Changes for the better

It's Sunday. I've done my laundry, and have wistfully thought how wonderful it was in the olden days, before I began my travels, when I could use a washing machine. That is definitely a good invention.


Indoor plumbing is a personal favourite, and I'm glad to say I've had indoor plumbing throughout my stay in East Timor. Here at the Dili Beach Hotel, I even have decent toilet paper. At the Homestay, it was single ply & not very absorbent. I bought some decent toilet paper for the outside toilet (the one with no sink, and the shut off valve for the toilet that had to be turned on before each use), but it disappeared.


I think one of those new fangled inventions that I've enjoyed most on this trip is the iPad. I can play games (mah jong, solitaire), I can read my Lonely Planet guides (Borneo, Indonesia), I can write blog entries & post them, although I have to use the laptop when I want to add pictures, I can read & write email (it's not always easy to write a reply, since the window is quite small), I can watch Netflix and YouTube. It's a multipurpose entertainment machine. Apple probably wants me to call it a device. Good for Apple.


Like everything, the iPad has limitations. You've heard me complain about music being accessible through the cloud and no longer downloaded. You've heard about my challenges downloading pictures.


But on my first overseas trip, when I was 18, I had to wait until I got home to have my pictures developed.  So this set of nonfunctional interfaces is merely a bother.
I really like the modern conveniences that are available to me. I love being able to talk to Anita every day. I love being able to check the traffic cam at an intersection near her to see what the weather was like that day (thanks Ed.  Your team deserved that Premier’s Award for the DriveBC highway cams).

It's wonderful to be away, and still feel like I'm not alone, stuck, or missing out.
I am particularly enjoying the heat. Yes, it's very hot. But I haven't been cold, except sometimes when I've gone into an air conditioned building. Then I adjust fairly quickly. I check the weather in Victoria a couple of times a week. When it's 31 here, it's nine degrees there.

The days don't vary much in length. It gets light around six, and it gets dark around six. In Langley, Anita tells me, on rainy days (most every day), it's starting to feel darker at 3:00. I'm happy to be missing that.

Oh. Another modern invention that I'm enjoying is modern fabrics. I love my gap fit tshirts. I've never been hot and sticky. Yes, I've been hot. But not overly so. My breathable tshirts, my quick dry shorts and my gortex lined runners are all stellar inventions.

I'm happy to say that I've managed to NOT fall down again, and that my knee is healing noticeably.

I've got two days left at Ba Futuru. Wednesday is a travel day, and Thursday I'm going on a sunrise tour of Borobudur, another amazing old temple that's held in the same sort of esteem as Angkor Wat. We're about to enter the Indonesia phase of EastTimorandIndonesia.blogspot.com.