After a long journey, we're all safely here in Jakarta. I was hoping to upload pictures directly from my iPhone, but I've been having some issues with that. I just wanted to get in a quick update before breakfast and our travels of the day.
Boy, that trip across the Pacific is incredibly long for those of us in 'steerage'. No surprises there. But I would like to say that I really enjoyed the Airbus; it has a great configuration of seating (3-3-3), so no one is miles away from an aisle. Our flight attendant was just an absolute doll; both in looks and attentiveness to passenger needs. The flight was very smooth, with only a little bit of turbulence over Japan (I figured due to differential heating of land mass, perhaps) and no storms. When I wasn't trying to catch a quick nap, I enjoyed watching our progress across the Pacific, and I could see the line between light and dark on the trip monitor. The entire way to Hong Kong, we trailed the dawn behind us and it didn't catch up until we stopped at Hong Kong.
As we were waiting at LAX, I was looking around at most of the travelers and the majority were Chinese. I imagined that they were going to visit friends and family and I thought of the true sacrifice immigrants make, even in these days of air travel, to live so far from family. Of course, the internet reduces that distance, but Skyping doesn't replace hugs!
On the flight from Hong Kong to Jakarta, I was watching the in-flight monitor, with our positional information. As I watched, I realized we had both crossed the International Date Line and the equator in the same 12 hour period. The equator surprised me; I had looked up Jakarta's lat. and long. before we left noted that it was only 6 degrees from the equator. But that's 6 degrees BELOW the equator! As we flew over Vietnam, I looked down to see miles and miles of what looked like pristine beaches. And I thought the elementary child that I was could never have imagined I'd see Vietnam in that way someday, instead of the way I saw it night after night through the eyes of Walter Cronkite.
As we approached Jakarta, I kept expecting to see something that resembled Florida. Probably shouldn't have such expectations, but the climate and flora would seem to be similar. But there was a great deal of haze and more brown than green. After we disembarked, it took us about an hour and a half to retrieve our baggage and go through customs. Our host, Lilia, greeted us outside the airport with a huge smile and bottles of ice-cold water! What a wonderful treat! We then bundled up all our bags into a small bus that was called 'Big Bird' and took off to the hotel.
An hour and a half later, we were checked in and I finally got to stretch out and sleep. Not a very exciting thing to do, but I just couldn't resist. I had a few challenges with adaptors and such, but finally got phones to charge and internet to connect. One last observation before I head down to breakfast: the breaking dawn reference is only there to remind me to comment on the almost equal hours of daylight and darkness here on the equator. When we arrived at the hotel yesterday, it seemed as if it were quite late in the afternoon/evening when it was only 4:30. But that was because we were only about an hour and a half from sunset. And at 5:30 this morning, it was the proverbial darkest hour. But now the sun is up, the cars and motobikes are buzzing by, horns are honking and it's time to go experience Jakarta with a head cleared by a marvelous sleep.
Boy, that trip across the Pacific is incredibly long for those of us in 'steerage'. No surprises there. But I would like to say that I really enjoyed the Airbus; it has a great configuration of seating (3-3-3), so no one is miles away from an aisle. Our flight attendant was just an absolute doll; both in looks and attentiveness to passenger needs. The flight was very smooth, with only a little bit of turbulence over Japan (I figured due to differential heating of land mass, perhaps) and no storms. When I wasn't trying to catch a quick nap, I enjoyed watching our progress across the Pacific, and I could see the line between light and dark on the trip monitor. The entire way to Hong Kong, we trailed the dawn behind us and it didn't catch up until we stopped at Hong Kong.
As we were waiting at LAX, I was looking around at most of the travelers and the majority were Chinese. I imagined that they were going to visit friends and family and I thought of the true sacrifice immigrants make, even in these days of air travel, to live so far from family. Of course, the internet reduces that distance, but Skyping doesn't replace hugs!
On the flight from Hong Kong to Jakarta, I was watching the in-flight monitor, with our positional information. As I watched, I realized we had both crossed the International Date Line and the equator in the same 12 hour period. The equator surprised me; I had looked up Jakarta's lat. and long. before we left noted that it was only 6 degrees from the equator. But that's 6 degrees BELOW the equator! As we flew over Vietnam, I looked down to see miles and miles of what looked like pristine beaches. And I thought the elementary child that I was could never have imagined I'd see Vietnam in that way someday, instead of the way I saw it night after night through the eyes of Walter Cronkite.
As we approached Jakarta, I kept expecting to see something that resembled Florida. Probably shouldn't have such expectations, but the climate and flora would seem to be similar. But there was a great deal of haze and more brown than green. After we disembarked, it took us about an hour and a half to retrieve our baggage and go through customs. Our host, Lilia, greeted us outside the airport with a huge smile and bottles of ice-cold water! What a wonderful treat! We then bundled up all our bags into a small bus that was called 'Big Bird' and took off to the hotel.
An hour and a half later, we were checked in and I finally got to stretch out and sleep. Not a very exciting thing to do, but I just couldn't resist. I had a few challenges with adaptors and such, but finally got phones to charge and internet to connect. One last observation before I head down to breakfast: the breaking dawn reference is only there to remind me to comment on the almost equal hours of daylight and darkness here on the equator. When we arrived at the hotel yesterday, it seemed as if it were quite late in the afternoon/evening when it was only 4:30. But that was because we were only about an hour and a half from sunset. And at 5:30 this morning, it was the proverbial darkest hour. But now the sun is up, the cars and motobikes are buzzing by, horns are honking and it's time to go experience Jakarta with a head cleared by a marvelous sleep.
