Excuse the backwards timeline of this blog entry.
I left Indonesia at 1:30am en route to Seoul. Upon arrival I was directed to
immigration so I could get back to the ticket counter to check in for the half
dozen other flights required to get me home. I have walked through the body
temperature sensors several times in several different countries and often
wondered exactly what happened to you if you did have a
temperature. The
answer is this:
After walking under the thermal scanner archway way I heard a loud
beeping noise. 5 seconds
later I am grabbed by a small uniformed Korean man and ushered into a small
room where he puts a
hospital mask on the both of us. “You
have a fever of 40.5 are
you sick?”. “ Um…. No, I’m
not sick…. I just have a (long pause as I struggle to think of something that
would give me a fever yet clearly not be contagious) AN EAR INFECTION … just an
ear infection” (in reality
I’m fighting off a small cold). Two more uniformed Korean men come into
the room (all donning hospital masks and latex gloves) and the three of them
pour through my passport whispering in Korean and then asking me random
questions “When did you go
to Nicaragua? Why were you
in Indonesia? What did you eat in the Philippines? How long have you been sick?” By now I have translated 40.5
cellulous into 105 degrees Fahrenheit. There
is no way I have a 105 fever. I beg them
to feel my forehead--- as their fancy thermometers are wrong. One of the men reaches over and pokes
my forehead with this index finger without taking off the latex
gloves…(really?) and they go back to speaking in Korean. I have exactly one hour to get checked
in and catch my flight. I
explain this. I explain this again more adamantly...and then i start to
cry... *There isn’t a man on earth who isn’t afraid of a
crying woman that’s gone a little mad* I made the flight with 5
minutes to spare.
Indonesia was interesting. We landed onto the island of Java last Thursday. Indonesia is the 4th most populous country in the world (China, India, America….). With over 17,500 islands. Another very poor country. Having come in 4th place in the competition in the Manilla. (the first time in the 2 years we’ve participated in Great Escape that we’ve not been in last place) we decided to be more chill re scavenges in Indonesia. We walked around in the rain---visited some a temple and some markets but mainly just took advantage of the nice hotel we were at. Saturday morning we flew to Bali for the second leg of the Country.
Bali was way bigger than I imagined. The first two nights we stayed in the UBud which is a town in the center of the island in the jungle. Bill, the event director did a fantastic job with the hotel- as it was one of the coolest I’ve ever stayed in. It overlooked a huge rice paddy a jungle behind it. Each room had a large balcony and you could sit listening to the river from your room. The hotel supplied Balinese night gowns and bedtime stories. It was by far my favorite place of the trip.
Where Indonesia is a 90% muslim country, Bali is mostly Hindu. Hindu is a beautiful religion. Every morning the people leave small offerings of flowers and incense all over the city to the gods. Nightly dancing rituals. Bright statues everywhere. We spent most of our time in Ubud just wandering around. Monkeys everywhere.
Our last nights we moved closer to the airport and into a section of Bali called Jimbaran--- right on the ocean--- good surf waves, beautiful oceans. We rented paddle boards and tried it in the surf for the first time. Trav and I are great at beaching it up so….
I feel like I’m not giving enough detail/credit to Indonesia… it was fantastic--- beautiful and different – I’m tired. I'm going to get Trav to write this better as he's staying longer and exploring more..
If I weren’t so desperate to see my sweet child I would be sad that this trip is over but as a probably shaken Korean officer can attest to…. I’m so desperate to see my child. Brace yourself little baby for a ridiculous amount of smothering..
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