July
25, Wednesday to August
1, Wednesday
OK DON'T PANICK. You haven't missed the in between period from the last blog posting.
I'm just giving you an update from today. August 1, 2012.
July 25, Wednesday:
This is the day I leave Singapore and fly to Indonesia. This will be my 25th country so far.
My flight out leaves on schedule and I arrive on the Island of Java and the city of Jakarta in late afternoon; 11 hours behind Ottawa local time. At the airport I somehow missed the office where I needed to obtain the travel visa and followed the crowd to the Immigration desk. After waiting 10 minutes in line, I was sent back to where I missed the office, got my 30 day tourist visa and went back to the Immigration line, at the back of the line. 20 minutes later I was through without a hitch and looking for a taxi. I had exchanged by remaining Ringit for Indonesian Rupiahs the Singapore airport, and gotten change in Rupiahs from my travel visa ($25 fee out of my $50 US). I had enough to pay for the taxi ride which was almost $100,000 Rupiahs. Thank God the exchange rate is about $10 to each 10,000 Rupiahs.
The notes from this week are going to be extremely short, since I did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING while I was here.
First: Ramadan has started.
Second: I’m hearing strange sounds from the streets below at night (hopefully fire crackers and not gun shots). If you want to travel anywhere in Jakarta, you have to do so by bus and they are ALWAYS overcrowded. I took a short walk just as the sunset one night to find a convenience store to purchase some juice and soft drinks, and did not like the look of things. For some reason I’m not confident about walking these streets, although my hotel is located close to a main boulevard.
Third: I'm trying to locate a tour that will take me across the island of Java so that I end up in Bali.
I don’t have access to the internet from my room since the hotel charges $10/hour and when I log on to do any research or to post to my blog, I’m usually on for at least 3 hours. There is free connection from the hotel lobby and from the restaurant levels on the 5th floor, but I end up with bites all over my ankles each time I’m down there. They look like sand flies or midges, and they bite and sting like crazy. "Deet" does not seem to deter them either, so I’ve got swollen bites all over my lower legs again and on my arms. Also, on most days the internet keeps cutting out. It took me 2 hours to post 1 day of travel photos into my blog yesterday.
So apologies for not posting more on my blog to catch you up on my travels.
Love to all of you who are following my travels and thank you for your patience.
OK DON'T PANICK. You haven't missed the in between period from the last blog posting.
I'm just giving you an update from today. August 1, 2012.
July 25, Wednesday:
This is the day I leave Singapore and fly to Indonesia. This will be my 25th country so far.
My flight out leaves on schedule and I arrive on the Island of Java and the city of Jakarta in late afternoon; 11 hours behind Ottawa local time. At the airport I somehow missed the office where I needed to obtain the travel visa and followed the crowd to the Immigration desk. After waiting 10 minutes in line, I was sent back to where I missed the office, got my 30 day tourist visa and went back to the Immigration line, at the back of the line. 20 minutes later I was through without a hitch and looking for a taxi. I had exchanged by remaining Ringit for Indonesian Rupiahs the Singapore airport, and gotten change in Rupiahs from my travel visa ($25 fee out of my $50 US). I had enough to pay for the taxi ride which was almost $100,000 Rupiahs. Thank God the exchange rate is about $10 to each 10,000 Rupiahs.
Although I had printed out a map from Booking.com when I
made my hotel reservations, my taxi driver did not seem to know how to read
it. We eventually got there, but
through a very round-about way.
I’m staying at the Merlynn Park Hotel. The notes from this week are going to be extremely short, since I did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING while I was here.
First: Ramadan has started.
Second: I’m hearing strange sounds from the streets below at night (hopefully fire crackers and not gun shots). If you want to travel anywhere in Jakarta, you have to do so by bus and they are ALWAYS overcrowded. I took a short walk just as the sunset one night to find a convenience store to purchase some juice and soft drinks, and did not like the look of things. For some reason I’m not confident about walking these streets, although my hotel is located close to a main boulevard.
Third: I'm trying to locate a tour that will take me across the island of Java so that I end up in Bali.
I don’t have access to the internet from my room since the hotel charges $10/hour and when I log on to do any research or to post to my blog, I’m usually on for at least 3 hours. There is free connection from the hotel lobby and from the restaurant levels on the 5th floor, but I end up with bites all over my ankles each time I’m down there. They look like sand flies or midges, and they bite and sting like crazy. "Deet" does not seem to deter them either, so I’ve got swollen bites all over my lower legs again and on my arms. Also, on most days the internet keeps cutting out. It took me 2 hours to post 1 day of travel photos into my blog yesterday.
So apologies for not posting more on my blog to catch you up on my travels.
My research on the Internet this week has paid off however and I’ve
managed to book a solo tour through the Island of Java, on my way to Bali. I leave on Wednesday August 1 and arrive in
Bali on Sunday August 12.
August 1, Wednesday
Taking off in about 1 hour on my excursion through Java.
I’ll keep trying to catch up on my blog postings for June
& July whenever I can.August 1, Wednesday
Taking off in about 1 hour on my excursion through Java.
Love to all of you who are following my travels and thank you for your patience.
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