Travel

Four friends I met in Cambodia all left the US after they retired and had no problem for the decade plus each of them were abroad receiving benefits.

In most cases, all you have to do is fill out the SS-7162(proof-of-life) form each year and snail mail it within two months of receiving the form back to the SSA.

There are any number of reliable international courier services to choose from.

Apparently you can also complete proof-of-life with the SSA by phone, although the guys I knew filled out the form and mailed it in each year.

This guy scratched his head a couple times and all I could think was "if I scratched my head with those claws I wouldn't have a head."

They look like black bears from Coraline's "other world".

Yogya Indonesia

Yogya, Indo.

Apparently I should be saying Indo? Indo food.

Indonesian food is good, but Chinese food has all of my favorite flavors by default and especially fried tofu is one of my favorite snacks from china.

I've also had Indonesian crispy fried tofu and other fried dishes that were very good but not transcendental, so I was not expecting this.

But this tahu cabe garam from Yogya is insane. I won't even be getting the other crispy tofu here I mentioned earlier again; this cabe garam is leagues ahead of it. I literally cannot imagine anything that would improve this dish as a standalone serving of crispy fried tofu.

Whoa! Whoaaaaaa! I think it's the best thing I've had here so far.

I don't even know the last thing I had at all that was this good.

The one closer to the camera was more pushy, so they didn't get the last carrot.

Should be fine.

After talking with some friends over in the running community, I coincidentally found this track that was perfect for barefoot running and exercised for a couple hours.

They both looked very content.

Its raining today.

Gembira Loka zoo, Jawa

I was really surprised by how active all of the animals at the zoo were, and they were all super clean and healthy.

These might have been the most active animals I've ever seen at a zoo.

The tiger corral didn't have a roof and did have several trees.

The tiger was actually the only guy chilling, even the lion was looking around and seemed interested.

The leopard was definitely interested in snacks. As soon as there were a few toddlers looking, it ran over to them and then remembered the glass was there.

One mom kept pulling her kid back because the leopard kept looking at her kid so hungry.

Lil creepo

Asia from $60

Australia from $166

North America from $235

Middle East from $236

Europe from $312

I regretted only getting six when three disappeared after the first bite.

Central/South America from $56:

Europe from $124:

Asia from $227:

So this is expertly fried chicken without a lot of breading on the actual chicken, and then after the chicken thigh or breast, your choice, is fried, they use the sambal plough to break up and crush the meat so it splits up a bit and then they mix the sambal, the spicy chili sauce in with that and then you can eat the pieces of the fried chicken with the sambal already in mixed in with the meat.

Oh and they sprinkle a bunch of like crunchy breading on top of it.

It was really really really good, way better than I expected what is basically just fried chicken to be.

I plan to go back to the shop and try the other foods to see if they're as impressive as this dish was, but I kind of just want to get this chewed chicken again.

Yogya, Indonesia.

Comes up as a perawan, but we're in jawa, so?

Feel free to school me.

Thought I would give it a shot.

It's spicy but freshly ground without much oil, so the capsacin doesn't cling to your tongue and is not as devastating as it otherwise might be.

Tasty! Pretty good mixed with...everything.

Yogya, Indonesia

Many countries still don't need a visa, you just fill out your itinerary ahead of time online and pay ~$20 USD equivalent fee(thanks to e0qdk for the conversion).

Instead of filling out a visit registration card after arrival, you fill out your visit registration ahead of time online.

Streamlines entry, boosts security.

Seaweed snack spotted, perhaps.

I stopped using Duo about 5 years ago when they introduced ai and changed the learning milestones and method. it completely ruined the app for me, incredibly plodfing.

I would go back and try about once every year to see if it improved and it was still terrible until I tried learning Indonesian on it 2 weeks ago.

It feels like the old Duolingo again, and has been pretty fun this week, and I'm definitely learning Indonesian, because I'm at that language learning point people are staring at me wide-eyed and complimenting my Indonesian, confused like.

I actually had a little conversation ordering food today and was able to answer all the questions and actually understand what he was asking me.

Pretty cool.

I hope all of the languages every word into the old style and this isn't just a lucky Indonesian one-off. I used Duo to learn so many languages before it went to crap.

You don't have to put your money in escrow, pay the water bill, electric bill, wifi bill, repair costs, paint the house or bedrooms, weatherproofing, maintenance fees, HOA fees, house insurance.

You can rent a private apartment/condo/house for $350 bucks a month and all of the above is included in your monhly/annual payment.

You don't have to "buy" a car, make monthly payments, pay for car insurance, register it annually, get the tags, none of those meetings at the DMV.

Public transportation, rideshares and private vehicles are available on the cheap. If you want a private vehicle, all of the above is included in your monhly payment.

You don't have to visit the most famous temple in the country, take a riverboat cruise or go scuba diving.

Take a week to watch all the marvel movies consecutively. Bake a tray of nachos the size of your oven. or take that riverboat cruise, if that sounded cool to you.

You don't have to commute to work, you don't have to wear a uniform, no team-building exercises. Find something remote(English speakers lucked out here) that pays about $500 USD a month and you can travel as long as you like in dozens of countries.

Build up passive income and gradually work less until you don't have to work at all.

There's a bunch of sedentary stuff travelers don't have to worry about! Let me know if you're curious about any of this, that girl chilling on the sofa is not me but it certainly is not not-me.

update: Jimmyhats rather than regular hats off to @LongMember69@lemmy.world(considering their username), who has identified the fish!

I saw these guys in the same group of three in the same spot many times, but I can't identify them or find them on a list anywhere.

The closest kind of looked like a blue sapphire damselfish, three spot chromis or three spot damselfish, but if anyone has an idea what they might be instead, please let me know.

Snall, maybe 6-8cm, round body, shorter in length to height ratio than most fish from tip to tail, looked like a very bright solid blue across the body, I thought there was an actual black outline along the edge of the fish was but it's difficult to tell, and I didn't see any identifying colors on the tail or fins.

Merica is Indonesian for pepper.