Holiday recap

Okay, so I didn't really post anything over the break but to be fair I was pretty busy. After a few days over at the Wowor's which included eating Mexican food (jakarta version) and lots of video games I headed out to the thousand islands. What an experience, We set out around 5am so the traffic was non existent. Racing through the city at around 80 mph because there is no real speed limit. (there is normally so much traffic that there is no need for a speed limit). We arrived at the harbor in northern Jakarta near the fish market. Now I have smelled fish markets before in Turkey, Peru, and Israel but nothing compares to the stench here. You cannot forget a smell like that ever. We hopped on this big ferry boat which was nothing more than a wooden plank. No seats top deck or bellow. Thank goodness we got there early enough to lay claim to some sort of space. It got so full that some people just hung on to the side of the boat for the entire 2 hour ride. We chugged along and I got my first glimpse of Indonesia outside of Jakarta which is of course beautiful. There were two Australian ESL teachers who joined us which was a real blessing because I have been craving some westerners or at least native english speakers to talk to. I remember remarking that the sun didn't feel all that strong prophetically dooming myself. We arrived at a small village island surrounded by beautiful clear waters. The house we were staying at was well just a few rooms with mattresses filling up most of the space. Us bules stood back unsure what to do while all the good beds and rooms were taken leaving us the three pillowed mattress. We could do nothing but laugh. We set off to go snorkeling and rode on a small thai smuggler type boat for what was supposed to be 15 minutes. nearly an hour latter after passing seemingly beautiful island after another we arrived at a crummy little island where we had lunch and a snorkeling lesson. Its funny, one can easily take knowing how to swim for granted. We then hoped right back on the boat and retraced our steps back nearly the whole way before stopping to let us have a look at all the coral around us. I've never snorkeled around coral before but man this was beautiful. Absolutely incredible. A bit more traveling and so on before heading back for dinner. The three bules got sunburned. I mean sun scorched. My entire body was red not pink. My hands actually swelled up from sun poisoning. Not fun, especially considering we didn't have air conditioning that night much less blankets or any other comfort. Everything about the trip was an adventure to say the least. When your in a situation like that you have to just laugh and enjoy every second because they are once in a lifetime. The next day we did some more exploring of some islands and saw some fisheries and turtle hatcheries. I almost swam with some sharks but was stopped at the last second as some tourist had been bitten the day before. We headed back latter that day and on the ferry ride we got caught in a nasty rain storm. I had a rain jacket so I thought I'd just sit it out and plug into my ipod but water found its way in and I still got a good soaking. I got back to my apartment latter that evening and slept quite soundly.