This is hopefully the first entry of many to follow.
The purpose of this online journal is to share my experiences living in Asia and to keep track of activities during my time here. One of my main inspiration to start an online blog is my friend and classmate Rick Hoek, who has lived several years in Japan and shares his life through his blog. If anyone else reads this apart from myself and you can read Dutch be sure to check his blog http://www.rickhoek.blogspot.com/ .
On the 26 April 2010 I travelled to Indonesia using Singapore Airlines, looking back on it the journey didn´t feel that long. The in flight movies were a bit of a let down this time as the sound quality was quite bad, while using the headset sometimes sound would come from only one of the speakers and it was difficult to hear what the actors were saying. During the flight I watched The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus and Sherlock Holmes, both movies were enjoyable enough although I found the plot of Sherlock Holmes starring Robert Downey Jr way to far fetched to be believable, the portrayal of Sherlock Holmes by Downey was enjoyable enough. Unfortunately the bad sound quality disturbed the overall watching experience.
It was nice to visit Singapore's airport again, the sheer luxury of this airport still amazes me to this day. Was able to use the free wireless internet offered there, though wasn´t able to enjoy it that long as our transit time was quite short between flights. The airport also provided massage machines which you could use to relax your feet, it was quite relaxing if I say so myself
After a short flight to Surabaya (approx 2 hours) we finally arrived on Juanda aiport Surabaya. It pales into comparison to the airport in Singapore, you could see that people here simply don´t maintain standards then again I would expect no less of them. After some more bureaucracy we were finally able to pass through immigration and retrieve our luggage. Was relieved to find that my PlayStation 3 was still safe in my luggage, after the porlap (luggage carriers) picked up our baggage we had to pass through another security check. Man that was a farce that was, our hand luggage had to be put into the machine to be checked, however, our normal luggage just skipped the machine (too much work to check I guess).
Our driver luckily was already there (poor guy was waiting there since 7 o'clock, we arrived around 9:15). As soon as we stepped outside the airport I started the melt, holey moley man is it hot here!. After stuffing our baggage into the car we started our long trip to Lawang. Since it is the rainy season now, we encountered some rain during our trip. From the driver we heard that some areas were flooded, so that was scary to know. Mom didn't sleep during the flight so she fell into a coma during the trip to Lawang together with my little sister Nadya.
Somehow it felt nostalgic to see the horrendous color design of the houses while driving through several towns.
After an hour or 2 we finally arrived at Jalan Argopuro 25, Lawang.
