Land of The Rising Sun - departure day

It's the d-day!

Professionals, social entrepreneurs, students and community developers from various parts of Indonesia were gathered at Soekarno Hatta International Airport 5 hours prior to the departure time to collect our passports and visas as well as having brief explanation about the journey. There are people from Bali, Flores (East Nusa Tenggara), Kendari (Southeast Sulawesi), Temanggung (Central Java), Banjar (West Java), Bogor (West Java), and many more. Indonesia is a really wide country. It's often referred to as the world's largest archipelago. If there's no such event, it would be difficult to meet each one of them in a short period of time due to the distance and time availability.

Anyway, I was soooo excited to spend the next 8 days with these great people who share the same interest on villages!

See that giant tosca "wardrobe" on the right? I thought that everyone will bring the big luggage, just like me, since we'll stay there for more than a week, but turned out to be mine is the largest among all. Well, saya nggak suka yang setengah-setengah, kalau kecil ya kuecil sekalian, kalau besar ya pakai yang pualing buesar (padahal emang nggak punya koper ukuran medium hahaha).

Small things that can help others.

As the founder and owner of UR Travelearner, I used to arrange the itinerary, manage the documents and guide a group of 15-20 people on a trip. Being on a trip with around 15 people today had triggered my "tour guide" soul to help other participants to make the trip more convenient. This is a great chance to make friends with others. 

We waited near the check-in counter around 10 minutes before the check-in time. Soon as the officer arrived, I told them that we would like to have a group check in and asked what should we do next. They instructed us to gather around one counter, together with our baggage. Mbak Sisca, the group leader, and I then collected the passports of all participants and gave it to the officer once the counter has opened. Yes, most of the time you only need to show your passport for check in, no need to print your booking code or receipt. Anyway, collecting others' passports had helped me to remember the name of each participants, hehehe...

Well, there are a lot of small things that can we do that give benefits to others, and many of them don't require big effort or cost.

Info seputar group check-in.

• Di beberapa bandara, pada maskapai tertentu, terdapat counter khusus group check-in.
• Berat seluruh bagasi akan diakumulasi jadi satu. Tidak masalah jika ada salah satu bagasi yang over-weight jika ada anggota lain yang masih memiliki jatah bagasi. Misal ada 10 orang dalam 1 grup. Masing-masing penumpang mendapat jatah 20 kg. Berarti, berat maksimum bagasi dalam grup tersebut adalah 10 x 20kg = 200 kg. Tidak apa jika ada satu penumpang yang membawa lebih dari 20 kg, asalkan jika diakumulasi semua barang dalam 1 grup tsb kurang atau sama dengan 200 kg. *entah kenapa di tangan saya penjelasannya jadi rumit 
• Bagasi akan diatasnamakan perseorangan, tidak grup. Satu-persatu penumpang akan dipanggil untuk identifikasi tanda pengenal sambil membawa barang yang akan dimasukkan ke dalam bagasi pesawat.

"Ke Jepang dari Hongkong?!" literally.

Kami transit di Hongkong selama kurang lebih 5 jam sebelum terbang ke Fukuoka, Jepang.

Pagi-pagi sudah ramai.

Antre beli sarapan di satu-satunya warung halal yang kami temui di bandara: Popeye.

Kacanya guede dan luebar, bagus untuk siluet.

Suasananya mengingatkan saya akan Singapura.

Menunggu pesawat ke Fukuoka.

Finally, our plane had arrived here. Time to board the aircraft. See you in the next 4 hours, Japan!