Made it!

Yes! Wouldn't you know it, but the Force pulled through...

Heh. I got through the ticket counter without even being charged the $100 penalty for

date change... Unbelievable. After making it through, all of the sudden wished I had

someone to say goodbye to around. Last time when I was leaving for Europe, I had

my mom and a close family friend there to bid me goodbye and after I had lingered for awhile with them feeling frightened, just said 'get out of here Leyna!' :)

No one this time... So I shed a few tears (lizards running across the yellow painted wall in this computer room! or are they geckos?) yeah, so a few tears, and really feeling nervous... like majorly. Didn't feel like spending several dollars to call mom (had no time left on my calling card), called a friend in LA (Vicken) who was watching American Pie 2... felt a little better. Mostly though, just remembered I'm a tough bitch and laughed at myself a little. So the fear passed. Talked to this really friendly man from Vietnam while waiting for boarding. He had the toughest accent to understand. But hey, my Vietnamese wasn't going to get us far so I did my best to understand him.

Flight went by quicker than I thought. I was seated next to a guy from Texas named Peter

(plane inspector) who was good company, very down to earth. We talked a bit in between napping here and there. Turns out he has a friend in Vietnam who he goes to visit now and again.

They served food at 3am, which seemed ridiculous. They had shut out the lights soon after we boarded and I was about falling asleep when bam, good morning, breakfast! I debated getting up to eat, but in the end said what the heck, free food! (sort of)

Had this chicken and rice thing, Peter got the fish and potatoes which looked good.

Okay, I'm starting to get hungry. (I picked up some vanilla cream wafer thing on the way to this internet place to keep me going - it's 12:44am here, gotta get up in less than 6, but I'm way behind on my entries!)

Blah, blah, blah... We landed in Taipei where me and Peter parted paths. While waiting for our connecting flights though, we walked around looking at the artwork at the various gates. Pretty neat. One was a white stone ear on its side with a jagged bolt of lightening piercing through it and a little pagoda at the top, I think a little imp face stuck somewhere on it too. Peter seemed to find my thoughtful interpretations and energy amusing. I was really excited to be in my first Asian country, though all I got to see of Taiwan was some cool looking trees through the glass, and a mountain or two when we were landing.

Did I mention Peter had way long hair? Cute, but a little too calm to be my type.

So, next flight, to Bali. Met a couple from Montreal on their honeymoon at the gate.

Cute couple. The girl didn't seem to like the fact I was talking to her new husband,

so left them alone. On the plane though I borrowed there guidebooks on Bali to get an idea of what I wanted to do. She seemed nice about letting me use them while they watched the feature film - Crocodile Dundee in LA! I got the Asian dish this time, instead of the American. It was pretty good, seafood and rice.

I met this guy from Denpasar on the plane, along with a hotel co-owner from Ubud. Totally friendly to the point I thought the guy might be hitting on me, but he wasn't at all. Just walked off after we landed, though he smiled at how excited I was to see a mini-temple on either side of the glass of the connecting hallway en route to the visa desks.

I was asked for proof-of-onward travel, which I had. One of the guys I later met said he had to bribe immigration 20 pounds to get through without it. I was soooo excited to be in Bali and unsure of what to expect. Not too bad though. At information, I was told where the taxis were and the lady made a hotel reservation for me - eight bucks a night!

(by the way, i showed customs a banana, two peaches, some granola bars which i had put on my form and the guy laughed a bit... i guess they dont' worry about incoming fruit like they do in the states - but they did want edibles declared!)

(By the way did I mention the airport is not in Denpasar, just says that on the ticket?

Denpasar is another town or two over)

Okay, so got a taxi for 20,000 Rph which is about 2 dollars. These guys were so nice!

But... they decided to sell me on another hotel, namely a more expensive one. Goodness, my first taste of the tourist industry. So, I stayed at Yan's Beach Bungalow, instead of the one I was supposed to stay at. Too tired to argue, but I did make sure the deal was one night and it was for nine dollars instead of the 15$ they said I needed to pay. The guy was like, c'mon you must stay longer so I can bargain better. Bulls---, pardon my French. I had a bit of fun with him and was like, all this because you like me, right?

SO I dropped my stuff there, met some Japanese who had just got there, and took off to find a better place. Which I did after a couple hours, and really got a hang of where I was at which was cool. The roads here in Kuta (2 minutes from the airport) are really busy. Went back to my place, said hello again to the Japanese friends, and went to sleep after snacking on some crackers or something, and putting up this mosquito net which was an interesting task considering I had no string. So I hooked it on the window shade hooks. A genius I am! Nite, nite.