Laura Joy Land

  Friends + music + food + 30 degrees in October = a very happy birthday!   The cake was a wonderful surprise!  (the colour coordination was a happy accident)

Last weekend I took a trip with two colleagues to a traditional village in Batam called Tanjung Uma. There's a large community of people living in houses built over the water. Over time the area beneath the houses has been filled with rubbish, some of which is caused by the residents themselves, and some of which drifted over from Singapore thanks to one not-so-nice company. To get to the village we took a 5 minute boat ride through the water, although it was 70% mud on the journey over. On the way back, there was no more water and the three of us (200kg+) were humbly pushed through the mud by two men who (try to) make a living ferrying people back and forth. The community covers a large area and consists of hundreds of wooden houses connected by wooden bridges. I walked along watching my every step for fear of the bridge collapsing at any moment, which was perhaps amusing to the locals riding motorbikes down the same "streets". The initial smell during the crossing wa...

This post is dedicated to someone special. You Noo who you are ;)  After seeing a photo of a delicious looking iced cookie-coffee drink, I wanted something delicious to drink too (*stomps feet*) so I got myself one of these... although it looks like a mini Guinness, it is in fact a peppermint-coffee-liquor-creation. photos courtesy of askwhy@FortunaPhotography   More drinks... On the left is my drink of choice at Glashaus. Someone wittily named it LSD...Laura's Special Drink - coffee and coconut milk with a little honey for kicks mmmmm. In the middle is an orange juice, made special by the fact that I asked for no ice and got a hot drink :) It was so good that I don't think I can make do with cold orange juice any more. And finally, mangoes mangoes mangoes, just for Noo.

I rounded off my first week in Indonesia with a trip to the beach. After an enjoyable but tiring first week of work, and a Saturday clouded by a little too much time spent inside my own head, Sunday was all about sand, sea, and "near-the-sea food". I drank my first fresh coconut beverage (blimey that thing's heavy) and chowed down on spicy barbequed corn on the cob, which was definitely worth the 15,000 mosquito bites I got while waiting for it to be burnt to perfection. Indonesia is tasty.  On the bridge above, locals hang out and there are street vendors galore. I was very grateful to be with locals who can speak Bahasa and know how to bargain... After about 30 minutes of negotiations, we bought three bottles of pure honey and two of 100% royal jelly. I paid about 20 Euro for my two bottles. If you know how much royal jelly costs in Europe, you know what a good deal that is!!!  The guy selling it collects the honey from the bee hives hims...