Archive for the ‘Indonesia’ Category

Yogyakarta air disaster

Wednesday, March 7th, 2007

It is all over the news and even my dad emailed me the story; 21 die in Indonesian airline disaster.

I landed and took-off from that airport last December. At the time I thought the airline, Garuda, and the airport was a bit of a joke but didn’t feel scared for my life. The flight from Jakarta to Yogyakarta was two hours late and a local just laughed and said “They come when they feel like it” when I asked if the plane was coming at all. He also mentioned they will wait around for passengers if there is not enough to fill the plane on time. Landing at Yogyakarta was like landing at a backwater airstrip with the international section of the airport closed down and some guys wheeling our bags on open trolleys to the airport building. The inflight food was different but nice, all sweet breads and nuts and I don’t remember there being a flight-safety presentation before take-off.

Terrible that 21 people died today and I hope it was nobody I met in my time there.

Posted in 21, Indonesia, Post, Yogyakarta, airline, crash, dead, death, disaster, flight, garuda | Comments

iiWAS and MoMM-2006

Monday, December 4th, 2006

I am at the iiWAS and MoMM 2006 conference here in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. First day of the conference today which went OK. The opening ceremonies were too long (no wonder unconferences have become a reality) and I was disapointed that the Sultan could not make it. Not often you get the chance to see a real Sultan. Still the sessions had some good information and it was great seeing the huge diversity; Austrians, Portugese, Indonesians, North Americans, Chinese, Japanese, Italian, Malyasian, Scottish, Australians, Germans, French and myself as a South African slash Irish. It was also good to see young Atma Jaya students presenting their work. I am giving a talk tomorrow on multmedia distribution and IP rights.

Posted in AAA, Conference, Indonesia, Yogyakarta, atma jaya, iiwas, java, momm | Comments

Traveling take 2

Tuesday, November 14th, 2006

I thought my trip to South Africa earlier this year was a bit of a mad dash but it has nothing on the traveling I will be doing this December. Here it is in short-form, starting on the 1st of December and ending on the 30th of December:

Waterford (Ireland) - Cork (Ireland) - Hong Kong (China) - Jakarta (Indonesia) - Yogyakarta (Indonesia) - Jakarta (Indonesia) - Hong Kong (China) - Cork (Ireland) - Waterford (Ireland) - Dublin (Ireland) - Cape Town (South Africa) - Johannesburg (South Africa) - Windhoek (Namibia) - Johannesburg (South Africa) - Cape Town (South Africa) - Dublin (Ireland) - Waterford (Ireland)

That is 8 cities and 4 countries across a handful of airlines. The craziest bit will be arriving back from Indonesia on the 7th of December and flying to South Africa the next day.

Good thing I like flying.

Posted in AAA, Cape Town, China, December, Holiday, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Jakart, Johannesburg, Namibia, South Africa, Travel, Windhoek, Yogyakarta, crazy, flights, flying, traveling | Comments