Coming home

Mount Bromo, in eastern Java

Day 1 of trip home: wake at 5:30 am, catch the morning boat from Gili Trawangan to Lombok. 2 hour bus down Lombok to Sengigi. 5 hour boat from Sengigi to Pandang Bai, Bali. Bus from Padang Bai to Kuta – nice luxury bus with air-con and non-opening windows – except that the air-con broke so ten of us almost died from heatstroke. Sleep.

Day 2: Wake at 5:30 again. Flight from Kuta to Yogyakarta. Sit in airport for 8 hours. Flight from Yogya to Kuala Lumpur. Walk around in the pouring rain trying to find the guesthouse I was recommended, only to find that it burned down.

Day 3: Flight from KL to Hong Kong. 4 hour layover. Flight from HK to San Francisco.

Day 4: sleep.

I’m only through Day 2 as I write this. Somewhere on June 4th I enter the International Dateline timewarp and have a very long day, arriving only a few hours after I leave despite being in the air for 22 hours. Since abandoning Java, I’ve been napping on the beach in the Gili Islands, reading spy novels and really relaxing. I think I deny myself simple pleasures sometimes in favor of complicated challenges, but I had no problem just sitting in the sun this time. A few photos of Gili are forthcoming but not until I get home. Nothing much more to add at this point! Thanks to everyone for reading along.

Andy Radin