East Java, Here We Come!!

Down from team of 10+ to 2, advance booking of Airasia tickets finally took its toll on us. Booked almost one year earlier, ended up only two people did the trip - me and my partner in crime, Shanty. We've been traveled together as long as I could remember, but it's actually only the second time we did it 'just the two of us' way, the first was our West Sumatra trip, the rest are along with other friends, either her friends, or mine. And this one ain't coming easily, I decided to go two days before departure date, she was on to go the morning of the D-day. It's a full circle, our first trip was right after we both resigned from our job, and this one is right before she leaves Medan to pursue her new career. We never know when will we have the chance to travel together again like this, but we made promise to do it soon, we pin Sulawesi - Toraja as our next year destination. It's not about being skeptical, but promises usually remain promises, most of our trips were ones we never really planned for, but hey ain't life always like that? :)

One thing I discovered from this trip; Well when traveling aboard, no chance people can know that I'm Indonesian by the first guess (there's only one French guy guessed it right so far, he might be a shrink anyway) sometime people were still scratching their heads when I said Indonesia :( In the other hand, when traveling in Indonesia, many times people thought that I'm not Indonesia too, c'mon!! I look like most of any Chinese Indonesians. I used to be confused if people greeted me in English here, but after several talks with people along the way, I'm kinda finally get it. If I wander around at malls or cities, mostly people will know that I'm local, but once in the buses, trains, or stations with my backpack, they are tend to think that I'm foreigner, according to them it's not a common idea for local girls to travel independently (thanks to low budget airlines and internet, bunch of independent female travelers are on their ways), even some locals I've talked to, still frowned when I said "No, I'm not visiting any families here, No I'm not doing any business here, just travel, that's all" And when they asked where will you guys stay tonight? and we answered "Dunno yet" That's when they frowned even deeper.

Literally we don't even need to ask people what bus should we take, which direction should we go, or so on, cos they will ask us first. Sometimes you don't even have to ask for a lift, they will offer free seats at their cars when they see you walking desperately. That's the beauty of traveling in Indonesia. And I can't get enough of it :D