February 24, 2106
The Dutch East Indies. The very name conjures up the exotic with spices and unexplored jungles and cultures. A place with volcanoes, former headhunters, real life dragons, and orangutans. The islands were also home to our ancestors like Java Man and the Hobbits of Flores. And of course the famous coffee beans from Java and Sumatra. Having explored Russia in October, our next adventure was as dissimilar as a place could be to the cold and inhospitable climate of the former Soviet Union. Unlike our trip to Russia in almost every way imaginable, our travels were just as rich and fascinating.
Known as Indonesia since 1949, the country consists of over 250 million people living on about 14,000 islands. Home to hundreds of distinct languages, the archipelago has been a crossroads of Buddhist, Hindu, and Muslim cultures. Straddling the Equator, the country has the world's second largest biodiversity, behind only Brazil.
To get there from Madison, we would have to travel for more than 24 hours. We were flying from Madison to Denver, then on to Tokyo, and finally from Japan to Jakarta, the Indonesian capital and second largest metropolitan area in the world, with over 30 million people.
Looking fabulous before her 8:35 am Flight UA72, non-stop to Denver. Becky has her fashionable Costco raincoat as preparation for the Indonesian Monsoon Season.
Spurning the traditional omelette in the Mile High City, Becky enjoys her last American meal for two weeks with a salad at the airport.
After Super Bowl XXXII, an abomination to Packer fans passing through the Denver airport.
Still looking fresh as we are about to board Flight UA139, a 12 hour flight across the Pacific from Denver to Tokyo.
I was particularly excited about our flight to Tokyo as it would be our first time on Boeing's newest airplane, the 787, billed as the Dreamliner. With claims that the plane has better air pressure and air quality, larger windows, quieter engines, and most importantly - larger bathrooms, we were hoping that our experience of super-dry air, ear-crushing descents, and cramped transoceanic flights would no longer be the stuff of nightmares. The Dreamliner did not disappoint.
From the moment we boarded, we knew this would be a different kind of flight. The aisles seemed larger. The space between seats was definitely larger, even in economy. My six foot four inch frame fit comfortably in my seat, with plenty of room between the seat in front of me and my knees. If the person in front of me chose to be rude and move her seat back, I wouldn't feel like a sardine flying through a metal container at 567 mph.
Each seat also had an electrical outlet beneath it, so we could keep all of our iPads, iPhones, MacBooks, and portable microwaves (to make popcorn, in case we got hungry) fully charged during our Pacific Ocean crossing. The Dreamliner was also equipped with wifi, which I considered purchasing because I wanted to watch the Wisconsin Badgers take on the Iowa Hawkeyes, something that Amelia Earhart could only have dreamed of doing when she attempted to cross the ocean in 1937. However, after seeing the steep $16.99 price tag and caveat that the wifi could not be used to stream video, I decided to stick with my tried and tested form of entertainment while flying, the paperback book.
What's the point of Wi-Fi if you can't stream a basketball game?
So much leg room in economy that you couldn't even see my legs while sitting down.
Man in next aisle obviously wishing he'd brought a portable microwave for popcorn too.
Our 12 hour flight across the Pacific was uneventful, although I think calling it a flight across the ocean was misleading. I always pictured a flight across the Pacific as going straight thru the center of the ocean, passing the Hawaiian Islands closely (hopefully close enough that one could shout "Book Em Danno" while flying overhead). In reality, the flight only skirted the Pacific Ocean since it went along the North American coast up to Alaska and then down the Russian coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula (made famous by the game of Risk as a classic route of invasion into Alaska) until reaching the islands of Japan.
Once we deplaned, I immediately connected to Narita-Tokyo Airport's free wifi and learned that Wisconsin had upset Iowa on the road, causing me to let out a little shout-out of joy and startling the local Japanese around me. After going through security again, we set out for the legendary Japanese toilets, with all of their electronic gadgets.
Not only did the toilets have a built in bidet, but there were all sorts of buttons you could press that did things like make fake flushing noises while warming up the seat for a cold bottom.
The Japanese Toilet, with a panel of buttons that would have made Captain Kirk jealous.
The Toilet was so complicated it even came with instructions in English and Japanese.
With two hours to kill before our flight to Jakarta, we did what all good travelers do and checked out the gift shop scene at the airport. It was quite busy at the large shop in the middle of the terminal. Although we were not going to buy anything on our way to Indonesia, my daughter, Nastssaja, had asked that we bring back green tea Kit Kat candy bars that she had seen on Dan and Phil. Most of the goods were food gift boxes labeled only in Japanese so it was a risky venture to purchase most items. On our way back, we did purchase several of these "surprise" gift boxes. Upon opening two of them when we returned to the States, we discovered we had purchased boxes full of strangely textured and tasting dough balls. Luckily, we also found the green tea Kit Kats.
The pictures on the outside of the boxes may have looked appetizing, but what was inside was very foreign to my bland American palate.
Gold for Nastassja
After perusing the gift shop, we walked past a bizarre room in which travelers with strange and foreign pestilence were to be quarantined.
Unclear whether you are prohibited from sleeping, having an upset stomach, or playing bad music on the toilet
Apparently, camels are verboten at Narita-Tokyo Airport
We spent our remaining time at the airport surfing the internet on our phones thru the free airport wifi and filling up with water, though I was not as parched as I usually am after a transoceanic flight. I chalked that up to the Dreamliner, which can maintain a much higher level of humidity due to being built out of synthetic materials (humidity corrodes normal planes built out of metal).
Waiting to board United Airlines Flight 7915 to Jakarta
Our last flight of the day was operated by All Nippon Airways (ANA) and was again aboard a Dreamliner. This time we didn't have as much leg room in economy (perhaps because the Japanese are shorter?) but because it was a mostly empty flight, we had a whole aisle to ourselves in which to stretch out and sleep. The almost eight hour flight was uneventful, though I got pretty excited about crossing the Equator for the first time. Historically, sailors that "crossed the line" for the first time were treated to a brutal ceremony that involved beating them with boards and often dragging them behind the ship. Thankfully, the crew of our Dreamliner did not engage in any such shenanigans when we crossed the line other than serve us a very unappetizing breakfast before landing.
According to Wikipedia, the Equator is an imaginary line - but there it was, clear as day on the in-flight map.
After 26 hours of travel we landed in Jakarta in the middle of a thunderstorm, welcoming us to the Indonesian Monsoon Season. It was just after Midnight, local time. After collecting our luggage and finding our hotel shuttle, we had an interesting conversation with a man from Montana that was traveling to Irian Jaya (the Indonesian part of the island of New Guinea) as a Christian missionary. He also hoped to find some pet Guinea pigs to take home to his children. I didn't have the heart to tell him that Guinea pigs were not from Guinea, nor New Guinea, but the Andes, so he was thousands of miles off in his search for these friendly pets.
Although Indonesia has some of the most crowded spots on Earth, there was still space available for us westerners.
Nothing screams the FM7 Resort Hotel more than a bunny with hearts for eyes
