bogor’s humidity and the 3 a.m. hostel bathroom quest

so okay i landed here because the flight was $27 and the hostel said ‘wifi available’ which in indonesia means ‘we have a data plan for $2/day.’ turns out it was the kind of wifi where you hear the neighbor’s cat screech every 5 minutes.

last night the ac broke and i had to sleep in a room that smelled like someone’s expired durian stash. i checked the weather and it’s 24 degrees but with 88% humidity, which means the air feels like a lukewarm soup. if you’re into that kind of thing.

(i’m not. i’m into draft beers and the illusion that my tangled headphones can block out noise. which they didn’t.)

so here’s the deal with bagor: if you get bored, the next city is a 2-hour drive and honestly, who cares? each place has its weird thing-last week, i heard someone whispered about a temple where the statues’ eyes follow you. can’t say i’m surprised.

‘the food here is bad but the street art’s better,’ someone told me while eating goat meat that tasted like regret.

i saw this mural last week and it’s just a hand holding a balloon. like, what even is that? the artist probably didn’t sleep enough either.

here’s the map of the chaos:

if you’re into chaos, a local said the beach is 45 minutes away but also full of vendors selling ‘love potions’ in jars. i don’t know if that’s true. i did see a guy riding a bike with a ukulele, though. at least that was real.

another thing: don’t trust the reviews. one said the hostel was ‘overrated’ and another claimed the owner kept feeding tourists glow-in-the-dark sushi. i went there. it was just rice. but the glow-in-the-dark part? that’s what happen when you listen to drunk advice.

here are some links in case you wanna hate the same vibe:
- tripadvisor for local markets
- yelp for weird food
- a blog about indonesian humidity

so yeah, if you’re a budget student like me, bagor is a place where you’ll find secrets in the laundry room and regret in the smoothie stand. also, the neighbors? they play gamelan music at 3 a.m. because that’s what peace sounds like here.

ps: i took two photos. one is a clock tower that’s clearly from 1972. another is me staring at a coconut tree because i couldn’t find a better subject.

the end. i mean, the end of this part. probably gonna get lost again tomorrow. again.

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