Mar 8 - The slick, modern aspect of Singapore is clear even in the airport. The food court has menus on the wall next to touch screens. You just plug in the stall number, input the codes of what you want to eat, then get your food from the stall when your customer number shows up on a reader board.
All day today the air is murky. Not that cloudy, just very low visibility. Not sure if this is due to smoke from burning, just pollution, or what. Makes for a very dull view across the Java Sea.
Land at Juanda International Airport. First time in awhile that I am asked for my onward plane ticket (at immigration). A bit of a chaos at customs, everyone seems to be finding out just then (like us) that we are supposed to fill out an online form for customs declaration. A mass of people, laden with all their baggage, are clustered around a huge QR code poster on the wall with their phones, trying to get into the web page. It is not the most efficient of systems. We plug through the annoying form, run the bags through an x-ray, and are out of the terminal into the dark greenery of Java. I was last in Indonesia in 1978, so its sort of like being here for the first time. Get a taxi to our hotel in central Surabaya, it is already getting dark by the time we arrive.
Indonesia definitely has a certain feel to it, crowded and loud, with endless lines of scooters buzzing everywhere. It feels just a bit rough around the edges when compared with Malaysia or Thailand. More garbage, bumpier roads, tropical rot. But in our first evening here, getting into the hotel and later, eating at a quasi-Japanese restaurant, the people we meet prove to be just as soft-spoken and gracious as what we’ve become accustomed to since flying into KL.
