Selemat malam (good evening)
Big news: my blog title is now officially accurate. I am Elizabeth in Indonesia. hurray.

To backtrack: Laura left me. Sad times. Luang Prabang was a lovely place to hang out and recover from my cold however. I also definitely reaped the benefits of my long search for a good guest house as I was rewarded by not only a lovely room, but lovely owners with great advice and wonderful guests to meet over breakfast and then invite myself along. The breakfast there was truly spectacular, Peter, the man who ran the guesthouse was also apparently a chef and he made omelets to die for, as well as homemade jams, homemade yogurt, homemade granola and provided fresh fruit and freshly bought baguette. It was an all-you-can east feast every morning, and let me tell you, I ate a lot. I also got to meet Hilda and Rebecca two older women traveling together, and Hilda was one of the most interesting characters I've encountered thus far. She and her husband bought an apartment in Chiang Mai (Thailand) 20 years ago as they were traveling the world and living on a boat and homeschooling their children. She now lives primarily in Vancouver but also spends much of her time in Chiang Mai and had (unsurprisingly) brilliant travel advice. Hilda was nice enough to invite me out to dinner with them and thus I was saved a second night of eating alone, and instead got treated to a delicious meal. Talk about luck.

My good karma continued and the next morning (my last morning in LP)I met a german girl Carolin at breakfast who was planning to bicycle out to the big waterfall that I had been planning to go to (about 25 km away), so invited myself along and we had a blast. The bike ride was hot, but beautiful and the falls were absolutely stunning with a number of pools to swim in (one with a ropeswing!) We left a bit late on our way home and were still about 5 km from town when dusk really set in, luckily we were rescued by a passing tuk-tuk with some nice french people inside that invited to hop a ride.

Finally, it was time for Hurry up and Wait. Or Patience is a Virtue. Because of how things had worked out, I had 3 flights 3 days in a row Thursday, Friday and Saturday morning. This meant that I spent three days getting up early, going to the airport, going through immigration, security, waiting in lines, and then getting from the airport to my destination. This was essentially an all-day affair in some cases.
Thursday was thanksgiving and I spent it alone in Bangkok which was a bit depressing, but I managed to get some errands run after my flight, and squeezed in a last massage. After wandering around for 45 minutes trying to find an elusive internet cafe my patience was rewarded and there it was, down a back alley next to a strip joint. Oh Bangkok. Talking to my entire extended family was a bit overwhelming, but great. Hurray for technology.
Friday was the real lesson in waiting. I got up early and went out to catch the airport bus which runs apparently around every half an hour. I waited an hour and no bus came. Finally I admitted defeat and realized I needed a cab, but did not have enough money for one as I had left myself only enough for the bus and breakfast in my zealous attempt to not have baht left over. Fortunately some nice guy in my hostel saw my plight and took pity, offering my both the few extra baht I needed to have enough, as well as some more to buy my tattered Lonely Planet Guide. Thank you random guy, wherever you may be (never got his name in my rush), and thank goodness there are good people still. After a flight delay, being searched at security/customs going OUT of the airport and waiting over an hour for the bus from the airport to the city, I ended up not arrive at my hostel until 5, thwarting my plans of sight-seeing. On the bright side, met some nice backpackers chilling in front of the hostel, having some beers and ended up having dinner with them and then going out to drinks with a big group. Unfortunately we didn't know where we were going and ended up in a swanky area and ended up paying $15/beer!! Laughable really. However I'm glad that I got to spend my last night as a bona fide backpacker hanging out instead of sitting in my windowless dorm room alone.

My final flight, today, from Singapore to Yogya was fine. I would say the highlight was meeting a really nice guy in the airport (white people tend to spontaneously strike up conversations when they're the only ones in the crowd I've noticed) who turned out to be some sort of christian youth missionary. I was then introduced to his coworkers, a Singaporian (?) blind preacher and the woman who worked with him/led were him around. They were all incredibly nice, however things got a bit awkward when, upon meeting up with them after getting off the plane and waiting in line for immigration together they asked me if I "was a believer". When I told them I was Jewish the woman could not hide her shock. Apparently I'm the second "Jewish" that she had ever met, and the first one was, I gathered, not actually Jewish, but raised in a Jewish family or something. I got asked all kinds of questions as to which side of my family was Jewish, whether or not I ever read the Bible and what I thought of it, etc. As an aside, it's apparently it's pretty common in Indonesia to ask about one's religion and my host family recommends that I pretend to be Christian (due to Muslin/Jewish antagonism). Great.

In other news, Yogya so far has been good, though I haven't actually seen much of the city. Emma (the woman who runs my language school) picked me up from the airport and I am now settled in a room of my own with A/C and probably best mattress I've encountered in SouthEast Asia. The house is a huge rambling structure, with the line between inside and outside much less defined than in a western house. There are mini gardens everywhere open to the heavens, as well as a few waterfall ponds and Koi in the kitchen. The family is extremely nice and I feel lucky (thanks Tim if you ever read this!). I have already started to learn some Bahasa Indonesia, though my class doesn't start until Monday.

Stay tuned, maybe tomorrow I'll venture out of the house...