Sick and Disoriented

Being Sick
Getting out of your hotel and trying new food and drinks is not risk free. I got sick in Bali and stayed that way for 72 hours. I brought an Anti-Biotic and that seemed to work. Luckily I was off for a day in Bali and didn’t have any sessions but when I did go to my next venue – Surabaya – I had an interesting two days of sessions. This is compounded a little by a topic I won’t discuss at length in a public blog – bathrooms.

The bathrooms I visited in Indonesia, even at gas stations, are as clean, or cleaner, then their American counter parts – in some places there is a person hanging around the bathroom who charges for use but they also clean it. I will leave the topic by saying that the methods are very different and that many Indonesian bathrooms, especially out of a big city, don’t use toilet paper and the toilet itself is flush to the ground. This, combined with a very hectic speaking schedule, and being sick, make for an interesting day.

Two old cultures, developing in isolation, both hygienic but simply dealing with things in a very different way.

Disorientation
When I first arrived in Jakarta I was completely disoriented. I didn’t know where to walk, how to cross a street, what was a store, what was a home – no concept of safety (Indonesia has petty crime but the rate of physical violence is low) – I couldn’t tell the difference between a yard and a sidewalk. Now that I have been here two weeks I am getting used to things but have to leave.