Just a short note from the Jakarta airport while waiting for the plane to take us away from this wonderful country.

Neither of us could sleep so we were up before the alarm went off at 4:30. We packed our last things in our carry on and finished just in time to have Sam load them into the car. President and Sister Marchant woke early to say goodbye and take a final picture. We will miss their great hospitality and leadership.

The trip to the airport was smooth sailing – tomorrow the toll road is supposed be flooded because of high tide but today it is high and dry. Perhaps this is our last tender mercy before leaving Indonesia.

Our flight left on time, we had a nice meal, watched a show – The Spiderwick Chronicles – and got in a nap. We tried to watch another movie – Fool’s Gold – but for some reason about 10 minutes in it switched to Chinese or Korean and never got back on the correct track. But that is OK because it would have not ended before we landed.

Going through immigration at the Hong Kong airport was a cinch – that is once we waited in line. But just before that a young woman walked up to me and looked at my badge. It turned out she was a member from Thailand who was returning from Japan. She had good English and I asked if she was going to go to BYUH and she said she would like to go to BYU Provo but BYUH would be great. I told her I would see what I could do to help. I thought I might get her in on the next Distant English Class. When Mary joined us I introduced my new friend and about that time an older woman walked up and was introduced as her grandmother. Mary said they had washed hands next to each other. It is a small world we live in.

We had to wait for the bus to take us to our hotel. While we waited I went over and talked to another couple that was waiting. They were from London and we had a good talk about travel and how we served at our own expense. It turned out that her mother may rent to LDS missionaries but she was not sure.

It was strange traveling on streets with little traffic and no motorcycles on the roads. Mary saw some parked but not many.  Unfortunately it is raining as we travel so we can not see very much clearly. Hopefully it will be clear on Wednesday and Thursday. Our hotel is not in a very upscale location but the rooms turn out to be very nice and the club room is a nice place to sit and work. I have to go there because the internet connection in the room does not download – only uploads and they do not seem to have anyone who can solve that problem. Hopefully that will be worked out tomorrow.

We thought we were going to go to dinner with a two of the couples but by the time we got checked in and figured out how to contact them it was late and we decided to just eat at the hotel and then go out walking to see the shops around the hotel and down off Nathan Road.