I had a great time in Indonesia, and it’s definitely a country to which I’d return in the future. A few post-trip thoughts:

• I was surprised how friendly the Indonesians people were. However, much of this was probably because I was expecting the people to be similar to the rude, unfriendly, and aggressive Moroccans I encountered on my last trip. How pleasant it was to turn down people on the street soliciting taxis, services, etc. just once and have them retreat immediately … and with a polite “thank you.” Morocco, you on my shitlist.
• I finally finished Eat Pray Love. While the last section (“Love”) was enjoyable to read, probably because it was describing Bali while I was there, the first two were difficult to endure. She dedicated only about three paragraphs to eating in Italy (out of 100 pages), and then her account of India was monotonous and too unbelievable. She conveniently achieved all her goals: to perfect meditation, learn to love a dreaded morning prayer, and also find God (spoiler alert: He’s everywhere apparently). How convenient. Reading those sections of Eat Pray Love made me want to Choke Gag Barf.
• This country was committed to not letting me sleep in. If I wasn’t woken up by a rooster at 5am, it was by the early morning sunrise prayers wailing out in Arabic. I kinda forgot this was an Islamic country.
• On the topic of traveling solo, that concept is only strange for Americans. You encounter a lot of European travelers when you go international, and none of them will  ask “why are you traveling alone?”, mostly because half of them are traveling alone. Answering these questions gets annoying quickly. While I still prefer traveling with a buddy, there definitely are benefits to going solo.
• For the entire two weeks I was in Indonesia, I really feel I was the only person there who did not smoke. Well, me and the children. (Well, me and most children).