Weekend Trip

I'm back from a trip. From May 14th-16th I went to Ujung Genteng, West Java, for the weekend. I went with a group of 15 people whom I met on an online backpacking community. It was our first trip together. Although we were strangers, when we first met, we got along fast and built friendships on the trip.

The journey was 8 hours one way. It was a bumpy ride because the location was deep in a village. I barely slept because of the uneven terrain. One minute I fell asleep but the next minute I woke up with neck pain. I should've brought neck support to help me sleep.

In the morning we went to a nearby waterfall. At midday we walked along the coastline so that we could arrive at the turtle park in the afternoon to release baby turtles to the sea. After that in the evening we went to see a turtle laying her eggs. We walked in the dark because sea turtle eyes are sensitive to light. Walking in the dark was like walking in a big planetarium. I could the the stars above and I could see the silhouettes of the other people around me. Although it wasn't pitch black at all I had to watch my step because logs and coral were everywhere. Too bad my camera couldn't capture the wonder of the night sky.

It was a fantastic experience!

Getting Hit On

I take public transport to go home.

This happened few months back in 2009. As soon as I entered the door. I FELT that a man kept looking at me. I say FELT because I didn't look straight into his eyes but from the corner of my eyes I could FEEL that he kept looking at me.

For few minutes on the road he was silent. Then he broke the silence by asking where I came from before hopping in. "From office", I replied briefly. Then he asked where my office is. "Near here". He kept and kept asking me. I replied because I didn't want to be rude and there were few passengers in the vehicle so I thought it was safe. I didn't bother to ask something about him because i wasn't interested in knowing him.

I didn't complain and he thought that I was open for his further questions. He kept asking about what my job is and what I do at my job. During the interrogation we sat on a long bench next to each other. I saw that next to him was a lot of space for him to sit but he kept pushing his way to me and sticking plus rubbing his shoulder into me. I was disgusted and creeped! Again I didn't yell at him because I didn't want to be rude and impolite to a much older person. He looked like 35-40 something.

At that very moment I felt that there was something wrong with him and I needed to stand up for myself. I said to him, "Sir, why don't you ask questions to other women around. There are plenty". I waved to a woman sitting in front of me, "Miss, miss, this man needs a word with you". This not so gentleman pulled his shoulder off of me. I was relieved but my heart was still beating fast and my body was shaking a bit.

Then his last words before stepping out of the vehicle were, "I'm a member of a movie committee". I didn't buy his words because I'm a graphic designer and I know that the relation of graphic designing and movie making doesn't click.

How do you deal with the situation of getting hit on?