Latest / bit of a Rambler / 094 Ramble On

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094 Ramble On · bit of a Rambler

0:00
Speaker 1: Hello. My name is Kai, and I am a bit
0:03
Speaker 1: of a rambler, just a little rambling update, so let's
0:08
Speaker 1: ramble on. I like Muslim countries because of this one
0:13
Speaker 1: little quirk. I mean, this isn't the whole reason I've
0:16
Speaker 1: loved Malaysia and Morocco and Indonesia, but in each one
0:22
Speaker 1: it's always really easy. This is like just a silver line,
0:26
Speaker 1: like a little side thing that's always nice in a
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Speaker 1: Muslim country. For some reason, they always have hypoallergenic tissues available.
0:33
Speaker 1: And so many countries have scented tissues available or non
0:40
Speaker 1: hypoallergenic sundrys in their stores, and all three Muslim countries,
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Speaker 1: I think it's only three majority Muslim countries. I've been
0:51
Speaker 1: to make a point of having hypoallergenic paper products. I
0:57
Speaker 1: don't know. I can find them in Southeast Asia usually,
1:00
Speaker 1: I mean in Thailand, I can find them because they
1:03
Speaker 1: have a lot of hypoillergenic stuff. They have a whole
1:08
Speaker 1: range of healthy alternatives to mainstream products. But even if
1:14
Speaker 1: there's not a huge selection of sundry items, like in
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Speaker 1: Morocco or Malaysia or Indonesia, there's always a hypoallergenic alternative,
1:27
Speaker 1: which I like, I don't like scented things in general,
1:31
Speaker 1: so I don't know, it always sticks out to me.
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Speaker 1: And I just came to Indonesia and it's the third
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Speaker 1: Muslim majority country I've been to. With the calls of
1:40
Speaker 1: prayer going off, and there was no paper in the
1:46
Speaker 1: house I rented, so I figured i'd go get some,
1:49
Speaker 1: and the first thing I saw was a big pack
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Speaker 1: of hypoallergenic tissues. Again, I was like, there you go, perfect,
1:55
Speaker 1: just a little note. I'll end on the big fun one.
2:00
Speaker 1: But I went to all you can eat sushi, which
2:02
Speaker 1: was super effing tasty. I was very surprised at the
2:07
Speaker 1: quality of the sushi, and I was gonna go in
2:11
Speaker 1: the beginning, but it's so hot and there was so
2:14
Speaker 1: much to explore and there's such good food around me
2:17
Speaker 1: here that I didn't end up going to the all
2:21
Speaker 1: you can eat sushi, but I kind of wish I did,
2:23
Speaker 1: because the carpacco and other sashimi can get all you
2:30
Speaker 1: can eat sashimi actually, so I got the premium package
2:35
Speaker 1: for thirteen dollars I think it was something like that,
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Speaker 1: and it was so worth it. I had a lot
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Speaker 1: of tasty sashimi in I don't know, six or eight
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Speaker 1: varieties and then a whole bunch of other fun stuff
2:50
Speaker 1: for fun. And it was super super good, like the
2:54
Speaker 1: fish was fresh and the texture was good, and the
2:58
Speaker 1: accompanying sauces in the little the variations of the sashimi
3:04
Speaker 1: they had were fun and tasty. It was great. It
3:08
Speaker 1: was a really fun time. And if I come back
3:10
Speaker 1: to Indonesia, I will go to another sushi buffet. This
3:14
Speaker 1: one was called Sushi Yay, with an exclamation point after
3:18
Speaker 1: the yay. I slept for two hours. Oh I see.
3:24
Speaker 1: So I'm in Indonesia, which is a dry country, so
3:26
Speaker 1: I'm not drinking alcohol while I'm here, and obviously my
3:29
Speaker 1: body is feeling healthier and all that kind of stuff.
3:32
Speaker 1: But there was one day that I was, I think,
3:34
Speaker 1: studying dual Lingo and working on the podcast and just
3:38
Speaker 1: doing stuff, and I didn't end up sleeping until three
3:43
Speaker 1: thirty am something like that, and then I woke up
3:45
Speaker 1: at five or five thirty and then I was fine
3:49
Speaker 1: and I just kept working. So I don't know if
3:51
Speaker 1: every now and then I can get away with two
3:53
Speaker 1: hours of sleep, But yeah, that was strange enough and
3:58
Speaker 1: interesting enough to note so that I could talk about
4:03
Speaker 1: it here. I guess Benny and the Jets. I'm not
4:09
Speaker 1: super into Elton John in general, and his obvious hits
4:15
Speaker 1: are are good, like Tiny Dancer and what Daniel Your Song?
4:21
Speaker 1: I can see why those songs are good. I still
4:25
Speaker 1: don't connect really with a lot of his other songs,
4:31
Speaker 1: but I did finally watch the music video for Benny
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Speaker 1: and the Jets, which is amazing. Is a top tier
4:43
Speaker 1: for music videos that I like. I like dancing, and
4:46
Speaker 1: I like creative expression and individuality, and it's like eight artists,
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Speaker 1: I guess dance or dancers dance artists. I was going
4:57
Speaker 1: to say that seems accurate. It's like a to dance
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Speaker 1: artists dancing to the Benny and the Jets song and
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Speaker 1: Elton's I don't know not in it that I see
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Speaker 1: anyway at all, And it's all different kinds of dancing
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Speaker 1: I guess what we would call modern versus. There's ballet
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Speaker 1: in it, there's I don't know, there's a bunch of
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Speaker 1: stuff I don't even I can't identify. And everyone's dressed
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Speaker 1: up in really cool, like wild out of this world
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Speaker 1: eighties costumes, and it's all in black and white. So
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Speaker 1: the video is perfect it looks so good, and the
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Speaker 1: song is good because in the video it's ostensibly about
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Speaker 1: Benny and the Jets, this troop of mystical, whimsical dancers.
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Speaker 1: I probably watched it like five times in a row
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Speaker 1: in tranced because one because it's exactly all the stuff
5:51
Speaker 1: I like. But more so I was like, wait, how
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Speaker 1: have I never even heard of this music video, let
6:00
Speaker 1: alone seen it? This is what forty years old now,
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Speaker 1: and I've never heard of the Benny and the Jets
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Speaker 1: music video. In passing references, if someone's writing article about
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Speaker 1: Elton John, they'll say his hits Benny and the Jets
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Speaker 1: and blah blah, blah blah. But I don't think I've
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Speaker 1: ever heard mention any of his music videos, And if
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Speaker 1: any and this music video, I don't think I've seen
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Speaker 1: it on any list of top one hundred music videos.
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Speaker 1: Whatever if I did, I certainly didn't notice. Because but
6:33
Speaker 1: I again, if if I heard Elton John's Benny and
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Speaker 1: the Jets music video was on the top one hundred
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Speaker 1: best music videos, which I've watched playlists of those before
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Speaker 1: on YouTube, and I've read articles of different hundred top hundred,
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Speaker 1: I feel like it would have jumped out of me
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Speaker 1: and I would have noticed. It's an absolutely stunning display
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Speaker 1: of dance performance. It's so much much fun and has
7:01
Speaker 1: made the song for me so much better. I'm totally
7:06
Speaker 1: into Benny and the Jets now. If that's what it's
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Speaker 1: really about, too, like a hyper realistic dance troupe, that's fantastic.
7:17
Speaker 1: But I like the song more anyway, And I just
7:19
Speaker 1: want to get this out because I asked everyone I
7:22
Speaker 1: knew that I talked to regularly, and nobody has ever
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Speaker 1: seen Benny and the Jets music video or heard of it.
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Speaker 1: And it's so extremely unique and striking. It just seems
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Speaker 1: crazy to me that nobody I know has ever heard
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Speaker 1: of it. I have to find someone who's really into
7:41
Speaker 1: music and see if they have actually watched the video
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Speaker 1: or if they know about the music video. Maybe it's
7:46
Speaker 1: just a fluke that the people I've asked so far
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Speaker 1: also have never heard of this music video or seen it.
7:54
Speaker 1: If you haven't heard about it, or you didn't know
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Speaker 1: there was an Elton John Benny and the Jets music
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Speaker 1: video like I did, even if you don't like Elton John,
8:02
Speaker 1: and even if you don't like Benny and the Jets
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Speaker 1: which I didn't really like. It was one of his
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Speaker 1: least interesting hits. To me, I liked the melody, I guess,
8:13
Speaker 1: but I don't know. Like I said, I'm not a
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Speaker 1: huge Elton John fan. In general, I feel like if
8:18
Speaker 1: you're interested in fun, unique music videos at all, this
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Speaker 1: might change your experience of that song. It has completely
8:26
Speaker 1: flipped it on its head. For me, I have Benny
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Speaker 1: and the Jets on my phone now, along with a
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Speaker 1: few Elton John hits, because anyone that could be associated
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Speaker 1: with a music video that original and creative and fun
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Speaker 1: I like a little bit more as an artist. It's
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Speaker 1: a stunning music video, and go check it out. If
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Speaker 1: you've watched it one hundred times already, go watch it
8:51
Speaker 1: one more time. You're not gonna regret it. He just
8:54
Speaker 1: seems like such a sedate performer, very enthusiastic about his
8:59
Speaker 1: music particular, but in general. He has a lot of ballads.
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Speaker 1: He's mostly ballads, and it just doesn't seem the energy
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Speaker 1: of Elton John's music doesn't seem as dynamic and vibrant
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Speaker 1: as this music video turned out to be. For me,
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Speaker 1: I'm so glad I stumbled across it. Okay, let's move
9:21
Speaker 1: on to beef jerky one of my passions. So I've
9:24
Speaker 1: been making a bunch of beef jerky in Indonesia because
9:26
Speaker 1: they have a great freezer section of frozen different cuts
9:31
Speaker 1: of meat. And I've never tried using knuckle, which is
9:35
Speaker 1: also known as surloin tips, I think, but it's great
9:40
Speaker 1: for beef jerky because it's almost no fat on the
9:44
Speaker 1: entire thing and it's a little tougher, so it's not
9:48
Speaker 1: popular with a lot of people. I guess I don't understand.
9:52
Speaker 1: I would definitely cook with it, but it's perfect for
9:55
Speaker 1: jerky because it makes it so much easier. I'm not
9:57
Speaker 1: trimming any fat. I'm just cutting slabs of perfect raw steak.
10:03
Speaker 1: I am also still using the dry first method, which
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Speaker 1: I think just beats out every other method I've ever used.
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Speaker 1: Drying the meat first removes three days plus of drying time.
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Speaker 1: It's so fast, and this time with the knuckle, I
10:19
Speaker 1: cut it even fat, fatter, and more like a triangles. Basically,
10:24
Speaker 1: I cut them really uneven and fat, but even the
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Speaker 1: fattest parts of the meat, the really uneven cuts, they
10:31
Speaker 1: still dried out. The thinner parts obviously dried out first,
10:34
Speaker 1: but I didn't have to. I don't have to worry
10:37
Speaker 1: as much as I used to worry about making all
10:39
Speaker 1: the cuts consistent and all that. If I'm close at all,
10:42
Speaker 1: I know now it'll be fine. It'll still dry within
10:45
Speaker 1: twenty four hours, and then after I dry it, I
10:48
Speaker 1: can throw it in my jerky marinade, which I think
10:52
Speaker 1: I haven't been putting enough brown sugar in, because this
10:55
Speaker 1: last batch I really liked it, and I decided to
10:58
Speaker 1: just put in double the amount of sugar I usually
11:02
Speaker 1: do into the soy sauce. The sugar here in Indonesia
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Speaker 1: is really raw, it's really interesting. It's almost spicy. It's
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Speaker 1: not spicy, but the brown sugar is such a strong
11:13
Speaker 1: flavor that I was putting less of it in than
11:17
Speaker 1: I think I used to. And now I put in
11:19
Speaker 1: a whole bunch, and the marinate tasted better and the
11:21
Speaker 1: jerky tasted better for it. And I think you can
11:25
Speaker 1: put in the jerky for one to two hours and
11:27
Speaker 1: that is enough time you'll have the jerky marinated well
11:31
Speaker 1: enough that the flavor is on there and in the jerky.
11:35
Speaker 1: But I kept it in there for three or four
11:38
Speaker 1: hours this time, just to see what the difference was,
11:41
Speaker 1: and after I tried to feel it through the while
11:46
Speaker 1: it was marinating, and it was getting a little softer
11:48
Speaker 1: hour by hour, and then I put it out and
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Speaker 1: dried it. But there was a huge rainstorm right after
11:55
Speaker 1: I put it out. It knocked out the power, and
11:57
Speaker 1: so the jerky was just sitting there instead of actively
12:00
Speaker 1: drying from the airflow, and I didn't realize that until
12:05
Speaker 1: I don't know exactly because I'm not sure exactly when
12:07
Speaker 1: the power went out. I was walking around, but when
12:10
Speaker 1: I got back, the air wasn't on, the fan wasn't
12:14
Speaker 1: on drying out the jerky, so it was wet, and
12:17
Speaker 1: then I turned it on and it dried overnight and
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Speaker 1: it was okay. It was still pretty dry because I
12:23
Speaker 1: had completely dried it for twenty four hours before that point.
12:26
Speaker 1: But what was really interesting was that the jerky was softer,
12:30
Speaker 1: like noticeably softer to bite through after it had sat
12:34
Speaker 1: there for a little while without drying, and then I
12:38
Speaker 1: dried it after that. So that might be another trick.
12:42
Speaker 1: But the problem with that is that I'm adding on
12:46
Speaker 1: for more hours and then once it softened, it takes
12:50
Speaker 1: longer to dry again. But I'm gonna look into that
12:53
Speaker 1: because if I can also adjust the softness of the jerky.
12:58
Speaker 1: I mean this, dry the meat first. I can dry
13:01
Speaker 1: it in twelve hours if I just cut the meat
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Speaker 1: thin enough. So I'm thinking if I cut the meat
13:05
Speaker 1: super thin, it'll be completely dry in twelve hours. I'll
13:09
Speaker 1: marinate it for one hour and then when it's soft,
13:14
Speaker 1: I'll throw it on the fan for the second marinating session,
13:19
Speaker 1: or I'll make it a little thicker, and then eighteen
13:22
Speaker 1: hours will be the first drying session. But it might
13:25
Speaker 1: be worth it. It's already a two drying session. It's just
13:28
Speaker 1: usually twenty hours of the first drying session. Marinate for
13:34
Speaker 1: a couple hours, dry in an hour, boom done under
13:37
Speaker 1: twenty four hours finished. But I think I think I
13:40
Speaker 1: can get it twenty four hours finished and maybe also
13:43
Speaker 1: control the softness of the jerky by how long I
13:46
Speaker 1: let it sit in the marinade or sit after the
13:49
Speaker 1: marinade before drying it the second time. It's really interesting.
13:54
Speaker 1: I'm it's fun experimenting with this, and each time I
13:58
Speaker 1: have a great batch of beef turkey to eat. Anyway,
14:01
Speaker 1: So go make some beef jerky or pickled vegetables or
14:05
Speaker 1: what else do people make kombucha. I really like making jerky,
14:10
Speaker 1: though I might be making this a lot in the future.
14:13
Speaker 1: It's been a long time and I'm not sure why
14:15
Speaker 1: I stopped making it, because I love it as much
14:18
Speaker 1: as I ever did. Okay, Buffet hot Pot. I went
14:21
Speaker 1: back to the buffet hot pot and or hot pot
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Speaker 1: buffet here in Yoga, and the first two times I
14:30
Speaker 1: went it was good, but there's so much fat on
14:32
Speaker 1: the cuts it was not worth the trouble. So this
14:35
Speaker 1: time I went back and I got the premium whatever.
14:38
Speaker 1: The premium package. The original package is only eight dollars,
14:42
Speaker 1: and then the premium package is thirteen dollars, which is
14:45
Speaker 1: nothing to sneeze at. It's very expensive for the city,
14:48
Speaker 1: but it was worth it. I wanted to try all
14:50
Speaker 1: the premium cuts of meat, and it was very worth
14:53
Speaker 1: it for me. Because you have access to Wogg. You
14:57
Speaker 1: all of the cuts in the premium package, even the
14:59
Speaker 1: cuts in the medium package, which is only a dollar
15:04
Speaker 1: seventy mortgage about fifteen dollars instead of thirteen fifty. I
15:07
Speaker 1: will get that one next time, but this time the premium.
15:10
Speaker 1: It was fun to try everything and it was good.
15:15
Speaker 1: Like the Waggiu steak was amazing, and I actually asked
15:18
Speaker 1: a guy to bring me the two different messuji cuts.
15:22
Speaker 1: There's Waggi misuji and the Uwa Misuji, and it looked
15:26
Speaker 1: like he was the general manager, but he mixed up
15:28
Speaker 1: the two when I asked him which one it was
15:30
Speaker 1: Waggiu because I ate one of the plates of the
15:34
Speaker 1: misujis and I was like, holy crap, that's so good.
15:37
Speaker 1: It's so tender but still so flavorful. And so I
15:41
Speaker 1: asked the manager. I was like, hey, which one which
15:43
Speaker 1: massuji was which? And he told me this is waggu,
15:45
Speaker 1: this is uwah. But he was wrong because I asked
15:51
Speaker 1: the guy who brought out the meat after I ordered
15:53
Speaker 1: more Waggu and Uwa Mesuji, and I ordered more uhwah
15:58
Speaker 1: because the manager told me was oohwah. But when the
16:01
Speaker 1: guy brought it out, I was like, oh, that looks different,
16:03
Speaker 1: and it turns out that was actually the woggi and
16:09
Speaker 1: that's the one I wanted. Anyway, I just ordered the
16:11
Speaker 1: wrong one because the because the manager told me it
16:14
Speaker 1: was the wrong one. But then I just ordered from
16:17
Speaker 1: the waiters and waitresses and the actual meat cutter guys.
16:21
Speaker 1: After that and yeah, man, man, oh man, the surloin tip,
16:26
Speaker 1: and when you're on the premium package, they'll just like
16:28
Speaker 1: cut off the fat for you. I asked them to
16:30
Speaker 1: do that because I don't like a ton of fat,
16:33
Speaker 1: and all the regular cuts have a lot of fat,
16:35
Speaker 1: like a third of the strip of beef as fat.
16:38
Speaker 1: But this time I tried the surloin and it was
16:40
Speaker 1: so much better than the meat had been when I
16:43
Speaker 1: paid for the regular packet. I was like, heck, yeah,
16:47
Speaker 1: and I got a couple more of that, and then
16:49
Speaker 1: I tried these misuji ones that didn't look as good
16:52
Speaker 1: in the picture, but were even better than the surloin,
16:54
Speaker 1: which was good. So then I just got all of
16:58
Speaker 1: these mesujis. I got them with a sirloin the first time,
17:01
Speaker 1: just to make sure. But yeah, the masuji uwa and
17:04
Speaker 1: Waggiu mesuji were amazing, and by the end I was
17:06
Speaker 1: just getting waggi you absolutely delicious, very nice people who
17:11
Speaker 1: explained everything because it was a little confused, it made
17:16
Speaker 1: perfect sense. There were three tiers. You bought whichever one
17:20
Speaker 1: but and obviously my Indonesian is terrible, but they could
17:23
Speaker 1: understand what I was saying, and some of them even
17:26
Speaker 1: spoke English, so it was no problem communicating really if
17:30
Speaker 1: there was well, like a couple times I couldn't make
17:34
Speaker 1: myself understood, and then they just sent over someone who
17:36
Speaker 1: spoke great English. But most of the time I could
17:39
Speaker 1: say like dua wagkiu mesuji to waggyu me suji. That
17:45
Speaker 1: was fine. They knew what I was saying. And the
17:48
Speaker 1: mala was great. Also. I just got you can choose
17:50
Speaker 1: two different broths, but I just got both mala and
17:53
Speaker 1: at first, which if you don't know, mala is that
17:55
Speaker 1: super spicy red chili oil numbs your tongue, delicious for
17:59
Speaker 1: hot pot. And they told me when they sat me down,
18:03
Speaker 1: everything's ready except the mala. We don't have any today,
18:06
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh no, because that's my favorite.
18:09
Speaker 1: It's really the only hot pot flavor I like. So
18:13
Speaker 1: I told them I'm sorry, I'll probably just come back
18:16
Speaker 1: tomorrow then, and then she checked with the kitchen and
18:19
Speaker 1: she said, oh, it's not like we don't have it
18:22
Speaker 1: at all. They're preparing it now, so do you mind waiting?
18:25
Speaker 1: And I was like, yeah, no, I don't mind waiting
18:27
Speaker 1: at all. It's my favorite, so it is all you
18:29
Speaker 1: can eat, and I could just order as many of
18:31
Speaker 1: the premium stuff as I wanted. It lasts ninety minutes,
18:35
Speaker 1: which is a good amount of time for me to
18:38
Speaker 1: eat all the tasty WOGGI I wanted. And yeah, the
18:42
Speaker 1: hot pot was great, and the one that boiled down
18:45
Speaker 1: got super salty and thick, so I kind of used
18:47
Speaker 1: that as a secondary dipping sauce from the main hot
18:50
Speaker 1: pot half of the pot. It was really fun. And
18:54
Speaker 1: then there was a giant rainstorm that started up right
18:57
Speaker 1: before I finished, so I went down and there was
19:01
Speaker 1: like twenty people waiting because the rain was pouring down,
19:07
Speaker 1: so I hung out with everyone else on the porch
19:08
Speaker 1: of the buffet place. But then after it started, it
19:12
Speaker 1: lessened a little bit. It was still coming down, but
19:14
Speaker 1: it wasn't as crazy, and I was feeling all amped
19:17
Speaker 1: up from the buffet and I wanted to exercise, so
19:21
Speaker 1: I took off my shoes because no shoes is normal
19:24
Speaker 1: in Southeast Asia, and I started jogging the I don't know,
19:28
Speaker 1: eight kilometers maybe six kilometers back to my hotel room.
19:33
Speaker 1: And I just jogged back in the rain, thunder cracking
19:36
Speaker 1: here and there, and then it fell super heavy again,
19:38
Speaker 1: and I took shelter under a roof and I just
19:40
Speaker 1: did that jogging back to my house and it was awesome.
19:44
Speaker 1: It was really fun and really great and I had
19:46
Speaker 1: a great meal and then a great time exercising my
19:50
Speaker 1: way back and all that. I loved splashing in the water.
19:52
Speaker 1: I love being in rain. And the alleys are so
19:55
Speaker 1: thin here that some of the alleys were just completely flooded.
20:00
Speaker 1: The monsooner and was flowing down the alley that I
20:03
Speaker 1: was jogging. It was really fun, So thumbs up to
20:06
Speaker 1: both the sushi buffet Sushi Ye. And it was called
20:10
Speaker 1: Kakoe which means kakoi, which means cool in Japan. Kakoee
20:15
Speaker 1: Japanese hot pot and buffet. And it's actually hot pot
20:18
Speaker 1: and a grill for the same price, but I always
20:20
Speaker 1: just get the hot pot because grilling is two I
20:24
Speaker 1: have to pay attention, really, and I don't like the
20:27
Speaker 1: dirty grill in front of me, so the hot pot
20:30
Speaker 1: is a little better for me, I think. And I
20:32
Speaker 1: love the Mala sauce, so yeah, I want that. I
20:36
Speaker 1: have been running, As I mentioned, I've been running barefoot
20:39
Speaker 1: a lot lately, which I've really liked doing. Again, I
20:42
Speaker 1: haven't been in a country with where it's comfortable to
20:45
Speaker 1: barefoot run recently, but Indonesia there's a well, at least
20:49
Speaker 1: my neighborhood, there is a great paved running track really
20:54
Speaker 1: close to me, like not even half a kilometer, super
20:57
Speaker 1: close five minute walk ten minute walk max, and I
21:00
Speaker 1: can jog around a track. I'm probably gonna go back
21:02
Speaker 1: there today barefoot on comfortable, clean tiles. That's the other
21:07
Speaker 1: nice thing about Muslim countries. They are pretty clean. I
21:10
Speaker 1: don't know if that has to do with not drinking especially,
21:15
Speaker 1: but I know that I personally am dirty and less
21:18
Speaker 1: responsible when I'm drinking, and it might just be that
21:24
Speaker 1: most of these countries are clean anyway. But the public
21:27
Speaker 1: spaces like this running track are so well maintained and
21:30
Speaker 1: taken care of. It's great. I've been barefoot running a
21:32
Speaker 1: lot more lately, and it's been really fun and obviously
21:35
Speaker 1: very healthy for me. Earthquakes, there have been a bunch
21:40
Speaker 1: of earthquakes. There's been like three or four. There's not
21:44
Speaker 1: been a bunch bunch, but I finally feel like I'm
21:47
Speaker 1: on the ring of fire. And there's so many volcanoes
21:50
Speaker 1: in Central South America. I thought I would really be
21:52
Speaker 1: getting it when I was there, and I think I
21:54
Speaker 1: did experience one quake while I was in one of
21:58
Speaker 1: the central South American countries. I can't remember which one,
22:01
Speaker 1: but here they've been noticeable, and one of them was
22:06
Speaker 1: whoa big not crazy. I If it had been any bigger,
22:13
Speaker 1: I would have felt in danger. The whole house was
22:16
Speaker 1: certainly moving, like I could see everything shaking and things
22:23
Speaker 1: fell down. It was pretty wild. So I'm glad I
22:27
Speaker 1: got to be in that and that the building didn't
22:30
Speaker 1: completely collapse after it happened. It's been fun to be
22:32
Speaker 1: in an earthquake country. But speaking of the roof not
22:37
Speaker 1: collapsing outside, the roof did collapse. So my patio here
22:44
Speaker 1: just last night, I woke up at like two am
22:47
Speaker 1: because there was a loud crash crunch bump outside and
22:50
Speaker 1: I went outside and I was like, what the heck
22:52
Speaker 1: was that? Looked out the window, didn't see anything, And
22:54
Speaker 1: then I opened up the door and my brain had
22:57
Speaker 1: to like check itself, like second, look at what it
23:02
Speaker 1: was happening. And the roof of my patio had collapsed.
23:07
Speaker 1: And that's it's a vinyl like plm laminate wood thing like,
23:12
Speaker 1: but all one piece attached to the concrete roof of
23:17
Speaker 1: the patio with metal ties. But the metal ties were old,
23:20
Speaker 1: rusted and snapped. And this is monsoon country and the
23:23
Speaker 1: humidity is like one thousand percent and there's really strong wind.
23:27
Speaker 1: So these metal ties they could have been there for
23:29
Speaker 1: a year and already corroded to the point that they
23:32
Speaker 1: were snapping off. But this is a pretty big piece
23:35
Speaker 1: of roofing. Even though it is plastic and not super heavy,
23:41
Speaker 1: it would be dangerous if it fell on an old
23:43
Speaker 1: person or a child. I haven't talked to the host
23:46
Speaker 1: at this particular listing. I always choose new listings on
23:50
Speaker 1: Airbnb just because they're usually a more fun experience, like
23:54
Speaker 1: there's something the Airbnb host hasn't listed or they're not
24:00
Speaker 1: There will usually be a bigger discount. Also for new places.
24:03
Speaker 1: Sometimes this place wasn't. I don't even think this was
24:05
Speaker 1: the cheapest place. I was just I'm always curious about
24:08
Speaker 1: meeting the new Airbnb hosts and seeing how they do,
24:12
Speaker 1: and for over a decade they've done really well. This
24:15
Speaker 1: one is so much trouble to talk to and interact with,
24:21
Speaker 1: and I just found out at the end of my
24:24
Speaker 1: stay here pretty much that the host I've been talking
24:28
Speaker 1: to who's been very withholding and not helpful and just
24:34
Speaker 1: not providing information. Isn't the owner of the place all,
24:37
Speaker 1: it's just a marketing person that the owner hired to
24:42
Speaker 1: manage it, but terrible at answering my questions, terrible at
24:48
Speaker 1: dealing with the issues of the house. And I met
24:52
Speaker 1: the owner, but this marketing person had told me that
24:55
Speaker 1: the actual owner is the security guard for this place,
24:59
Speaker 1: and that if I I had questions, I should ask
25:01
Speaker 1: the security guard to help me. But there's no one
25:04
Speaker 1: else on this property. It's just me. There's no security guard,
25:07
Speaker 1: there's no security guard booth, and I've never met the
25:10
Speaker 1: marketing person, and I never met the security guard or
25:13
Speaker 1: the owner of this place. That was like the twentieth time.
25:16
Speaker 1: I had just gotten a bad, unhelpful answer from this host,
25:20
Speaker 1: so I just stopped talking to them basically for the
25:22
Speaker 1: past three weeks. One time, the electricity went out and
25:27
Speaker 1: or like the Wi Fi went out and I had
25:29
Speaker 1: to ask them and it went back up later, but
25:34
Speaker 1: they just their answers are like okay or yes, that's usual,
25:38
Speaker 1: and nothing else. So this time, because the patio thing
25:41
Speaker 1: fell down, I contacted Airbnb and they started talking to
25:47
Speaker 1: the host who wasn't answering, and I just went back
25:50
Speaker 1: to bed and I woke up and the roof was
25:53
Speaker 1: still there, just fully collapsed, like broken in half over
25:57
Speaker 1: the light fixture. And then a couple hours later someone
26:01
Speaker 1: came and took away the broken part of the roof
26:04
Speaker 1: and it was structurally sound the whole place. It was
26:06
Speaker 1: just that plastic signing that broke off with some metal
26:09
Speaker 1: pieces in it like holding it together, that fell down
26:13
Speaker 1: off the ceiling of the patio. But I didn't get
26:17
Speaker 1: any messages from that marketing host, and I had to
26:22
Speaker 1: clarify with Airbnb because I don't know what I'm supposed
26:25
Speaker 1: to do. I called them up because I was like,
26:27
Speaker 1: do I contact the host or this seems like big
26:30
Speaker 1: it could be dangerous. Am I supposed to contact Airbnb first?
26:33
Speaker 1: So I contacted the host. When I got no answer,
26:35
Speaker 1: I contacted Airbnb. And that's what you're supposed to do.
26:39
Speaker 1: The Airbnb support, who's always helpful, clarified it for me
26:43
Speaker 1: all of my questions. They're like, hey, you did the
26:45
Speaker 1: right thing. Just contact the host. If they don't say anything,
26:48
Speaker 1: contact us. We'll contact them or we'll fix it. And
26:52
Speaker 1: so neither of us could get in contact with the
26:53
Speaker 1: host until the morning, and before noon someone had arrived
26:58
Speaker 1: to take away all the trash or collapsed roof. I
27:02
Speaker 1: should say it was pretty crazy that it happened at all,
27:06
Speaker 1: but monsoon sees in high winds, crazy humidity. Okay. So
27:10
Speaker 1: then a guy showed up in a car and that
27:13
Speaker 1: was Aris, who I've been told as a security guard,
27:17
Speaker 1: and he was like, you can move into a next
27:18
Speaker 1: place in the place next door, but I'm leaving in
27:21
Speaker 1: a couple of days. So I said, don't worry about it.
27:23
Speaker 1: I'm just going to not move because it's not worth
27:27
Speaker 1: the hassle of moving next door. The structures intact, it
27:31
Speaker 1: was just the patio roof, so it's okay. And he
27:34
Speaker 1: was like, but it's cleaner, and I was like, oh,
27:37
Speaker 1: I get it, but it's it's okay because I have
27:40
Speaker 1: to move everything over there and it's just not worth
27:43
Speaker 1: the move for me. He said okay, and he started leaving.
27:47
Speaker 1: But then I went out and asked him because I
27:48
Speaker 1: was so confused about this host situation, and I asked
27:52
Speaker 1: and he had never introduced himself either. He had I
27:55
Speaker 1: can't remember why he came over one other time and
27:58
Speaker 1: then this time, but both I'm I was never introduced
28:02
Speaker 1: to him, and I was like, well, he can't be
28:03
Speaker 1: the security guard because he has his own car and
28:06
Speaker 1: he doesn't live here. It just didn't seem like that.
28:11
Speaker 1: I was so confused as to who was who, and
28:12
Speaker 1: I already had to write a review with negative things
28:16
Speaker 1: in it because there were so many issues with the house.
28:19
Speaker 1: I was already gonna do that before the roof patio.
28:22
Speaker 1: The patio roof collapsed, and I wanted to at least
28:25
Speaker 1: know who the owner was and if this was the
28:28
Speaker 1: security guard or not. So I went out again and
28:32
Speaker 1: waved him down before he drove away and asked him, Hi,
28:36
Speaker 1: I'm Kai, who are you? And he introduced himself. He
28:40
Speaker 1: is not the security guard. He is the owner of
28:42
Speaker 1: the building. The marketing manager who was the listed host
28:46
Speaker 1: on the airbnb for some reason, just said he was
28:50
Speaker 1: the security guard, and I explained to him that I'd
28:52
Speaker 1: been asking the host of this airbnb. The marketing manager
28:55
Speaker 1: he hired many questions since I got here, and was
28:58
Speaker 1: receiving none or very unhelpful answers, often not having to
29:03
Speaker 1: do with my question. At the listing information, she doesn't
29:08
Speaker 1: provide much information at all about the listing, and she
29:11
Speaker 1: was pretty combative whenever I asked her any questions, and
29:15
Speaker 1: he said, yeah, she has a lot of listings, so
29:18
Speaker 1: it's like, ah, sometimes she doesn't know, which is not
29:21
Speaker 1: a satisfying answer for the guests. But at least I
29:25
Speaker 1: knew who he was and who she was, and like
29:29
Speaker 1: what was going on at all. I never met that
29:33
Speaker 1: marketing person who was the only listed host on this Airbnb,
29:38
Speaker 1: and I didn't meet the owner either until an issue
29:42
Speaker 1: happened with the house. I never met Citra the whole
29:45
Speaker 1: time I was here, and now I know why. She's
29:47
Speaker 1: just a remote marketing manager working somewhere remotely. I don't
29:53
Speaker 1: even know if she's in the city. I doubt it.
29:55
Speaker 1: And if that was all clear, things would have made sense.
29:59
Speaker 1: But when I asked questions like well, how do I
30:03
Speaker 1: fix this then, which usually a host offers, Oh, the
30:07
Speaker 1: water smells like sulfur. I can send someone over to
30:11
Speaker 1: check it out. That's my almost one hundred percent experience
30:15
Speaker 1: on Airbnb hosts maintaining their buildings. When I asked this host,
30:20
Speaker 1: who turned out to be a marketing person, about why
30:23
Speaker 1: the shower smelled like sulfur. She said, it usually smells
30:28
Speaker 1: like that. That's it, nothing else, and that was par
30:32
Speaker 1: for the course for all the answers I received from her, So,
30:34
Speaker 1: like I said, I just stopped talking to her. And
30:38
Speaker 1: the owner seemed nice enough. I really like this neighborhood
30:42
Speaker 1: and the house is pretty nice, but there are so
30:45
Speaker 1: many problems with it, and then the roof collapsed. I can't.
30:49
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna give it two out of five. I'm
30:51
Speaker 1: gonna give it a three, I think, because two I
30:55
Speaker 1: didn't dislike being here. I liked I loved the neighborhood especially,
31:01
Speaker 1: and I liked the peace and quiet, and I like
31:04
Speaker 1: the walls of the house. The walls of the house
31:08
Speaker 1: are nice. There's a kitchen, there's a shower. But there
31:12
Speaker 1: were so many problems with this place that I cannot
31:16
Speaker 1: give it a four at all. And even three, I'm
31:20
Speaker 1: still debating, Like is that too much for a place
31:23
Speaker 1: where the door handles don't work and the roof collapses
31:27
Speaker 1: and the kitchen is dirty when you arrive. I don't know. Still,
31:34
Speaker 1: even this, even this like probably worst host experience. The
31:38
Speaker 1: place is fine, Like I mean, I like this place.
31:42
Speaker 1: I like this house itself, but The trouble with communicating
31:46
Speaker 1: with this host who's just a marketing person, has made
31:50
Speaker 1: the whole experience less. If I had had an engaging,
31:54
Speaker 1: responsive host to my questions, even if they couldn't do
31:58
Speaker 1: anything about it. If I ask them about the sulfur
32:00
Speaker 1: water and they said, sorry, we have old filters and
32:05
Speaker 1: sometimes it smells like sulfur. Perfectly safe to bathe in,
32:08
Speaker 1: which is true. If you ever have stinky smelling water,
32:11
Speaker 1: it's usually just this gas that builds up because the
32:14
Speaker 1: bacteria in the filter, But it's perfectly safe to bathe in.
32:18
Speaker 1: If they had just answered me, that doesn't even bother me,
32:22
Speaker 1: because I've been in plenty of situations where the housing
32:25
Speaker 1: isn't great, but the host has just told me, Yeah,
32:28
Speaker 1: that's where we're at, and that's fine. That really is
32:32
Speaker 1: completely fine to me. This marketing person just either doesn't
32:35
Speaker 1: answer or answers in a few words that do not
32:40
Speaker 1: help me out in understanding the situation or getting a
32:44
Speaker 1: timeline where anything is going to be fixed. Told her
32:47
Speaker 1: about all these problems, talk to the security guard, doesn't
32:50
Speaker 1: tell me who the security guard is, doesn't tell me
32:52
Speaker 1: where they are, doesn't tell me how to contact them.
32:55
Speaker 1: She also said she's not on site, so she can't
32:58
Speaker 1: solve any of these problems. When the patio roof fell,
33:01
Speaker 1: she didn't answer me or Airbnb until the next morning,
33:03
Speaker 1: which makes sense. I assume the marketing person was sleeping,
33:07
Speaker 1: but she didn't answer me until eight am or something,
33:12
Speaker 1: and that's later than most people here get up. And
33:17
Speaker 1: this was a pretty big The roof collapsed, and she said, Okay,
33:23
Speaker 1: I'll talk to the owner. That's it. In response to hey,
33:27
Speaker 1: the roof collapsed. Here are pictures of the broken roof.
33:31
Speaker 1: There was no sorry about the roof collapsing and we'll
33:35
Speaker 1: fix that or we'll find a solution. She just said, okay,
33:39
Speaker 1: I'll talk to the owner. And then a couple hours
33:42
Speaker 1: later someone picked up all the trash. And with all
33:45
Speaker 1: of that trouble, I still liked my month here. I
33:48
Speaker 1: loved living in this house, especially in this neighborhood. I
33:52
Speaker 1: met super cool people here in Yoga Karta. Yoga Karta
33:56
Speaker 1: itself is nice. I mean, I don't like the city,
33:58
Speaker 1: because I don't like any cities really, but the neighborhood
34:01
Speaker 1: I'm in is great and beautiful and quiet, and there
34:03
Speaker 1: are great restaurants and it's just been fun being in
34:07
Speaker 1: another country, a new country for me, lots of good stuff,
34:11
Speaker 1: and I should add this marketing. This marketing manager is
34:15
Speaker 1: the only person I've met in the month i've been
34:17
Speaker 1: here who has not been nice or interesting to talk
34:22
Speaker 1: to and has been blatantly combative and withholding, recalcitrant and
34:29
Speaker 1: on Airbnb. This has been my worst host, this marketing
34:33
Speaker 1: person in well over a decade, and it's only happened
34:37
Speaker 1: once that it was this crazy. And even though this
34:41
Speaker 1: host was irritating to talk to and not helpful and
34:44
Speaker 1: there were issues with the house, my stay was still nice.
34:48
Speaker 1: The kitchen has water, the shower does work, There's an
34:51
Speaker 1: outdoor patio in the front and back that I like.
34:55
Speaker 1: It's still a nice, clean house to live in. Just
35:00
Speaker 1: a bunch of issues, and this host made things way
35:04
Speaker 1: more difficult than anything needed to be. I've been in
35:07
Speaker 1: dirtier houses with much nicer hosts who I just declined
35:13
Speaker 1: to give a review for because I don't want maybe
35:16
Speaker 1: they're having a bad week or they don't seem like
35:19
Speaker 1: they do not care about their listing. But this host,
35:25
Speaker 1: this marketing person, told me to cancel the reservation twice,
35:28
Speaker 1: even though they accepted a nonrefundable reservation. After I got here,
35:32
Speaker 1: they told me I shouldn't have booked it, booked the
35:36
Speaker 1: reservation and then just really combative an weird but that's
35:42
Speaker 1: the end of this. My roof collapsed, which is funny
35:45
Speaker 1: but not dangerous dangerous. The structural body seems intact. I
35:52
Speaker 1: don't see any cracks anywhere, and the concrete walls are
35:55
Speaker 1: pretty thick here. It was pretty crazy to see the
35:59
Speaker 1: whole house moving with earthquake. I hope you're having a
36:03
Speaker 1: great day. I'm having a good day. You can contact
36:06
Speaker 1: me at a bit of a Rambler at gmail dot
36:09
Speaker 1: com or bit of a Rambler on Lemmy or Blue Sky.
36:12
Speaker 1: I'll be here, have a good one. Talk to you soon. Oh. Ps,
36:19
Speaker 1: these rambal On episodes, I really wanted to have them
36:23
Speaker 1: going on until I reach one hundred episodes, and then
36:26
Speaker 1: I was gonna do once a week again just with
36:29
Speaker 1: the main episodes, and do ramble On when I felt
36:32
Speaker 1: like it, every couple weeks or once a month or
36:34
Speaker 1: something as a roundup, because I want to start going
36:37
Speaker 1: backpacking again and just not have such a heavy schedule
36:42
Speaker 1: that I'm giving myself. So if you like listening, to
36:45
Speaker 1: the Rambalon episodes. Send me a message let me know
36:49
Speaker 1: right now. I think I'm going to go to just
36:52
Speaker 1: main episodes and less frequent Rambalan episodes. All the main
36:56
Speaker 1: content will stay the same and it'll keep on going.
36:58
Speaker 1: I just want to maintain a schedule without having to
37:03
Speaker 1: be physically in front of a microphone for a new
37:05
Speaker 1: Current Events episode every week. But don't worry, there's tons
37:10
Speaker 1: of content to come. Thank you very much for listening.
37:13
Speaker 1: I will talk to you soon.