Skip to main content

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.
Labels:
Location: Jakarta, Indonesia

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How well-meaning parents ruined us

Growing up, it was common for our parents to encourage us and tell us how we could be anything we wanted in life. "You can do anything you set your mind to do!" They would cheer us on. "Even the president?" We'd ask unconvinced. "Yes, you could even become the richest man in the world!" All this fascinated us. We vowed to ourselves that we'd in fact become people of substance who would be recognized in the entire world for our achievements. We'd ride in super-yachts like Abramovich and the rest of the mega-rich. We would produce life changing inventions, innovating our way to stardom. We'd become the next prodigy in music and sports. All this is well and good, meant to lift our spirits. Assessing our lives however, no matter how much effort we have put in to realize our dreams and visions, they have eluded us. We have become adept at doing other things though: commenting on FB posts, retweets, identifying the hottest political issue...
Post a Comment
Read more

Day 22: REDD+, Final Dinner

Our day began at 12pm when we drove to the School of Business and Management. We met with Heru Prasetyo who used to work for REDD+. He made a presentation about his work at REDD+. He seemed very knowledgeable about the topic of managing forestry, but he was cynical about the politics of land and forestry management. The bickering between the merged Ministries of Forestry and Environment Missed opportunities by the government when REDD+ was disbanded Funding tied to REDD+ deliverables from the Norwegian government lost due to lack of structure in how the money would be channeled in the government of Indonesia We left at 3pm for Artotel. When we got to the hotel, I napped for an hour. We left for Tugu Restaurant at 5.50pm. A Bali restaurant, it had all the features of Bali: huge carved figures, gamelan music, offerings in front of entrances etc. The dinner was awesome. The most remarkable parts of it included a Balinese dance. It brought back all t...
Post a Comment
Read more

On thinking

Why do I believe what I believe? Why are my values what they are? Where do my thoughts come from? Are my ideals 'mine'? The question of thought, is a complex one, not least because thinking is so difficult. Many of us do not think, we take the thoughts of others and use them as the foundations, walls, or thatching of our mental structures. But we rarely think, and deep enough on important matters anyway. Thinking involves the admission that we do not know, an admission coming from a place of humility that we are ignorant and could do better. It does not, as is usually thought, have to be from a place of knowledge, even though knowledge can inform thoughts. If it was, then we would not necessarily be thinking, but just reorganizing previously known ideas. It begins with asking the question, why. Why do we go to school? Why do we marry and have children? Why do we work to earn money in order to buy things? Why do we elect leaders? Why do we go to places of worship and perfo...
Post a Comment
Read more