back again...a synopsis of our trip

we're back in the states. we arrived last friday night (the 13th) around 7:45 and got home by 8:30. sorry no pictures right now since we are trying to get settled in (i have tons of mail to sort through, some unpacking, some bills to pay...you know, all that icky stuff). once everything's organised i'll be posting the indonesia pictures on our website. we weren't quite ready to go home, but it does feel good to sleep in our own bed again.

emma did way better on the travel home as opposed to the travel there. on the way to indonesia, she slept 2-3 hours at a time on a total travel time of about 26 hrs. needless to say, she had a few meltdowns-and boy were they loud. of course it seemed louder when you're in a confied space, such as a plane, full of people. on the plus side, she wasn't the only baby traveling, but her combined crying made up for the other 2 babies in our row traveling. on the way home though, was a bit better. she was familiar with the routine, and she even slept 6 hours straight on the 12 hour leg of our flight. fortunately, her jet-lag recovery was quick-only 3 nights. and her jet-lag recovery at home also took 3 nights...though it was a tough 3 nights (2nd night was the worst!). by the way, we flew with singapore airlines and they are, as usual, wonderful! they are always so nice and courteous when we fly with them, and boy am i glad we used them this time around traveling with a baby. they are so helpful.

we had a brief visit in singapore then went on to jakarta-my home town (he, he). it felt good to be back "home," and it was great to be able to finally show aaron where i came from and be able to share with him the place where i spent most of my childhood years. we celebrated eyang putri's (my grandmother) 80th birhtday. coincidentally, it was also my cousin arief's 30th birthday on the same day. there was lots of family to meet and catch up with and of course everyone wanted to meet emma. my mom was especially ecstatic at finally seeing her again since it had been a year since she's seen her. we didn't get to do much sight seeing in jakarta since most of the time we were there was taken up in planning for eyang's party. i don't think 7 days is nearly enough time between seeing family, getting my indonesian food fix, and sightseeing. usually, we don't go sightseeing when we go home, but since it was aaron's first time, it would have been nice to see more of jakarta. we did go to sunda kelapa which is an old port in north jakarta. i think it was built in the 1400s or something and i believe its peak was during the dutch occupation in the 1600s.

after we said our good-byes in jakarta, we flew on to bali for a brief 3 day visit. we stayed at our usual hotel, the legian beach hotel. the last time i was in bali was 7 years ago, and since then the hotel has done some renovations. now it looks so different-very fancy and chic. it's interesting to see the changes the hotel has undergone (and kuta for that matter), because we've been going there since i was little...and now they've added this and that and all other good stuff (i.e. free surfing lessons, balinese dancing demonstration, woodcarving demonstartions, etc.). we spent most of our time swimming at the beach or the pool, and did fit in a little shopping. aaron got a massage on the beach by #1 emmy, a lady that we've known since i was small (even before michelle was born). she seemed tickled by the fact that our daughter's name is emma which is quite similar to her name. aaron also braved jl. legian on his own to do a little shopping and he did great at bargaining (he managed to bring down 700,000 rupiah to 150,000 rupiah for 3 items...not too bad for a white guy, ha, ha). we also ate at poppies, a restaurant we always make a point to go to every time we're in bali. all 6 of us had the lobster and it was soooo good (and inexpensive!).

well, i think i summarized our trip to the best of my ability. once the pics are up on the website, i can add more details via the captions. got to do some cleaning now.