Day 23: leaving Indonesia

Got up at 8.30 and had breakfast from 9am. I then went to my room and packed up.

Afterwards, I checked out of the room and left my bags at the front desk.

Wardah and I then went to Sarinah Mall to get some souvenirs. The 5th floor of the Sarinah Mall has a lot of souvenirs: masks, carvings of gods, paintings, mugs, musical instruments like gamelan and bamboo pipes, carvings of animals, fridge magnets etc. this is an excellent place to buy souvenirs.

I intended to go to the National Museum, but I was tired from walking around in the Mall. So I sat in the restaurant downstairs and worked on my blog. Later I had ramen chicken curry at the Food Court in Sarinah Mall.

It was approaching the hour of 6pm, so we paid for our cab to the airport. We left Artotel at 6.15pm and we were in terminal 2 of Soekarno-Hatta Airport at 7pm. Unfortunately, we could not check in immediately, so we waited till 9pm for check-in to be available. We checked in, and went through security. Yitong, who was on a different flight, and therefore a different gate, joined us at our gate to chill as we waited for our flights which were 30minutes apart (ours leaving at 11.25pm and hers leaving at 12.05am). I bought some more goodies to use my rupiah. We later parted ways when we got the call to board.

The flight to Doha was not to bad, although it was a bit cramped. I was on the window seat with two other big guys to my right. The space felt a bit too small. I survived the 8 hour flight without any major incident. The ride was a bit bumpy, and I struggled to sleep. I watched one movie, The Dark Tower, with Idris Elba, and then tried to sleep.

At Doha, we met Jackson and Annisah, who had landed on earlier flights. Together with our group from Jakarta i.e. Renuka, Jake, Daniela T, Daniela K and I we boarded our flights to DC.

When we lifted off, I noticed that Doha was very hazy, mostly due to dust, I assume. The runway, buildings, roads, were all brown with dust. I wondered how they survive in all the dust, but then I remembered there's air condition and clean and sterile conditions in the house.

The flight to DC from Doha was much longer, close to 13 hours, but was more comfortable. The seats did not feel as congested. Also, I only had one other passenger to my right, and it was really a good flight, despite the length. I was in and out of dreamland, struggling to catch a movie or show, while grabbing the meals, and occasionally looking outside to see what features we passed.

Eventually we landed in DC on time, and there ended my Indonesia trip. It was a really lovely trip.