Pop Goes the Weasel

After flights from Chicago O'Hare to Tokyo Narita to Jakarta, I was scheduled to stay nearby at the Pop Hotel.

The flight landed a little late, but I was able to get my bags and up to the shuttle pickup in time to get the free shuttle (which I confirmed the day before I left) to Pop Hotel but none showed up.  This meant I needed to get a taxi on my own.  But I didn’t change any money and I really didn’t want to. (I know, that's a weird thing I do when I travel internationally... I take it as a challenge to survive without actually getting any local currency.  Is that an "Ugly American" habit?)  I insisted that I be able to pay by credit card and the taxi driver and the guy who hailed it for me said I could.  Then he proceeded to drive me to a convenience store and told me to go use the ATM to get out Rupiah.  Forget it.

I was so tired and so mad.  I was able to get him to take me to Pop Hotel and then talked to the front desk.  But I forgot something.  I forgot that Indonesians just say "Yes".  Even if they can’t do the thing I’m asking for, they just say "Yes".  I finally got the cab driver to just take $20 US and leave.  Because they never picked me up at the airport, the hotel comp’ed me my late checkout the next day.

I slept so hard all day.

I met the rest of the group at the Jakarta airport.  Our first flight to Makassar was at 9pm.  Then the next flight to Sorong was at 3am and we landed at 6am-ish.