A week ago today we bid goodbye to frosty Canberra and headed north and west for the sun, smog and smells of Jakarta, Indonesia. While Kieran has been here many times, I haven't and it's a definite first for Eamon and Rory. Our flight up was a respectable 6.5hrs - longer than the hop over the Tasman to NZ, but not a real long haul. Eamon was quite happy to remain glued to his TV screen despite my efforts to distract him with a series of little presents including a Meccano dinosaur and some WikkiStix (which I recently discovered and think are kinda cool). In the end I gave in to the inevitable, left the rest for another day and tried to give Kieran a break from Rory who is a less experienced and definitely less than enthusiastic flyer.
Arriving in Indonesia is mostly the same as any other airport I've visited with the useful exception that porters are available in the baggage hall - a definite plus when you're travelling with an overexcited, overtired and generally over-it 3 year old, a baby who refused to nap for the entire flight, twelve suitcases, two carseats, a stroller and 3 carry-on bags!
After finding the driver sent to pick us up and loading his car up with the bags (we did say we'd have a dozen bags!) we were left at the taxi stand to make our way into the city and the serviced apartment that will be our temporary home. A surprisingly quick trip (30mins - I've been told on occasion it can take up to 4hrs to get to the airport!) and easy check-in and we reached our rooms - a nicely appointed (if not totally child suited) 3 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom apartment, complete with marble floors, small kitchen & laundry and maid's quarters (a very short bed + basic shower in with the dryer). It's right in the centre of Jakarta, across the street from a couple of the bigger, fancier malls, and several kilometres from the nearest green space. Welcome to Jakarta!
No comments:
Post a Comment