owner's son stops by & wants to know if I'm interested in joining him & his Australian friend at the ballet the next night.

But it all goes downhill...on the way to the exhibit, the guy pressures me to let him massage me, in my room, for free. Yeah...I know what the means...

And the exhibit, just a shop with a hard sales pitch. Got really irritated I didn’t see that one coming! Two steps out the door I met another guy who offers to show me around town...but I abandon him when another guy recognizes my unusual Hindu tattoo. Let him take me for a beer & we discuss Indonesian art & Hindu philosophy. Really enjoyed our conversation & agreed to have dinner with him later...after I made it clear I have a (fake) boyfriend. Tommorow he's going to show me some things outside of town... after my motorcycle accident, I'm too afraid to rent one myself.

Haven't figured out the scene here yet...pretty sure it's the sex-craved white woman myth...with a pinch of the rich westerner syndrome. But now that I'm well rested, I’m back on guard.

I'm really NOT kidding...everything bad that could happen, seems to happen to Indonesia. Honestly, I am a tad jittery about some of it. So, just to scare everyone else: 

TERRORISM

• Four tourist areas bombed by Islamic terrorist in the past 5yrs. All western governments "strongly advise" against any travel due to a "very high" risk of more attacks.

NATURAL DISASTORS

• 15 killed this weekend & 100,000 displaced from flooding.
• 90 killed in December & 7 killed this month from landslides.
• A volcano erupted last year & another's ready to explode any day.
• Three 6+ earthquakes just this week.
• And who could forget the 9.2 earthquake that triggered the 2004 tsunami which killed 160,000 in Indonesia alone?

TRANSPORTATION ACCIDENTS

• Three fatal airplane crashes in 2yrs. Europe's banned all Indonesian airlines until their maintenance improves.
• Several ferries sank & another caught fire last year.
• And there are pirates.

DISEASE

• Over 90 human deaths from bird flu.
• Recent outbreaks of both polio & leprosy.
• Plus, endemic anthrax.

So really, why go to Indonesia? Sorry, there's SO MANY reasons & not enough time now....I'll tell ya later...

(And for the terrorism, this is the first place I've decided to register with the US State Department.)

I was shocked to see that the movie "Charlie Wilson's War" is in theaters now. It's been in video stores here for 2 months!

Thanks to China, bootleg DVDs are huge in Asia. Most are good quality but some obviously involve a guy in a theater with a video camera on his shoulder. Packaging's the other big thing... half are filled with spelling & grammatical mistakes. And the movies are cheap! Standard asking price is $3 in Thailand, $2 in Cambodia & the best was $1 each in Laos. But the best deal was in Cambodia with 16 movies (yes, 16!!) squeezed onto one DVD for $5...didn't think that was technically possible!

So I've obviously been watching a lot of movies. (That's another great thing about having a laptop.) But since I'm not seeing any of the trailers, please email me anything you'd recommend I see. I've pretty much seen anything I've wanted to see & am now just grabbing random ones.

Tonight, assuming I get my passport & visa back from the Indonesian embassy this afternoon, I'm flying to Jakarta. Where there's massive flooding, little to see & no cheap accommodation. So I'm catching the next flight to Jogjakarta. (Gotta great deal on that flight with AdamAir - $33 total!)

But I land at midnight & the connecting flight's at 6:30am. So, I'm basically sleeping in the airport. But is there a good place to sleep? Is it safe? Clean? There's this great website: SleepingInAirports.net  that answered all these questions & more. Highly recommend the site for its traveler reviews on how easy it is to sleep in a specific airport & what kind of services are there.

And for me tonight, no, there's no great place to sleep, plus multiple reviews mention seedy, scary people hanging around... The movie "Year of Living Dangerously" is mentioned twice. On the bright side, no hotel to pay for.

I'm more or less on permanent holiday. I should have ZERO stress. But - WRONG!

The visa stress is gone... should pick it & my passport up a few hours before the flight.

But now there's baggage stress.

I'm flying cheapie AirAsia... they allow just one 30lbs checked bag & a 15 lb carryon. All the wonderful people who've helped with my bag know mine easily doubles that! Since its $2.50 for every lb over, this could be serious money...

I'll wear my heavy hiking shoes, bring my coat & load the pockets with heavy things... maybe even stuff my shirt & pants pockets too...

But I've heard the airline rarely weighs carryons... so today I bought a backpack to use as a carryon... & I think enough heavy stuff fits in it to be nearly ok... ok enough not to pay a fortune.

Also priced a new big bag. While the duck tape currently holding mine together will last a little longer, its days are numbered. Funny, everything's falling apart this month...

(Did get my sandal fixed, not sure how well... it involved a guy on stool in an alley with a razorblade & needle for $0.30. Now the other one's breaking.)

One more stress - I don't know where to go or how to go anywhere - I've got no guidebook. They're too heavy. I'll buy it there. But have been looking at Wikipedia Travel & I'm pretty impressed~

Didn't want to buy my flight to Indonesia until I knew if I could get the extended 2 month visa verses standard 1 month visa on arrival. (Remember, this is the embassy that closed for a week in Cambodia because of the old prime minister's death.) So yesterday I went to the embassy here in Thailand & they said "100% guaranteed" I'd have the 2 month visa if I showed them a roundtrip airline ticket.

I'd already researched the flights so I went to an internet cafe around the corner & bought the ticket from Bangkok to Jakarta. BUT when I hit submit for the ticket out of Indonesia, my credit card flagged the card as stolen & declined it! And the airline didn't take AmEx which was the only other card on me! So I rushed back to my hotel to get buy the ticket with a different card but couldn't make it back to the embassy before they stopped taking applications for the day. And they're closed today for the Chinese New Years holiday. So I've got my ticket out of Bangkok at 8pm on Tuesday & barring any problems, can't pick up the visa until 2-3pm that same day. Ugh!!

Just said goodbye to another fascinating person. Someone else that's touched my life. Someone else I'll miss.

I've been really blessed to have met some great people that have left permanent footprints in me. There was the Brit expat from Chiang Mai that taught me to relax & just have fun with the things I can't control. The crazy Aussie in Chiang Rai that kept it up by teaching me to be, well, a little crazier. There were the Brits in Laos whose honesty & true goodness I hope to be able to live up to. The young Israeli who's openness I want to find in me again. Even the Ambassador & his friends who convinced me not to worry so much about appearance - that I can still be attractive when repeatedly wearing the same little black dress with a ratty purse & flip flops.

And that's just some of the people that have deeply touched me...

I wish my friend the best of times in Namibia! Thank you for showing me that there are others, like me, who have consciencly choosen to live this life a little differently.

I'd been a sincere Botox devotee for the past 4 years. And everyone thought I was much younger than I am... I'd often get 10yrs knocked off. But it's now been 7 months since my last Botox 'fix'. And it's noticeable. The 3 wrinkles across my forehead have come back home & settled in. I'm back to looking my age.

Which really isn't a bad thing. I know I'm getting more comfortable about it. Not that I actually am comfortable with my age, just getting there. I was even starting to find it annoying always explaining I'm much older than people think.

But I'm not quite there yet. I'm not ready to be my real age. Tomorrow I’m Bangkok bound & know this topnotch doc there that for $200 can send those 3 wrinkles packing. I know I shouldn't. Shouldn't spend the money on that. Should be happy with who I am. But, really, why? Especially when there are options....

When a store clerk hands me too much change, I give it back. In general, I (usually) do the right thing. Probably more so than most. I've been blessed with good luck my whole life & attribute it to the good karma I've earned.

But Asia can challenge your morals.

You get ripped off every day. To the point where it becomes all too easy to think when you get by without paying, that it's just karma coming full circle.

This morning I returned the motorbike I broke & got away without paying for the damage. (The guy wanted to stare at my tits rather than the bike.) I then got a "taxi" back to my hotel & got off with a group of people & wasn't asked to pay for that either. And to top off my change in fortune from the other day, this lovely man I met in Cambodia showed up this afternoon!

I've just had 2 super crappy days!

First, my 8-9hr journey out of Cambodia took 13hrs! It did involve a bus, 3 minivans, 4 rickety ferry boats & a nice one.... & I know to add a few hrs to whatever I'm quoted... but 13hrs! Oi! That got me into a new city after dark. Had I known, I'd have split up the trip or had a hotel reservation... & sure enough, I needed one! Everything was full!! I ended up sharing the only room available with 2 guys that just graduated from my college, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Small world, the only other people on the last leg of this hellish journey were also from Wisconsin! And I'd forgotten just what good people Cheeseheads are... this other family gave us their hotel info & told the guys & myself we could sleep on their floor if we couldn't find a place.

Plus, adding to the stress, the first time we changed vehicles my bag got on a different bus! The driver assured me it would get there... but I didn't get to see it until after I got into Thailand 10hrs later! Had I known, I would have smuggled some stuff in there!

Groggy, from the very long day before, I got up early the next morning & rented a motorbike to venture out in search of a better hotel... sure enough the bad juju continued & I dropped the bike! Not once, but twice! I dropped it on the one side, didn't turn it off & then tried to pick it up with the handlebars... which is also the accelerator... so when it takes off - without me on it - & then falls on the other side! Felt like a total girl! And of course there were construction workers there to watch the whole thing! Broke one mirror, tore the basket, left a number of scratches on the bike & I've got this bad scrape that hasn't bleed but won't stop pussing!

But I did get into the hotel I wanted to... a place that'd come highly recommended. However, I shredded the bottom protective bit of my bag when I dragged it over rocks on the way to the new place... I'm hoping the duck tape will get it thru a few more months...

But by far the worst thing of all, I broke my favorite shoes! Not only are they comfortable but they match my purse! Cross your fingers that I'll be able to find someone to fix them in Bangkok...