Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Kuala Lumpur
Selamat pagi! I'm in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It's been 32 hours since I left home, and I have yet to leave an airport (woo!). My spirits are still high though, everything has been going rather smoothly despite some minor setbacks. My flights were delayed another grand total of 4 hours in Stockholm and Amsterdam, respectively, although everything still works out because I had some cushion room for my flight to Jakarta to begin with. This airport terminal looks exactly like one of the new ones in the Beijing airport. Except outside the grid-lined floor-to-ceiling glass walls I see palm trees and wavy lines of humidity. It's surprisingly empty where I am, so that the overhead announcements bounce off the spotless linoleum floors in echoes. The air smells like a combination of cleaning product, ripe fruit, and freshly laid carpet. I'm pretty excited for the remaining journey ahead, although I would kill a shower at this point. That's all for now, I think I am going to go take some pictures and peruse through my Indonesian phrasebook in a silly last attempt to learn some of the language. Hope everyone is well!
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
... And the turbulence hits even before I board the plane!
From a food court at Newark Airport
So, turns out there's an epic delay on my flight to Jakarta, and I end up completely missing the one daily flight to Kendari... not good. Thankfully, after frantically calling Acho at 6am his time, the man - god bless him - whips out an alternate itinerary for me that has me arriving in Kendari from Makassar and still managing to catch the speedjet ferry to Bau Bau! Close call. Acho saves the day!
That's all for now, more later.
Pending excessive amounts of air travel,
Steph
So, turns out there's an epic delay on my flight to Jakarta, and I end up completely missing the one daily flight to Kendari... not good. Thankfully, after frantically calling Acho at 6am his time, the man - god bless him - whips out an alternate itinerary for me that has me arriving in Kendari from Makassar and still managing to catch the speedjet ferry to Bau Bau! Close call. Acho saves the day!
That's all for now, more later.
Pending excessive amounts of air travel,
Steph
Itinerary (Or: Inauguration)
HEY FRIENDS, here goes my inaugural preamble of a blog post.
I'm currently bustling about in preparation for the arduous series of flights and boat rides that will take me to Kaledupa. Which basically consists of a pendulum-series of questions such as:
Should I bring my hiking boots or are they too heavy to be worth it? How quickly will these flashlights run out of batteries? What ratio of comic books to self-indulgent paperbacks to novels-with-actual-literary-merit should I bring? Will the children like the Sesame Street or Little Pony coloring books better?
In the midst of all this, I am making slow progress ... I think. The haphazard piles of STUFF in my room would probably beg to differ. But, such is packing -- it gets worse before it gets better right?
Anyway, I suppose I'm feeling the expected jumble of emotions - anticipation, apprehension, anxiety. a-a-a for Adventure?
More to come later. For now, here's what my next couple of travelin' days look like!
- 10 pm flight from Newark to Malaysia (Mon)
- Arrive in Malaysia at 6:30 AM (Wed)
- Fly to Jakarta, Arrive in Jakarta at 10 am (Wed)
- Fly to Kendari, Arrive in Kendari at 4:30 pm (Wed)
- Overnight stay in Kendari
- Ride to the harbour at Kendari (Thurs morning)
- 6-hour speedjet ferry ride to Bau Bau (Thurs)
- 9-hour overnight ferry ride to Wanci (Thurs-Fri)
- 2-hour boat ride to Hoga Island (Fri morning)
- Short ferry ride to Kaledupa (Fri)
PHEW. Ahh. Exhausting. BUT, I've been told to watch out for dolphins and flying fish on the boats! So I'm feeling optimistic.
Over and out,
Steph
I'm currently bustling about in preparation for the arduous series of flights and boat rides that will take me to Kaledupa. Which basically consists of a pendulum-series of questions such as:
Should I bring my hiking boots or are they too heavy to be worth it? How quickly will these flashlights run out of batteries? What ratio of comic books to self-indulgent paperbacks to novels-with-actual-literary-merit should I bring? Will the children like the Sesame Street or Little Pony coloring books better?
In the midst of all this, I am making slow progress ... I think. The haphazard piles of STUFF in my room would probably beg to differ. But, such is packing -- it gets worse before it gets better right?
Anyway, I suppose I'm feeling the expected jumble of emotions - anticipation, apprehension, anxiety. a-a-a for Adventure?
More to come later. For now, here's what my next couple of travelin' days look like!
- 10 pm flight from Newark to Malaysia (Mon)
- Arrive in Malaysia at 6:30 AM (Wed)
- Fly to Jakarta, Arrive in Jakarta at 10 am (Wed)
- Fly to Kendari, Arrive in Kendari at 4:30 pm (Wed)
- Overnight stay in Kendari
- Ride to the harbour at Kendari (Thurs morning)
- 6-hour speedjet ferry ride to Bau Bau (Thurs)
- 9-hour overnight ferry ride to Wanci (Thurs-Fri)
- 2-hour boat ride to Hoga Island (Fri morning)
- Short ferry ride to Kaledupa (Fri)
PHEW. Ahh. Exhausting. BUT, I've been told to watch out for dolphins and flying fish on the boats! So I'm feeling optimistic.
Over and out,
Steph
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