Okay, it is technically June 3rd

OMFG I M 2 TIREDZZZZ

It’s 1:30am in Jakarta and over the last 3 nights I think I’ve gotten about ten hours of sleep.

Last night (if you can call it that): flew from Singapore to Jakarta and it just didn’t make any sense to go through the hassle of going to a hotel when I had to be back at the airport in 6 hours. Why, yes, I am a lazy and cheap bastard, thank you for noticing. My thanks go out to a very sweet couple who saw I looked a little lost and gave me a ride from the international to the domestic terminal, which turned out to be a few miles apart from each other. Looking back, though, I would have gotten a room if I’d known staying at the airport meant I’d have to sleep outside in 90% humidity on a bench already occupied by 3 other people and a clutch of cockroaches (attracted to the food and wrappers people stuffed between the slats of the bench) while the only food available to eat is Dunkin Donuts (Seriously? Here? WTH?). So now I find myself preparing to stand near a deserted ticket counter all night, but in one small way I’m lucky: the air con is still on in there and cool air is pouring out the hole in the window you talk through. It feels great...until I realize I can’t even get into the airport for another 4 hours.........................

Night before this: We had a goodbye dinner for Lauren Hammond on Arab Street from which I didn’t get home until 10, and of course my main objective was to set up the netbook I bought earlier that day. I set-up profiles, changed settings, learned about new programs, AND I even used Skype for the first time!! I did manage to pack, but only after I had checked on my favorite webcomics and updated my Facebook profile among other things. This was my own idiotic decision and I take full responsibility for the mere 3 hours of sleep I got. 

Night before the night before: Had a 6am flight from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore and got exactly 2 hours of sleep, including what I snuck in during the flight. I had taken the last shuttle bus to the airport at 10pm so I could skip paying for a hotel for a night or worrying about getting up at 3:45am and finding a taxi. I sat in the 24-hour Starbucks with a French guy from my guest house and I might have been able to doze off for a few hours, but he was sick so rather than trade off sleeping and watching our bags I just let him snooze. That lasted until about 3am when I couldn’t take it anymore and asked him just to let me be the one to sleep for an hour. Oh, and then I took the train straight in to work. Blechhhh.

The nights before these, though, I did quite well; I got to bed plenty early when I was staying in Melaka and KL and I even had the luxury of actual beds to sleep in. My plan for recovery: drop my bags at the hotel in Padang then sleep on the beach for a few hours before dragging myself down to the old harbor to eat fresh grilled fish while I watch the boats return from their day’s work then back to the beach to have drinks on the pier and watch the sun go down. Oh, my god, I’m drooling onto my new laptop.

But that will have to wait, since I’ve got 3 hours to go and I’m so tired I’m having periodic hallucinations. Grandma, if you’re reading this I’m sorry, but I would sell you for a 6’ square room with a dirty mattress on the floor. But as it is right now, you still couldn’t pay me enough to lay down with the cockroaches on those benches. Asia has helped me get over a lot of phobias, but nothing will get rid of the awful feeling of little legs scurrying all over you. So instead I’m going to bogard that little plastic stool over there and the patch of wall behind it and wrap my arms around my bags. Sweet dreams, I’m sure.

The toughest parts of traveling alone (female edition):
1. Dealing with the stares. Men, women, children, no one understands why there’s a single white female at the bus station.
2. Not being able to relax when you’re in public. There’s no one to watch your back or your stuff so you’re on guard 24/7. Also, you have to keep an eye out for danger AND ward off the relentless touts that just want to sell you cheap/grey-market goods and services.
3. To go along with number 2, 'Eve teasing’. This is the Indian term for sexual harassment against women. Not necessarily condoned in most countries, but certainly tolerated in a fair few of them.
4. Dealing with all of the questions about where your husband/boyfriend/partner is and why you’re traveling alone. Is he in the US? Why didn’t your friends come with you? Who takes care of you?
5. Guys (and very rarely women) wanting photos with you or just taking photos of you. This one I just don’t get. Yes, you saw a white woman, maybe even in a bathing suit, but hey! Look over there! Four more of us! WHY ARE YOU TAKING PICTURES OF ME?????????????? Sometimes, though, I do feel like I should let them when they ask because, hey, at least they showed some manners.
6. Fuckit i’m too tired. Going to lay down with the cockroaches now. Ooh, maybe I can sleep on a luggage trolley!