Jakarta Home Safe - Lessons Learned

My trip to Jakarta was one I won't soon forget and one I probably won't soon repeat - though I would have no issue going back. The tough part is being away from my wife and daughter for so long, the rest of it was actually quite pleasant. So, what did I learn on this trip?

1) Not all first class is the same. The business class on Cathay Pacific was better than the first class or business class on American and Japan airlines. That's probably why it was 3x the price, too. I also learned that I will not travel overseas in anything but business class anymore. The difference in quality is just too great.

2) If it seems too good to be true, it is. I already knew this, but I had a $50 reminder of this lesson with the coins I bought. All fake. I had heard that, after I bought them. I was wary, which is why I only bought a few, instead of as many as I could find. Apparently, the Chinese make barrels of these coins - and the stamps are extremely high quality - but they don't know the history. I've also learned how to tell the difference between real and fake coins, now, so I'll be more prepared next time.

3) Don't think you know more than the frauds. As a corollary to #2, don't assume that because you live in the US and have better access to the internet that the poor street vendor wouldn't try selling their products on eBay if they actually had value. They know what their products are worth better than we do.

4) Flying east is more difficult than flying west. My sleep schedule when I returned home was much more difficult to correct than going to Jakarta. Part of it was the quality of the flights home, and the spacing - 7 hrs during sleep time and 11 hrs during wake time returning vs 14 hrs during sleep time and 5 hrs during wake time on the way there - but part of it was arriving home in the middle of the day instead of early evening. I've had similar issues travelling to Paris and back.

The upside to the flight was we flew over active volcanoes in Oregon in the middle of the night and got to see the hot magma flowing. It was cool. From Tokyo to Dallas, our flight path took us over Alaska - seems odd, but it has to do with the curvature of the Earth, it's actually shorter going that route - but it was too dark to see anything.

I think my next business trip will be to Santiago, Chile later this year or early next year. I'll use this same blog for that trip, though Santiago will have much less intrigue as it is very much like Phoenix.