Too Humid To Think of a Better Title

So! We are now in Indonesia, bitches!

Our guidebook made a huge deal out of how absolutely batshit insane the Indonesian customs people are. If you bring drugs into the country, you get the DEATH PENALTY. You're not allowed to bring in pornography or videos that aren't censored. (No radio cassette players! WTF?) No alcohol or cigarettes. And look nice, our guidebook stressed, and you'll be more likely to get through without any trouble. "More likely."

All of this scared the crap out of me. It's not that we were planning on bringing in any heroin or midget porn or anything, but all of a sudden I was extremely paranoid. The labels of my prescription meds have rubbed off during our travels... Are they going to put us in jail for that? We still have some spices left over from New Zealand for cooking... Oh dear god, they're going to send us back to New Zealand! Noooo! And look NICE? I'm a backpacker, I don't have any nice clothes! And my hair's not done! And my arm is peeling!! That's it, we're done for. I actually had Ross scratch my arm to get off as much of the peeling off as possible, but to no avail. I was one burnt mofo.

Fortunately they let us in without arresting us or anything, and they even let us keep the spices! Not that we're planning on cooking anytime soon... Amazing dinner for $3? Yes please! Just 2 days ago we were paying $10 for one glass of wine in New Zealand. Ridiculous. And here they even manage to give us free, unlimited, reasonably fast internet, which was apparently too much for New Zealand to handle. (I'm ashamed to say that this actually ruined the country slightly for us.)

Anyway, now we're in Legian, one of the touristiest beach resorts on the whole island. About 20 seconds after getting here, we realized that we have no clothes that are appropriate for this intense humidity. So we attempted to go shopping. Turns out, the hawkers here are even more numerous and persistent than in South America. My brother warned me, but it's still overwhelming. I will never get used to the feeling of being a giant walking dollar sign. (In the end, we decided to hold off on buying anything until we get somewhere slightly less touristy. The first store we went into tried to sell us shorts for 30 dollars. HA! I can deal with sweat stains for a few more days.)

Despite all that, I absolutely love it so far. We're finally back in a strange, exotic land, and that makes me all happy inside. The architecture is designed in a very ornate and intricate style, with precise attention to detail. Once you get off the main streets, there are these tiny little alleyways with high walls that you walk through, which makes it feel like you're wandering around a maze. A maze lined with tiny shrines filled with flowers, and guys on motorbikes trying to squeeze through, and it's just fantastic. There is poverty, but you get the impression that the people here actually care deeply about how their city looks. Of course, we've been here about a day and a half, so it's obviously too early to tell, but so far I've found it delightful.

I'm definitely looking forward to the next few months. Tomorrow we're going to a city called Ubud, the "cultural capital" of Bali, and then perhaps to see the Komodo dragons! Or orang-utans? Or temples? OhmygodI'mexcited! Squee!