While our visit in KL was fantastic our trip home did not go as smoothly as we had planned. When traveling abroad you ALWAYS have to be flexible with changing plans. It happens a lot and is pretty much expected. The morning started with us leaving for the airport early. Normally we give ourselves a two and a half hour window to get to the airport and get checked in. This morning because Kuala Lumpur is hosting a Formula One race and the city itself was packed. We knew we would have to leave early. I had no idea Asia was so crazy for Formula One. It's a huge deal. We saw lots of people wearing the uniform of their favorite team. The track was right by our airport so we left at 7:15 am for a 10:50 am flight. Since breakfast was included with our hotel we ate even earlier.
The trip to the airport went surprisingly smooth. It helped our taxi had a DVD player. The kids loved watching "Toy Story 3" and we never stopped for traffic. I imagine if we would have left later we would have ran into trouble because cars were already lining up at the track. Better safe than sorry, right? I know my Dad is breathing a big sigh of relief reading this and probably shaking his head. He is a firm believer you can never be too early. Unfortunately, I did not inherit his promptness.
Our flight wasn't too bad. I have come to expect the flight to PKU to be rocky and will end with a bumpy landing. The runway is pretty short and it is definitely not maintained SeaTac style. Let's just say that landings here are typically something you might equate to a seat belt training exercise. I wasn't afraid of flying until moving to Indonesia. Now with every bump my heart jumps a bit. Indonesia is not known for their aviation safety. However, we do stick to the Chevron recommended airlines, which does give me some form of comfort.
Getting through immigration was actually not too bad today. We managed to get our luggage without any annoying chalk marks. If you get a white "X" on your bag then immigration makes you open it and does a search. We had a ton of food with us, which we are not exactly supposed to bring in the country. I have become so rebellious living abroad. Actually they have always been really tolerant with us but you never know when things are going to change. I always get nervous that they will end up taking our beloved Cheerios or Wheat Thins, or gasp, our chocolate chips. I think I would rather be locked up abroad then face my children after they confiscated our Western goodies.
Once we made it to Pekanbaru, we realized that someone had not got the memo to pick us up. Grrr! Pekanbaru airport is not my favorite place to hang out. We get lots of interesting looks and the airport is crazy hot and smoky. I can't stand having smoke blown at me from every direction. I think that it sometimes some sort of sick game. Let's see how long it takes before we make the American move. We spent over an hour waiting for our ride before we began to develop a back up plan. It cracks me up that an hour late is within the normal wait limit. We had two options: try and get a hold of someone, or take a local taxi home.
I wish I had taken a picture of a local taxi. Think a car similar to something you might buy someone for their first car in the price range maybe $1000.00. In fairness some of the taxi cars are not that bad but the three lined up for us looked like we might need to push them to get them started. Option #1 would have been do-able except for our massive amount of luggage and of course our family of five. We figure we would need at least two taxis, possibly three. It just did not feel safe. We have learned when you hear that little whisper not do something "DON'T DO IT"! So we waited and finally were able to reach our two school drivers who picked us up about 45 minutes later. We spent some quality time hanging out in a restaurant called CFC. It is a lot like KFC. We enjoyed some fried chicken and a couple of cokes. Brooklyn loves the chicken in Indonesia. She seriously attacks it and doesn't leave a single piece of meat on it. It is actually a bit embarrassing. I am sure everyone thinks we should feed her every once in awhile. I am firmly convinced that Brooklyn will one day be a competitive eater. You know the people who weigh like 98 pounds and consume 103 hotdogs in like 60 seconds.
We finally made it home about 1:30pm. Not our smoothest homecoming but a glorious one in our book. We now have a fully stocked freezer again which makes this Mama's heart oh so happy. It is funny how much comfort one gets knowing they have brown sugar and cereal in their freezer. Both John and I felt like we made a solid effort to not over buy. It's not easy to estimate what a family of five will use in the next two and half months. Only time will tell how well we estimated.
Thanks for being flexible while we were away. I will do my best to get back on a more normal blogging schedule.
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