This is my first blog that Mum won’t be reading!

We’ve arrived! A mini-adventure for me. Going with Rosie to the town of Malang in East Java for her to source some supplies for her business.

Up early – very, very early this morning and riving through the first grey light of dawn. Going through the rigmorole of airport preparation and then a 3½ flight on a fairly small plane. Heading north flying over the sparse outback of Australia, then over the deep blue sea to Denpasar in Bali. I don’t know why but I never think of Bali as being a part of Indonesia. It always seems so different somehow. We saw the threatening volcano as we flew in. There were a few wisps  around its cone, but I’m sure they were wisps of cloud, not smoke.

Through lots more checks and queues, and walking 10 minutes, despite the offer of a lift, to the Domestic Terminal for the next flight. This is what did surprise me!

I thought I’d escaped to Indonesia to skip this. The Halloweenisation of my world! It’s not like there’s many Westerners in the Domestic Terminal. We’r a rare breed.  Maybe in the International Terminal…

A slight delay and a change of gate. It’s very good for me to be in a place where I can’t understand what the person is saying to me, despite her saying it often and frequently. I’m still not sure if she was speaking Indonesian or English with an accent that I didn’t recognise. And I never did understand what she told me. But we did get on the right plane. A much smaller one with propellers. Can’t remember when I last flew on a plane with propellers! Fifteen rows of seats and not a lot of leg or head room.

Flying over the blue-green ocean and some green islands. Flying over the top of a volcano, looking down into its black flat top. Over more land, lots of green hills and towns scattered along winding roads and square fields. We think we circled around Malang a bit before we landed.

To land at a smaller airport with a distant ring of green mountains. Adam had been waiting for us a while. I forgot where I was and was culturally inappropriate when I gave him a hug! Lovely to see him again.

Then a 45 minute slow drive along a crowded road with bustling cars and motorbikes and scooters. Along streets mostly lined with the small Indonesian shops and business. People wandering around, or patiently sitting around.

Then gradually the town changed into nicer, bigger shops and houses, but the roads just as crowded. Adam took us straight to our hotel. Much bigger and flasher and nicer than I expected. It’s so cheap too. I had been expecting a very third rate hotel.

Not many people at the hotel. Adam says they are normally busy on the weekend with conferences. A really comfortable room with two single beds, looking out through trees. We were quite weary and lay down for a rest, listening to the wind in the trees and a hundred dogs barking.

After our rest – I still can’t believe I had a rest in the afternoon! – we walked to Adam and Felicity’s house for dinner tonight. It’s a flat attached to the school they work at. Elijah who’s now 3 years old, had apparently been excited that we were coming. But was overcome with shyness when we arrived and it wasn’t until he was ready for bed that he was prepared to interact with us.

And now we’ve had a wonderful dinner. I’m doing a quick blog to you because they have good internet. And now we’re going to head back to the hotel for a very early night.