Jakarta Be Kidding Me!

"We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment." Hilaire Belloc

Holy crap, I've spent six weeks in Sri Lanka!  I know, I had to double check the calendar also to make sure it was for truesies. So far I've soared to incredible new heights of productivity, almost exclusively owing to my new found sobriety.  I've tried all sorts of strange new foods, almost all of them curried.  And just yesterday I got ambushed by a massive water monitor who crawled out of the sewer during the last rainstorm. But I've done almost no actual touring of the countryside! WTF!

All of that changes next week.  I've planned out a delightful 5 day excursion starting in a temptingly misleading town by the name of Kandy and then circling through the ancient cities in the North.  Pictures will be taken, bicycles rented, memories made. Sadly because of my schedule, I realized I'm only going to get to take maybe two more actual trips around the island to see more of Sri Lanka. I hate this part of traveling - knowing that you only have x many days to get to y many locations. It's oddly reminiscent of the logic games on the LSAT, except that if you screw this up you end up stuck with third class tickets and racing the clock to catch your flight. I can't possibly make it to the beaches out East and to the tea country.  And there's definitely no way I'm going to make it to any of the surrounding countries like Indonesia or the Maldives.

But you know, I'm not too broken up about that...I've been saving Indonesia.  It's a weird approach to travel, but I don't know a single person that isn't saving some special destination for the right time to go. Everyone wants to see Paris, but most people don't want to end up spending 12 hours there on a layover and then calling it a visit. It's your first time in a new country, you want it to be...ya know... special. I was asked a couple weeks ago why I was saving Indonesia specifically. Simple - I always pictured a honeymoon in Bali.  No, I don't have a girlfriend and there aren't even available women in my country, but that's not the point.  I have some romantic vision that at least one of my honeymoon's is going to be at an awesome glass floored luxury beach villa in Bali.  Unfortunately my absolute lack of originality was pointed out to me by my little brother Jon, for when I visited him down at school a month or so ago said that he too was saving Bali for his honeymoon...the race is on bucko.

Even now when I'm so close to Indonesia, I don't want to spoil the awesomeness of my imagined post-nuptial evenings in the Lesser Sundas.  I started to think about why it was so important for me to save a destination - shouldn't you go somewhere amazing if you get the chance? Hell, I'm an 'eat dessert first' kinda guy, why over think things? Still though I can't help but feel that part of exotic travel is the romance of the trip, and when you build that image up in your mind it's hard to change it.  Bali is supposed to be champagne and caviar...not hostels and street sambal. I don't just want to tick off the box that I visited on a harried 36 hour weekend between work days...I want to really lose myself for weeks at a time on white-sand shores without having to drag around a backpack. And most of all I don't want to go by myself to an island paradise where I envisioned spending my honeymoon.  That's just soul crushing.

In trying something a bit different, I kick the mic over to you, dear readers.  Have you a special destination that you've been saving for a particular reason?  Have you avoided San Fran because you want to do a summer wine tour with your sweetie pie? Do you imagine the day you can trek into Tanzania with your siblings on a savanna adventure? Tell me about it! Post your anecdotes in the comments below. 

In order to incentivize participation, I will write a Shakespearean sonnet immortalizing in poetry the best comment that I get. And yes, I am absolutely serious.