Crazy travel in South East Asia wasn’t about to give us a reprieve as we neared the end of our first month. We decided on an overnight sleeper-bus from Tana Toraja to Makassar. The bus was brand new, but as soon as I climbed into my sleeping unit I realized the compartments were built for gnomes. And poor Elenka is taller than me, how would she manage? At 4:00 a.m. while staring at the blue light just above my head I heard the rains that had been talked about over the past week. They’d come to greet us a whole hour from Makassar. At five o’clock the bus came to an abrupt stop. We jumped from the bus bare-footed, shoes in hand so they wouldn’t get drenched, and ran straight for the doors of our new hotel, entering the place like wet rats. We’d be here for 26 hours; there was WiFi; and best of all, hot water running from the taps.

We were up and out of bed the following morning at five. While the Makassar airport sits well above sea level our aerial view of the city was frightening; the houses looked like tiny islands on a massive lake. Everyone around Makassar, locals and travellers alike, say the past week of almost constant rain, during the dry season, is the result of global heating. I tell them not to worry; when all of the people are gone the planet will cure itself.

For our flight to Krabi, Thailand, via Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. KL International Airport was the segment that made us nervous, we had just two hours to meet our connecting flight. Because the second leg was with a different airline, in a different terminal, we needed to go through Customs & Immigration. We entered Malaysia smoothly, and got great big passport stamps on one of only two remaining pages of our passports—fortunately, we’d still have a clean full page for Thailand. When I picked up my rucksack from baggage collection, we had a whole 50 minutes to get to our departure gate. When we arrived at exit Immigration, I nearly messed myself. There were at least a hundred people in the line-up.

Without hesitation, Elenka walked to the front of the line and asked if we could butt in because we were late. One of the two at the head of the line gave her an open-palmed, apres vous sign; I followed like a good puppy. Supergirl had come to the rescue. 

We’re off to Krabi.