The Long Haul

When we could have chosen to book a flight directly landing in Surabaya, Indonesia (Juanda International Airport) we have chosen a much strenuous and longer haul – that is from Davao City, Philippines (Francisco Bangoy International Airport) to Manila, Philippines (Ninoy Aquino International Airport) then to Bali, Indonesia (Denpasar International Airport).

               From Davao, we had to stop for a 12-hour layover in Manila before we leave for Bali, Indonesia. That 12-hour gap between my hometown and Manila seems to be very dragging and time seems to run extra slow, considering both my  exhaustion of the layover and excitement in finally seeing Indonesia. At last, it was time for boarding the plane and I wasn’t seated next to my co-exchange student. This is when I started to internalize everything that is going on – thoughts and questions played around my mind. Will it be difficult to communicate with the people knowing what I know about their language? Can I make it out in one piece until the last day of the program? What awaits for me in Indonesia? How does everything there look like? The way they dress? Their foods? Buildings? Schools? I doze off on my seat over these thoughts and was only able to get back to my consciousness when an announcement told me that we are landing to Bali in a few moment.

During the first few hours of stay in the foreign country, some questions that boggle my mind hours before the arrival were answered. Bits and pieces of answers solved the puzzles in my mind as to how for instance their country looks like, the people, and their language.

               We arrived in Bali early in the morning but the bus going to Surabaya will leave by 12:00 noon. This gave us the opportunity to have an interaction with the local people over our lunch. Although the people serving our lunch can’t fluently speak English, they tried to speak with us to the best of their capability. Due to the language barrier we had to use Google Translator to pay for our bill and our land-travel to Surabaya from the beautiful island of Bali began.

               From Bali, we’ve seen a lot of unique and artistic architectural structures – statues, welcoming gates and arches, houses, road intersection landscapes and other structures on the way. We crossed the strait between Bali and Surabaya on a ferry boat. It took us 10 hours to get to Terminal Purabaya by bus. This is not the end of our journey as we have to travel 1 hour and 30 minutes more from the bus terminal to where we will stay for the entire duration of the exchange program. I looked at my phone and the time zone automatically switched to Indonesian time. It was already 12:00 midnight that we were able to finally rest for a new adventure and journey in Indonesia the next day. We put our luggage aside, freshen up a bit and jumped on to our comfortable bed and said at last The Long Haul is over.