The Return to Palembang

My final morning in Bali was beautiful. I had already arranged for a shuttle bus to come pick me up for the 2 hour drive to the airport. I'd gotten all of my things into my backpack the night before and had enough time to treat myself to a delicious, carbohydrate-loaded breakfast of a strudel, a croissant, some toast, and a glass of juice, along with one last steaming cup of Balinese coffee.

Delicious and peaceful

 

The ride to the airport was enjoyable and short. Two adjectives that are rarely attached to any form of transportation in Indonesia.  The 2 hour flight from Denpasar to Jakarta was pleasant enough and I managed to nap a bit and counted exactly 3 volcanoes from my window seat. Flying over interesting landscape is one of my favorite parts of traveling. On my way to China I remember looking out my window and being stunned to see the Rocky Mountains, and shortly thereafter some neat Alaskan tundra.

 

 One of the many reasons why this area is called the Ring of Fire

I arrived in the dreaded Jakarta airport, knowing full well that things would not be on time nor would anyone tell me about it.  Jakarta did not disappoint. Not only was my flight delayed 2 hours, but the departures monitor never showed my flight as being delayed, cancelled, or at all. A quick note about the Jakarta airport: It is neither clean, nor organized, and not a single person I know has had a flight depart on time. To add insult to injury, Terminal 1B, is a poor excuse for a terminal. If Tom Hanks' character had been stuck in Jakarta, that movie would not have been nearly as funny nor as interesting. After some finagling I talked to someone in the know and had it so one of the flight attendants would text me before boarding. Awesome. As my friend Diane had followed me on a later flight from Bali and would do the same to Palembang, I was able to meet up with her for a quick ice cream and airport rant. I eventually took my flight to Palembang and hung out in a cafe until Di arrived to share a taxi back to the house. This is always our least favorite part of traveling. Upon arriving at the Palembang airport there is a veritable wall of taxi drivers waiting to scam the obvious foreigners. At this point I don't take any of their nonsense and was able to negotiate for a relatively cheap ride for the two of us. As Mom would say, home again, home again, jiggidy jig.