I began to read a novel called Shōgun. It told a story which happened in 16th-century Japan. A boat with some Dutch and an English pilot struggled to find a shore and unexpectedly arrived at Japan. The crew were surrounded by the native Japanese soldiers, namely samurais. The TOURIST VISA (TR) wanted to survive but the translator was a Portuguese priest who deeply hated Dutch and Christians. Here began the story.

The conversation between the crew used some dirty words and slang. I just skipped them to read more quickly. And the narrative featured perspectives from different characters, such as the English pilot, the Portuguese priest, a Japanese village leader, a Japanese army leader, etc. It made the story vivid and provided lot of background information about different cultures.

I traveled from Anand Ashram to a hostel located in Central Ubud today. I stayed here for 2 nights, and then took a flight to Malaysia.

I was applying for a Thai travel visa. My application on the their website was refused because people currently not in their mother country were not allowed to apply for Thai travel e-visas. I had to go to Penang, Malaysia to apply for the visa in the Thai consulate there.

Preparing for visa usually took me around 2 days. And I would feel uncertain about whether I would be allowed to travel to a country. I could feel relieved only after I left the arrival airport.

To prepare the visa, I had to book the flight tickets for both arrival and departure and the accommodations for the whole duration of my stay. It was easy to get an unpaid order on booking.com. But I had to order real flights and they would charged much money for cancellation and sometimes didn’t even allow cancelling. So I had to decide how long to stay and where to go next before I went to a country.