Hey guys

Just a quickie today (no jokes please people!)

flew to jakarta after nearly mising my flight...why oh why am i sooo disorganised?!everything takes much longer in asia thats my excuse! Anyway, there was an indonesian girl next to me on the plane, talked for maybe ten mins then i rudely said i have to write my jounral (the paper one..and if you think these entries are long you aint seen nothing yet!!those are essays in themselves, and i was eight days behing, tahts a whole lot of writing for a traveller who has forgotten how to hold a pen!!)Anyway, at the airport saw her again and had a chat and then walking out of teh airport she confers with her parents who had joined her and then offers me a room in their house for a couple of nights!!based on twenty mins talking, crazy!!but good for me!was v worried that her house was v simple etc but i was like, come on, you have no idea of some of theguesthouses i have stayed in!!Anyway, noone else in afmily spoke any english at all and even Dina's (the girl) was sketchy at times but thankfully she had studied tourism at uni so she wrote me an itinerary for my trip to indonesia and whenever she was free showeed me round jakarta and also wrote me texts telling me exactly what bus/taxi/motobike to catch, what colour it was and what to say, BLESS!!!i would have been totally lost without her!people speak less english here than any of the other countries so v difficulty, and this is the capital!!

anyway, didnt like jakarta, very very smelly and noisy and its HUGE!so v difficult to see it all, only walked around abit round the centre but im v happy managed to do a homestay, its so difficult to do!!can happily stay in any guesthouse now!they showed me authentic indonesian food, which is cool

oh my god satay chicken is HUGE here, every street has it and it tastes SOOOOO much better than the uk, literally bbq'd in fron tof you then esved with amazing sauces, YUM!!!

Anyway, left teh infinite traffic jams of jakarta this morning (im not kidding there are even traffic jams after midnight, its crazy!!)and came here to Bandung which hosts goat fighting every sunday and coincidentally thats tomoro so staying overnight.its brutal apparently but needs to be seen, all in my flavours of asia spirit!

then heading off to a tiny little traditional village in the middle of nowehere, god knows how butneeds to be done, and only for a few hours, they dont let anyone stay unless they are v v honoured guests! then through central indonesia then bali, have another two weeks in indonesia i reckon so a good week in bali.

anyway, here there is not much to do, v smelly and noisy..again!and my hotel is DINGY!!!staying in expensive dormitory (thankfully no one else in it) with a groty mouldy batroom and no fan!!argh!but not much in terms of cheap accomodation here since everything else is three star hotels, and only for one night!

anyway, one last thing they have a tacky street here nicknamed Jeans street wheere there are tens of outlet stores selling cheap jeans and clothes, jeans here are only like a few quid, man i wish i had a huge suitcase and free postage to uk!!as it happens i cant buy anything :( .feel for me guys, feel for me!!!

ok so not such a quickie as it happens, so to those of you that have made it this far, well done!

hows the life in uk and other countries?|keep me updated!!!i need english contact since no one here speaks it and thera re no travellers!

xxxxxxx