Let’s start with a fact: my “layover” at home was too short *dislike*. Before I knew it, it was time for me to (late – what else?) pack my life in a tiny backpack again. For our last month roughing it together, M and I decided to discover Indonesia and its 17’000 islands – to be more accurate I should have written we decided to discover a tiny portion of Indonesia. It would take us otherwise 17’000 days (with unrealistically only 1 day spent on each island). The world is too big to dedicate 48 years to a sole country so we will happily explore this time a respectable 0.05% of the inhabited Indonesia (can you tell that I have been traveling with my better half who absolutely loves maths for too long?!).

While (late) packing, I was left with mixed feelings tho. I was definitely excited to add a 55th country on my exploration list (but who’s counting?) and to try myself at Indonesian but it was somehow hard for me to accept that my comfort zone was about to be challenged again. For the first time in years, after an emotional wedding, lovely catch up with missed friends, fabulicious food, hot + clean showers and some interesting job interviews, I was not ready to leave home. Luckily late packing, running to the train station and rushing to drop off my backpack at the airport did a fantastic job to shaken off my temporary sadness. While sitting at the airport, I finally found myself ready to temporarly say goodbye to my western privileges.

Next stop: Jakarta!

Happy trails and remember: Carpe Diem!

Travelling adventure backpacking