A gecko is yelling at me right now!!! May 2017

Tracy,

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Tracy
Yes, she's a rock star. After she made the 90 minute drive from airport to hotel, she hit the ground running. After such long flights, I need at least a shower, but she just swapped shoes and we caught the next shuttle into town (which left ten minutes after she got here). Impressed!
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At baggage claim, my inner thoughts, “Well, I hope Jessica doesn’t mind the smell of AVON skin so soft, because apparently my small spray bottle leaked all over my bag.” Darn it. And I almost always double plastic bag my toiletries, too, for situations just like this. Ah well. Maybe it’ll be some added mosquito repellent (although I think that claim was disproved years ago). And then my inner thoughts early evening, checking into hotel room, “Oh, that’s right, everything is going to end up smelling like DEET bug spray anyway (not today, we say to Dengue Fever and Japanese Encephalitis. Not today!!) so having this other weird scent mixed in will just be a unique Bali memory/combination.” And my malaria pills have to be taken with food, so I’ve ordered room service for one. I’m not generally a “room service” person. I prefer to be out and about, experiencing things. But as I’ll be spending this first day solo, and I’ve got to unpack and spread out my skin-so-soft affected items, just seems easiest tonight.

 

So, why am I solo right now? Because Jessica had a major mishap/disaster and ended up missing her flight. Holy crap! When she called to tell me, my heart and stomach sunk into the floor. And at the end of our conversation, I asked her if she’d about thrown up… Because I think I would’ve. What a nightmare. And it was initially compounded by fact that DELTA told her the rebooking fee would be $5,000!!!!!!!! WTF!?! That’s almost twice what we expect to spend on this entire two week trip. Jess is a super competent person who keeps her cool in times of stress and was able to find a way to rebook (only delaying her arrival by 26 hours) for a more reasonable fee. Still sucks a lot that she loses a day and several hundred dollars. But she still gets to join me for adventure!! Thank goodness. When she called to tell me, I feared the conclusion of the call would be that she wouldn’t be coming to Bali. So, *huge sigh of relief* That’s how I ate some fried rice and a cup of soup, which had those insanely spicy tiny peppers in it. Hoo boy, my mouth is still on fire! Terlalu Pedas! (Indonesian for “too spicy”). But also tasty…with a side of burning! Forgot about that in my travel addled brain.

 

EVA air was very nice. I managed to sleep okay for 4 hours and then another 2 hours of fitful sleep. My seat lying back flat was super cool. But the design does only have this small cubby hole for your feet, and the wall curves next to the cubby hole, so I couldn’t fully stretch out my left leg. Strange and uncomfortable. Still, pretty dang cool. And the shredded pork pancake and taro congee for breakfast was really delicious… Not just hood for airplane food… Actually good. Flight staff were so helpful, too.

 

During my layover in Taipei, the heavens parted, and a miraculous light led me to a thing I’d only heard tell of, and I was able to take a shower after 13 hr on a plane before facing my next multi hour flight. And NOTHING WILL EVER BE THE SAME. (also, how is everything a Hamilton lyric, still, months and months later. Everything is a Hamilton lyric) Why oh why aren’t showers available at every airport?!?! So refreshing. I felt like a human again. Also, shout out to the fellow passenger I met at the lounge snack area. It was 6am local time so I poured myself a Kahlua over ice, because it seemed the most breakfast drink of the limited options. Ha. And this man, after saying, “that looks good” made it a personal quest to turn my drink into a white Russian. The vodka was easy, as it was next to the other liquor bottles. But milk proved tougher. There was a soy milk on offer, but no thank you. Told him I was fine drinking a black Russian, but somehow this drink quest was super important to him. The Dude’s spirit was strong in him. Eventually he returned with a small creamer packet from the coffee station. It did make for a much prettier drink. Plus, adorable stir stick with a fat little plane on top!

 

Sadly almost all of the on board movies had been edited for content, and I want to see the full version, Dammit. So I watched the new Resident Evil during dinner as we flew out from Seattle. Perfect Red eye plane movie. And for the flight from Taiwan to Denpasar, I watched German film “Toni Erdmann” (because Empire Magazine said it was good last month, and I think it did well at Cannes, too). And it was good. Although 2 hr and 45 minutes!! That’s pretty extreme and unnecessary. Still, it held my attention and was quite good. And as I was trapped on the plane for several more hours, being longer was fine.

 

Oh Hooray. Just looked at the clock. It’s 8:30 local time, so not an unreasonable time for going to bed. Can’t let the jet lag convince you to take a nap or go to bed early, or you’ll never catch up. But now, this counts as sleeping time for people.

 

I’ll explore the town of Ubud tomorrow and then Jessica will get in around dinner time. I’ve already promised to have a drink waiting. What an ordeal. I’m so happy she’s still able to come adventuring.

 

Oh my God!!! A gecko just started screaming in my room. I’m so glad I’d read a few travel memoirs and blogs before I came here, or that loud unexpected call would’ve freaked me out! And I’d never have guessed a cute little gecko was making it. 🙂

 

3 thoughts on “A gecko is yelling at me right now!!! May 2017

  1. Have a blast! Everything is great here. George’s birthday brunch was fun. And Reagan got in from LA at midnight so she was able to come too. Saw Chris and his kids as well as Nora Atkinson who was visiting from DC.
    So…go enjoy the world My Girl. And thanks for the blog.

    1. Yes, she’s a rock star. After she made the 90 minute drive from airport to hotel, she hit the ground running. After such long flights, I need at least a shower, but she just swapped shoes and we caught the next shuttle into town (which left ten minutes after she got here). Impressed!

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