It begins...

14 Oct 2013

So, my Indonesian adventure began with a complete re-route of my flights due to some fog in San Francisco.  Gretchen, Elise and Grant dropped me off at the Monterey Regional Airport at around 7:30am, and I did not leave the U.S. until 1am.  I had to get re-routed to L.A., and the flight to L.A. didn’t leave until 7pm that night, so I spent most of the day in the USO, which was really nice and relaxing.

After a 12-13 hr flight to Taiwan, I was able to Facetime with Gretchen, which was really nice.  Being in a foreign airport with no one else was a new experience for me.  I had a snickers bar from the USO, but other than that, I waited for the next flight to get something to eat and drink…afterall, I don’t speak Chinese.

EVA Air was the airline that I used and it was very nice.  Each seat had a view screen and there were a variety of new movies and TV shows that I was able to watch to pass the time.  EVA also did a good job taking care of a baggage situation.  Since, I was originally supposed to go through S. Korea, one of my pieces of luggage was unaccounted for in Taiwan, but EVA was able to track it down, and luckily it had flown to Taiwan.  With a 2 baggage limit, I guess they assumed that I only had 2 bags.

Oh, that's why they get lost in ATL

After a long journey, I made it to Jakarta with all of my baggage, which is quite interesting.  I can go to the other side of the world and I am able to retain all my baggage, whereas if I go through Atlanta Airport…usually, I don’t come out on top…something happens at that Atlanta Airport, and I don’t know why?  I digress…Got to Jakarta around 1pm, had a driver waiting for me, and we hit the roads.  Driving in Jakarta is an experience in itself…what a crazy ride!

I got to my homestay, and was completely blown away.  Gated complex, interior columns, beautiful palace-  I have a private bath w/ shower and bath; queen-sized bed, AC (wall unit), a balcony, and close to a thousand movies and Intl cable TV…they know me so well.

like features, a waterfall/koi pond, a pool, and then there is my bedroom.

"Hey, where are we going?"

So, it was weird, because of the flight, I just missed Sunday all together, which has kind of thrown me off…Back to the Future style…still trying to make sense of the Intl Dateline concept.  I got quite a lot of sleep the first night, but was woken up by fireworks at the nearby mosque; they were celebrating the holiday of Idul Adha.  Per Muslim tradition, this day commemorates when God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son Ishmael (Christians believe it was Isaac), and God then sent an angel stop him from doing it…a test of obedience and the importance of understanding sacrifice.  So, there are celebrations and the rich people (sometimes from another country) give the poor people animals to "sacrifice" so they can eat meat...this is very interesting.  After I woke up, I decided to see if I could video chat with Gretchen and we were able to, and it was pretty clear…that makes these trips away so much better, when there is a clear chatting capability…usually not available in deployed environments.