I am currently in my train at the Sydney Central Station waiting to depart for Taree. I thought I’d start to blog on my comp to help pass the time and get some of my thoughts sorted.
I left Lippo last night; a sad venture. This has, however, been the longest goodbye of my life. It started two weeks ago with our “Amazing Race Lippo Karawaci” which was organized for Caroline (an Australian teacher headed to Aceh) and myself. I’ve been to quite a few dinners and goodbye events; things that signaled my ‘lasts’ of Indonesia. It feels good to be on my way, but it hurts a lot to leave my friends. I’ll miss them lots. Johanna, Becky, and Liz accompanied me to the airport and I was on my way.
One of my major pains was organizing my luggage. I really wanted to take my bike, so I had it packed. I also had my big backpack full of clothes, my saxophone, and a black duffle bag that held my computer and an assortment of other things. Here’s a breakdown of my luggage and weights:
Backpack: 23 Kg
Bicycle (boxed): 20 Kg… dimensions: 140cm long x 80cm high x 30cm wide
Duffle: 15 Kg (I’m guessing…. It is HEAVY)
Saxophone 5 Kg
Total: 63 Kg
Lugging this junk through the Jakarta and Sydney airports required refined skill. I loaded the backpack, sax, and duffle onto a trolley and dragged the bicycle in it’s box behind me. I probably looked a bit like a homeless person… but a homeless person would be wise enough not to carry so much crap around with him. I hate traveling with so much stuff.
One of my worries was getting from the airport to the train station with all of this stuff. I could take a train from the airport to the station without spending too much, but I’d have to abandon my trolley and somehow carry all of this stuff on a train which may or may not be crowded. I opted for a shuttle bus (a Toyota Hiace van)… I rented the whole thing for $50… a 30 minute car ride, but worth it. (To compare, my train ticket (for a 5 ½ hour ride) was only $38).
Once at the train station I did have to carry the luggage, which was caused a lot of stares… I was awkward and slow and really hoped someone would help me. I pretended I was performing an experiment to see if any good Samaritans would help me. None did, but I managed to get the heavy stuff checked in and myself to a coffee shop for a little breakfast.
At the coffee shop I still had my duffle, sax, and a small backpack that I had to disconnect from my large one because of weight restrictions. I couldn’t manage all that stuff plus a coffee and fruit salad, so I asked a nice senior lady if she could watch my stuff while I picked up my food. She was very kind and said she would. The large coffee and fruit salad turned out to be $7.20!! Mahal Sekali as we say in Indonesia. I held my breath and handed over a plastic $20 bill. HOW AM I GOING TO AFFORD THIS PLACE?? Anyhow, I got my food, and returned to the table, where the lady was literally staring at my luggage; she didn’t take her eyes off of it, bless her soul. See the photo for the picture of my table… note the Hungry Jack wrappers the teenagers before me left for ambience. I read a Sydney Morning Herald, drank the strong coffee and ate the fruit salad with a plastic fork. After this I played Jawbreaker on my phone and listened to Cat Stevens. A Chinese man joined me and slurped his cappuccino and had a conversation on his handphone. What an exciting day! And it’s now only 12:07pm!
I will be arriving at 5:10 in Taree… I left a message on Steve’s phone (who I’ll be staying with) so that he doesn’t forget to pick me up.
Will the bicycle fit inside Steve’s car? Will breakfast make poor Mark broke? Will he have to make a tear-filled call to his parents to help bail him out of Australia?
Stay tuned to find out…. Soon.
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