As I sat with my head half way down the airplane toilet, with sick streaming out of my mouth like confetti, I asked myself have I made the right decision? I left London 10 hours ago destined to get to South Korea in another day or so. Who really knows how long it takes to get to the other side of the world? 15 hours on a plane to get to Indonesia with an added 7 hours ahead in time and then another 7 hours to Seoul with another added two hours. It feels like we are constantly chasing time. And maybe that’s what inspired us both to travel? My friend Lil and I have decided on a big adventure and that adventure equals 8 months. I think as soon as you hear the word adventure you associate it with a positive experience and sometimes we forget it includes impossibilities and anxieties. Which is exactly how I was feeling waking up this morning, how would I cope that far away from home? How can I live out of a rucksack for that length of time? What the hell am I going to eat? And I guess the sickness of the plane was a physical manifestation of those worries but it also allowed me to let them go, in a way. Because as soon as a sat back down in my seat, I felt a little lighter and that wasn’t just from the couple of meals I had chucked up.
On the plane the lights began to dim for our over- night flight and the roof was littered with stars, down the rows of the plane. This, combined with our overly generous seats meant I began to relax and finally allow it to sink in I was going to do this and that I was lucky enough to be able to do this. The generous seats were down to us being upgraded to business class with Garuda Indonesia which was such a blessing because the service was amazing, from the food to the attentive staff. And I am sure Lil and I got a few strange glances when we freaked out over the tiny products of hand cream and toothpaste we received for free in our complimentary travel bags. I was almost disappointed when the flight ended.
As we flew over Jakarta, I felt that unacquainted admiration you feel for new places. The setting sun, which began by reflecting off the sea, lighting up fishing boats and tourist ferries now lights up the green rice fields which covers the majority of the landscape. Rows and rows of water interlaced with grass was framed by my plane window. Both Lil and l add this to our mental ‘places to visit list’, convinced by the smell of jasmine that follows us through the terminal. When we finally get to the transit lounge, we spend our time sampling Indonesian dumplings, laughing at foreign T.V advertisements and waiting for our final flight to South Korea.