selamat datang

jakarta.

. . .

hello 13th biggest city in the world.

hello traffic that just won’t budge.

hello beautiful, friendly people who sing when they talk.

hello early morning light.

hello delicious, sickly sweet, floral tea.

jakarta, i like you a lot already and cannot wait to see more of this beautiful country.

. . .

so, i made it safe. the trip was long – 25 hours inthree  planes, but i survived and have good memories along the way. nyc to dubai was the longest, but even that wasn’t terribly bad. i watched loads of good movies and sleep a little.  my time in dubai, although brief was inspiring. i loved seeing the place – especially this.

i got into jakarta last night at 10:45 or so and made it to this tiny, cheap airport hotel with this dude. he is in indo to surf for three months to work. it’s amazing to think people really do get to live like this!

i got up incredibly early this morning and after eating a breakfast of spicy rice //fried egg (sorry i don’t yet know the name. the woman just brought it to me this morning along with that delicious tea), i found a taxi and made it to this swanky, mid-range hostel. it is honestly nicer than most of the places kelsey paid 3x as much for in europe.

today’s agenda = a long walk, a good night’s sleep and a plan for getting here and here. and later. . . this place. . .

thanks for sharing in my journey. if you know of any places i should see // experience during these first few weeks, please let me know!

{i will try to post photos as soon as i can. i am traveling without my computer and small camera this time around, so photos will be sparce, but stay tuned for some as soon as possible.}

* also, special congrats to kelsey on her graduation {tomorrow, n.c. time}!