Indonesia: Arrival

Well, hello. I don’t quite know how to begin this blog post, but I am in Indonesia at the moment and even though the time on my laptop says it’s 2:44am, that’s back-home time, ie. Sydney time, and right now it’s actually three hours behind Sydney time in Jakarta, Indonesia, making it 11:44pm the night before – so it’s still Saturday here.

Of course, I’m confused and mildly jet-lagged. XD

I’m here with my family visiting my extended family and relatives. My cousin Ronald is getting married on the 8th July, and we’re here for that – mainly – but as a family holiday too, of course. I’m staying at my cousin Ricky’s house (he is Ronald’s youngest brother) with my aunt. Awesomely enough, he has wireless, and I’m being the internet-addicted freak I am, blogging on my laptop.

Yes, I sneaked in my laptop.

It wasn’t so much a sneak in from the people at the airport as it was from my mum. I pulled it out in the taxi on the way to the airport as I needed to respond to an email, and she was like, “You brought your laptop?!” :O She got all worried that it wouldn’t make it past security, hah. But here he is, Fin is all fine. /eee

Last night – Friday night – I saw James after not seeing him for a whole week. He was sick, and I think he caught a cold and a sore throat from me. /um At least he’s all better now – the six days I didn’t see him, he sure needed it to heal. I couldn’t tell he was sick. Evil James, not letting me see him sick. :P He wasn’t going to miss Friday for the world though – I’m in Indonesia for 21 days, and we had dinner booked on that night at a Greek restaurant. We had a gift voucher for a seven course meal, but we didn’t know what to expect.

It was a lot fancier than we expected, and it was really nice. The setting was gorgeous, and it was pretty much a romantic dinner by candlelight minus the wine (didn’t really want to drink, haha). The first few dishes were tiny though, and wouldn’t really count as a course. There were some really lovely homemade dips and some awesome cheese. /drool There was also lasagna, and lamb, and potatoes… oh, and I loved the Greek salad entree.

It was a wonderful dinner and even though it was free, we felt like we had to give a tip, so we did. :)

I had a Greek salad on the plane today – gosh I love the olives and feta cheese! /love The flight to Jakarta from Sydney was about eight hours. It wasn’t enjoyable and I didn’t sleep until the last thirty minutes. I got a bit nauseous. I did start reading The Hunger Games on my iPad though. My copy of it in eBook has ridiculously large text that I couldn’t resize, so I had some 700 pages of it to read. I managed to finish the book by the end of the flight. I really liked the book, though the ending wasn’t as great as I thought it would be. I am looking forward to reading the other two books in the series though.

We were in economy class as usual, but we still got blankets and a pillow. I’m glad we did, because decked out in jeans and a hoodie and closed shoes, I was feeling so cold.

That all changed when we hopped out of the plane and met Ricky and my aunt. It was boiling outside, compared to the cold air of Sydney. It’s not hard getting used to, and I don’t like summer as much as winter, but I’m so glad I get to wear skirts and dresses and the summer clothes I love. (Autumn’s really my favourite season.)

When we pulled out our baggage, they marked any suitcases with chalk if they sensed something suspicious in it. My mum had already slyly packed a damp handkerchief to rub any chalk off. One of our suitcases did, and she casually rubbed it off. Before we got a hold of that suitcase, I saw a man doing the same thing. Looks like we weren’t the only one with the idea. ;) Unfortunately some people had a sticker placed on their marked cases by staff. We didn’t want anyone searching our luggage, and we had already declared that we’d taken in nothing prohibited. Customs is annoying, don’t you think? @_@

That was definitely the least of our worries. It was relieving getting to walk through without being checked over and over. I know it’ll be hell when we’re on our way back and take lots of food (ahahha) home – but after emptying so many suitcases and taking out so much stuff, and weighing things up and home and realising we were 80 kilograms over – it was lovely just to have a swift walk out of the airport at our destination. Yeah, 80 kilograms overweight is ridiculous, that’s like nearly two of me.

The reason our suitcases were so heavy was because of the stuff we brought for our relatives. This included a lot of perfume, chocolate, macadamia nuts (dude those are expensive) and clothes. Crazy, crazy. I could go on… but I’m really quite dazed. I did manage to sleep in the car on the way back from the airport, and at home (let’s just call Ricky’s house “home” until I return home home) I had meatballs and noodles waiting for me. Oh. My. God. There is a noodle chain in Indonesia called Bakmi GM. I fucking love it.

Perhaps this won’t turn out bad at all.

Mosquitoes though. They’re going to be a bother. Don’t scratch, don’t scratch. 😰

Keep posted with my travels! I’ll attempt to start each post with “Indonesia”. :)

Comments on this post

How do they determine whether a suitcase might be suspicious?

I hope you won’t have a horrible time. I think it’s funny how you thought everything would be primitive with no WiFi, but here you are! ♥

I think they give it a quick scan before they toss it on the conveyor belt for passenger pickup. Also, with some boxes, it’s quite obvious – like a skateboard/surfboard shaped bag, a cardboard box labelled with some kind of food brand…

/bounce

Airport protocols are annoying and sometimes they take forever! It is ten times worse when you come back, like coming back from Cambodia with packages filled with dry fish, cooked bugs, and other stinky foods. :(

Why do they marked with chalk? So weird. Ours in Malaysia didn’t do like that. Huh~

Anyway, Welcome to Indonesia! :D Hahaha~ Even I’m not an Indonesian but WELCOME! :D Hahaha! There’s a lot of place to discover there, after you go to your cousin wedding! There’s Candi Borobudor, Bandung and many places to be visit for. Hahaha :D

Anyway. visit Malaysia one day Georgie! :D There’s also a lot of attractive places there! Pin a point at Malaysia! :D I guess, your luggage will not be chalked off in Malaysia. Hahahha! :P

And, one thing. Send my regards to James and hope he get well soon! :)

Wow! Indonesia, that’s great! I hope you enjoy your trip. I couldn’t imagine ever getting on a plane, I’d be too scared. And from what you’re saying here, just seems like it’s one huge mess! And super time consuming. Ick!

What a great date! I would love to eat at a fancy restaurant for free! That’s amazing and would be sooo romantic. I hope you loved it.

I’m pretty much sure you’ll enjoy your trip, just beware of mosquitoes /hehe
Congrats to your cousin 👏

Hahahaha your mum getting all worried! I didn’t know laptops were allowed over seas, incase you had nasty images on them 😒

Wow, Indonesia. Isn’t that where Aashni lives? Also, I NEVER KNEW YOU WERE FROM THERE. I didn’t know where you were from, actually. I read your about section every time you update it. Some things never sink in. Is it even it there? XD

That chalk thing is stupid, good thinking with the wet cloth! I wonder why they thought one of the bags was suspicious. Any ideas?

Jetlag must suck, I’ve never had it before. I have code lag right now, haha! I’ve just been sat coding the new theme for alannahjade.org, which is up now. My mind is very overworked. /type

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I’m having business cards printed free hehe. They’ve been designed free, too! I could have done them myself but I’m not going to turn down an offer!

Mary Portas is ‘The Queen Of Shops’, Will Whitehorn is the co-owner of all things ‘Virgin’, one of them was a politician, Kevin Keegan is a retired footballer and Rory Bremner is an impressionist. :)

Hoho, two of you eh. ::

Glad you arrived safe and sound. :3 must be Hots!

Dinner was good ;D u.

Get oot of bed, it’s nearly 8! /wuw time to See More Of The Day. :3 :3

(Y)

WOOHOO Indonesia there you are :D
Have fun and have fun with finn and pleeeeeeeeease keep us updated when you can ♥ ♥ ♥

How’s Indonesia on Summer? Hot? Humid? I wish I could visit the place too..

And yes, I feel your pain talking about over weight luggage. Local airways allow very little kgs for us to check in. In Philippines, not all of the airways weight the hand-carry, so we usually stuffed our hand-carries with the heavy ones…

Hope you’ll enjoy your vacation.. Go to the Beach.. And take a lot of pictures..

Oh, Georgie! Still on the Internet even though you’re in a different country! :P You make me smile.

Mosquitoes were a huge problem when I lived in New England, and I could never resist scratching and turning my bug bites into bleeding wounds. Good luck with that! Hopefully you’ll be much better off than me!

Haha. It’s almost technically like you time traveled! ;) …in a way… Kind of… It works… DON’T BURST MY BUBBLE. D:

I do hope your trip goes well for you, though. :}

I haven’t even started on that book yet though. P: I have the paperback copy. I haven’t had the attention span for reading books lately (and I don’t have an eReader. :P

Oh cool you are in Indonesia! If you call 3 hours jetlag then what are you going to call me who went 13 hours back in time? I wouldn’t have thought the flight be that long since Indonesia looks so close to Australia on the map.

Wow you sneaky girl to sneak in a laptop! My mom didn’t even go to China/Korea with me and she forbade me to take my laptop. I wish I could go on a family vacation every time a relative gets married but as of now no one seems to be getting married.

I just got home a week ago and it is BOILING HOT here compared to the nice warm air of Korea. I’m dying here so I hope you’re doing well with the transition. I hate this heat because I can’t get to wear any of my favorite clothes!

I hope you have a wonderful time in Indonesia with your family! Actually, I’m sure you will. :) I’m always wary to bring my laptop with me on long trips because I’m afraid I’ll drop it or lose it, etc. Even though I’m an internet addict as well, it’s always nice to get away for a little bit.

I love Greek food. 🤤 There’s this small local Greek restaurant that we have here and their gyros are to die for. They’re almost like the ones that I had in Greece… I think that’s the main thing I miss about places I visited: the food. :P

LOL. Packing all that extra stuff and the luggage being so overweight reminds me of when my family went to Greece to see my brother. We brought all kinds of food and just junk that he couldn’t get over there and each bag was like thirty pounds overweight. Woops! :P

Can’t wait to read more about your trip!

I’m glad you got there with no problems! haha, marking off the chalk is a good tip. My parents are the same way when they visit China. They pretty much have a suitcase just for bringing gifts over. Though, it’s handy because they just use the same one to bring souvenirs back XD

Ooh, that’s nice that you guys got Greek food before your trip. I love Greek food, and I also really like Greek salads. I’m not a big fan of olives, but the vinaigrette they use is so good!

I hope to hear more about your trip!

Good to hear that you arrived safely.

That is the first time I’ve heard about marking suitcases with chalk marks. Malaysia doesn’t have such system, well, not that I know of. I’ll be off to Asia soon. Definitely not looking forward to those nasty mosquitoes but Asian food makes the long trip worthwhile.
What part of Indonesia are you at? I read in the news that they’re putting a ban on short skirts and dresses that are above the knees. Malaysia is also one of the Muslim dominated countries and wearing item of clothing that is too short is frowned upon. I don’t understand how the locals can survive the heat and humidity wearing long sleeved shirts and denim jeans.

Looking forward to hear more about Indonesia and hope you have a great time over there!

congrats on your cousin getting married! that’s pretty big!! and of course, lucky you on vacation! have a great time in indonesia~~ take lots of pics :D

huh? laptops won’t be able to go through security? that’s strange! when i went overseas, ,i’d carry it on the plane with me and read some manga when i get bored, hehe

Hunger Games!!! I LOVEDDD the hunger games! yes yes, read all 3! not sure if you’d be disappointed (lots of people were) because it does get more depressing but I personally loved it since I felt it was appropriate for the subject matter (war). but definitely tell me how it goes!

and oh yes! the mosquitoes in the hot, humid countries :( i used mosquito repellent and it worked really well for me~ have fun in Indonesia!