Arrived in Jakarta

We arrived safely in Jakarta. Not wanting to spend $7 for internet access, I waited until arriving in the office Monday morning to publish this post.

The flight from Hong Kong to Jakarta was uneventful. My daughter watched Peter Pan 2 twice more, my wife slept and I watched the 3 hour Baz Lurhman epic "Australia" - much better than I had heard it was. When we arrived at the airport, employee services greeted us prior to immigration. We gave them our passports and documentation and walked right through while they worked with the immigration officers. They rejoined us while waiting for our luggage. On the way out, two women were fighting mightily with a security guard. I could not understand what they were saying, but they definitely wanted him to let go of their luggage and let them pass. I can only imagine what they were fighting for.

From arrival in Jakarta, getting through immigration, picking up our luggage, checking out through customs and getting to the airport parking lot was, at a maximum, 20 minutes. Absolutely amazing. Our team here in Jakarta knows how to get expedite and treat their visitors right. I think they also anticipated us having much more luggage than we actually did. Between the four of us, we checked 5 bags and a car seat. We had a caravan of cars awaiting us - three, full size SUV's. We loaded our baggage in the trunks of the first two vehicles, and we all piled into the last vehicle. One of the three drivers will be the driver for my wife and daughter while we live in Jakarta. I think they will definitely have to learn some Bahasa to effectively communicate.

Today - Monday - we have to file begin the paperwork process for my wife and daughter that I completed on my last trip. I am unsure how much time we will have to ourselves, today, and how much we will spend with employee services. If we have some free time, I plan to take everyone to the part of town in which we will live. Tonight, we are going to dinner at the restaurant my colleague and I went to on my last visit.

I probably won't post again until we have been in Bali a day or two.