Vancouver to Hong Kong, Hong Kong to Jakarta

Welcome to our (Dave and Alice i.e. "Dallas") travel blog. We will do our best to update this thing whenever we can, and thereby save everyone the hardship of receiving the dreaded inbox cluttering sporadic mass email.

July 6th, 2010
Alice and I arrive in Jakarta yesterday afternoon, where we were greeted by a smiling man named Yudih holding a sign which read "Hillary Walraven". Alice asked "who is Hillary" and assuming my brother had forgotten Alice's name I replied "you are" before drudging up the repressed memory of him and his friends putting me inside a Hillary brand sleeping bag when I was a child and pumeling me until I called myself Hillary. Yudih grabbed one of our bags and instructed us to follow him out to my brother's vehicle which was parked in a near by lot. Yudih trotted along at a near sprint and Alice and I had to hurry just to keep up. Alice sat in the back seat and I went to go sit in the front, not realizing that the front passenger seat is on the left instead of the right, which gave Yudih the impression that I thought I would drive. He laughed, I felt like a stupid American. The drive to Adrian's place was more or less accomplished in silence as Alice and I were exhausted from our trip. I tried to make small talk with Yudih, thinking that his English was better than it actually was because of the skill with which he said "I have a letter from your brother" when we first met. I asked "have you been watching much of the World Cup?" He wiggled his head, paused, looked at the clock and then smiling said "about half an hour" indicating the length of time from the airport to my brother's apartment.

Once we arrived at the Shangri-la Hotel Residence (http://www.shangri-la.com/en/property/jakarta/shangrila), Alice and sprawled out on the couch and snacked on delicious homemade fish sticks and fried corn patties. We made a list of mission objectives for our time in Asia which will direct the course of travels.

Objective #1: Buy Hammocks
Objective #2: Learn A Martial Art
Objective #3: Take Cooking Classes
Objective #4: Become Yoga Masters
Objective #5: Stay Fit And Have Fun
Objective #6: Visit Temples
Objective #7: Climb Mountains
Objective #8: Don't Drive (Too Scary)
Objective #9: Journal
Objective #10: Read Books
Objective #11: Have Regular Massages
Objective #12: Surf
Objective #13: Get Diving Certificate
Objective #14: EAT A MANGO A DAY


Adrian came home from work a couple hours after we arrived and took us on a walk around the neighborhood. We went to a grocery store and bought a bunch of mangoes, some pineapple, and fresh squid and fish. I fell asleep around 8 or 9 o'clock and didn't wake up until about 11 the next day. I used to think that jet lag was something made up, like Santa, and that anyone who claimed to experience it was a little liar...