48 hours, 3 flights, 4 time zones and various stops en route and I have finally arrived ready for destination one of my trip to Indonesia. It’s my third time in the country and first of this year’s planned adventures but this time, to some where new. Indonesia is the world’s 15th largest country by area (with just under 2 million km sq and third if ranked by length of coastline (with just over 58000 km of coastline) as it is comprised of many of islands - over 17000 to be precise. My location now is the town of Sorong, which is on the west tip of New Guinea island, part of the province of Southwest Papau (and to the east of Indonesia, not far north of Australia).
To get here was quite the commitment… first a 6 hour flight to Doha, the capital of Qatar. Once there, I had to hang around in the airport for almost 7 hours. Our flight started with the always welcome announcement from the captain of ‘we’ve got a slight technical problem with the aircraft that the engineers are trying to fix before we can leave….’. I always think those announcements are examples of time when full honesty may not be the best policy. We took off an hour late, and fortunately with the problem fixed and nothing that resulted in us falling out the sky, but made up some time so only landed 40 minutes late. There were a number of worried people who had already short connections cut to ‘potentially impossible’ with instructions to run to get their next flight. Off they sprinted on landing. To be fair, there were Qatar Airways staff all waving country names about and hurriedly trying to collect up travellers to herd in the right direction to get them to flights that were being briefly held for them get make. Best I’ve ever seen in terms of service and helping people with short connections. But it’s not whether you will make it, it’s whether your bag will. That’s the real measure of success …. I wondered how many of my fellow passengers rushing with their tiny bags had the forethought to pack 11kg of their clothing and necessities into their hand luggage as I did?
I felt for sure I was busted at check in at Gatwick when every hand luggage was getting weighted and people were being sent to redistribute luggage before being allowed to check in. Fortunately, an issue with my ticket which took a worryingly long time for two people to chat about and sort out (I had to complete a health declaration to be allowed to fly to Indonesia and did that at the desk!), distracted them. That and my now perfected ‘just this tiny rucksack’ that I positively waft about to show how light it is when asked about my hand luggage did the trick and I was waved on through without the weigh in. I realised I also hadn’t been given an ‘approved’ label for my bag though so as I walked along the desks to get round to then head to departures, I did an excellent ‘oh goodness, I literally just got given one of those hand luggage tags thingys when I checked in (cue, wave boarding pass about) and I must have immediately dropped it … I’m so silly … can you help?’ at a desk a few desks down. Hey presto, the smiling staff promptly handed me a replacement, which they even attached to my bag for me and off I went … round the corner and commenced staggering under the weight of my supplies!
On arrival at Doha airport, I positively bimbled my way round the significant walk from plane via transfers route to departures, unlike the sprinters on short-connection missions. The airport in Doha is quite excellent - it’s complete with a little jungle with its own fairy lit walkway. I wandered round there having a lovely time then made my way to the lounge I’d booked. There, there were comfy armchairs, free hot and cold drinks and a buffet. It was so fancy that in the toilets, rather than a drier or paper towels, you each get your own individual dry flannel to dry your hands on the fling in the flannel bin! Once I’d got a cup of tea in my flask, made with my own tea bag, I realised I wasn’t taking enough advantage of the free food (which I’d paid handsomely for in my lounge access fee) so I rushed off and got a frothy coffee, a red velvet cake mousse, a chicken wrap and three cans of Diet Coke).
From Doha, I then got my connecting flight to Jakarta - capital city of Indonesia. An 8 hour flight that flew past with the aid of some of Sara’s best pharmaceuticals - I only woke up briefly to eat my ravioli with indistinguishable filling but otherwise slept the entire flight. An absolute dream. Literally!
Two surprises met me at Jakarta airport: 1, my luggage made it too and I experienced the elation of seeing my bag riding round the carousel towards me and 2, it’s another lovely airport. They’ve also gone with the greenery theme - although it seems to most be plastic, which is weird given the airport is most glass ceilinged, 30° outside and humid inside. I’m pretty sure that it they scattered a few seeds about, they’d have a real life rainforest within a month or two. Also, it seems, the Indonesians - or at least the wealthier Asian tourists travelling through - are really embracing technology. All the airport staff whizz about on hoverboard / Segway combos just like ‘Back to the Future’ predicted (although amusingly, they can’t ride them up and down the moving people ramps so they have to hop off and stare inanely at their phone for that brief interlude). I didn’t spot any of the cleaner robots I’ve come to appreciate but I did also see a fully grown man riding his handluggage along - it has a little scooter handle for steering, a display screen to say how much battery it had and was fully self propelling its owner along while he sat atop his suitcase horse!
There are still some ‘handraulic’ requirements for actual humans though - including the poor boy whose job it seemed to be to wash and clean the glass automatic doors. He apparently wasn’t allowed to disable them so spent what appeared to many quite some time as he cleaned it dashing side to side with the door each time a person walking through triggered it to open and then just waiting in a crouch to spring up and clean the glass exposed only whenever the doors closed briefly.
At Jakarta airport, I had another 8 hour stop so actually paid for an airport hotel, which was still half the price for the Qatar lounge! I could have elected to stay in the airport ‘capsule hotel’. I think they’ve been inspired by Harry Potter and his years in the cupboard under the stairs. At this hotel you get a kind of cupboard or human sized draw to open, take up horizontal position and roll in then close yourself in the draw. As fun as it sounded to try, I instead opted for the cheaper, conventional hotel and made full use of the walk in shower, flushing toilet, big comfy bed, air con and, of course, kettle! I didn’t avail myself of some of the more canibalistic sounding food options but did have a tuna sandwich and fancy coffee in a chain place but still only for £4 in total.
After one final flight, on a far more rattly relic of a plane that the Indonesians seem to prefer I arrived in Sorong, the gateway to Raja Ampat. Indonesia spans a width east to west of over 3000 miles so the ‘short’ domestic flight I took was 4 hours long and not much less than the distance from London to Tenerife! Although their planes rattle, their baggage transferring systems were on point and my bag is still in my possession, which is a relief as it means I’ll have all my own gear and everything for diving with for the next 10 days. I arrived at the hotel at 7am this morning and fortunately was able to check in and indulge in the buffet breakfast, a morning nap and then a few hours by the pool. The pool is nice although the slightly hazardous placement of the sunbeds on a little shelf in the pool means they’re surrounded by a few inches of water so you have to be ever so careful not to drop your book or let you towel slide off! I also treated myself to a massage this afternoon - it was quite expensive for Indonesia at £20 for 90 minutes. There was also what they called a surcharge of £5 to have your massage in the spa room. I considered stripping down in the lobby of the spa and lying on the floor in there to forgo the surcharge but it seemed too much hassle.
This evening, I had dinner in the hotel too, which I didn’t time that well as it’s Ramadan at the moment - the month during which Muslims fast during daylight hours as part of a self restraint and reflection time. They are also encouraged to give a percentage of any wealth they have to charity every year and undertake more frequent prayer during Ramadan. As soon as the sunsets each day, they can break their fast … and they must be hungry as they descend on dinner and eat everything is site! Indonesia is technically a secular state (not anIslamic state) that recognises 6 main religions but around 87% of the population are Muslim. The restaurant went from fairly quiet to packed within seconds of sunset. Fortunately, I’d just sat down with my plate of food so I just watched - and noticed with particular interest that one table of women even set up a tripod on a chair by their table and filmed themselves having dinner. I’ve done a quick Google and I don’t believe there is anything in the Qur’an requiring that so they must have a different reason! It wasn’t a video call as I first thought, it was purely a video they made of their meal!
From here, I will be picked up in the morning and taken to the port to then meet my boat, Lady Denok (keen readers will recognise it as the same boat I went on a trip round Komodo a couple of summers ago). This time, we’re off for a 9 night trip round Raja Ampat - or Four Kings, as it translates. It’s a region of islands that straddle the equator and form one of the tips of the coral triangle - containing the richest marine biodiversity on earth. No wonder it’s one of the diving Meccas!
If the WiFi and/or esims work - and we are ever close enough to land with masts during the trip, I may post mid-trip but if not, you can look forward to an avalanche of accounts and photos landing at some point in 10 days time!
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