UPDATE: As of June 2015, Indonesia allows 30 countries to enter the country for 30 days for free. That means no more VOA for most countries (sorry all of you Australians, you’re not on the list! To find out more information check out this article. There is still a little bit of confusion about whether…
Seriously, what is there to do in Jakarta? That question has taken me a while to answer. Jakarta is an incredibly tough city to get to know. Measuring 662 square kilometers and consisting of over 30 million people (in the greater Jakarta area) exploring this megacity can be a daunting task – and that goes for tourists…
I’ve officially lived in Jakarta for six months. It’s unbelievable that six months have come and gone. At times it has felt unbelievably fast, at other times it has been painfully slow. My time in Jakarta has been thrilling, emotional, difficult and amazing – pretty much take any emotion and chances are I’ve experienced it….
Let’s be honest, Jakarta isn’t exactly a huge travel destination. I’m not saying it shouldn’t be included in your Indonesia travel itinerary (because in my opinion Jakarta is worth a visit) but the reality is that most travelers simply don’t venture here. And if they do it’s for a brief 24 hours. A side effect…
A funny thing happened when the calendar flipped from 2014 to 2015: I realized that my time in Indonesia is finite. I have eight more months here. And while some days that feels like an eternity, I know time will fly by. For the first time, I started to panic that I haven’t made the most…
It’s safe to say that this year has been the craziest of my life. Last year at this time I was living the dream as a backpacker, doing things like island hopping around the Philippines, exploring ancient temples in Indonesia and eating my way through the culinary wonderland that is Malaysia. It sounds perfect, but the reality is that…
Is it bad that I almost forgot it was Christmas? I suppose that’s what happens when you live across the world from home. This is actually the second consecutive year I’ll be spending the holidays abroad, and being away from my family for a second year in a row is a little bit of a bummer….
For Aaron and I, one of the toughest parts of traveling is that we are vegetarian. We both stopped eating meat in high school (long before we ever met) and we’ve both stayed true to our herbivorous ways for the past 14 years. Neither of us eats meat or fish and we have to be wary…
From the moment I found out I’d be moving to Jakarta, I started scouring travel blogs and websites for all the places I’d like to visit while living here. While I have a sort of love-hate relationship with Jakarta, I realize that I couldn’t be luckier to be based in Indonesia. Indonesia is a massive archipelago…
The first time I went to Ubud, I spent less than an hour there before deciding that I needed to leave as soon as possible. I’m not sure if it was the Eat, Pray, Love mentality, the overpriced organic restaurants, or the plethora of yoga studios, but after spending only 24 hours in the city, I…