Aston Atrium Jakarta

... and when I saw the buffet I was very happy I had opted for it. What a selection!! Of course there is the usual malay breakfast choices as well as the western breakfast (cereal, toast, egg . . .) but for the first time since I have been in Asia there was also a selection of French bread and pastries (my favorites!!!) pain au chocolat, pain au raisin, croissant and baguette!!!

This first morning in Jakarta I decide I should ...

... it sorted!) so we arrived with plenty of time to spare and had a really nice meal of avocado toasties with salad! A welcome change after all that damn rice! The flight to Jakarta was only 40 minutes so we got a taxi and quickly got to know our next tour group, a swiss couple, a maltese couple, a kiwi couple, a young aussie girl and chris a single guy in his 50s. Everyone is really nice so we feel like a little family, we call chris 'dad' and since hes a doctor he gets bombarded with all ...

... terhadap kelompok * Motto kelompok * Yelling ...

... Bumi Johar charged 45k Rp - that's like UK Hotel prices. By 9 pm the tour group had gathered and I was slightly disappointed to find that of the 12 members, 10 of us were British + a Swiss girl and an Italian matron who was actually older than me - just. And 7 of the Brits were young girls, 3 of them the same age as my elder daughter. That's ironic, having spent the past few years parenting teenage girls, no matter how far I ...

... via the Minister of the Home Affair. Holding the dual position of city province and capital city, Jakarta is considered a Special Region (Daerah Khusus Ibukota - DKI). Jakarta is further broken into five municipalities (kotamadya) and one regency (kabupaten) : Jakarta Pusat (central), Jakarta Utara (north), Jakarta Timur (east), Jakarta Selatan (south), Jakarta Barat (west ) and Kepulauan Seribu district administration (kabupaten). Each of these is headed by a ...

... een t-shirt van airasia waaraan ik cash 300 dollar moest dokken voor een vlucht van Bali naar Kuala Lumpur. Wij dus maar zagen en zagen dat dit niet de vlucht is die we willen en dat we op het internet een andere vlucht willen kopen. Op dit moment staan we dus al een uur of twee te discussieren in een vuile oude en volledig verlaten gate. Op een bepaald moment krijgen we wel de optie om het "under the table" te regelen. 70 dollar voor de visaman en 70 dollar voor ...

The night before my departure, I could not really get a good sleep, maybe I was too anxious about this trip, kept checking my suitcase, took out some clothes because I wanted to pack light only to put them back in a few minutes thinking that it would always be good to have a back ups....just in case.... At 6 my brother knocked on my bedroom, took the suitcases downstairs, I heard him making some remarks about the weight ...

... shaking back and forth lightly, we thought it was a kid on the other side messing with us. When a couple of bars of soap fell off the shelf, Floor started putting them back on, until one big tremor hit, and all the bars fell on top of us. We looked around, and the moments before packed store was now empty. We didn't know if we would have enough time to get out of the building, so stayed under a column, and waited for the ...

The tents of the wedding party glowed against the darkness, illuminating the beads of falling rain and the sparkling headdresses of the women. The main tent was festooned with pink and white polyester, and large bunches of ripe bananas hung amongst the swags like jungle chandeliers; every once in a while, Felix reached up to pick some and pass them around the table. The Bintang-large bottles of Indonsian beer-was flowing, and a huge buffet was on, with fragrant ...

... restless night of self incrimination, we spend the day doing all the necessary stuff. We speak to the owner of the cafe and visit the police station to make a statement. By the time we've completed all we need to (nothing, except bags disappearing, happens quickly in Jakarta) we just make it by Ba-jai (two stroke, sputtering orange three wheelers) to the main Pelni office, where we pick up lots of information and a 2004 timetable. Later we visit ...