I was going to write a decent last post at home but I didn’t get to that unfortunately. Anyway, so, I’m already in Indonesia and I will be here until the end of November, then 2-3 weeks Belgium and then back to the US.
I didn’t bring a phone and I will avoid computers as much as I can. So there won’t be much blogging I guess. Probably a little update once in a while.
Sayonora and thanks for reading!
Usually I like it tight but these last days before I leave, my schedule is getting VERY tight. A bit too tight actyually. Oh-oh…
Don’t even find the time to bl
Friends of friends that became my own very good Friends with a very big F.
Back in Belgium now, and I miss them! Come back soon!
Thanks Fn for sending them my way ;)
Very interesting. Via Stoffel.
In the context of my research about Indonesia (see 5 posts back), I stumbled upon the Indonesian singer Anggun.
She lives in France so she’s actually not that relevant. BUT LOOK AT THOSE CHEECK BONES! AND THOSE LEGS! AND ALL THE REST!
Aaarghl she SO can get me. This is like… exactly what I like.
This is one of her big hits, sounds a bit Peter Gabriel. If you forget it’s 2008 and the fact that you never listened to this music in 1997, it’s actually a nice song.
But seriously, she’s soooo hot isn’t she??
Wafels & Dinges (that guys selling Belgian Waffles with their Belgian Wafel truck in New York) created an already-infamous waffle award for the most waffling celebrity of the month. The first person to get this doubtable honor is Brett Favre. Read all about it here. Also keep an eye on the Wafels & Dinges blog.
The Wafel award design was done by Shapish (that’s me!) and soon, very soon, the now pretty not-that-pretty Wafels & Dinges website will be replaced by a nicer, cooler, lovelier, yummier, (…) version done by these same hands. Coming up!
China Airlines is cheap, I love them for that, making it possible to book an more-or-less affordable ticket to the other side of the planet less than 2 weeks in advance. What I less like about them is their little doubtful crash history.
In 48 years they had no less than 20 incidents of which 11 fatal. The first one in ‘69, the last one in ‘02, so 11 crashes per 33 year, one every three year. China Airlines serves 47 destinations. I don’t know how many flights this makes per year, but let’s say 0.8 per day per destination, that makes (365*.8)*47 = 13.724 flights a year. This means if you take a plane with them, you have one chance in 41.172 to be involved in a fatal plane crash.
I’m taking two planes, which doubles those chances, and knowing that the percentage of casualties in all those accidents (825 on a total of 1690 passengers) was 48.8%, both cancel each other out more or less.
All together this makes that I have one chance in 20.586 that I will be involved in a fatal crash and exactly one chance in 40.139,925 that I will actually die in it.
Not that bad overall.
Then, there is also a high alert for kidnapping, terrorism and natural disasters life typhoons and tsunamis in Indonesia. I have no statistics on my chance to die in one of the situations described, but I will attribute my chances here completely to my Karma, which is in good shape.
Also, these ‘threats’ are quite relativized by people who traveled in Indonesia and survived, so I don’t expect any of the threads to be actual dangers. This last sentence was entirely meant to reassure my dear parents.
It’s decided. I leave on August 12th with a one-way to Jakarta. From there I will hike through Sumatra, Java, Bali, and maybe Kalimantan, Vietnam, Cambodia etc.
Some people, my friends in particular, probably wonder wtf I suddenlly take off for a couple of months out of the blue. Well, it’s because in exactly 13 days my current visa will expire and if I don’t leave the US before than I end up in Guantanamo. I’m one of the lucky few though, that got a H1B, which is a 6 year work permit. But that only starts from October. I could fly to Canada and come back the same day on a tourist visa, and work illegally for that period, but I decided I didn’t want to do that and instead use this once-in-a-life-time situation to enjoy myself on a long, unfortunately unpaid vacation. If the work situation permits it, I even might stay a little longer.
So in the next 2(+) months I will be here, here or here, maybe even here.
I might blog while I’m there, but I’m not sure yet and it won’t be much. Not a full travel blog for sure.
