.....I've had worse trips but I don't remember ever making a longer one. From liftoff in Houston on Wednesday, I arrived at the hotel over here almost exactly 41 hours later on Friday. That included the flight to Los Angeles with a four-hour layover and a 19 hour flight to Kuala Lumpur that included a two-hour layover in Taiwan. From Kuala Lumpur I only had a 55 minute flight to Jakarta but after we lifted off the airport at Jakarta was closed due to storms and we ended up in flight pattern circling the city until we ran out of fuel and landed south of Jakarta near the island of Bali to refuel. After taxing to the tarmac there, we waited nearly three hours before being cleared for takeoff. I was so tired at that point I literally didn't care any more. We made it to Jakarta 5.5 hours after leaving Kuala Lumpur and docked at the gate only to discover the jet bridge wasn't working. They then had to hook onto us and push us back about fifty feet so they could roll a staircase up to the plane and we could get off. I made it through customs pretty easily but my bag was one of the very last off the plane (and a 777 holds a lot of bags).
Amazingly, my ride to the hotel was still at the airport waiting for me!!! I ended up tipping him $20 and that didn't show my appreciation for him not stranding me there--which has happened three times in Africa. It was another hour drive into the hotel but wow, is it a nice one!!!!
One unexpected advantage from the delays en route was that basically my body is back on schedule and so far, jet lag hasn't been a problem. After checking in last night, I unpacked, walked around the hotel to get my bearings, and then went back to the room and slept all night. This morning I woke up hungry so, at this point, my circadian rhythm is back to normal.
At breakfast this morning, I was just blown away at the setting. The morning restaurant has about five different breakfast buffets ranging from American, continental, Japanese, Seafood and traditional Indonesian. I got familiar with Indonesian food last summer and kind of know what to eat so I went that route this morning. The eating area is designed kind of like a grotto, or cave, and I was enjoying breakfast and realized I was surrounded by a United Nations of other diners--Japanese, Indonesian, Arabs and probably Koreans, Thais and multiple other cultures. Indonesia is the most populated Muslim country in the world but, by special request, pork is available at the buffets.
As discouraging as the long flight was last night, today I sat there in that luxurious setting and literally gave thanks for being able to experience all of this. The world really is a neat and beautiful place!!!
After breakfast, I went to the room and followed the Houston Dynamo as they played a heck of a match and won big. I wasn't able to stream the game live but followed it on Twitter. Again, what an amazing world we live in today.
After the game, I went out for a walk. The national sports stadium is across from the hotel so I headed over there for starters. As in most of the world, the "national" stadium is a soccer stadium but it was interesting here in that the lower (ground) level is reserved for other sports like fencing, billiards, and chess. In fact, tournaments were going on in all three of those sports while I was there.
I also found an open gate and went inside and up one level and watched a kickboxing tournament for a while. They had a male and female event going on side-by-side and the young girls were really getting into it. Again, for a devoutly Muslim country, this is not something you would ever see in Africa or the Middle East. Indonesia is really interesting that way although there is a growing terrorist problem here--there were three bombings in Jakarta last month.
After walking around the stadium and the surrounding park, I was heading back to the hotel when it started raining. The humidity hovers at around 99.5% and I had forgotten just how quickly it can begin raining. Within minutes it was a downpour and I got soaked pretty good but it was still a good outing. 
I've got the next two days off and have signed up for a city tour tomorrow so should have some good photos from that. Internet is very expensive here so I probably won't have continuous connection here but will post as available.
