Mar 8

Leaving Timika became a much larger adventure than I would have anticipated. We were in the lobby waiting for our ride about 9:10. Our ride had indicated he would arrive at 9:30 to take us to the airport for our 10:45 AM flight. The airport is less than 5 minutes away, and check-in is not like the major airports, so this would not likely be an issue. 9:30 arrives with no driver. 9:40 arrives and we get concerned. We make a few phone calls and discover there will be no driver. We're supposed to take the hotel shuttle. So, we do, scratching our heads as we all had heard the same thing - "see you tomorrow at 9:30".

When we arrive at the airport I, who had brought only one bag with me on the trip and only bought items that would fit in said bag, checked in fine. My two colleagues, however, who had purchased enough items that they filled both the extra bag they brought AND the new bag they had to buy to fill it, had difficulties. First, the airline had confusion over how many bags they could check vs. carry on. Then, they were each over the weight limit and had to pay extra for their baggage. Of course, they couldn't pay the overage at the check-in counter, they had to pay it at the ticket counter, which was outside. After jumping through all the hoops, their collection of $3-$10 trinkets cost $20 to fly on the plane - and that was just to Bali, they stll have to get home.

I left my companions in Bali and returned to Jakarta for the second half of my trip. When I arrived at the hotel and unpacked, I had two issues. First, I realized I left the book I was reading on the plane. I've not done that before. Second, my luggage absolutely reeked. It's like it was dipped in gasoline or oil or runover by a tire. None of my clothes smelled, thankfully, but I had to put the bag in the bathroom and shut the door due to the smell.

I read the inflight magazine from Bali to Jakarta and two articles reminded me of a few things I wanted to mention.

1) There is a lot of talk out here about Barack Obama. He spent a number of years in Indonesia as a child and went to school here. The author of the article in the inflight magazine had been a classmate of his. Local newspapers have written several articles about him, too. Food for thought on the veracity of the "rumors".

2) There are five recognized religions in Indonesia. Everyone in the states refers to Indonesia as the "world's largest Muslim nation". While it is true there are probably more Muslims here than any other country, Indonesia is the 5th most populous country in the world, so that could just be by sheer volume. Indonesia recognizes Hindu, Buddhism, Islam, Catholicism and Protestantism. At each of our locations in Indonesia (Tembagapura, Kuala Kencana and Grasberg), we have both a church and a mosque. Indonesia also recognizes the holidays for each of the religions, so there is a lot of time off. The religious predominance varies by island, too. Bali, for example, is more Hindu and Buddhist than Muslim.

The only other issue I'm experiencing at the moment is I cannot send email from my personal account. Customer support says spammers may be using them and I need to change my password. So, I've done that, but will be a few hours before I know if that solved the issue.

Sunday I have to myself in Jakarta, so there likely won't be much to report.