{Our arrival in Jakarta, Indonesia}

As promised in my previous post Fly with us to Jakarta, Indonesia, now I show you some photos of our arrival in Jakarta at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport. Click on the hyperlink's photo gallery to see this beautiful airport. It is designed by French architect Paul Andreu, who also designed the Charles de Gaulle International Airport in Paris, France.

Of course it makes one longing for a shower and a good bed after two nights on the plane. Our last years of consulting we were fortunate to use the day-hotel of Mercure Schiphol Terminal in The Netherlands. That way at least you can sleep for several hours during the 12-hour lay-over and get a refreshing shower.

After arriving in Jakarta, we always used a taxi from the Blue Bird Group, for taking us to the  Aryaduta Hotel. This used to be Hyatt, now it is under the Lippo group. Driving the toll road it gets you into the busy city of over 9 million people. Arrival at the airport would be around 16:00 o'clock in the afternoon. Remember that between Georgia, USA and Java, Indonesia there is a time difference of 12 hours. Our night is their day! Actually we did make this commute to our work in Indonesia a total of 21 times, from Atlanta, USA.

Good morning Jakarta; Selamat pagi Jakarta...

Naturally we would wake up very early the next morning, almost before dawn... Sunrise in Indonesia is around 6:00 o'clock, year round. Sunset is around 18:00 o'clock, also year round. One has to get used to the shorter days as this country is right on the equator.

The view from our room at the Aryaduta hotel was incredible, almost like a painting...

A bustling city is waking up!

This is taken from the Hyatt lounge where we had our breakfast with great view from the huge windows.

 Packed up and ready for the last leg of our journey to work... waiting in the lobby of the Aryaduta hotel.

It feels great for having had a nice bed + shower...

My leather journal has been written and the newspaper read.

Here you can see where we are and where we are heading to.

Indonesia is the 4th most populous country in the world and is very spread out. See my link below (Fly with us to Jakarta Indonesia) for a map of Indonesia in relation to the USA. 

The flight on KLM Royal Dutch Airlnes made a stop in Singapore, before reaching the capital of Indonesia; Jakarta.

Our final destination is Yogyakarta by plane, but this trip we will go by helicopter...

At Halim, the military airport of Jakarta.

Getting our luggage into this helicopter... 

Ready for the last leg of the journey...

Baggage handling is easy.

Pieter is already  seated and I will have to get next to him in the center seat...

Take off...

The view from the heli was breathtaking but it is very hard to capture on camera...

Two pilots are on board as is necessary in Indonesia, a country that is full with vulcanoes. Mount Merapi which is near Yogyakarta is 2,930 m (9,613 ft) and last erupted in November 2010. Previous large eruption occurred in 2006, shortly before the Yogyakarta earthquake.

Indonesia is in the ring of fire, an area with a large number of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

Due to the clouds coming in, we could not reach our final destination in Central Java on the Dieng plateau. So one more hotel night in Yogyakarta and early morning we finally arrived.

English is widely spoken but often in a funny way.

As is here used on the sign of Hellypad instead of Heli Pad...

This is in the mountains, at one of the mushroom plants' location.

Stay tuned for more about our consulting work in Indonesia near the Indonesian Twin Volcano Sumbing-Sindoro...

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{Updating my readers before getting to Jakarta}

Since several of my readers not seem to know what kind of consulting work we did, this might be a good read for understanding a bit more. 

Click this link: {Angels engraved on lucky calendar coin of 1969} as it tells our story best.

Also my husband's LinkedIn Profile tells a lot.

As well as my LinkedIn Profile... just click on both for knowing more.

Drawing by artist at Imperial College, London where my husband Pieter gave a paper for the ISMS Congress.

P.J.C. Vedder

Principal of a famous Training Centre

From youth up―getting  them Mushroom minded

at VIIIth International Congress on Mushroom Science 1971

Next post I will take you to our Arrival in Jakarta, Indonesia...

Stay tuned!

{Fly with us to Jakarta, Indonesia}

You might know about our work and many travels as international consultants. We have been in the air for some 1,500,000 miles. That is for over 3.5 months up in the blue skies, roughly converted into time! That's a LOT, enough to make your 'derrière' almost square. Together we did make a total of 21 round trips to Jakarta, Indonesia, where we have lived and worked for about 3 years, staying for 2 months at a time, 4 x per year. So preparing for our commute to work, from the USA, was quite something. We would fly out from Atlanta on KLM, Royal Dutch Airlines, then partner with Northwest Airlines. Below you will also see our total miles flown...

• Atlanta Airport, waiting for boarding. We would fly over night to Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

• After a nine hour direct flight we were in Amsterdam, at Schiphol airport in The Netherlands.
• Making a long phone call with my Parents...
• Yeah, you see my shopping tote from Escada Company Store (my favorite outlet store).

• Here I am waiting for 40 minutes at Schiphol airport, for being able to check into Mercure Hotel Schiphol Terminal click the link.
• For the 12 hour lay over this is the best one can do. You have a quiet room without any windows, twin beds and a shower and you book it for 12 hours at a time. That makes you able for continuing the longest leg of the journey fresh.

link Indonesia US Locator

• From the orange (USA) to the green (Indonesia) is about 19,000 km or 11,806 miles of flight distance one way (from Atlanta, Georgia).
• Amsterdam, The Netherlands is where the blue arrow is...

• With the yellow marker I've marked off the island of Java where we are heading towards...
• Link of: Compare US to Indonesia with more info about Indonesia.
• Our flight to Jakarta would always be on a KLM Boeing 747-400 or on a Boeing 747 Combi.
• Also called La Grande Dame... check link for photo.

• This is the total of Pieter's WorldPerks miles as of July 17, 2007: 1,262,856
• Pieter did accumulate some more miles than I did as he's been to New Zealand for Campbell's Soup by himself... 
• Also he was sent by Campbell's Soup with the People to People Citizen Ambassador Program to China besides his travel within the USA and Canada for Campbell's Soup.

• This is my total of WorldPerks miles as of July 7, 2007: 1,133,546

• Those were the great days of service!
• We of course did both have a Royal Wing Courtesy Card from KLM and often got an upgrade into Business Class. 
• Thanks to the Royal Wing Card we could always check in at the Business Class counter and also were allowed the extra carry on piece.
• Can you imagine that at that time we could pack TWO suitcases of 32 kilograms (70 pounds) each...
• So many things happened since then. 
• We both are fortunate for having been up in the sky during that time...
• Stay tuned for the next story where we travel from Jakarta to our destination...

Remember, this was going to work; not on vacation!

Many have followed us...