Caution: Rhino Crossing Next 30 km

That is what is posted on the sign on the side of the road in Indonesia.

 

Watch out for rhinos. Also, komodo dragons.

 

Indonesia is an island nation scattered across the South China Sea, part of the Pacific Ocean, and is home to wildlife like rhinos and various lizards, as well as the proboscis monkey and orangutan. It's also home to many interesting plant species, including the coffee bean. If you've ever seen the Sumatra blend at Starbucks, it's referencing the island of Sumatra, part of Indonesia, whence the coffee comes. Indonesia is actually the fourth largest producer of coffee. (I tell you all this because it's stuff I recently learned. Before a couple of weeks ago, I'm not sure I could have picked Indonesia out of a line-up, much less a map.)

 

So this past weekend, The BF and I ventured over to Indonesia. One of the Indonesian islands is accessible by ferry from Singapore (about an hour ride), so we hopped on over. The island was pretty resorty, with beaches and pools and golf courses, but it was also very jungley. The road from the ferry terminal to our hotel ACTUALLY had a sign that said watch for rhinos.

 

The highlights of the weekend in Indonesia:

• The pool. Srsly, it was gorge. Or maybe I've just lived in Seattle too long and have developed a new appreciation for a nice pool, but infinity edges, varying depths, comfortable chairs, towel service, palm trees and mango margaritas adds up to "lovely pool" in my book.
• The coffee. I mean, what would you expect from the country where coffee was invented. Or you know, is harvested. It is good and thick and strong and even with a strong splash of milk, it's not pale. Delicious. And it always came served with a tiny baby spoon for stirring. How cute!
• The butter. Yeah....it was that good. I found myself eating extra croissants just to have a vehicle for the butter.
• The service. The hotel staff were super friendly and helpful and accomodating. And in every restaurant, the servers were very proper. They brought out new silverware for each course, bringing proper silverware in quantities rarely seen in the US. For example, I'd learned in etiquette training (or somewhere) about the existence of such things as a fish knife and a shrimp fork as well as the difference between a butter knife and a dinner knife. But never had I encountered all of them, as needed, in the course of one meal. It was very interesting. Also, made me glad to have remembered my etiquette training from the University of Southern Charm and my mother/grandmother/Aunt Big Cat.
• The people. Traveling internationally exposes you to a variety of cultures and people. Also, fashion. I saw male speedos, women in burkas and everything in between.

And there were a few lowlights:

• The visa process. When entering Indonesia from Singapore, by ferry, with a US passport, you can get a "visa on arrival" for your visit. If you are in the country 7 days, your visa is US$10. While waiting in line to get our visa (using the US dollars I had to track down in Singapore) one of the ferry terminal guards tells us to get in another line, that we'll go much faster in another line if we pay for our visa in Singapore dollars instead of US dollars. We follow him to the visa processing station, then hand him our passports. Dude then disappears. With our passports. I mean, he came back, but for a minute there I was nervous. If you cant trust a customs agent IN UNIFORM, who can you trust. We got our visas, passports stamped, no problem. And much faster, as promised. But we're pretty sure dude was working the system, figuring out a way to take advantage of the exchange rates or something by processing us at a separate station. Oh well.
• The butter. It was so good, I found myself eating extra croissants just to have a vehicle for the butter. That's right, I said EXTRA croissants. Plural. Talk about unneeded caloric intake.
• The people. In addition to the interesting and charming folks we encountered, we also saw some people being a little too touchy feely in the pool, one guy who would NOT stop throwing his girlfriend in the pool (despite her shrieking every time) and a kid who was WAY too old to be running around the pool deck naked.

All in all, it was a great little trip and I'm glad we popped over to Indonesia for the weekend.

No Naked Ladies!

I have this recurring issue with my gym: there is excessive nudity in the locker room. Yes, I understand the purpose of a locker room and that nudity is inherent in that, but I often fall victim to FLAGRANT nudity in the worst ways.

Until today!

I worked late (major event next week; lots to do) and then went to the gym. I got there 8:30pm-ish and was alone in the locker room. While changing, another girl came in, quickly changed her shoes and then left. NO NUDITY!

I worked out (worked out hard, actually...ended up VERY sweaty and gross. it was great!) then returned to the locker room to change and leave. Still alone. Still no nudity. Also, there was no one in there to judge me for a) stinking to high heaven or b) putting on a hot pink t-shirt with my bright orange shorts for the trip home.

On a related note: I was so disgusting when I left the gym that I was afraid I couldnt get on the bus, for fear of offending...well...everyone. Now, given that homeless people are sometimes on my bus, imagine the kind of smell it would take to really be inappropriate for the bus. Yeah.

So I walked home. Now, my office is only 2 miles or so from my house and on nice evenings (like tonight) I often walk home anyway. But when you walk home out of civic duty and love for your fellow man, rather than choice, it changes things. Also, let's remember that I was (by this point) a hot, sweaty mess wearing a hot pink "Sanitary Fish Market" t-shirt and bright orange Virginia Tech shorts. With a bright red face and post-workout hair. Awesome.

I like to think it was a safety technic: you're less likely to get accosted if you look like a color-blind sweatbag who's probably street-rat crazy.

Things I Hate, Part 2

I like my gym. It's not too fancy, not too yuppy, not too many gym rats, but not too many loiterers, either. It's between my office and my apartment, offers some pretty good people watching from the windows (I can see out, but they can't see in. It's a win-win.) and it's pretty cheap. I've been going there for years.

BUT.

There is one thing about the gym that I REALLY hate: the naked people.

There are too many women hanging out in the locker room naked. I am aware that the primary functions of a gym locker room are for women to change clothes and for women to temporarily store their change of clothes.

I also understand that showering after working out is a relatively normal and hygienic activity. I prefer to go home sweaty, I find the smell keeps the weirdos on the bus away. To each his own.

However, if you're going to shower at the gym (or any shared space), rules of common decency dictate that you be fully naked for ONLY the necessary periods of time. Unfortunately some of the women at my gym do not follow this life rule.

- There's the pregnant lady who clearly chose her just-below-the-lowslung-jeans-waistband tattoo design WAY before she was pregnant. It has since stretched. I know this because she spent extensive time naked in the locker room.
- Then there's the chick who took her towel into the shower area and after her shower, wrapped the towel around her hair and walked back to her locker completely bare-ass naked. Upon arriving at her locker, she proceeded to take the towel off her head, fluff her hair, then toss the towel on the bench while she lotioned up. Naked. With her foot up on the bench, creating a genuine full-on crotch shot.
- Then there are the multitudes of women who leave the shower area, with the towel wrapped around them properly, only to drop it to the ground when they arrive at their lockers. Wouldn't be a problem if they swiftly put clothes on or if they faced the lockers. They never do.

These women are probably lovely women, but their extensive semi-public nudity weirds me out. I never know where to look! I don't want them to think I'm staring at them, but sometimes I am staring! Like when the pregnant/tattooed lady is naked. Or when the naked woman happens to be old. Or just, staring in general, out of confusion.

I've taken to hitting the gym a little later than the main after-work rush, to reduce my naked-encounter quotient. It's working so far, but the other shoe's gonna drop any day now.