I have so much to share with you from the last couple of days! Here are my comic strip diaries to bring you up to date.
Yesterday we flew from Batu Karas (Cijulan) to Jakarta with Susi Air which was an awesome experience. The plane was only a 12 seater Cessna so I was a bit apprehensive about it, especially as we kept hearing about their poor safety record (after we'd booked!). I needn't have worried though, the flight was smoother than many I've taken in big aeroplanes!
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| A fantastic flight to Jakarta |
The kittens in the departure lounge were tiny and very shy!
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| Not sure how to get rid of kitten 'blue-eye'! |
The departure lounge was unlike any we've been in before, not least because there were only 3 of us in it for most of the time! I somehow managed to break the chair I'm sitting on in this picture...shhhh.
Here's the little plane. Even though there were only 12 of us, we still had to wait for our baggage to be transported to the baggage collection conveyer belt when we could have quite easily carried it off ourselves.
We sat right behind the pilot and co-pilot. It was really interesting seeing them pressing all the buttons and moving all the levers ready for take-off.
The view was pretty amazing too, it was great being able to see out the windows on either side.
When we got to Jakarta I decided to draw the plane, just because it looks so cute! Here's the drawing progressing. Note the very cool (fake) Louis Vuitton bed sheets in this hostel!
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| As always, I started off by sketching an outline in pencil. |
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| Then went over in black ink. |
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| Lines all drawn out. |
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| Then I added hatched areas for shading. |
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| Finished hatching |
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| Then I blended the hatched areas with water. |
(That list in the background is of all the blogs I want to start follwing! I was so excited to have proper internet back that I went flitting around the web searching out all the drawing blogs I could find!)
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| This is as far as I got, I'll work on it more another day. |
Ok, that's yesterday over, now onto today!
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| We shopped 'til we dropped! |
I have to say that Jakarta is not my favourite city in the world. In fact, it probably is one of my least favourite. It's busy, dirty, loud and it takes half an hour just to 'pop' to Carrefour supermarket on the other side of the road. We needed to come here though as it's a good transport hub to fly home from so we thought we'd make the most of it by spending our time shopping for clothes and presents.
The wholesale centre at Tanah Abang, the first place we visited today, was incredible. It was a hive of activity, people lugging huge bags of clothes around, wheeling boxes through the crowds, shouting and jostling doing business. I just couldn't hack it for more than 10 minutes! Having said that, once outside, the traffic wasn't much better!
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| Shoppers and business people in Tanah Abang retail centre |
This photo was taken from the bus, it doesn't quite capture the sheer volume of traffic but gives you an idea of the pollution!
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| Traffic in Jakarta |
That brings me to the end of this post and also to the end of our 8 month trip! Tomorrow we are flying back to the UK via Singapore. We're very much looking forward to seeing all our friends and family but also a little sad to be finishing our trip! I may not have time to write much (if at all!) over the next few days as we'll be catching up with family and friends, but I'll be back after the weekend with some new, England based comic strip diary entries!
Today I've been partying at the following linky parties! Savvy Southern Style, Hickory Trail, Thriving on Thursdays (Domesblissity) and Titus 2 Tuesdays (Cornerstone Confessions).
