I left early from D’s place, at 7:15 am and grabbed breakfast at the conbini. It was about a 2 hour train ride over to the airport. My flight left 10:55 am. The airport was crowded with everyone going on holiday. Kiosk check in failed for some reason and I had to wait in line for quite some time. Luckily, everything seemed okay with the attendant even though I didn’t specify my middle name on the ticket. Flying outside the US is so much easier, no matter what country I’ve been in. You can keep your shoes on and no body scanners, just good old metal detectors. I had to fill out my special re-entry form right before going through exit immigration. You just do the right side of the paper, and can leave the kanji name part blank. I forgot to bring a pen with me for customs forms and studying so I stopped at a bookstore and bought one of my fav erasable pilot pens.

The flight was all during day time so I was determined not to sleep despite Dramamine always knocking me out. We had a really nice plane with usb charger ports and outlets, and a large touchscreen. The movie choices were great! I ended up watch a Japanese movie first that I’d heard about from my students - S: The Last Policeman. It was a sequel, but you could still watch it easily. Then I moved on to an Ant-Man rewatch and Ocean 11, plus a little Japanese studying. The pilot was great despite some turbulence. The food yummy too. My first time flying with JAL and it was lovely. Such Japanese style dinner even with miso soup. We only got one snack, a main meal and a small breakfast snack for a seven hour flight, but lots of tea and drinks. It felt less than one we get to Europe.

We landed at about 5 pm Indonesian time which is two hours behind Japan thus no real jet lag, yay. Ugh, it was hot and humid. The pilot told us 33C/93F outside. I started dripping sweat immediately in my sweater, long sleeved shirt and jeans. Felt less bad than that Tokyo arrival in August though. The air con was not strong here either. This is the most run down airport I’ve been to as well, it just felt old, but functional for a smaller number of people passing through it. Figuring out which line to get into for immigration was a bit tricky as they had a booth for paying for the visa on arrival. I knew I didn’t have to pay anything, but ended up asking a British guy. So I stood in the normal immigration lines. As soon as I got my bag, I headed back to the toilets to get changed. The restroom attendant greeted me quite enthusiastically. There were so many porters waiting to help you with your luggage. I’ve never seen anything like it. They seemed official at least with uniforms and numbers. Customs also x-rayed all your luggage like in Australia.

My exit options split into two and I didn’t know which side my friend AJ would be waiting at. I didn’t see her after exiting so I headed for a bench and to try to figure out the wifi to send her a message. Right away, a woman approached me and asked if I was Sabrina. It was AJ’s girlfriend, B! She actually had a sign too, but I didn’t look around well enough ha. We went outside to meet AJ and B contacted her driver to pick us up. Although we’ve known each other for seven years, this is our first time meeting in person! AJ has such a brilliant smile. No awkwardness, I was immediately comfortable with her. They gave me a heads up on the traffic situation since it took them 2 hours to get from a mall to the airport. It’s normally only 30 minutes away. About 10 minutes later, it hits me that we are driving on the left side of the road. Ahh, it’s become my new normal.

Thus we entered a nightmarish situation of traffic. Even the locals said this traffic was unbelievable and the worst they had ever seen. I just can’t. After 5 hours driving we barely made it into inner city Jakarta, a distance that would normally take about 45 minutes. Luckily, AJ and B had thought ahead to bring water bottles and bread that we ate for dinner. AJ’s mom was also stuck in the traffic heading to Bandung, but about an hour ahead of us. At 11:30 pm, we finally gave up. B had to return to Jakarta the next day anyway for her niece’s birthday party. The driver dropped us off at B’s brother’s house. They welcomed me into their home. It was like 2 am for me so I just went straight to bed in the room AJ and I were staying in.

I understand why people have drivers here now. Driving was insane. No lanes were followed, a three lane road became five, one lane into three. Motorbikes and cars weaving in and out. People merge horribly. Sometimes traffic lights are broken, stop signs don’t exist. The traffic infrastructure is hopeless. Plus without proper public transport, all the people need cars so the traffic gets even worse. What a vicious cycle. The police do nothing to help direct traffic, instead it’s some local daredevils that jump in front of cars to stop and help other cars pull out into traffic. They then get tipped by the driver. This was a common occurrence I saw many times throughout my stay. I also noticed a lot of people doing jobs that have been automated in the US like parking attendants. No automatic pay machines although Indonesia is a card, not cash, country.