Author: tompepinsky

Well we’re back in hot, stinky, crowded Jakarta, quite a change after rice paddies and fresh breezes.  But before we get back to business, we have one more travel adventure to relate.  This being Indonesia, nothing goes as expected.  So our trip home was kind of interesting.

We arrived at the airport nice and early with Tom’s folks, and were assured that the Denpasar-Jakarta flight would depart from the International terminal.  This was a bit strange because it’s a domestic flight, but we were happy for the extra visiting time.  The flight was listed on the departure board (although it was rescheduled for 20 minutes later than our tickets said), so while Tom’s parents waited to check in, we reported to our check in counter.  And were told that we had to go to the domestic departure terminal down the road.  Ok, so we examined the airport map, which made it seem like all the gates were connected upstairs.  We left Tom’s folks with only a quick goodbye to go do our own check in, figuring we would meet again upstairs.  Well, the map that we were looking at left out some gates, namely the ones we ended up at.  So sadly we weren’t able to hang out with the Pepinskys while we all waited.

When the time came for our flight, they herded us onto shuttle buses, drove us about 30 seconds down the road  and then told us to get on the plane.  The only plane was a 747-400 so we were a little confused. This flight is 1:20 and about 500 miles.  But on we got, and then the flight attendant told us to go upstairs.  I don’t know if they overbooked or what, but we got to sit upstairs in the business class of a 747 for our $90 one way flight.  The amazing thing was that the plane was packed, and this airline alone runs eight to ten flights on this route each day, each way.  So that was fun, as was the video screen hooked up to a camera in the cockpit which gave us the pilot’s view. That was really cool when we were landing.

Also, our flight was listed as "mixed", both international and domestic, so we came out at the dreaded immigration again.  We were about to lose it when we noticed a section on the side for domestic travellers where people were streaming out without anyone checking their tickets.  So home we went (where we were happy to discover that our prepaid electricity hadn’t run out while we were gone so that we could turn on the lights and air condioners).

Here’s some words from the second most opinionated person in our four-person group:

hi everybody, I’m Sandy, Tom’s mom.  We depart Bali today and here are my impressions after a week in Bali.

People: The Balinese seem to be very gentle folks.  The pace here is slow due to the heat.  Even in the busy and crowded towns, we never saw anybody arguing or fussing.  The Balinese adore children.  They are everywhere and their bahavior natural and unaffected.  Never heard a child whine.   Parents and other adults dote on them and spoil them in the best sense of the word.  The other day, a hotel guest’s baby started fussing in the lobby and was instantly surrounded by 6 of the staff (both men and women), cooing and comforting her.  Children even in the poorest rural areas seem to be well cared for and well fed.

Work:  There is more person power available here than work available, so the hotels and other establishments are amazingly overstaffed.  Staff is friendly and helpful. Given the amount of signage on the roads and in the towns, it seems that most of the population is literate in Bahasa Indonesia and all hotel workers learn Japanese and English.

Rural areas:  With the juxtaposition of cell phones ringing in the rice paddy, the clash of 21st century and life as it has been for hundreds of years is sometimes a jolt.  Yesterday we were on a raft trip down a river, and stopped for a break by a waterfall, where women were selling Cokes.  Our guide told us that the women climb down the gorge 3 kilometers with coolers full of cold drinks for the tourists. At another spot, the guide showed us the path that folks walk down the same distance to get clean drinking water and carry it up the hill. One day on the side of the rioad I saw two women carrying cement slabs on their heads.  (Like carring a couple of cinder blocks) Another day I say two women carrying loads of bamboo on their heads up a steep mountain road, and one of them was about 7 months pregnant!

Flora and fauna:  The tropical jungle is lush and beautiful.  We have seen a lot of birds, monitor lizards and a billion geckos.  As a matter of fact we have a gecko resident in our room here, living in the palm thatch ceiling and he pooped on me yesterday!

Spiritual life:  Balinese are very spiritual (the island in mostly Hindu, in contrast to the rest of Indonesia which is Muslim).  There are temples everywhere, and in addition shrines at every curve in the road.  It seems that the shrines are put up to protect travellers from dangers (a sharp curve, a busy intersection). One of the most common and interesting customs is that of leaving offerings.  Every business establishment, shrine, coffee stand will have little woven palm frond plates 3 inches square on the ground in front of it. On the plate will be some flowers, a few grains of cooked rice, a small piece of fruit, sometimes a coin or wrapped candy.  These are placed daily.  One of our drivers told us they are to thank the gods for having work and to assure safety in the work day to come.  This driver had his offering on  the dash board and said it would help assure no road rage, good traffic patterns, no accidents.  A very touching custom, really.  And offerings are EVERYWHERE.