3, 2, 1... Indonesia, here we go!: 31st of January... the adventure starts!

The flights went really good, the plane were comfortable and well equipped.

Having a private tv for me was a really a nice surprise not having travelled out of Europe before, and there were some videogames available and a lot of interesting films! I saw The Butler in Spanish!

The food was also good, spicy, everything really hot except the bread, the water and the yoghourt, and I have been advised that airplane food is not as hot as the real local food... Fortunately the pills for stomach protection were one of the few targets I managed to accomplish ;)

I slept three hours in sitting position but with my head perfectly locked by one of the farewell gifts of one of my friends: air cushion (thanks, dear!) and we are landing in Jakarta!

Jakarta airport

I am aware of what image I am giving to the local people in these awkward moments when, after having travelled for more than one day, slept 3 hours and used 2 refreshment towels, my body feels it is breakfast time and I keep smiling at everyone saying "good morning" like a crazy one (I read in my several books about Indonesia that if you have no time to deep study the uses and culture, smiling is a good tool to soften eventual offenses as they are very friendly people) with open wide eyes looking around to try not to miss anything, when actually it is almost dinner time.

Everything looks so green starting from the airport, what makes an important contrast with the airports I’ve been before in the good old Europe.

Today is my lucky day! It just took us 25 minutes to go from the airport to the hotel as it is a public bank holiday (Chinese Day), so traffic is quite smooth. Some colleagues arrived yesterday spent 2 and a half hours in the same route!

Jakarta views from the shuttle

Jakarta views from my room

I confirm, they are really friendly people always smiling and available. Although I guess being in a 5 starts hotel may bring additional friendliness, this was already evident when I was queuing at the boarding gate at the airport where a group of Indonesians seemed (with my knowledge of Bahasa Indonesia, the local language, it could also be that they were sharing impressions about the worldwide financial crisis) to be telling jokes and laughing even thought they didn’t seem to travel together. And some men offered themselves to help me with my luggage during the trip and I am sure I didn’t look desperate, my bigger suitcase just weighted 17 kilos.

We took dinner in a local restaurant where a group of men dressed with typical clothes was playing some local music. I took a video but the site doesn't let me upload it. I will keep trying.

The food was good and spicy, there was a wide buffet and a guy preparing noodles at a kind of a kiosk at the entrance. It was really inexpensive, we just paid 52.000 IDR per person, what is about … 3 Euro!