We have arrived in Indonesia. What an adventure to say the least!! We got up early to take the train and a bus to the airport in KL (kuala lumpur), and found that it was once again super crowded. We had our three bags and had to push our way on and were crammed in, but only for three stops this time. The rest of the travel was good, and we made it to our AirAsia flight, very cheap to Indonesia. We did not know what to expect and did not have anyone to meet us and little knowledge of the country.

We arrived and found that the time was one hour different, and that we had to exchange money--we became millionaires because of the exchange rate. We found the bus to the bus station and got on board to sit around for a long time, and were crammed into the bus with many others (we would learn more about cramming later). The trip was very short for 30,000 Rupiahs. At the train station we got our first real Indonesian experience. There were people everywhere trying to sell almost everything and get us to take their taxi. We went to a counter to sell tickets and the man said 400 and I thought 400,000 with the currency difference and he kept saying no.

We finally found our bus and heaped our bags next to us and waited to leave. The bus filled up full and there were dozens of people trying to sell all kinds of things, from drinks to food stuffs and we were off. Along the road, people got on at different times (some playing guitar or singing songs or selling things). Along the road there were people selling things from car to car and doing whatever to make money. It was a surreal experience!! The trip was a long one and very warm. The bus had no air conditioning and people crammed in everywhere. It felt like we would pass out at times but the entertainment was really fun. It took us about 8 hours to make the trip that we heard was only three hours. We did meet a man from Blitar, our intended place who lived in the US and he helped us find the right place to get off. The bus man dropped us off with our bags beside the road and we got into the rickshaw bike and gave them directions and we were off to the hotel. We did not really know where we were going but thankfully arrived there in 25 minutes.

We met our friend at the hotel but did not recognize them as they were carrying durian (the king of the fruits). We were excited to be able to meet our compassion child in the morning. It has now ended and has been a great experience and one that we will not forget anytime soon. What a blessing and what a great group of people. We will talk more about that later!!