User blog:Fire InThe Hole/Sub-Updaet 101b 2019-07-11 to 2019-08-01

Also known as the Journey log in my notes.

This here bundle of text is all thoughts and events of my holiday in Indonesia. It's not a literal "we ate at 12.25 until 13.04" log, just notable happenings and thoughts along the way.

I never did one of these posts before because I never actually kept any sort of log, and was too lazy to write a whole lot down afterwards when home. You will see this in the thing itself and I am not deduplicating it. I'm the wizard. It's me.

That's all the intro you're getting. Git going and read!

July 11
Day of departure.

13.00 - 13.14 I manage to forget all the bathroom supplies for myself, yet the few things I had packed are either redundantly available or easily replaced.

Early wakeup but only 6.30, so there's no real sleep issues beforehand. The whole check-in was actually simplified by a) arranging some of the things online beforehand and b) my grandmother getting a wheelchair to go around, which has tied all four of us into easier access and/or slight priority.

For the record: my grandmother is absolutely able to walk; it's more that she walks slowly, and the larger distances of airports would be an extra exhaustion on top of the flights themselves, and probably it would press us for time. Instead we have plenty of time to sit around, stay fed and hydrated, and get a few little things like neck pillows or the deodorant I left at home.

We're waiting the final wait before boarding. There was a very talkative Vietnamese lady at the check-in who managed to tell us a whole lot despite heavy levels of Engrish. That effectively deleted the perceived wait for that particular bit.

There's wifi and electricity outlets all over the place, something which I don't remember being quite as much the case eight years ago.

15.00-15.15 We get to enter as the very first and exit as the very last, which is relaxing. And funny, because you're getting to go ahead of all the premium payers during boarding.

A familiar sight is the entertainment screen with attached 'controller', designed particularly to function properly for the games they've got available on these things. More surprising is the fact that there's functional wifi once the plane is properly in the air; eight years ago it was 'no wireless signals' and everything. Turns out the free part is very limited and anything else is paid. Well, no. I can live without wifi for a day or two just fine. I'd already synced Evernote on my phone properly and everything.

The on-board music library is not all-encompassing but surprisingly varied and contains pop music from a bunch of countries, and since this is Emirates we're flying with, that includes various Arabian places, but there's also various Asian countries.

They have stuff from Karl Jenkins - that's neat. It's a composer I happen to know and love.

First flight is a little over six hours. Let's go.

Departure at 15.32. A little over a quarter of an hour later, we are up in the air at thousands of feet altitude. Little bit of turbulence just as I write this, and our dinner for this flight apparently. Granted, I've done this sort of big journey before, but when I was nearly 13 I definitely wasn't as aware of some of these things.

Unrelated but not irrelevant, I've been working on-

My grandmother is watching the Emoji Movie. Well alright then.

What I was saying is, I pretty much started working on the events after Desert Air (the mysterious title The Hideaway is exactly that). It's coming along quite well, unlike pretty much everything else I've been meaning to (re)write. Oh well.

16.28 - first dinner sets arrive. I am a little hungry actually.

What was I saying? Right. The Hideaway should explore where Raff goes.

...then my grandmother managed to get me watching the emoji movie, subsequently I got my meal, then she booted up Iron Man 2. So be it. The question HGD ran about Raff's future rolls around in my head now and then; what am I actually writing, aside from a somewhat unlikely but interesting series of events. I'll figure that out, eventually. Like with some other stories I've written, unintended but fitting themes will probably play up when I get there.

It's actually 19.31 by the time I finish this, and I'm getting my eyes some rest. The Emoji Movie isn't that bad, even though it's more the gimmick and funny premise of a digital world in which the emojis supposedly live than an actual plot or any solid character development, I guess? I don't quite get that everyone around me was so disgusted at it when it came out.

21:16

Original time that is. It's 23.16 in the air, but 22.16 in Dubai, which is where we get to walk around and stretch our legs for some time before the second flight, which takes us to Jakarta. It departs at 04.10 Dubai time, which translates to 02.10 local time. That's still a fairly long wait, yet I'm not sure if I'll be able to catch any rest. Either I'll be too busy gawking at the airport itself, or too busy staying alert. I'm probably going to get my rest on the second flight, or at least I hope I will.

In the meantime, failing to actually fall asleep or even rest (I did not bring one of those eye masks), I did a bit of writing, and honest to goodness played Bejeweld 2 on the built-in entertainment system.

Half an hour to landing. We've already descended a fair bit from the cruising altitude and speed. The temperature outside is supposedly not too warm; initially the temperature on the screen actually seemed cold, but as we descend it looks like it'll be no warmer than a notably warm summer day at home. Daytime temperatures run well past 40° C so I hear, so maybe it's not so bad that we arrive in the dead of night.

July 12
01.33

Plus two hours in Dubai time. Someone from the airport pushed my grandmother along, what with the unholy hour at which we arrived and depart. In between, I dozed off a bunch in the brightly lit lounge. Apparently I did catch some proper sleep about an hour before an airport crew member came along to direct us. This whole 'assistance' thing works out nicely if you ask me - handling boarding at a relaxed pace and exiting well after the busy mass has left; we get to do both together as a group.

At least the other three are likely going to be sleeping or otherwise not very active. If feasible, I'm turning off the entertainment screen in hopes of getting something done. I realise now that I didn't check for wifi at the airport, but frankly I don't care at the moment.

This flight is a little under eight hours; as I'm writing this bit it's about 04.00 Dubai time, so that adds up to 12.00, then +3 for Jakarta's timezone to make 15.00 or 3 PM. In my home timezone it's going to be a mere 9 AM which is always fun. Around the evening in the US my day starts, but at least I'm in sync with Australia, more or less.

Okay enough timezone shenanigans. I'll write down more things later.

05.26 old time, but it's well into the morning on both Dubai time and my eventual destination Jakarta, where it's already 10.27 in the morning.

How heavily jetlagged will I be, I wonder when I write that out. I don't think it'll even matter because I haven't slept enough at all, timezone shifts aside.

10.51 Dubai time, and 13.51 Jakarta. Finding Nemo to my right, Bollywood to my left.

I'm fairly sure I will be sleeping for the remainder of the day. Catfish and the Bottlemen - The Balance. Turns out to be pretty neat music.

We land exactly at 13.00 Dubai time. Equivalent to 16.00 Jakarta time and 11.00 Amsterdam. So the timezone lineup is +1 (home), +3 (Dubai), +6 (Jakarta - I am here).

I'll stick to Jakarta time from here on. With no notable mention of this trip to anyone at home save for a few people, I won't have to bother with regular talk or phone calls, which suits me fine to be honest. I will be checking the FB wiki when we're finally settled, or maybe on the way through the airport, if there's even wifi. The outside temperature here is 32° C, not unlike Dubai but undoubtedly much more humid.

July 13
10.17 Gooood morning. So! After arrival. The airport is much different from what I remember from eight years ago. I was younger then of course. Much more space. Customs wasn't as much of an issue but it took a fair amount of time to get all our luggage back. We got an airport-endorsed taxi driver who was quiet but not unfriendly, and the drive was just fine.

As for this hotel. Take's Mansion Hotel, three stars I believe. Looks real nice for that rating. Obviously there's bits like the drop when entering the bathroom and the secure wifi only being in the lobby - your room's wifi is make-believe secure because only your floor should in theory have signal to that particular network. I don't need to do anything confidential over my phone, but good to keep in mind anyway.

We ate something nice when the chek-in was done, then off to the room. The bathroom thing aside, it's fine. Clean, decorated but not too much. Right in the middle of Jakarta with a decent, no, good view on the city. 9th floor has its perks.

This morning during breakfast, we noted that there's a lot of Indonesian guests here, which is a decent indicator of the food quality and taste being alright, and it is. Safe for outsuder guests re: spicy, but not adapted to their tastes. The yogurt is sweet and the food is seasoned as is common here. The shrimp crispy things (krupuk udang) are as they should taste and not the weak things that they export abroad.

I'm not extremely jetlagged, but I can tell from my eyes that my body thinks it's only 5:30 in the morning. It'll be fine I think.

13.15 Monas or Monumen Nasional. They usually don't get a lot of non-Indonesian tourists here. It's a national attraction with a bunch of impressive dioramas that depict key moments of Indonesian history. Given my Indo-European roots, I'm somewhat aware, but there are some things that I didn't know yet. Inversely, some of the text under the imagery was clearly written by the winners. That is to say, I'm fairly sure that the depiction is not 100% accurate. But that's a tad political. I doubt the Indonesian government will come for my head if I did detail it, but it's really specific and not something I am an expert on anyway.

People here tend to regard the tall and light-skinned from elsewhere as a touristic sight - including me.

15.29 And we're back. The park around the Monas is neat, and full of people on a day out - Indonesians mostly. We stand out even more as a result. Sometimes I get some shy laughs when passing by from girls. Reminds me of my first visit age 12, when we visited a school for reasons I can't remember. All girls, all giggling at or about the innocent boy that they got to take a picture with. And indeed today my grandmother effectively used me as a prize fish for a few to take a photo with. Good fun says I, they like to take pictures with the likes of me: tall, European (yes, despite my roots I am obviously European to the people here yet 'Asian' in Europe) and perhaps my somewhat long hair has a part in it too.

We made the mistake of taking pictures of one of those horse-drawn carts, a dokar. Eventually we agreed to let the rider take us to the hotel, but he didn't actually know where it was and we lost our orientation anyway. It was an experience, to slowly drift by while cars and small motorbikes zip by, and surprisingly enough traffic streams will bend around the slow cart without problem. Any honking is more a soft warning saying "I am here" and less of the angry car honk at someone who is in the way. It's not quite as chaotic as India is said to be, but it is a tangled mess that works fine regardless.

We ate at a hall full of food stands in the park; busy place, attracted the various Indonesian tourists. Just make sure your drink is either something that makes it to the table in a closed bottle, or something hot like tea and coffee. Anything with ice cubes on the streets is a bad plan. Bottled water? Yes... if the seal is intact. We bought a few bottles at a little roadside stand and I had some doubts, but after purchase I could see that it was still sealed. A childhood spent reading packages and looking at trivial details on trips has prepared me well. All of this is because tap water is not very clean, and perfectly capable of ruining the relatively garbage immune system that we have, living in our clean(er) environments.

There was a particular dish you usually can't get fresh in the Netherlands: nasi rawon. Apparently it's made with the insides of a particular nut that you normally can't buy, maybe unless you import it and prepare immediately. I was lucky to get some at an Indonesian restaurant/takeaway near my home a while back; I believe the owner imports things from Indonesia regularly.

17.53 Didn't get to write this: I made a rough sketch of the little stands that we ate at for the afternoon. I thought they were charming, personally. I slept some when we returned. Probably will sleep some more until dinnertime.

And at 17.58, suddenly the sun has set and twilight increases faster than you can say 'a Sam'.

21:27 I did sleep some, I did write some. We ate at a neat restaurant (Sirih Merah) right next to the hotel, apparently while there was a large group having a party. Good fun. Good food too. And I am slowly learning to eyeball the prices because the conversion rate is of the 'thousands' sort, prices to match. 50,000 Indonesian rupiah is roughly €3, yet I still blink at prices on restaurant menus being such. Might actually be beneficial when tips and such are involved.

I've been giving the site a daily check. I might try to create a separate journey blog page - what with mobile editing being of the tricky sort.

21:56 Reformatting some things, because I will in fact turn this into its own thing. I've never done this for the other journeys (Salzburg, Trier, camping in France, etc.) most of all because I didn't keep track while there. Now I do, so I may as well. I'll try to update it once a day, but I can't promise it will be that frequent.

While showering I was thinking back to the whole 'photos and giggling girls' thing, in addition to Updaet #069 (whew) and a related dream logue entry, then to a zodiac test for Homestuck I took a few months ago (Liblo if my memory serves me right, teal signs?) which described the supposed sign as one of the naturally flirty ones. Maybe??? I do tend to call out nice shoes or clothing when I see it, assuming I know the person well enough to dare it. It's nothing serious; I'll do it to just about anyone I know and at least appreciate.

And while I'm on that train of thought, there's a roof terrace on floor 11 with a pool, a restaurant and lovely live music that you can hear 2 floors down. The overall public consists more of guests closer to my age. Plans have been set to eat and listen there at some point. These are Indonesian tourists for the most part, but probably a bunch will know English, and my rudimentary understanding of Indonesian could probably help. If all else fails I could hope for wifi and Google Translate. Indonesian is a very forgiving language on grammar structure but somewhat challenging in its different verb forms. You have a basic verb (katadasar) to which you add all sorts of prefixes and suffixes to get either passive forms, or derived nouns (perhatian is warning though 'attention' fits the context more in which I hear it in airport announcements; the root word is hati, which is about looking out or being careful).

Obviously I would not be inviting any charming strangers to come visit me in the Netherlands, but I doubt that'll be an issue to begin with.

Alright, it's 22.25. Time to wrap this up, write an intro (or not) and post it up. And before I forget: I DID bring bathroom supplies, because I didn't actually store them after shaving but before. It makes sense, believe me. Or don't.