One last night in Asia...

So here I am back in Jakarta after a 29-hour coach ride from Denpasar in Bali. The coach ride wasn't as bad as it could have been: there were some empty seats at the back that the man sitting next to me moved to after finishing a couple of bottles of his Balinese spirit (half a bottle is enough to get anyone wasted but I guess he knew that two bottles would make the ride much quicker!) so that gave me ample leg-room; the food (included in the ticket) at the service station buffets was very tasty and filling; I chatted to two Canadian girls on their way to Sumatra, laughing at yet admiring the locals trying to converse with us in very broken Bahasa Inggris; and I was even given an old Balinese coin and a strange-looking ring from my drunken friend. Arriving in Jakarta wasn't even that bad as the Canadians, a very shy Frenchman (you could tell he was French a mile off!) and myself got a pretty cheap taxi to Jalan Jaksa – the backpacker's street – and I booked back into the same hostel I stayed at when I arrived seven weeks ago. Into the exact same room, in fact, and the owners were thrilled to see their "Thomas" back, almost as if they couldn't believe anyone would want to return there having stayed once.

Kuta was fun. I had my day in the pool of the Hard Rock Cafe followed by an all-you-can-eat buffet in their restaurant (I certainly got my money's worth!) followed by a couple of hours in their bar with the resident band and dancers, who can only be described as "diddorol-gwahanol." The sunsets on the beach were lovely and karaoke-ing the night away with a load of Aussies and Chinese in the clubs was definitely an experience – they especially liked my “Summer of ‘69” and “Green Grass of Home,” which I thought was especially apt.

And so I find myself with only 15 hours left in Asia. What do you do in that time? Well, I’ve already gone to the local record store and bought myself another five CDs to add to the five or six I already have (not only do I like Indonesian court music but its pop, folk and rock music is also very good) and tomorrow morning I’ll go and find some Indonesian fruit and sweets at the market to bring home – that’s if I don’t eat them on the plane first! After this I’ll head to the bar next door to the hostel where there’s a Rolling Stones tribute band performing, and just before leaving for the airport I think I’ll have a mini gorge on Javanese food – I’m thinking bubur (a type of porridge) to start, then soto (noodles and rice in a lemongrass soup), then sate (you should know that, it’s the one in a peanut sauce) and a whole load of gorengan (friend stuff) to finish. That should keep me going for a few hours at least!

On the coach I looked at my passport and totted up the days I’ve been away in different places. My passport now has 22 stamps, 2 visas and a sticker (That’s Japan trying to be hi-tech!). It tells me I spent a total of 23 days in PR China, 15 days in Japan, 5 days in Hong Kong, 69 days in Malaysia, 3 days in Singapore, 3 days in Brunei, 51 days in Indonesia, 4 days on a boat and (after tomorrow) 2 days in the air, making a grand total of 174 days. Wow! It’s gone fast, too, especially since arriving in Indonesia.

Whenever I tell people I’m about to go home after almost 6 months away they always ask the same question: “So, are you ready to go home?” I suppose it’s inevitable that a part of me doesn’t want to leave. I’ve learned a lot out here about the lives and cultures of the people around me and I’ve changed my mind on some important things such as politics and religion in the process; on the whole (taxi and becak drivers and prostitutes being the exception) I’ve been met with genuinely friendly faces who are always willing to try to have a chat even with their often virtually non-existent English language skills; through that I’ve learned how to understand what people are saying without words and can even just about understand the dodgy (which is putting it nicely) English subtitles on their DVDs; I’ve eaten delicious food every day (although I must say that I prefer Malaysian food to Indonesian food, there’s just more variety – there you go Shu Haur, you win after all!) and at a price you won’t find anywhere else in the world, and I don’t know if I’ll be able to taste anything at home anymore having added plenty of chili sambal to already spicy food for the last 19 weeks; and everywhere you go there’s enough familiarity to feel comfortable yet enough differences to always make the time interesting.

But I have a lot to look forward to for when I come home: having the whole family together and seeing friends in the village again; gorging on mum and dad’s delicious Christmas food (if I won’t be able to taste that then there must be something seriously wrong with my taste buds!); doing all the Christmas traditions we’ve always done – a chat and a sherry at Maldwyn’s followed by carol singing outside the village shop and hotel, plygains, sledging (if we’re lucky with the snow), playing countless board games (we should get a shield this year and start recording the winners of the tournament), watching a good film with a hot chocolate in front of the roaring fire and all the general coziness that comes with Chrsitmas; seeing my extended family and being smothered by my aunties (wait, that last one’s something I’m not looking forward to); then New Year’s in Prague and some serious catching up with ACers over a few pivos; celebrating My Dang’s birthday in Esens; a couple of days in London; then finally the Mari Lwyd in Dinas Mawddwy and a weekend in AC before I need to find myself a well-paid full time job (if you know of anything, let me know) and organise the summer project. Wait, I almost forgot the most important things of all – cheese, fresh bread with real butter, cwrw gaeaf and being able to flick through the radio or my collection of CDs and finding exactly what I want to listen to – I have my ten CDs from here, a load of Songlines and Introducing CDs waiting for me at home and a few on my Christmas wish list too, so I’ve got a lot of listening to look forward to.

So as you can see, I have a lot to look forward to. I think if I was coming home at the beginning of a miserable and boring February I would probably want to stay here at least until the summer months when things get fun at home. But as it is the bitterness of the bitter-sweet pill of leaving is going to be very much outweighed by the sweetness of being home for Christmas and seeing friends for New Year’s.

All that’s left for me to say is thanks for reading this and following me on my travels through E and SE Asia. Well done Japan for being the country you most want to visit (28%), and well done Hedd, Hedd, Hedd, Hedd and Hedd for being placed 1st to 5th respectively in the Poke-Stephen-in-the-Eye Game. This may be the last ever post on this blog – but maybe not, as I think “heddinasia” is an apt name for any blog of mine. After all, there’s always going to be a part of Hedd in Asia, wherever he is.