I left Thompson the afternoon of Thursday, March 13th and stayed with James and Jordan for the night departing for Indonesia the next evening. The three of us went to the MTS Centre and took in the last draw of the round robin for the Brier Canadian Curling Championship. We got to see Ontario (Glen Howard) play against Nova Scotia, Alberta against NWT-Yukon, Quebec against Northern Ontario and Manitoba (Burtnyk) against Saskatchewan (Simmons). Except for the latter they were all pretty close games with the Quebec-NO game going to an extra end.
The next day I spent primarily with Jordan as I picked up a few things for the trip (an MP3 player for example as I knew I likely would run out of movies to keep me entertained) and some golf supplies. I had decided to bring my golf clubs along as I knew I would have the opportunity to golf and it is always better with clubs you are familiar with.
As usual it was a long haul to Hong Kong, including almost 4 hours in the Vancouver airport waiting for my connecting flight. When I checked in at Winnipeg I only received two boarding passes; one for Winnipeg and one for Vancouver, which was puzzling as the previous trip I also received the one for the Hong Kong to Denpasar leg. So I resigned myself to going through customs in Hong Kong and checking in again there.
On arrival to Hong Kong everything went as I expected until I arrived at the Cathay Pacific check in desk. Turns out my reservation for the next leg to Denpasar was not until Monday, the next day! Fortunately the service rep had no difficulty getting me on the Sunday flight. So I ended up in Denpasar a day early! I know I could have milked it and stayed in Denpasar an extra day as I was not scheduled to leave until Tuesday, but then I'm not on these trips for pleasure, even if it seems that is all I do (have fun that is)! I managed to get everything arranged such that I could finish the journey on Monday rather than Tuesday.
As a result I was unable to meet up with Awang, my driver from my previous trip or to see Ben and Adek (she gave birth to a baby boy after I had seen them last). But next time, if there is one. One thing about staying in the Kuta area is that I was able to take in a beautiful sunset as well as going for a swim in the Indian Ocean again. Boy is the water ever warm, and I float like a cork! Very relaxing way to relieve the self-imposed stress of rearranging flights!
The next morning I went for a walk on the beach. A very peaceful time with few people around. It was then that I had the pleasure of meeting Antonio, a beach vendor with authentic pearls for sale, and he demonstrated that fact by holding them up to a lighter flame to prove they weren't plastic! Of course they aren't top quality so it was pretty easy telling they were real as you could see the imperfections one would find only in the real thing! His English is quite good so we ended up talking for about 15 minutes before I begged off and returned to my room to finish packing. But before we parted I took his picture. What amazes me is that like Awang, on my previous trip, he automatically gave a big smile and a thumbs up. How can one not like these people!
The rest of the trip was pretty non-eventful. I was able though to get a reasonable picture of Makassar (which also goes by the name Ujung Pandang). While not easy to spot, Fort Rotterdam, mentioned in a prior post is visable at the lower right where the shoreline takes a sharp change of direction. Once in Sorowako I was picked up by good friend Anto. He is now in Canada for a month of Geostatistics training. I advised him to pick up a fleece jacket once he got to the Toronto airport and showed him my Inco Exploration jacket so he would know what they look and felt like. I'm sure he will find even Toronto pretty cold compared to the plus 30 degree weather he is used to!Right now we are at the close of a long weekend here. They celebrated Mohammed's Birthday on Thursday and this was followed by Good Friday, both of which are public holidays here. Now how is that for religious tolerance, especially in a country noted as having the largest number of Muslims in the world?
While I have spent part of the long weekend working (as long as I have my computer with me I can work just about anywhere) I have been able to get out golfing 3 times, including doing 18 holes this morning. Thursday it was with Paul, Eugene and Ito. The former two are from the Philippines and Ito (on the right) is from Japan. On Saturday we were joined by Danny (second from the right), another Filipino who had worked here before but was visiting for a week or so. We golfed together again this morning. This next picture is of everyone, except for Paul, on the 18th green, including our caddies. I must admit my golfing was terrible yesterday but I didn't do too bad Thursday or today, but still lots of room for improvement!
Yesterday afternoon I met up with Selvi and Tuti (actually Pujiastuti, but Tuti for short) at the Yacht Club where they were accompanied by their friend Lina (as with Tuti, it is actaully Suherlina but she goes byLina). We went kayaking together as they have plastic, sit-on-top two-seater kayaks available for rent. I must admit one of my most favourite things about here is Lake Matano with its crystal clear water, perfect temperature and lots of colourful fish!For all of you back in Canada with your snow and cold temperatures I apologise for rubbing it in but really, life is good here! Until next time.
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