Planet Wilder

We made it to Indonesia!! We left at 5:15 a.m. Friday and made it to Indonesia at 11 p.m. Saturday. How much sleep on the plane? Emma had the usual and mom and dad got minimum rest. We (well Emma wouldn’t have cared less) were glad that we requested a 3.5 hours layover in Singapore so that we can freshen up. We went upstairs to the transit lounge and bought shower tickets. The showers were small but clean and the most important was that we got a whole day (and more) of traveling out of our outer bodies. We are now ready to see the parents and who knows what else was in-store (or so we thought).

My parents were there to pick us up. They were of course happy to see us, especially to see Emma, and Emma warmed up to them right away. The first thing we did was head out to lunch. We were suppose to meet up with my dad’s cousin and my great-aunt at a restaurant. The restaurant was good, a chinese restaurant near the interstate. My great-aunt looked good and she’s as sweet as always. Meeting her made me sad because she reminded me a lot of my grandpa, whom I couldn’t see. We had a great lunch even though it was short. After lunch we went to my maternal grandma. There’s not much to tell her except that she’s loosing her mind. She shouldn’t be since she’s not that old so it’s quite sad. She’s not one to exercise her brain. We also saw one of my uncles, one of my favorites, and Emma thought he was nice too; she let him carry her around. From here, moving on to Bandung and on the new road, it only took us two hours to get to Bandung compare to five.

Here we are in Bandung… I loved Bandung so much back in the days. It was a quite, cool, big town. Now it’s so commercialized. You can’t turn your head without seeing some sort of store. Really, how many malls and outlet stores (export items) can one city really need? When I was growing up, there was no need for AC in Bandung but now, it’s a need for good night sleep. Interestingly enough, the weather in Indonesia was a lot cooler than what Missouri was when we left but we used the AC. In Bandung I saw most of the relatives. We had dinner at a Japanese restaurant (not so good — no raw fish) and it was quite nice even though Emma was asleep most of the time and Drew was not in the mood to socialize (this was the first day we were in Indonesia… after the domestic flight and the Intl’ flight). It would have been best if this get together was done the day after we got some sleep. So really, it was nice to see them all but we all couldn’t wait to go to bed.

So while in Bandung (the next morning) we went and checked out some of the outlet stores. Emma got to pick whatever she wanted and the one skirt she picked was an Old Navy skirt (some ON items are made in Indonesia). Drew got a few Ts too and I got some Hollister Ts. They were about $3/ea and didn’t look defective. Maybe they made too many. Who knows but there I was buying them. What I would never buy now is a Louis Vuitton anything. There were soooo many fake ones and soooo many people owning one that they all look like cheap bags to me. Granted I never liked them in the first place, seeing so many of them in a third world county turned me off even more.

Then we got to Tasik, my hometown, and all there is to do there is eat and sleep. Really, there’s not much to do there.