Local bus trip to Bukit Lawang

2 hours by minibus for 60,000 rupiah (about $6) or 5 hours by local bus for 20,000 rupiah (about $2). I'd be half way there by now. Instead I'm about a kilometer from the local bus station on a 61-person capacity rickety bus filled with 8 people that I can see, 2 of whom were smoking and filling the bus with fumes on an already overheated morning or is it afternoon already? Fuck.

I took the number 64 bus from the hotel to the Pinang Baris bus station where I had the pleasure of 'communicating' with the local crazy in the front seat who kept changing the music on his mobile until it met my approval. I can only nod and smile for so long and I eventually stopped caring about meeting him eye-to-eye.

At the bus station, I was lucky enough, I guess, to meet this English speaking security guard at a local bakery and got the low-down on the bus situation. My bus eventually came, but then it sat for about an hour waiting for passengers. It didn't get many and I seem to be the only foreigner wanting this 'adventure' at this time today.

I was only able to resist the bakery's temptations for so long until I finally looked inside and decided a couple of them were worth trying. Having consumed them already I can say that they weren't. Only worth it if I remember not to buy them again.

The chocolate inside was good. Everything else just looked good.

Now we're stopped getting gas. It seems pretty cheap here. 4500 rp a liter, which amounts to less than $2 a gallon. I guess the war on terror is working.

I'm wearing the camouflage cargo shorts I have debated about throwing away for nearly two years now, after seeing them in a picture I didn't like. And I'm sweating through a relatively new shirt for about the fourth time on this trip without washing it. Amazingly it doesn't smell yet. My hair is clean though, but my teeth are not. Glazed by the margarine-laced pastry. How else would it have been so crispy?

My ankles are 'wearing' approximately 20 mosquito bites, accumulated over the past few evenings. Could be worse and fortunately there are other irritations drawing my attention away. Actually they are far from irritations, just distractions like ill-fitting underwear, an oily face, new scenery, new culture, new country.

I like it here, I do. Much more interesting than Malaysia. Really nice people, really quite talkative. The head scarf on the ladies doesn't do it for me though. Not sexy. I think that's its purpose. I personally wouldn't mind getting aroused every now and again. It's nice to feel some sensation down there naturally and be reminded I'm still alive. I think that's why I've lived in Vietnam for so long.

Head scarves. I can't say I like them. Booooring!

I can't help but shake my head every time I see a woman wrapped up in a head scarf. The biggest libido deflater. Totally defuses a potential boner. You can just hear air getting released from a balloon. It just makes me want to sleep and I imagined if I lived here, I'd probably get married early, have babies and die. Nothing else to think about. Does this free up the mind to be a more productive person? I don't know, but I doubt it.

[Seeing this was going nowhere, I stopped there and enjoyed the rest of the ride.]