i climbed to the top of a hill...

**************
a day that was hot and blue when i woke up. i know it's definitely 2011.
and today is tuesday i think... ya. tuesday the 8th.


i made friends with an australian guy named mick.

he's staying at bridgette's home-stay too... making his way out to the mentawais to help rebuild the villages post-tsunami for 6 months.
he's pretty much my new bff.

we made a plan to go explore padang, since everyone else is jaded and sick of it and keep referring to it as a "shit hole"...
we took off this morning and went to the little chinatown area... and found that we both kept looking up at the beautiful lush green mountain that frames padang and finally said... lets just go up there and see what happens.

so we crossed this ricketty bridge...


and started climbing up and up....


as we climbed higher and higher into the unknown... there were always twenty different possible, equally risky, equally dangerous and seemingly uncharted routes to take...
we would ask eachother "okay... which way?"
and the other would say
"well... when you have no clue where you're going there's no WRONG way!"

whoa.
how true is that?

the whole trek, i could not stop singing Local Native's "Sun Hands"
if you don't know it... get on that.



WE CLIMBED TO THE TOP OF A HILL...

the higher we got...

the more amazing it got...


the fact that we didn't even know what we were doing or where we were going made it THAT much more amazing.



THE MOST BEAUTIFUL COLORS CHASE THE SUN

THEY WRAP HER TRAIL IN A TAUNTING GESTURE

THAT SEEMS TO SING OUT LOUD



it turns out Mick is just another reflection connection dropped in my life (as per the usual these days)... he is being called to wander... and following the call... maybe us wanderluster sun-chasers have little GPS magnets inside our souls?
mick plans to stay in and around the mentawais for about 6 months (like me) and then head to india around september (like me)... PLUS his house burned down last year (a matter i am somewhat familiar with after losing TWO houses to fire in my life)... and the list of facts add up to the making of a rad friendship. and we'll be neighbors too! woo hoo!

i OF COURSE thought it was fun to wear my famous boots on our trek.



duh.


all along our climb to the top of the hill... we would come across homes and little villages. (WHAT A FREAKING COMMUTE!)... we were drenched in sweat and felt lucky to be alive... and the people who lived up here did that daily.


apparently kids go to school here for 3 hrs a day... (and of course they get a break in the middle)
MAN... what a DREAM childhood... playing in the jungle and running around free as a bird like that? i love the kids here.
they love to talk to me and use their english words.
apparently they all know the word "boots" and point and say hi and then run away.


i'm just SUCH a fan of any culture where people look at you in your eyes and say hello when you walk by...
i'm so OVER walking down a street in brentwood and CLEARLY being the only other human on the street - and having the other person look down or away or purposely not acknowledge the other person.
i like what josh says to abby when she barks at another dog... he tells her "hey abby. no need to bark. that's your friend!"

i feel like every other human here on earth is MY friend...
most of them don't know it yet.
but i feel like indonesians are much closer to seeing that then americans.

THIS IS WHAT YOU'RE MISSING


my friend and i found a bench near the top with this epic view and sat for a pretty long time... random chickens were walking around us (which made me slightly unnerved being that i am terrified of them)... but i was just so blown away by the experience of sitting on that bench on the top of a hill in Padang, West Sumatra in indonesia... literally on the OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD from the om home and the donna house and the westminster compound... and my parents....

and yet...

i was home.


we finally realized it was almost 3pm and we were starving, so we started to head back down towards the city... but chose to go the opposite way we have come up... just to see what happened.

we ended up walking right through a graveyard.

... just to top off the ridiculousness of the journey.

i'm now back at the homestay writing and reflecting as "come around sundown" plays on brent's speakers next to me.

i moved out of the princess room this morning to make room for brent's guest who arrived today (not yesterday... ha!)... and is gonna be hanging out until the boat is ready, which is looking like hopefully tomorrow! so i am now in a bunk in brent's room.
there was a sunburned 62 year old belgian man (with the gnarliest 2nd degree burns on his bald head i have ever seen) staying in here the last few nights, but he took off today...

we actually had an amazing conversation this morning over coffee before my adventure buddy got up.
The belgian guy started traveling the world when he was 18yrs old and has spent his entire life as a traveller and a travel agent when he needs money....
He is the epitome of a gypsy for 40+ years.

He left me with the following advice....

IT GOES BY VERY QUICKLY.
LIVE FOR TODAY.
&
TALK TO EVERYBODY.

i love him and wish him well on his travels and hope his dome heals soon without too much peeling.
blessings to you belgium man.

ahhh... the prayers just started echo-ing across the city as i wrote the word "blessings"... that must mean two things:
1. magic & spirit are with me as i write this
and
2. its that time of day... so it's gonna start pouring rain any moment.


(in case you wanted to know what "sheets of rain" look like... here it is last night.)