For the sake of closure, I am finally writing an epilogue to this epic blogue.

I didn’t end up sailing home, but I did go sailing once I got home. Here is proof:

I’m sure you can all tell from the photo that it’s me.

My visa expires on Wednesday, and nobody needs crew around here, so I booked a ticket to SF on Monday. It was almost free with frequent flier miles and I will get to visit the airports of Bangkok and Frankfurt on a nearly 50-hour itinerary.

I could have flown to Singapore or Australia and tried again but I’m getting tired of spending time and money being a tourist, and there simply aren’t boats going in the direction I want to go, only boats sailing to Malaysia and Thailand and bumming around. I just feel like going home. I’d still like to try this again in the future, but I can do it any time, and next time I can pick a place where there’s favorable wind. So far I haven’t spoken to a single sailor here who says they’ve had more than a day or two of proper sailing. Everybody is just motoring against the current without wind, so what’s the point? I’ve already done plenty of motoring on the ferries here.

I spent two nights in Lombok and a day hanging around the Medana Bay Marina. I met about 8 boats from the Sail Indonesia rally. Most of them were there in advance of the rest of the pack due to engine problems. Only one of them, a boat from Fiji, needed crew, but the captain was apparently an abusive alcoholic, according to his one crew member. The captain, a drunken French man, dismissed his crewmate’s suggestion that he needed extra crew, and I decided not to bother trying to convince him otherwise.

With a less than ideal couchsurfing arrangement and little encouragement from the sailors at the marina, I hopped on the ferry back to Bali this morning and am now in Padang Bai on the northeast coast. I got a mattress on the second floor of an inn, in the open air overlooking the surf. I’ll have three nights here before I head down to the airport for my flight(s).

I plan to visit my brother in SF for a few days and see what I feel like doing. I may decide to bike to Boston, in which case I’ll update the header art on this blog appropriately.

I’m back in Kuta now, on my own again after a week traveling with Tom. We took a nice three-day motorbike tour up to Munduk, down to Lovina beach, and back to Ubud. Tom navigated with his iPhone, which led us down some rough roads through the island’s more remote villages and rice terraces. We passed through a place called Bedugul, which we decided is the perfect name for a comic strip dog.

Ubud is all about the wellness. It’s full of yoga studios, spas, organic wholegrain fair trade coffee shops, etcetera. I bought some drawstring cotton pants, but I still didn’t quite fit in because I don’t have any tattoos. Ubud has some beautiful spots but the expats and tourists there were generally some of the most unfriendly I’ve seen. Many of the women there seem to be off on their own Eat Pray Love trip to find happiness, and are so focused on this goal that they can’t be bothered to smile at the occasional stranger. It got a bit depressing after a while so I’m glad to move on.

Up in Lovina, there were a couple of sailboats moored off the shore, and I managed to chat up the owners of one of them our second day there. They didn’t need crew but thought that Benoa, where I’d posted my ad, was the likeliest place to find boats that might. Today after Tom flew off to Flores I rented a motorbike and drove out to the marina again. My ad was still there, sure enough, although I didn’t get any calls the whole week. I chatted with a few more people there who said I’m doing it right if I hope to find a boat, but didn’t have any idea about captains needing crew at the moment. On the advice of the guy who offered to take me last week, I drove out to Serangan, an island just around the corner from the harbor connected by a land bridge, and asked around for Herman, who was supposed to know if there are any boats looking for crew. People said I could find Herman at the local warung drinking beer after five, but apparently he was sick and hadn’t been out in a few days. I left a note with somebody at the warung, and posted another ad at the yacht club in Serangan. The lady there was very helpful and suggested I go to Singapore if I don’t find a boat in Bali. She gave me a slip of paper with the names of the three biggest marinas there and said I could find boats sailing out of Singapore at any time of the year.

Tomorrow morning I’m taking a shuttle to the ferry to Lombok. I’ll probably base myself in Senggigi for a couple of days and check out the Merdana Bay marina. I found a couchsurfer willing to host me tomorrow, so I should be set.

One funny thing today: Tom and I had been paranoid about running into the police on our motorbikes, since we’d heard stories of how they stop foreigners and demand a million rupiah penalty for driving without an international license. We weren’t stopped during our trip, but I hit a police checkpoint today where they seemed to be waving all motorbike drivers over and checking licenses. They waved me over just at the intersection to turn onto Serangan, which was where I wanted to turn anyway, so I just drove though. Nobody followed me and the police were gone when I came back a few hours later.

Here are a few photos from this episode. Tom took all the good pictures, which I’ll post once he sends them.

Here are some more pictures I just got from karimunjawa:

I’m off with Tom on a three-day motorbike trip! I think we’ll head north through the middle of the island and then go west along the coast to check out Lovina beach. I’ll check in when I can!

I just spent a half hour writing and somehow lost all my work so I will keep this briefer than it was going to be.

I’m in Ubud, Bali now, staying at this guy’s villa surrounded by rice terraces. I arrived here last night and will stay a few days while I wait for responses to the ad I posted at the Bali marina.

I stayed in karimunjawa for four days, but it wasn’t the sort of place where sailboats often pass through. I joined a tour the first day with a group of Indonesian college students and we boated from island to island snorkeling in the coral reefs and feeding fish. I biked around and drank coconuts I found on the way. The village on the main island might have been more peaceful if not for Ramadan, but it was hard to sleep since every night at 2 am groups of kids would parade the streets beating drums to wake everybody for the morning prayers, which would be broadcast over the megaphones for hours.

I took the next ferry back to Jepara on Sunday and docked just in time to catch the overnight bus direct to Bali. I took a motorbike to Kuta the first day despite its reputation as a tourist nightmare, since it has cheap lodging and I didn’t mind partying for a bit.

Kuta was fairly awful but not as bad as many tourist spots in China, so I didn’t mind it so much. I met up with DJ O’Wally from Beijing (aka Tom) and we had dinner and went clubbing. Sky Lounge was handing out VIP passes at the door for free flow booze, so we did that and felt awful the next morning.

Tom was staying at the Westin in Nusa Dua for free to write a review, so I joined him for free lunch and hung out by the pool for the rest of the afternoon.

Around sunset we took a cab up the coast to the Bali marina where I posted an ad with my picture. A few guys were in the bar and one of them led me out to the docks to meet a guy who offered to take me on as crew. He showed me around his boat, which had a nice wooden deck and cozy cabin, but explained that in addition to working my ass off in rough seas, I would have to contribute 300,000 rupiah a day toward shared costs. The boat was headed toward the Banda islands, and would mostly be motoring through, with maybe only two days of actual sailing. I would also have to pay around $150 for a rush visa extension since they would be leaving in five days, and at the end of the trip I would basically be stuck with nowhere to go but hop on a flight to KL. Even so, I was considering it as an interesting if expensive experience, but when I went back inside, two guys at the bar insisted that 300,000 a day to join the crew would be a total ripoff. They recommended that I fly to Fort Lauderdale, take a certification course, and get paid to work on superyachts. “Go to Florida by October and by December you’ll be in the Carribean,” they said.

Tom and I cabbed up to Ubud where he’s staying in the villa of a guy he met through The Orchid in Beijing. It’s incredibly beautiful and peaceful here. I think I will stay here a few days and see what else comes up. I’m not sure where I’ll be able to sail to from here. The guy who offered me to join his crew said there would be no boats going to Darwin, and nobody heading east across the pacific, since it’s just the wrong direction. Sure, he said, its possible to go east if you head far enough north or south, but the seas are really rough there and it’s not a trip many would make. Maybe I can just hitch a ride up to Malaysia and Thailand and that will be that. Or maybe I’ll find somebody heading south around Africa. Who knows. Here are some pictures:

I’m now in Jepara, sitting on the rooftop of a homestay within a stone’s throw of the harbor, under the stars, just outside a room where I’ll spend the night, for six dollars. (wifi not included, I’ll have to find a hotspot to upload this later…)

I had an exciting bus ride from Jogja to Semarang. I was told I could find an air con class bus at the station on the east side of town for 40,000 rp, but when I got there I was told there are no air con buses and was ushered onto an economy bus, for 20,000. It was crowded full but not too hot with the windows open. An older man, an English teacher, was quick to sit next to me and ask me for my full name, address, and telephone number so that he could find me when he comes to visit the states. He turned out go be not too creepy though and pointed out interesting things on the ride, like the massive volcanic boulders that had been thrown from Mt Merapi just a few months ago. Deadly, he said, but useful, since the locals built their houses from the freshly supplied rock.

We pulled into a bus stop at some other town on the way and the conductor instructed me to get off and transfer to another bus. I was able to confirm with another passenger that the new bus was also bound for Semarang (with my awesome Indonesian: “ke Semarang, ya?”). Amazingly, the conductor on the new bus accepted my ticket from the last bus as payment and didn’t ask for extra money. And once we arrived in Semarang, I had no idea where to get off, but the conductor spoke with my couchsurfing host on the phone and dropped me off with a taxi driver, who he gave instructions where to take me. As far as I can tell, I wasn’t ripped off at all. Completely amazing.

Poppy, my first couchsurfing host and new best friend, picked me up along with her sister, brother in law, and their 4 year old boy in their car, took me to dinner, and brought me back to her mother’s place in west Semarang. She runs a little DVD rental shop out of the front of her home. We sat on the floor and chatted a bit and I managed to say “I’m pleased to meet you” in indonesian to Poppy’s mom, who I think was tickled that I could speak.

After a bit, Poppy and her friend took me out on their Vespas to see the town. Don’t worry mom, I wore a helmet. We had a bit of street food, watched the cars go by, and called it a night. My sleep was full of dreams and I think I felt a gecko run across my chest in the night.

Poppy took off work to take me around Semarang some more today and wouldn’t let me treat her to lunch, but insisted on paying. I am still just as hopeless at this as I ever was in China. She put me in touch with another of her couchsurfing friends in Jepara, Eni, who is my new new best friend.

I wasn’t so fortunate with the bus driver this time around. They charged me at least double price, dropped me off somewhere near the terminal station but not close enough so I knew where I was, and then asked for 50,000 rupiah to take me to my destination. My efforts to have Eni explain things to them over the phone failed when the only thing they tried to communicate to her was the amount of money they wanted to extort from me. I got off the bus and waited for Eni to come to my rescue on her motorbike. I couldn’t think of anything interesting to say to the becak drivers who came up to me while I waited. I thought about commenting on the weather but didn’t know how to say weather. Oh well.

Eni was unfortunately unable to host me, but brought me to this homestay and helped negotiate the price. She just rode off to break the fast and pray, and left me to take a refreshing Indonesian style shower (pouring cold buckets of water over my head), and blog. She’s coming back for dinner in a bit.

The boat to karimunjawa leaves at 9am tomorrow. I’m told there is Internet on the islands. Couchsurfing is awesome. I will try to upload this with pictures tonight…

Today I believe is the first day of Ramadan. All the prayer halls started broadcasting in unison over the loudspeakers at 4:45 this morning. I woke up to the sound with a bit of a cold sweat from something I ate yesterday, and sat on the toilet watching tiny ants march along the crack of the wall.

Yesterday I rented a bike and rode south out of town into the rice paddies. I found a few beautiful quiet spots, but mostly it was hard to avoid the roads and motorcycle exhaust. It was good to have a bike in town at least to get away from the becak drivers, who are everywhere and make it impossible to enjoy a quiet moment in town.

I was originally thinking of seeing the Dieng Plateau for a day, but I decided I really need a break from tourist destinations, so I’m going to take a bus north to Semarang after I finish this post. I found a couchsurfer who said she’ll put me up tonight, and may even be able to give me a ride to Jepara tomorrow since she commutes there for work. This will be my first couchsurfing experience so I’ve got my fingers crossed.

Oh yeah, I also saw a reggae show the other night. I’ll see if I can post a video here.

I stayed in Jakarta another day to take it easy and buy a ticket to Jogjakarta, and so I could catch up with the local frisbee players who get together for pickup on thursday nights. After a delicious breakfast and free wifi at mcdonalds, I walked to Gambir station, nearby my hostel, and bought a ticket to Jogjakarta, eksekutif class. I had some nasi campur at a restaurant in the station, ate a pepper and nearly exploded, and then walked over to Monas, the national monument. Lonely Planet said people call it some president’s last erection. It was pretty quiet.

I took the bus up to Kota, the old part of town, and walked around for a bit. Lonely Planet recommended that I walk along the canal, which smelled terrible. I was hoping to be able to walk to the harbor and see some boats, but couldn’t manage to find a road that led to the water, and just walked down the side of the street while big Chinese-made diesel trucks barreled past. Eventually I gave up and hopped in a bajaj back to the bus stop.

That evening, the frisbee players were playing on a turf field near stadium Senayan, where a world cup qualifying game was going on. It was pretty crazy. City buses were driving around with kids on the rooftops playing drums and chanting. After the game finished, some local guys came and joined us, and the pickup got a lot more interesting. A couple kids had been playing for a while and had decent throws.

The next day the train to Jogjakarta was more than an hour late departing and two hours late arriving. The scenery was nice but I half dozed through most of it, and spent the rest of the time focused on my Indonesian audio lessons.

The weather in Jogjakarta is beautiful. Nice and breezy, and the air is clean. After checking in at a hostel near the train station, I took a becak down to the south part of town to meet up with a friend’s friend for dinner. He happened to be heading out of town for an art project in Taipei that night, by not before he introduced me to a few of his friends, who took me out drinking. We sat on the ground outside the Circle K near my hostel and had bintang beers and local red wine, and smoked clove cigarettes. The bar across the street had a reggae band playing. Then we rode down the street by motorbike for some pretty incredible street food, with some kind of stewed jackfruit dish, chicken, eggs, tofu, and rice.

Today I woke up late and walked around. Tomorrow I think I will walk around some temple. Ramadan starts on Monday, when I think most activity in the city will shut down, and then I might head to the Dieng Plateau on my way to Karimunjawa.

Sorry the camera on this thing is junk.

Today was a crazy trip. My first hostel was nice enough but really remote and nobody else was staying there, so this morning, after a delicious breakfast at Dunkin Donuts, I decided to relocate to Jalan Jaksa, backpacker hostel central near the center of town. I decided to take the bus since I have plenty of time and figured it would be a good way to see the city, so I found Jalan Jaksa on google maps and got some directions for taking the TransJakarta bus from the helpful front desk attendant at my hostel.

To get to the bus stop, I first took a local minibus. Musical trios would hop on the bus with ukeleles and sing and play while the bus hobbled through traffic. Their music was pretty awesome but I didn’t know how much tip was appropriate so I didn’t give anything.

The TransJakarta was pretty impressive. Traffic here is even more pointless than in Beijing and there don’t seem to be any emission standards, but these buses run on natural gas and run in their own lanes mostly unobstructed.

I found my way across the busway with no problem and ended up at my destination, but unfortunately I found that Jakarta has many streets with the same name so I was in the entirely wrong part of town. I walked down an alley with stall after stall of banana vendors. I’d never seen so many bananas. Jakarta has many stray cats with short fur. They kind of look like a different sort of creature than cats I’ve seen before.

The whole city smells like clove cigarettes. I didn’t take enough pictures. It’s really crazy here, nothing like China, where everything is familiar and orderly.

I finally found the hostel area I was looking for and checked into a room by seven pm. It’s a real dump. People say it’s best not to stay in Jakarta and I think I agree. It’s just not accessible enough if you don’t live here or speak the language since it’s such a huge sprawling mess with no obvious center. But definitely interesting.

I am in the airport in Beijing. I’m supposed to be in Jakarta already but all flights were delayed out of Beijing yesterday, they said because of the severe weather, but it was only a light drizzle. I wonder if it had anything to do with the high speed rail accident and the train being hit by lightning. Anyway, with the one-day delay, Beijing has managed to give me a beautiful send off with the best weather in weeks. And I had a really good nap yesterday.

I’ve booked a hostel in south Jakarta that a frisbee player recommended called Kamar-Kamar. It’s a little pricey for a backpacker hostel but it sounds like most of the cheap hostels in the Jalan Jaksa area have seen better days so I figure I’ll start off in some place a little nicer. Directions by public transport seem a little daunting. I am supposed to take damri bus to blok m and then take ojek to the hostel. I will soon figure out what these words mean.

I downloaded 35 free Indonesian lessons to my iPod. They’re pretty good. I now know how to ask people if they speak English, possibly one of the most useless questions I can think of to learn in a foreign language. Anyway this is fun and I’m finally getting another chance to speak a language where you roll your r’s. Apa kabar, ya.

Ok the flight is checking in now, I’ll try to post again later once I’ve arrived in Jakarta.