Bangkok, May 5, 2010

Al had almost two weeks vacation and we toured three islands of Indonesia.  This was not an easy or fast decision.  Our original plan was to see Australia, something both of us have always wanted to do.  After speaking with Marco, our travel agent and doing some research we decided this would be too expensive.  We then thought Viet Nam and Cambodia would be interesting.  Al especially wanted to see Angkor Wat. Marco spent one month trying to arrange tours for us with different companies but to no avail. We were beginning to think our trip was doomed.  However, we continued to research and decided Indonesia would be a good choice.

 Indonesia is called the country of islands because it consists of 17,000 islands.  This means Al and I then had to make more decisions as to which islands we would visit.  We chose Jakarta because it is the capital, Jog Jakarta because we wanted to see Borobudur, and Bali , because who in their right mind wouldn't?

Our route was Seoul to Bangkok (5 hour flight), a four hour wait in Bangkok before proceeding to Jakarta (4 hour flight).  We decided to take our time and stop overnight in Bangkok.  We were aware of the political unrest with the Red Shirts, but decided to take the risk.  There was no sign of trouble at the airport and flights were not affected.  We booked a room at an airport hotel called Novotel Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel, expecting the equivalent of something like the Holiday Inn.  Were we pleasantly surprised!
The security measures were strict.  Any vehicle entering  must pass a security gate where trunks are checked and vehicles are scanned for bombs.  When you arrive at the front door, military are there with machine guns and dogs.  To enter the hotel your purses and any bags are opened and checked any you must walk through a scanner.  We did not venture outside the hotel.  This was not a hardship though because the fitness facilities were great.  We also saw a young prince arrive with all his entourage.  Military were standing at attention all along the red carpet and throughout the foyer as the prince entered.  We did not take any pictures because we did not want to break any publicity rules.

We initially thought all the security in Bangkok was due to the recent political unrest.  We learned later in Indonesia that there were similar security measures at all the hotels where we stayed.

Now that we are back in South Korea and see the increasing violence in Bangkok we are happy that we missed it all. 

Cheers for now.  Can't wait to share Jakarta with you!