May 7, 2011 -- The Exchange Begins

DATE: Saturday, May 7, 2011

LOCATION: Bali to Bandung

AUTHOR: Nancy Brown



Sanur Beach, Bali



Today, May 7, is the official start of the Greater Orlando Friendship Force exchange to Bandung and Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Twenty-two ambassadors from throughout the US and around the world are participating in this exchange. Twenty of us began this exchange in Bali and two entered Indonesia by way of Jakarta -- they will be joining us in Bandung on May 8.




Hotel Sanur Beach, Bali

 

Ambassadors flew into Bali throughout the first week of May. Most of us stayed at the Sanur Beach Hotel, which was a  very convenient place to gather and a wonderful place to rest up after a long flight.

The hotel has a really nice breakfast buffet beachside, so we had a chance to meet each other in a beautiful, relaxed environment before embarking upon the home-stays. 

Late afternoon on May 7 we met in the lobby of the Sanur Beach Hotel to catch our transport to the Bali airport in Denpasar for our flight to Bandung. Since both Bandung and Denpasar are in Indonesia, we went to the domestic airline terminal. Suffice it to say that the domestic terminal is not the same as the international one – where all the tourists enter and leave Bali!! It was very crowded – wall-to-wall people, not a lot of signage and very little English. The scene reminded me that Indonesia is the fourth most populated country in the world -- and it seemed like half of them were going from Bali to Bandung that evening.

Have you ever gone through the check-in process for flights with five people on the same record locator number? It was an interesting experience, but we did all manage to get checked in.

We laughed a lot going through the final passport check -- where you pay 40000 rupiah exit tax to leave Bali for another location in Indonesia. You are supposed to have the correct amount of rupiah-- no making change. I counted out my rupiahs and had Mary Jane recount to make sure I was right -- we both agreed and were very proud of ourselves for figuring this all out -- only to have the man laugh at me when I tried to pay. Apparently, I was a decimal point or two off in my calculations. Maybe within the month we will get better at counting rupiahs -- maybe.

After numerous delays, we did finally leave Bali -- around 10:00 PM. It was less than a two hour flight to Bandung and our hosts were there to meet us, despite the late hour. After a little confusion with sorting out which hosts went with which ambassadors, we made our way to our homes. Our host insisted on feeding us when we got to her house, so it was about 1:00 AM by the time we got to bed. Long day/late night, but everyone is happy to be here.