3:30 a.m. arrived pretty quickly and soon after that we were on the shuttle bus to the airport. The traffic was just as heavy as it had been the night before!! One of the best decisions we made for the trip was to buy the ‘Economy Plus’ seats on the outbound Denver – Tokyo route and the inbound Tokyo – Chicago route. LOTS more legroom and on the way back we got the bulkhead seats adding even more legroom. Outbound was a new 787,  nice.  Inbound was an old 747 which has very poor individual entertainment centers. United Airlines really needs to upgrade their customer amenities for planes used on international flights. Soon we were in the air and we began our 32 hours of traveling back to MSN, with 22 hours of that in the air!

CONCLUSIONS AND OBSERVATIONS: Visiting Indonesia was quite the trek and experience. Getting there is an issue because of the long flights. Passing the IDL and being 14 time zones different from MSN takes a bit of getting used to. Once the body adjusts . . . everything is fine.

With a population of 143 million, Java (circled in blue) is the world’s most populous island and one of the most densely populated places in the world. Java is the home of 57 percent of the Indonesian population.The traffic and mass of humanity in the large cities in unbelievable.

However it should not be surprising since Indonesia’s total population of 249.9 million, compared to our US population of 317 million, is crammed into an area substantially smaller than the US. The city infrastructure in many cases seems to be crumbling. Sidewalks and street are in disrepair and many buildings need work . . . although the skyline of Jakarta was heavily lined with construction cranes. There is lots of new construction going on and a subway will open in 2020, which will definitely help.

It was interesting during the two weeks moving  to smaller and smaller islands.

Starting with:

1 Java: population 141,000,000, 55,389,000 square miles

2 Bali: population 4,200,000, 2,175 square miles

3 Nusa Lenbomgan: population 5,000, 5 square miles

4 Nusa Cenigan: population 1,000, 3 square miles,

The people of Indonesia were very welcoming. Everywhere we went people were very excited to learn we were from the United States. Didn’t detect any animosity towards our culture or way of life. Several times when we were in the back country folks would ask where we were from and when we said the United States they repeated United States, followed by the word Obama, and a cheer!!! It is interesting, we heard more about the CIA in Indonesia and Cuba, in the past month, than we’ve heard in a lifetime. The US has certainly been busy sticking our nose in ‘places we have a US interest’, I think is the phrase we use, around the world. Got to read up more on that.

The countryside was green and beautiful. However, you didn’t want to look too close at the ground which in many cases, had lots of trash that had blown in or was left from locals. Lots of plastic litter that was going to be there for  a longggggggg time. Quite a contrast with Cuba,  we had just visited just last month, where there was virtually none.   It was a great experience visiting Indonesia, experiencing  the people, culture and FOOD.

No tummy problems although emJay did have a mild touch of  ‘Bali Belly’.

emJay’s reflections:

My head is full of travel experiences after an unplanned piling up of our three global trips to France, Cuba and Indonesia this fall. Its been rich and full and I am glad to be home for awhile now. Yet every time I go somewhere, I find myself thinking about what it would be like to live there awhile, learn the language, get to know the culture, etc.

I must admit I was a little apprehensive about Indonesia, as the culture and language were totally new to me. And of course the occasional unrest there over the years was in my mind as well. My apprehensions fell away almost immediately upon arrival. I had the feeling we were being cared for every step of the way, from the Conservancy’s  driver picking us up at the Jakarta airport in the wee hours of the morning, all the way to the hotel shuttles on our last night and morning in Jakarta. The travel industry/community there has figured out how to make a potentially overwhelming trip quite manageable and comfortable.

The people stand out in my mind more than the landscape: friendliness and customer service were notable from the folks we dealt with; curiosity; the gentleness of the Hindu culture on Bali, the little offerings everywhere, contrasted with trash in the mangroves when we rode our motorbike around the small islands.   On the natural side, the most stunning experience was to see the coral reefs and fish during our day of snorkeling. Such colors and size variations in the fish; an amazing feeling to swim along with hundreds of small fish all around you, so close you could touch them. The coral in our second spot was tremendously varied and healthy looking. That experience was a real highlight.

Meeting colleagues in another country was the highlight of the work portion of the trip. Smart, committed, passionate conservationists, working the same way we approach our work in Wisconsin. And they know how to have fun.

I feel very grateful for this opportunity through my work to visit this country that was not on our “travel list”, but now I am so glad we went there. It was a great experience that I will be thinking about for a long time.

POSTSCRIPT:

. . .  to close out the year, I got my December ride in on December 14 to complete, for the second year in a row, my membership in the Madison Bike and Bowl’s prestigious ‘At Least Once A Month Club’, biking at least once every month in 2014!