My vacation has started – at last!!!!

Since I started my trip yesterday and have some time to kill I will start with the report… 🙂

Left home yesterday morning, took the train to Frankfurt, from where I was supposed to fly to Singapore and then connect to Jacarta. The 11 hours flight to Singapore was loooong… I wasn’t able to sleep so I cursed myself for always booking those damned long distance flights… We arrived in Singapore a little bit later than planned but that was not a problem since I had enough time. Bought wound disinfectant that I had forgotten and walked over to the gate. We boarded the plane and then I was out…. tired to the bone. I know that we had heavy turbulences but my mind was too foggy from sleep that I didn’t care. 😀

Let me tell you something about Singapore Airlines. Back in the days when I had to go to New York a lot I always tried to fly SA. Their business class is a dream but so far I had never flown economy. And i have to say that their service is really, really good. After take-off I treated myself to a Singapore Sling, a cocktail that has been invented in Singapore and they gave it for free. It is good too… 🙂

When we arrived in Jacarta I was quicker at the ‚Visum fee‘ counter than most others so I had my fee paid in a heartbeat. Immigration was fast as well, my luggage arrived and outside someone from the hotel was already waiting for me. My flight from Germany arrived around 8:30 AM but the one to Papua leaves at 5 AM. So I have one day to ‚kill‘ in Jakarta.

On the way from the airport to the hotel I could see the bottles with gas at the edge of the road (I knew what it was because I had seen that in Sulawesi last year). There are a few canals around the airport and I saw people washing in them. Themselves and clothes. Once checked in I directly went to sleep some more.

At 1 PM I was finally able to drag myself out of the bed again and tool the hotel shuttle to the airport again. When we passed a church a young guy sat under an umbrellas in the middle of the road and what made it so remarkable for me was that the taxi driver in front of us held a hand out of the window and the guy had a fishernet that he held over. So it looks like he was collecting donations in this fishernet. Shortly after that we came at a big crossing and I saw the boys running after a truck. The biggest (10 years max) was able to get on the truck and get a ride while the two smaller ones didn’t make it.

At the airport I was looking for SIM cards. The guy from the travel agency had told me that he has a small mobile WLAN modem and that it works fine in Raja Ampat. I know the hotel there does have satellite internet but the SIM Card doesn’t cost anything so I don’t want to spend a lot of money if it is not necessary. At the airport I found a shop that had the SIM cards but I didn’t see any employee in there. After I had glanced around I suddenly saw a woman raising her head (she was hidden before), she looked at me, head went down again and I was dismissed. I was about to laugh… So I continued looking and found another shop with a guy who spoke english and he sold me my internet SIM and then (as safety) I wanted to have another one for my phone too. Spent too much money on text messages when I was in Mexico… 😉

Then I called the hotel and the shuttle came to pick me up. And now I am surfing the internet with my new SIM cards and am happy that it works. 🙂 Soon I will go over to the restaurant since I haven’t eaten anything yet. Then I have to call it an early night.

Tomorrow morning at 5 AM I will fly over to Papua. We will go directly on a boat in Sorong (where the airport is) and then it takes another 1.5-2 hours to get to the resort where I will spend the next two weeks….

Stay tuned… 😉