Jetlagged in Indonesia

Frankfurt – 

Frankfurt Airport. We are starting our trip by almost missing our flight. I should really get my priorities straight. Breakfast is not as important as getting to the airport in time after all. In the end we made it. On the plane I’m getting no sleep. Ethihad is under the impression that passengers must be cooled down to 4° C in order to arrive fresh. What are we? Tulips? At least we get blankets.

The lunch, however, surprises me. Even in Economy I get a kind of luxury feeling while enjoying my orientally spiced meal. Even the Cicken-Wrap which we get a little later as a snack is delicous. And the breakfast omlette with sausage outweighs my sleepless night.

Abu Dhabi – 

The stopover feels like an alternating bath. From feezer-like temperatures on the shuttle we get a brief glimpse of the outside temperatures of over 40° C only to get back to the cooled down Terminal.  The Airport is gigantic – still we are cramped like sardines as we are trying to approach the check in. The intersection between Europe and Asia is crowded with all the people who are trying to make their way to the other side of the world. It is impossible to miss the overflowing decadence of the Emirates. Seriously? An ATM for Gold? They call it “Gold to go”

On the connecting flight, Etihad manages to win me over with the lunch menu. I don’t want to fly with any other flight agency anymore . Sweet potatoes and eggplant casserole with some oriental spices which are unknown to me. Yum! During our flight we are repeatedly reminded not to buy drugs since there is a death penalty for drug possession in Indonesia.

Jakarta – 

We are reminded again when we arrive in Jakarta. At least a dozen of signs remind us not to buy drugs. Ok I get it. WINNERS DON’T USE DRUGS ! (Or people not having a deathwish). Jakarta feels a little less like a freezer than Abu Dhabi. But when we enter the airport we are welcomed by the smell of two-stroke engines coming from the streetes outside. The smell of burned plastik adds to the terrible odour.

We are heading to Denpasar with Garuda. We have Omlette again for our second breakfast. Again with a lot of spices .

Denpasar – 

Denpasar Arrivals. What did I read about the Taxis again? Trust the BlueBird taxis and avoid the darker blue copycats… (Although also some BlueBirds do not nessesarily own a taximeter) ?  The BlueBirds do not seem to have permits for the Airport Zone though, so you have to settle for the copycats. Oh well… Our driver doesn’t seem to have problems finding our hotel, though it isn’t unusual that drivers have to search for adresses given to them. The mixture of lacking knowledge of the places, missing or bad road signs, the roads getting renamed from time to time and no logic to the order of the housenumbers makes it extremely difficult to find a place. So even if you know the correct address it is possible that the driver is driving you around for a while before he finds the street you are looking for. Of course he will charge you for it .

Legian – 

The Hotel “Legian Hotel” in… exactly! Legian is about 80000 IDR (5.55 USD) from the airport. (You can calculate with about 6000 IDR (0.42 USD) / km  – 8000 IDR (0.56 USD) / km if you want to negotiate with the driver about the price. Taxies aren’t really expensive, feel free to give a tip)

The hotel seems nice. The room is huge… unfortunately it is next to a highly frequented road, so it is quite noisy. I hope the traffic will slow down at night. We take our stuff to the room and decide to explore the surroundings.  First thing we see (and hear) are Autralians. They’re everywhere. What summarizes the impact of Australian tourists best is a sticker I notice on one of the cars. It shows the outline of Bali filled with the Australian flag… right. Everything seems very touristy. A lot of shops, bars, tattoo parlors and gift shops…

Since we are hungry we choose the next best Warung. I am having Nasi Campur “Fried chicken with goodies” – lets see what I get. It turns out to be one of the typical balineasian dishes. Very delicous. Eggplant-soup and fried rice with pulled chicken and a lot of fried vegetables. It comes with a kind of patty that looks like peanut pasteli (typical greek pastry) but turns out to be soy… It is called “Tempeh”. And fresh pineapple-juice (All together costs us only  25000 IDR (1.73 USD))

The sun begins to set early and we head on to the beach which seems to be more suitable for surfers than for swimming. We enjoy the sunset but call it an early night.