Saturday December 27,1997: 11am
Just on the plane
Hahaha, they bumped me to FIRST CLASS!! I love it! I guess I got to the checkin a bit late or something because all the no smoking seats were already taken so the woman goes, I'm sorry but we're all out of non-smoking seats - would business class b e alright?
YES! hahahahaha.
Other than that, I had a bit of trouble at immigration - I have a multiple entry visa, but I had to get a re-entry permit, costing me Y3,000 ($40). Argh. Plus, I had to go into their office, and they explained everything in Japanese... fun!
Wow, I've only been sitting down for 5 minutes, and already I've been given an English newspaper, and orange juice in a champagne glass! And there are *real* slippers up here! This is travel in style!
2 mins later
Footrests too! Padded and everything! Wow, this is so cool.
6:30pm Tokyo time - on the plane
Wow, like for the meal, they come around and lay a table cloth down on your tray... and I got REAL salt and pepper shakers! Ya know, none of this salt-in-a-paper-package stuff for business class! Oh, and they hand out after-meal chocolates. And ju st now they gave out gifts to all business class passengers - a travel clock! Seriously, it is just what I needed! I like it here.
On the other hand, I think there is a direct correlation between times of turbulence, and me being in the washroom. No, I am not joking. I've noticed this phenomenon over my years of travelling (I'd say that I've spent an abnormal time of my life i n airplanes), and every single time I click that door shut.. the whole plane goes bumpedy-bumpedy. Maybe it's some sort of plot..
Anyway, when we left Narita, the pilot said the temperature in Jakarta was 34C. Hey, not bad!
10pm: at home in Jakarta
Just a tad tired. Let's see, customs was surprisingly a cinch considering my past record - this time the guy only asked to check 2 of my bags, lucky lucky. Anyway, I got through all the procedures in no time at all - I was sayin' hi to Mom and Dad within 20 minutes of landing.
Drove on home - well, to the apartment. Surprisingly (or not?) things are kinduv the same. Still hot, still a bit polluted, still crowded, still Jakarta. Good. Oh, I'm finding it extremely difficult to speak any Indonesian. How depressing - 3 yea rs of living here, and you stick me in Tokyo for 8 months and now all that pops out of my mouth are my "Hai"s, "Sumimasen"s, and "Daijoubu"s instead of the "Ya"s, "Maaf"s and "Baiklah"s. It's quite frustrating. Well, I'm sure it will come back. But the n, will my Japanese go? How destructive could one week really be..?
Great dinner - decided that having a maid/cook is actually a nice thing - I just may have to go live in Jakarta later so I can have one.
I had to wrap the last of my Xmas presents, since Santa's dropping by tonight. We played some Chinese checkers - I realized that there is a very mathematical strategy for winning the game, but I wasn't willing to think it out. Anyway I am pooped an
d I think it's time for me to get snug in my bed with visions of sugarplums... yeah yeah, I get the point.
Sunday December 28, 1997: 1am (1am, Dec.29th, that is)
Cool, gotta love Christmas! What a day. I was woken up by a pillow thrown at my head - yeah yeah, stocking time! Sariya and I traditionally went through them - with many yelps. wow, neat stuff, so great! A slinky!! Silver elephant! RPs!! HOw exciting.
So since Mom was UNtraditionally beating down the door, we got out of our room and joined them on the terrace to check out what Santa'd left everyone. Then after awhile we started at the stuff under the tree, and even more wows! I must say that the re were so many cool things. Ha, between all of us, there must've been 20 CDs or something! Dad had bought a whole bunch for himself and labelled them "To John, From Madeline" [ed. note: Dad = John, Mom = Madeline] - of course, Mom had no recollection of purchasing these.. haha.. sneaky sneaky Dad!
Mm and of course breaky was yummy.. and then we spent a good chunk of time reading through books we'd gotten, or finishing off books we'd already started (I finished off "Vertical Run" by .. um..)
Oh later on we went out to take my (many) pictures in to be developped, and rent a movie and stuff, then back to the apartment. I went for a run on the treadmill up in the weight room - man, that room is HOT! The AC must not work. By the time I ca me down, it was time for turkey dinner - um, except that Sariya and I don't eat turkey. Details details. Wow, ate too much, but hey, that's just tradition!
Oh I talked to Nana [ed. note: friend from high school] tonight. Haven't talked to her in 3 years - since she graduated! It was great to talk with her - as if it had been 3 weeks, not 3 years. Cool. And since she's back in Jakarta for the holid ays, we're gonna try to do something - and hopefully some more high school dudes will be around and come along. Cool!
Later we all played a half game of Shanghai, then Dad, Sariya and I watched "Last Kiss Goodnight", which was good I think. Anyway, tomorrow is an early day, so it really is time to snooze or else I'll pay!
Monday December 29, 1997: 10:30pm
Aaah, talk about relaxing! Ate breaky, packed up stuff for the next 2 days, then Sariya and I went for a haircut and leg-wax (chopped my hair short!), went to pick Mom up at the office - then we were all off to the Arya Duta Lido hotel, about an hou r's drive out of Jakarta, a bit up in the mountains. And WOW, what a beautiful place. I mean, the hotel itself is really nice - paradise pool, paradise view, tennis course, and a paradise golf course. Wow, I just wasn't expecting this!
We spent the afternoon just lazing around by the paradise pool, reading. I started this book "Mortal Memory" by ... . and I couldn't put it down (finished it later this afternoon) - we had booked the tennis courts for 6pm, but just as we got out th
ere, it started to rain, Indonesian style [ed note: VERY HARD]. Shoulda known, it has rained like clockwork at 6pm for the last 2 days - from my past experience I shoul've known it'd be the same today. Oh well, we had a backup plan - the weight room.
So we all went there instead. Cool. Then of course, dinner (yum) and a couple of hands of bridge (not an easy task for Sariya and I), and now, sleep!
Tuesday December 30, 1997: 10:10pm
I could get used to this life! Ha ha.. Got up at 6:50 (ok, I could get up just a bit later..) so that we could all head off to the golf course. Now, although we really tried, we only started at 9 o'clock - we were planning on playing 18 holes. Of course, we hadn't taken into account that I, well, SUCK [ed not: excuse the language Mom], and that Sariya and Mom are still learning (although in comparison to me, they're pros) .. and it took us an hour to get through that first hole - ha ha! At that rate we'd be finished at - uh - late!! Luckily we got it sped up a bit - we stopped losing balls over cliffs, in palm trees, or in tall grass, and we got more efficient at driving those golf carts around (those things are F U N fun, dude!) - and managed to finish the first 9 holes in 4-some hours.. hahaha! Anyway, it was fun, but I'm not sure I should be playing on the course until I've gone to the driving range a bit more.
We took a break for lunch - and decided to play the other 9 holes tomorrow, since it was geting HOT out there, and I, for one, was feeling like bumming out by the pool. So we went back to the hotel, and did just that. Aaa.. relaxin'!!
Later on, at about 5, we attempted the tennis thing again. Of course, 5 minutes after we start (I swear, it was only 5 minutes) it started to rain! Luckily though, it didn't pour so we could keep on playing. We just hit the ball around for about a n hour.. the handle on my racquet is literally falling off, which made things a little tricky. I'll have to fix that.
I just showed Mom and Dad my Japan pictures up 'til September and at least I can still remember what the story is behind them all - with this memory, ya just never know what'll happen.
Wednesday December 31, 1997: 1:30am (Jan 1st)
Ok so technically it is Jan 1st, 98, but I haven't gone to sleep yet, so I still consider it yesterday. Hm, I'm just killing time, waiting to see if Jon and I will be able to actually talk [ed. note: using Freete l] over the internet - wouldn't that be cool. But in some not-so-sane point in time this afternoon, I sent an email suggesting 2am (2pm in Toronto) as a good time.. what was I thinking?
In fact, the party ended about a half an hour ago - Jim and Juliana came over to celebrate with us. Mmm, good food. We played lots of those funny games that the cousins used to play at the cottage on the rainy days.. oh, and then charades. It was all pretty funny actually. Midnight came and went - did the usual countdown but somehow lucked out with not having to sing "Old Angsty" (spelling?!?!) - or whatever it's called. No one ever knows the words anyway, and champagne doesn't really help the m atter. So I'm going to check if Jon's online yet..
4am
Yee-ah, still up. Talked to Jon using freetel - cool! Like, there was a bit of a lag, and the quality wasn't top notch, but considering I was talking to the dude in Canada for the price of making an internet connection - cool! So we talked for a g
ood part of 2 hours. Of course, 2 hours of internet talk equals about half an hour of regular phone calls.. whatever. Now, it is time to sleeep!
Thursday January 1, 1998: 11pm
Wow, I slept in til NOON today! Cool. I guess I was just dead to the world. Mom was up early I think - I heard her chucking objects at the house on the balcony side of the apartment building. There are these dogs there that just WON'T stop yappin g, and they're pretty annoying. Luckily, I brought earplugs (a necessity in Jakarta, if you want to have a chance of a good night's sleep, between 5am mosque broadcasts, roosters at dawn, dogs all night..) but Mom being an insomniac of sorts, I guess she just - uh - lost it. After throwing cans and empty jars, she actually went over there to give the guards a good talkin'-to. Of course, the guards didn't care, and the owner is some big honcho in the government, and doesn't even live in the house. And it turns out that the dogs are actually a litter of puppies. Anyway, mom is determined to play pranks on them until the dogs are, um, silenced. [ed note: I would like to emphasize that she doesn't actually want the dogs to be HURT, I don't think]
Everything is closed today supposedly, because it is kinda the first day of Ramahdan (sp?), and even last night, *New Year's Eve*, all bars and restaurants were closed! Crazy. But we went out anyway today - first to rent some movies, and then late r to go to Sizzlers for their yummy salad bar. Man, I love that restaurant! I used to go there all the time in high school, and we went in the same one tonight. Neat. So now I am stuffed.
Nana called tonight - looks like there may be something going on tomorrow night.
Friday January 2, 1998: 2am
Wow. I just got back from the weeeirdest night. I was to meet Nana at Amigos sometime between 8 and 8:30. So, I got there somewhere close to 8:30 - I walk in the door, and the place is just infested with JIS kids! [ed note: JIS, a.k.a Jakarta International School is where I went to school for Gr.10-Gr.12] I mean, there musta been at least 15 people from the class of '95 there - and more from other years.. it was crazy!
At first I sat down with Nana, Lisa, Mackenzie, Lindsay (Mackenzie's sis) and Lindsay's friend. Surprisingly - or, more spookily I guess, everyone looked the same. Like, I haven't seen these guys in almost 3 years and they don't change? Ah, well I m sure it's the same with me (doomed to look like I'm 13 for the rest of my life, or something like that).
We hung around there for awhile - and more people showed up; Adam, Sarah, Yandra, Sheree, Mike, and more. Woah!
After Nitin's band had played their song, we headed out to go to Chili's, via Mackenzie's stuffed car. The rest of the people at Amigos followed half an hour later os so. And MORE people showed up! I ran into Ludwig purlely by chance and I'd been meaning to phone him all week. And I saw Jaime and Herman too - and wow, so many people! I was great. It also felt just like back in highschool, except that topics of conversation shifted from high school things to university things. Wow, and everyon e's doing such cool things, neat.
So later on, 11 of us piled into Mackenzie's car (the word "sardines" comes to mind), and headed over to B.A.T.S., this bar at the Shangri-La hotel. It took us a long time to actually decide to go in, but I'm very glad we did, it was fun. We did a whole bunch of dancing - I finally got to hear the Barbie song, and the new Spice Girls stuff, and the Backstreet boys - sheesh, where've I been! Then again, it's debateable whether it's a great loss to miss them (um, I personally think it's a good thing !).
Well, we left sometime around 1:30 - whenever the place closed. I had a wonderful time - it was just great to see everyone again.
As for the rest of my day - um, I did some running shoe shopping. And Sariya, Dad and I went up to the school to play some tennis. Woah, that place has changed! Well actually that's my initial reaction, but the more I think about it - it's still g ood ol' JIS. Benny was teaching when we got to the courts, and he yelled "Alexa! Sherree!" (hey, Sariya is a hard name to remember) a couple of times - it's good to be remembered. The playing was fun. My racquet is really just falling apart, but I won our little round-robin tournament anyway. A nya hahaha.
And after tennis Dad and I took a short jog around the school along the good ol' running route. We used to go out there every weekend to play tennis and run - it was neat to go back.
What a nostalgic day this has been!
Saturday January 3, 1998: midnight
So I'm on the plane, waiting for take-off. Man, I didn't get bumped up to first class, what's up with that? (I can hope, can't I?) Ha ha. Well, I plan to do some good sleeping anyway - I took half of one of Mom's sleeping pills. The last time (a nd only time) I did that, I was out cold for the whole 8 hour flight, and couldn't keep my eyes open for the following 4 or 5. Well, as long as I can sleep through crying kids..
Got up nice and late again today - ah - just in time for lunch. Gotta love holidays.
Did some packing, some reading, some budget stuff - we went out for dinner at this really great Indian restaurant and stuffed ourselves silly. Ha, I remember once when Houston and I went there for a "date" - wow, long time ago!
So I've been having a lot of trouble with my Indonesian all week. All I can think of is my Japanese. It is horrible! Even the simplest things just come out as Japanese. Argh, I just hope that whhen I get back to Tokyo, I won't start speaking Indo nesian!
Oh Mom lost it with the dogs yesterday, it was pretty funny. She realized that chucking empty pop cans and similar objects wasn't really doing much - but she hit on the idea of spraying the house with our garden hose. Now being on the third floor, we get a lot of trajectory. Personally, I think she's off her rocker! heh heh.
Everyone brought me to the airport and that was nice. Mom has loaded me down with food, cool. Now though, I'm going to attempt to pass out right here and now!
Next Episode -->
<-- Last Episode