Yogya

Made it to Yogya, safe and sound! The flight from banda aceh to here cost a little more than i was expecting but i guess thats how it goes when you book your flight the day of at the airport! and the timing worked out perfectly so the lack of hassle was probably worth it.
i like this city already, something kinda quirky and comforting about it. i just got checked into a hotel, i dont think im going to stay there the whole time but its in the area i want to stay in and my first choice was fully booked and it is cheap and clean so will stay here tonight and tomorrow find somewhere else! i think im going to be here a total of 1 week but taking day trips for a couple of the days to temples and such around here

xo!

Weh Cool

In pulau weh and absolutely loving it! While bigger (in size) and more developed (in terms of roads and motorbikes), pulau weh is somehow even more isolated and chilled out that the Perhentians. There is only a dozen westerns here... and this is "busy" for them! Its a real, true life, non commercialized, living indonesian island town. With more indonesians than westerners and a perserved way of life, this is out of the norm for a traveler to find. Love it! The diving here is INSANE - so freakin awesome you wouldnt believe it. Stunning reefs and OOC marine life. Good thing too since there is nothing to do here besides snorkel and dive! Rom (the english girl im travelling with) and I have a really great room right on the sand where the major highlight is the big wrap around porch. We have done a lot of good sitting on that porch! Besides the porch sitting we spend most of the time at the dive shop - they have a library of interesting books and a computer with internet that occasionally works (only when its very sunny out because of the satellite). Today we rented a motorbike (which means paid one of the guys US$10 to use his while he was at work at the dive shop) and drove around the island (roads! what a novelty!). We got chased for a bit by some crazy monkeys, but made it safe and sound besides that. All in all its been a fabulous week!
Monday I leave with Rom and she gets on a plane back to england and i will catch a flight to jakarta to go down through java and check out some temples and volcanos before making my way to bali. ohhhh bali. the only weird thing is that apparently for these inter-indonesian flights/airlines, you dont book a ticket ahead of time, you just show up at the airport. strange. will take some adjusting!
Another good discovery is that indonesian is verrry similar to malay, in that all the worlds i know in malay are the EXACT same in indonesian! (at least in sumatra) which means instead of learning a whole new vocab, i can build on the one i already know.
Learning more about the tsunami and how devastating it was for this area has made me really sad but grateful for the safety we have had in the states!

pulau weh

off the island today! taking an overnight bus to KL and then catching a flight to indonesia and making my way to Pulau Weh (near the top tip)

so excited!

onward!

so the time has come - im leaving the island tomorrow! i cant believe it, ive been here for so long now i barely remember life off the island!

next stop - indonesia

im heading to KL with 3 of my friends from the island (night bus!) and then onto indonesia with one of those friends, Rom for a week of diving before she goes home and i will have to find new people to travel with!

cant wait!

updates

the big update on island life here - i completed my advanced scuba dive course yesterday! for my advanced course i learned navigation, buoyancy control, deep diving (up to 30 meters), wreck diving, and night diving. went to a sight called T3 that was so ridiculously cool, and my night dive was my other fav - we went with flashlights and you see completely different creatures at night, plus it just changes your perspective on everything.

also, went to the mainland last week for shopping and was amazed at what an island girl i had become - the cars and motorbikes were a huge adjustment, as well as being in such a big, noisy, chaotic place. not fun! back to my island i go... im currently planning to leave in approx 2 weeks - a lot of my friends from the island are leaving then and it will be at my 2 month mark... sounds about right! now to find a travel buddy and plans...

same same but different

still in the islands - same same, different day! but today its raining so good excuse to come online and put up updates... if there were any updates to send forth! im still really happy here and havent gotten the itch to move onward yet. i think im now going to start keeping my eye out for a great travel buddy/buddies though - since finding someone(s) you want to spend 24/7 with in and out of frustrating and challenging situations is no easy quest! but as for now, i keep realizing more and more each day how amazing and rare the situation i have here is. very, very little 'work' for free accom, food, and facilities (laundry, internet, housekeeping, etc) not to mention being in paradise and having made some good friends. pretty darn awesome. its a great chance to settle somewhere temporarily - unpack the backpack and be able to grow some roots... even if they are grown in sand!

in other news, congrats to Britt and Pooja on their promotions yesterday!! Soooo excited for you girls!

the islands

not much to update on... island life is pretty easy! on 'normal' days, i get up at 8am to catch the first boat of the day, then get brekkie, read for a bit, go meet the afternoon boats and sit outside on the beach in the shade with the crew from Quiver dive school, go swimming in the late afternoon (the water here is amazing), catch the evening boats, then eat dinner watching the sunset over the ocean before some night time hanging out on the beach.

today we were fully booked, so got to take the day to go on a full-day snorkeling trip around both islands! it was 6.5 hours of snorkeling, so quite a day, but amazing. there is such phenomenal ocean life here, beautiful corals and wish and even sharks and rays! last week i went diving, which was also great. my friend romalie who i met in taman negara and came to the islands a few days after me has just decided to stay and get her 'dive masters' which means shell be here for at least another 6 weeks! the dive instructors at quiver are all great as well, and us group plus jon (a new yorker!) who works at a restaurant on the beach, make up the english speaking crew and we have a great time living here in paradise.