Cianjur, Indonesia

So, yesterday morning I was in Ooty, India and today I write you from Cianjur, Indonesia*. I'd detail you the past 36 or so hours but there are way too many details for that since I've been awake for almost all of them. But I caught about sixteen lucky breaks: I got on a Mysore bus instead of a Bangalore one from Ooty and had a lovely time in that town buying a last-minute plane ticket (only 4 seats left!). Then I showed up at the airport in Bangalore 6 hours early but they put on a 3 hour show of regional Karnataka dance and music. Then I ended up flying with some nice fellas from Holland who protected me when the Indonesians wouldn't sell me a visa (why can't you exchange rupees for rupiah, I want to know?) and THEN I took an epic, epic, epic, there are no words to describe how long it felt, van ride with about 16 people (not even an exageration there, actually) but I was next to an English speaking kid from Jakarta and I found out later that he was probably the only English speaker for miles. The icing on the cake is that when I found out that "homestay" in Indonesia means actually staying in someone's home, I was a little freaked out but guess what--there are two other American girls staying here, and we all want to hike up volcanoes. Oh, and the host family is awesome--they fed me pineapple, a mango and a passionfruit, all before dinner.

Can I just say, I think you guys who make fun of my lucky penny obsession should hop on the bandwagon.

*This doesn't fit in with lucky, but it's really weird--both Ooty and Cianjur are known for growing tea. There aren't too many places that are known for that because you have to be 1300+ meters above sea level to do it. The landscapes at both places look really similar--there's tea plantations cut into the sides of hills and eucalyptus trees in both because tea needs some shade. But Indonesia is totally TOTALLY different from India in lots of other ways--it's just added to the surreality that they have the same kind of place in two places, and I've seen both of them in two days.