Tina's wanderings around the world

Fun fact. I quit my job. Or rather, I'm taking a pause. When I said there were a lot of reasons I was ending my contract early, it was true. Around three years' worth of reasons, stress, and feeling undervalued, I figured it was time to call it a day. At least for a while. I want a few months to just breathe and not have to wake up at 5am or 6am. Or go to bed at a grandma hour. Or go to bed without Marcus!! Or feel unseen.  That leaves a significant vacuum in my days, one that I'm not unfamiliar with, but I'm trying to approach it differently this time. I'm trying to value this time, rather than be scared of it. I'm usually scared at how long my time in between jobs is going to last, and I stress about whether and when someone is going to hire me. This time, I know I'll get hired. I don't know when, but it's just a question of time. And I don't want to waste this time, I want to treat it as precious and to use it wisely. Even if using it wisely i...

When did I first learn about jamu? Eat Pray Love? Was it when we got married in Bali? My curiosity was piqued then. In the intervening years my interest in plant medicine has soared, and since we moved to SG where there's a significant population from Indonesia, and my proximity to jamu became imminently closer, I've been even more curious about jamu.  I stumbled across a jamu workshop as I searched online for things to do during a solo workcation to Yogyakarta. In amongst the batik and silver jewelry making workshops (is this place up my alley or what) was a jamu making workshop. Booked it quicksmart. Naturally I was the only student in my class today, made all the more significant as I discovered that mine was the very first tour these folks have done since the pandemic began! It's just two people, former tour guides at a company that went out of business, now starting their own business.  Resti met me at the entrance to Beringharjo Market, a hub for all things batik. Bur...

For my second visit to Indonesia, it feels right that it was Yogyakarta. Bali is almost in a world of its own, with its Hindu majority and temples and influx of tourists. Yogyakarta is an altogether different feel,  as an arts and culture hub of Indonesia, and with UNESCO listed Buddhist and Hindu temples, it calls. I mean, the city itself is not the attraction. It's the third largest city in Indonesia with a constant hum of motorcycles and it's not exactly an easy place to wander. Some cities, you can walk for miles but this one...I don't find myself wanting to walk all that much, and as Marcus says, when you're in a city full of motorcycles, walking is not a default mode of transportation. Which I find to be true here. Not many walkers around, and as a tall white lady walker, I attract attention. Which is not unfamiliar to me, but I never love it. There aren't many tourists that have found there way here yet, as in a lot of southeast Asia. And I may be even more a...

  This was the start of our transit from Hanoi to Hoi An. Across many travels in many countries, this fog thing is not something I've encountered before, and I found it disconcerting. Extra so as the plane felt like it was 30+ years old. On one of our most recent flights, streams of water came down from the overhead bins during take off and landing. These things may or may not be related to the pandemic, but air travel is feeling a lot weirder as we emerge from the last few isolated, non-traveling years.  To complete the scene, picture a thunderstorm overhead and rain pouring down outside. Imagine sitting in outdated plane seats with the row in front of you uncomfortably close, so close you have to either choose to point your knees in one direction or splay your legs out. Then imagine the worst waiting music you've ever heard which consists of only two songs, playing over and over again, the worst kind of earworm that gets stuck in your head for days. Then picture being stuck ...