Sunday 8 September 2013 The trip, this time with Ethyad (UES) was extremely comfortable. It is a relative new airline and the airplanes are super modern, legroom enough for my little person, but I can imagine that for the average European, it is a bit cramped. Staff is internationally recruited, so there are at least some seven languages available for the passengers, which is quite extraordinary, super friendly….. I can really recommend this airline! In Jakarta foreigners have to get a visa on arrival, that means you have to cue. If you are tired (after a journey of approximately 18-20 hours, this may be pushing the limits a bit, and as it was my assignment to do a “Day of Compassion”, I felt as though I had a fixed grin on my face. My fellow traveler, seated next to me, was a trendy looking 50 plusser, who had to continue his journey to Bahrein, and a few words were exchanged from which I understood that he traveled to the Middle-Eastern region on a regular basis. The only thing we had in common was the fact that we prefer Abu Dhabi as a stopover, I just love that airport! I enjoy uttering the few phrases I know in Arabic to see the effect in people’s faces when I do…. Just for the fun of it :-) The flight arrived in good time, but with the visa on arrival and a long wait at the luggage belt, I didn’t get out until 23:30 hrs. No Pamitro, who was supposed to pick me up and as I expected our journey to Bogor to take at least one hour, I was a bit anxious for the hotel, that I had informed before I left the Netherlands that I would be quite late checking in. I phoned on my Dutch mobile phone (groan) and Pamitro was waiting for me at another exit, so it took a good half an hour before he found me and as it was almost four years since we had seen each other, I wondered if he would recognise me (!)…. He hadn’t changed and it must have been midnight when we hit the road to Bogor. Usually there are no traffic jams at this time of night, or at least not that we could have anticipated…. Welcome to Jakarta!!! We hardly left the outskirts when…………. Total chaos; an accident. Pamitro explained that there had been a dramatic accident on the highway from Jakarta to Bogor, only eye witness accounts, but no details. We were driving in the utter right lane.. sorry, crawling in the utter right hand lane (Indonesia drives on the left-hand side), and when we were approaching what looked like a gathering of a uncommonly big crowd and signal lights, we saw ambulances arriving and police officers waving lights. We were forced to move to another lane and then I saw two men motionless on the ground amongst debris of car parts, a car totally crumbled to pieces and other cars still on the road, but wrecked. Everywhere you looked there were people standing around, watching , some taking photographs with their mobile phones and more ruined cars on the other side of the highway… both sides of the mid-separation were crowds looking what was happening…. Newspaper accounts: “a thirteen year old driver, son of a famous Indonesian musician, caused a massive accident by driving his car against the …. With such a speed that the car was hurled over to the other side of the motor way, and making a couple of salto’s over to the other side of the motorway, hitting a number of cars coming from the opposite direction… 5 dead and 11 critically injured…”. This evening when I spoke to Bart, I realized that if there hadn’t been such a cue for the visa’s, if the luggage had come earlier and if Pamitro had waited at the correct exit…, we may well have encountered that salto mortale…. This morning, after a very short rest, I had a (terrible) breakfast, and a wonderful get together with Tresna and Rori, our friends from Surabaya and Bogor, I bought my Indonesian sim card and immediately sent it to all my friends in Indonesia and NL’s, had my first pampering session at the hairdresser and a wonderful reflexology massage…, my first and almost totally forgotten Thunder and Lightning experience Bogor style (Bogor is known in Indonesia as “the rain city”), where the famous Botanical Gardens are situated, and the most inspiring dinner with Mohammad Djaeni. We shared our concerns for the progress of our Foundation, the fact that we had to move forward with the so-called “pending issues” and the various character traits of our team. I told him how grateful I was that we met by chance in Ujung Kenteng some eight years ago (Seaturtle resort in West-Java) and how we feel the need to do something worthwhile in our lives that we may be remembered by, and that this effort;t to mean something to the community, not only on Lombok, but hopefully for the rest of Indonesia in showing, that no matter how small your contribution is as part of a team, may have a lasting effect on others, who will need to inspire future generations. Lead by example should be our motto! More tomorrow; Jakarta – seeing Jos (Tante Turbo), and meeting with the Rabobank International Jakarta. To do: reservation of my trainticket to Cirebon and dinner with???
Posted on: Sun, 08 Sep 2013 17:55:41 +0000
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