5-8-11/First Morning and Surprises!

I woke up around 0613, Realizing that family is a bunch of early risers, most likely because they follow the schedule of the calls to prayer, its a stark contrast to my usual sleep schedule, which I guess isn't that regular but w/e, still a bit jet lagged but I'm recovering surprisingly fast. After I woke up we took a tour of my uncle's neighborhood, where we got a good look at Bandung from the hills above it. I also learned that the neighborhood had a gold course, rec center, all the bells and whistles, and was also the home to Indonesia's upper echelons from generals to CEOs.

The Sleeping Giant

Breakfast with the fam!

The View of Bandung from the Hills of Dago

We got our cell phone today, at a used cell phone shop, and bought a sim card and loaded it with some minutes, unfortunately with my mom not understanding Indonesian telecom policies, and my lack of understanding of Indonesian, it would end up being a temporary source of irritation for me. I also was able to get some Internet access which was really nice as I got to facebook chat with Simone and update my facebook status, and check on somethings, though I was still a bit frustrated with my phone that I wasn't able to call her yet, apparently it takes up to 48 hours for the phone to fully activate, and I'm pretty convinced it wanted to take the full 48 hours to activate, which was another minor annoyance. But while I was browsing the web my mom was trying to hurry me off the computer, claiming that we were going to have lunch with my family, me being the ultra plugged in person that I am was trying to absorb as much Internet time as possible but I reluctantly got off the Internet in a huff, and made my way to my grandmother's house (oh yeah I forgot to mention, I had to go into one of the dormitories to get Internet access which isn't that far of a walk, but it would have been easier if my grandmother had Internet access.) I got dressed in a huff, and then went into a car with my cousins, Kanigara, Ichsan, and 'Windy, and went on an adventure.

Our Cellphone (which I would soon replace)

As I got to know them a bit better, we went back into the hills around bandung, saw a strawberry farm where you could pick your own strawberries, and also went to a petting zoo, which would be our final destination. All the while my cousins were telling me that we lost a few cars and since we were ahead of them we had to wait on them which I figured was ok, apparently the petting zoo we arrived at wasn't really a petting zoo but a nice outdoor restaurant/resort. We met up with my uncles and took pictures to pass the time “until the girls could catch up” however we reached the top of the restaurant, only to find that the rest of my family was there and all along this was a surprise party planned by my mom since January of this year, where she coordinated a time where my entire family would be in one place, and what a surprise it was. To have 30 people sing happy birthday to you was pretty awesome, I think it was one of the biggest parties I've ever had, and this party was just with family!

However it was slightly awkward for me and I would later learn for my cousins also, because they felt self conscious about their english, and I about my lack of understanding Indonesian and the fact that I didn't remember everyone's names, and just that there were so many damn people. I wish Simone was there with me, she always helps me with my shyness/awkwardness, but we eventually bridged the gap and it got more comfortable, we had a big family picture, which I can annotate for my dad, who's been asking for an annotated family picture for years. But in anycase the lunch was nice, everyone had goody bags and seemed to have a good time, and then we went back to my grandmother's house where the families regrouped and went back home. After I got home I would unwrap some presents that people would give me.

The Family, still missing 3 members of the family lol

One particularly nifty gift I got was from my cousin 'Zela, which was a travel bag, or what most americans would call a murse or an “urban shoulder bag” lol, but I thought I would use it (so most of the pictures I'll take from now on will have it in there) and I was thinking about growing out a beard to look like Zach Gallifinakis a la The Hangover, but I thought against it and would embrace the travel pack. I would go on to use the internet again, and try to call Simone by all means but our Pingo card didn't work, our cell phone wasn't working either, and texting wasn't even working so I was pretty peeved and eventually went to bed, hoping that the phone would work and I could talk to Simone.

5-8-11 0009h/Arrival in Indonesia/First Night

We arrived in Indonesia in the early morning, and since we landed we haven't stopped moving until now. The flight was pretty uneventful, and the food/service was great! After landing in Jakarta, we got our visas and bags, and were greeted my Uncle Tendy, who I call, Mang Aten, my cousin Faris, my aunt Jane, and my Grandmother, who I call Enin. It was a hug filled event, with my grandmother crying and my aunts and uncles asking if I remembered them. (with a family of nearly 30 plus members it gets a bit hard to remember all the names.)

Landing in Jakarta

We rushed into the car, which was the indonesian equivalent of the Toyota Sienna, getting ready for the drive to Bandung, my mom's home town, which is also where we would be spending the first few days of our vacation. On the way to Bandung we drove through downtown Jakarta, which has now become a collection of high-rises, and malls, a bit different than what I remembered, or maybe it always was like that I just didn't notice when I was younger.

My Grandmother, my aunt Jane, Me and my Uncle Tendy, I think my mom took the picture, and my Cousin was getting my uncle's car for us.

Maybe it was also a bit different since Jakarta was hosting the ASEAN (sp?) conference. Another thing that's pretty crazy is the traffic on the roads in Indonesia, which I will save for another Post, but in any case, it was a pretty uneventful drive. We drove to Bandung on the relatively new highway route, which was a stark contrast to the winding road of the mountain passes that we took nearly 10 years ago, the highway route cut the travel time in half as we got to Bandung in 2 hours.
We arrived at my grandmother's house which has now become a compound of 4 buildings and has potential to increase as 2 of my aunts and uncles have undeveloped plots of land. The land which my grandmother lives has been in our family for a few generations now, and was at one point requisitioned by the Indonesia military and was used as barracks for some officers. However after some land reclamation our family now owns the land and has built up dormitory style rooms (and yes I can use dormitories for this description because they are off campus lol) and they rent out rooms to local college students and the rent that the students pay goes to help support my grandmother.

my grandmother's house :-)

My Aunt Eni's building which has 8 rooms for rent to students

My Mang Aten's Building which has 13 rooms for rent, all the rent from the 21 rooms goes to help my grandmother and maintain the buildings

I must say though that after such a long flight, I was itching to make phone calls/use the internet, unfortunately, Internet access was spotty at best and we didn't have our cell phone yet, so I would have to wait for at least another day to get internet/phone access. I was also surprised to see most of family milling around my Enin's house, which I suppose was normal, my grandmother being the Matriach and all, why wouldn't the family be there?
So that night we stayed at my Mang Aten's house, which was in the hills around Bandung, in an area called Dago, which is the upper class area of Bandung. I didn't realize how upper-class the area was until I saw the houses in the neighborhood. We had to pass 3 guard posts to get to my uncle's house, and the house itself was really boss, I was even more surprised that it wasn't his only house but one of 5 or 6 properties that he owned. I'll spot light my uncle soon, but we'll just leave it that my uncle is a very successful man. I wish I could have gotten more pictures from his house because the view of Bandung at night was breath taking but I also wanted to wait until the morning to see the contrast in the views.

View of Bandung at Night

5-7-11/Singapore-Jakarta

Landed In Singapore in the early morning, and saw rows and rows of cargoships, but I couldn't get good pictures because my camera is pretty shite, but it was pretty impressive. I wish I could have gotten pictures. But when we arrived in Singapore, complete 180 from Moscow, even the air was different. Singpore's terminals were sparkling clean and the bathrooms were totally clean, they even had anti-biotic spray that you could spray on toilet paper so that you could wipe the toilet seats, which to someone like me thats borderline OCD, it works out really well.
All the cleanliness got me feeling self-concious, after sitting in my own funk for nearly 24 hours, I wish that I could feel as fresh and clean as Singapore's airport was. They had “free” wifi available, but only if you subscribe to a certain plan, luckily though they had terminals which travelers could use which was really cool. So I used that to check my facebook, which was pretty convenient. Pretty much Singapore's Changi Airport is one of the nicest in Asia. The staff of the airport is very multi-cultural as well, if you have the chance allow Singapore's Changi International Airport to be your gateway into south east/southern Asian, and if you have a chance you should also visit Singapore itself!

More Singapore Airlines planes docked around us

We boarded the plane bound for Indonesia, Flew a 777-300 with Nintendo games to Indonesia, though the entertainment system was a bit older, as well as the seats. But the good part was the flight totally empty, so as soon as the outside doors were closed, we immediately moved seats and sat by ourselves, we had food, and we washed our face with warmed moist towelettes, which is something we got on every flight since Houston, which is pretty baller. Prior to take off I got my first glimpse of an A380 as I saw a Quantas A380 come in for a landing, which was really cool, unfortunately I couldn't get a picture of it. We left Singapore just after sunrise so I got to see Singapore lit up at night and Singapore during the day, which both were really cool.

Pics of Singapore and the surrounding area from above

Delay in Posts

Hey All!

Sorry about the delay in the posts, Internet has been pretty spotty in all the locations I've been in so far, and since I want to post pictures with my blog posts, uploads take forever/don't even work! I'm still writing in my pocket journal, then transcribing my thoughts on a text document, and then posting it up here when I have the chance! So stay tuned, there will be more posts very soon!!

-Kris

5-6-11 /Moscow-Singapore

When we landed at Moscow, the first good sign that the flight would be ok was that we docked next to an El-Al 767-300ER bound for Tel Aviv, and that automatically made me think of Simone, which by this point its been almost a week since I had seen her, and I already missed her sooo much!

The weather and people of Moscow that day was dreary. I would probably have to say that Moscow is one of my least favorite airports, up there with the airport at Philly. The airport seemed to be stuck in the cold war era of inefficiency, as all the passengers were forced to deplane and go through a russian security checkpoint, as if we haven't been through enough security checkpoints already.

There was only 1 person handling all the passengers that deplaned, even though there were 4 open counters, the lack of organization was frustrating, probably also because I was sweating and still recovering from an 11 hour flight. 

We finally got back on the plane, and we were sitting next to the same guy, we hoped he wouldn't be there... but oh well. I was pretty frustrated with the whole ordeal and my clothes were pretty damp with sweat, I was just hoping to get back on terra firma. One of the things that kept me going was hoping that things would be much better in Singapore, also looked forward to watching more movies. 

Will probably avoid flying into Moscow in the future if I can help it. 

So I settled into my seat hoping to watch a movie, but when I got back, my in-flight entertainment system was on the fritz, which made me pretty pissed. However I went and got a change of clothes and we got some food, and I felt a lot better. Had a steward reset my entertainment system and all was much better.

I started off the flight by watching “Black Swan” (I AM THE SWAN QUEEN!), then “The King's Speech” and finished up the flight with “The Mechanic” all pretty great movies. I can see why both “Black Swan” and “The King's Speech” won Oscars. Landed in Singapore in the early morning, after flying over Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and Malaysia. I was able to see the glow of Cities in India, and the glow of Kuala Lumpur which is pretty huge. I also saw a group of clouds which I'm pretty sure were storm clouds because I saw flashes of light within them... either that ot it was explosions. Not sure, but Now onto Singapore!

Views from Singapore as we descended towards the airport, Airport must be on the outskirts of town as I remembered Singapore's lights being much more vibrant. Also sorry for the poor quality of the photos, I wish my camera could do most of what I have been seeing justice.

5-5-11/ Houston-Moscow

One of the first things I noticed was that one of the senior stewards looked like George Takei from behind. 

The service was pretty much just the same as I remembered, we had a mix stewards/stewardesses. It was interesting that some had different uniforms than others, I later learned that it was denote their ranks. But I was more concerned with the entertainment system.

As soon as we took off, I immediately turned to the “KrisWorld” entertainment system. I remembered that they used to have Super Nintendo games as one of the main entertainment sources, unfortunately this flight didn't, however, it had a kick ass music and movie selection. 

I was pretty bummed that my MP3 player wasn't working like I wish it was, but It was made all the better by the selection of music they had in the entertainment system. They had all sorts of artists, from pop to Electronica, and even foreign artists. I built a very dancy list, of Deadmau5, Paul van Dyk, and some pop songs from the Now series (which was on number 76/77 due to it being the British version of Now.) The movie selection was even better.

Plenty of the Newest movies out of theatres, I watched 2 movies on the flight, A french film called “De Vrais Mensonges”, and an American movie, “No Strings Attached”. Was a decent flight, but had a middle seat so it was a bit uncomfortable, there was some random guy that got the aisle seat, so he was a pretty lucky bastard... but it was ok, he was quiet, and when he got up to use the bathroom, we rushed to go before him lol, but it was pretty fun. 

We would land in Moscow on the 6^th of May, though I can't remember if I changed my watch to the local time or not. But after an 11 hour flight, I was glad to be off of the plane for a bit, but what would greet me was something I would rather not go through again.

The only picture I could get of Moscow before I left, too bad I couldn't get one of the El Al plane, i was photo blocked by a stewardess before I could get it

5-5-11/Orlando-Houston

Flew United/Continental, seat belts were a bit tight, but it was a short flight so that was nice, arrived at Houston at lunch at panda express, and switched terminals to the international section. Waited for a few hours and then boarded the plane. The plane we boarded was a Singapore Airlines 777-300ER, and it would be the same plane we would fly on from Houston to Singapore.