I made it to Surabaya without too much trouble. The 15.5 hours flight to HKG was for the most part fine. The seats weren’t too small, although it is still impossible to get any good sleep in them. During the flight I thought a few times if coming here was a good idea. I’m going to miss the kids and Julie a lot and although I’ve been here by myself a few times before, I haven’t done it since the kids were big.
I still had this nagging thought until I got to the rent a lounge in HKG. I took a shower there and rented a “room” (actually just a cot in a dark room with drapes around it), at that point I started up “smell” Asia. It’s hard to tell if you have been at a place for a while, but there are background smells to everywhere. In Canada you tend to forget them since you are around them all the time. Think of leaves in a forest and the “smell” of autumn. Or the smell of spring with freshly thawed out mud and the plants starting to bloom. In Asia it is the same thing, but because there are different plants here, it has a different smell. Hong Kong and Japan have a particular smell, very sweet, like flowers in bloom, but it lasts all year long. Anyway, once I got a whiff of that background smell, I didn’t feel so worried. I’ve been here at total of 6 months in my life, so I’m used to it a little. I wouldn’t go as far to say it is a “comfort smell”, but it did make me feel better.
Anyway it was either that or the detergent they used on the bed sheets...
After getting up from the cot (I didn’t really sleep), I walked over to the gate and my timing couldn’t be better, for not two seconds after I arrived I saw the counter lady (they are all ladies with Cathay – but more on that later), they starting boarding. I was one of the first ones on, which was good because I didn’t have any overhead bins where I was sitting. I stole someone else’s bin and squeezed into my seat. As I watching everyone come on board I noticed about 80 percent of the passengers were women. It looked like they were either nannies returning to Indonesia or girls going on a shopping spree. I’m guessing that is the usually mix of people on this flight.
During this flight I got a survey to fill out. It was a typical sort of survey except for one recurring question: staff appearance. Cathay’s staff, like most Asian airlines, is basically all hot women. I’m not sure how they get away with it still, but it seems that the airlines here only hire young attractive girls with size 2 waists. The size 2 part I can appreciate (since it means they won’t be knocking my arm as they walk by). I still don’t know how they have avoided an age discrimination suit so far though.
Anyway the flight was non eventful (I even managed to sleep for half an hour). While I was getting off, I noticed a young mother and her daughter in the other aisle packing up. She was American (as a guess) and was travelling alone with her child. I was watching her get more and more confused with the “visa on arrival” process in Indonesia. Basically there are 3 steps: 1) pay for your visa ($25 USD) at one booth, 2) pick up your visa with the receipt from the first booth, 3) go talk to the immigration guy downstairs at a third booth. It could all be done in one go, but that wouldn’t imply nearly as many people (plus it cuts down on the corruption). She was getting more and more confused, so I walked her through the process with me. I lost track of her after immigration, but I just felt sorry for her knowing that getting her bags and getting though the mass of people outside would be harder with the little girl than the immigration part.
A lot of my in-laws and their kids were waiting for me outside in a cafe. The kids were eating batwan (Indonesian noodle and meatball soup) and after they were done we all hopped into the cars and headed for Dieng.
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