Planet Wilder

After a few days in Tasik, we went on a road trip to East Java. WRONG IDEA!!! NEVER, unless you have a strong heart and ass, drive for a very long time in Indonesia. You’d want to kill somebody by the end of the day! First of all my dad’s car is so uncomfortable. It’s an SUV with horrible back seats!!! The way people drive there is TERRIBLE and very hard to explain; you just have to experience it. It’s like playing a video game, drive fast, dodge, and you win if you make it alive to your destination. The roads are super small too. A two lane road but it can become a three lane. Our driving distance was short, maybe 250 miles, so about a four hour drive here. But with the road situation it was a 10 hour drive for us. By the time we got to Solo, Drew wanted to go back to Tasik, by train, and just stay there until we had to leave. I was quite upset too. The reason for the long drive was because my parents felt bad because Emma wanted to see the beach and we had no plans on going to any. So, they decided to go to the (this butt ugly) beach so that Emma can see the beach. When we got there it was so disappointing, a waste of time to be honest.
Continue reading

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).
Continue reading

The first day of our trip was uneventful to say the least. First we had to get up really early in the morning to catch our 8:30 a.m. flight. Our good friend, Aaron, drove us to the airport that morning. We got to the airport as planned, no snag there, but since we have a paper ticket (we bought our tickets from a travel agent) we have to go through a special line. This line would have been great if the lady wasn’t so slow and that there were two other people in front of us. You think that’s not many but this lady spent a good 15 minutes with each one! After asking around, I finally got somebody to work on our boarding passes. Less than 5 minutes! And that got us all the way to Jakarta. Bags and all.
Continue reading

By the end of the day, we’ll have all the gears that we need (we hope) for our upcoming trip. The last item we received yesterday was our CARES airline system. Very nice item and seems simple to use. I need to watch the video still but from looking at it, it looks pretty self explanatory. There are picture instructions on the belt itself. Reviews when we return. If you’ve been reading our previous blog entry, you’ll know that we rented this item from an Ebay seller. Dianne Wood is the person I’ve been in contact with, she’s the seller, and she’s wonderful. Fast (even on vacation) responses and the item came as promised and in great condition. If you travel infrequently with a toddler, I recommend you get in touch with this person. Read the disclaimers and make sure you are ok with the requirements. They’re not tough, just common courtesy, just like if you were to borrow something from anybody or vise versa.
Continue reading

We are going to travel to Indonesia, Singapore, and Germany this fall. For a few months now I have been researching different ways to travel safely and without lugging too many heavy equipment for our toddler. I’ve travel with Emma since she was 3-months-old alone and it was really tough. I had to travel super light and find clever ways to haul everything. If you are traveling parents you know what I’m talking about. Between holding the child, your luggage, and gears, you literally have your hands full.

So, in the last few months I’ve been doing some research. First the airline seat belt. Up to two years of age, your child can sit on your lap, but if you want your child to sit on her own seat, she needs to sit on a car seat that is airline approved until she reaches the weight of 40 lbs or 4 years of age. Initially we were going to just bring one of our old car seats and then leave it in Indonesia since we were too lazy to haul it all over Singapore and Germany after. Then we found the AmSafe CARES airline child restraint system. It weighs less than 1 lbs and suppose to take less than 1 minute to hook your child up to it. After some searching, trying to find the best place to buy, we found a person on Ebay who is renting this system out. Awesome! For $15 + shipping, it’s a great and safe deal. If you’re interested, just type in: CARES Kids Fly Safe in the Ebay search and you’ll find this person with the username of m_and_d_in_fl.
Continue reading