On Tuesday we are off to Java and Singapore
Nov 12th, 2012, 04:17 PM
#23
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Kathie - tell Cheryl that's an excellent choice. The Apple Retina is my all time favourite so far, so light, on almost instantly and brilliant display! Enjoy your "Air"as well but no match for the retina imo.
Bon Voyage!
Bon Voyage!
Nov 12th, 2012, 04:41 PM
#24
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Yes, tripplanner, we plan to visit Borobudor as well as many Hindu temples. We are, as you have no doubt figured out, temple fanatics.
Hanuman, no, the Air is no match for the retina, but it's perfect for my purposes (writing) and sooo light. Cheryl loves converting to being an Apple person after all of those years of running networks of pcs.
Hanuman, no, the Air is no match for the retina, but it's perfect for my purposes (writing) and sooo light. Cheryl loves converting to being an Apple person after all of those years of running networks of pcs.
Nov 12th, 2012, 08:09 PM
#25
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Happy travels, Kathie and Cheryl. I look forward to reading your thoughts on the trip and to seeing Cheryl's photos. No trips to Asia for me this Fall but, on the bright side, some of us Massachusetts folks not only just re-elected a President, we are sending Senator Warren to DC. (Nobody tell Bob.) Lots to celebrate here while we read the reports of all you Fodorites abroad.
Bon Voyage!
Bon Voyage!
Nov 13th, 2012, 03:43 AM
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Kathie; Don't be hestitant to ask Wiedy to take you any where you are interested in going. If you decided to visit Solo, not my first choice to spend 4 hours with travel, do go to Katon Temple and I already mentioned I think the batik made by the wax process.
In the big mall in Yogja. if you are in to very high end eyeglass frames i.e, Prada, Tiffany, they are last years models for 50% of US price fix prices, even though many are gold. I found a great pair and yes, they are genuine as attested to here in the US. There are 4-5 of these stores on the first floor of the mall mostly on the main drag side.
Really Enjoy.
In the big mall in Yogja. if you are in to very high end eyeglass frames i.e, Prada, Tiffany, they are last years models for 50% of US price fix prices, even though many are gold. I found a great pair and yes, they are genuine as attested to here in the US. There are 4-5 of these stores on the first floor of the mall mostly on the main drag side.
Really Enjoy.
Nov 13th, 2012, 06:21 AM
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Marya, thanks to Massachusetts for electing Elizabeth Warren. My birthday was the day after the elections and I thought the election results were quite a nice birthday present
I'm glad to hear you love your Macbook Air, crosscheck. I've only had mine a week or so, so haven't fully bonded with it yet. This will be our bonding trip.
Stan, I've already corresponded with Wiedy about places I want to go. He has been most accommodating. I'm sure we will have a marvelous time. It's a long drive, but we plan to go to Candi Sukuh way out past Solo, as well as to do some batik shopping in Solo. Cheryl may look at eyeglass frames in Yogya.
I'm glad to hear you love your Macbook Air, crosscheck. I've only had mine a week or so, so haven't fully bonded with it yet. This will be our bonding trip.
Stan, I've already corresponded with Wiedy about places I want to go. He has been most accommodating. I'm sure we will have a marvelous time. It's a long drive, but we plan to go to Candi Sukuh way out past Solo, as well as to do some batik shopping in Solo. Cheryl may look at eyeglass frames in Yogya.
Nov 15th, 2012, 12:05 AM
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Hello everyone,
We are in Yogyakarta and settled into our suite at the Phoenix. Lovely place! Our flights were fine and we much appreciated the lay-flat seats on our Narita to Singapore flight. Someday, the Seattle to Narita flight will get those seats!
I planned to do a quick update from the RCC at Narita, but the internet connection was glacial so I gave up.
From push-back at the gate in Seattle to landing at SIngapore was 20 hours +, so we were much relieved to make it to our room at the Crowne Plaza Changi - right in terminal 3. It was pricey, but I wanted a comfortable bed (the beds in the transit hotel are pretty hard) and I wanted to take a long shower and dry off with a nice thick towel (the towels at the transit hotel are thin, thin, thin). So the Crowne Plaza furnished those things quite nicely. We both got about 5 hours of sleep before our wake-up call for our Silk Air flight to Solo City.
Silk Air normally allows one suitcase per passenger, weighing up to 20 kg. If you are a star alliance gold, they double your baggage allowance, which we much appreciate
Wiedy met us at the airport, and we had a long conversation with him on our way to the Phoenix. Traffic was heavy and slow (this is a four-day holiday). Wiedy is exceptionally knowledgeable and we enjoyed talking with him. We settled up with Wiedy (he asked us to bring US dollars). I should note that there is no ATM at the Solo airport, but there is an exchange window. Wiedy told the woman at the exchange window that we wouldn't accept anything less than 9000 IDR per US dollar, and she gave us 9300 per dollar.
We are relaxing and catching up with things this afternoon, tomorrow we have a driver to Borobudur and the Dieng Plateau picking us up at 5:00 am.
We are in Yogyakarta and settled into our suite at the Phoenix. Lovely place! Our flights were fine and we much appreciated the lay-flat seats on our Narita to Singapore flight. Someday, the Seattle to Narita flight will get those seats!
I planned to do a quick update from the RCC at Narita, but the internet connection was glacial so I gave up.
From push-back at the gate in Seattle to landing at SIngapore was 20 hours +, so we were much relieved to make it to our room at the Crowne Plaza Changi - right in terminal 3. It was pricey, but I wanted a comfortable bed (the beds in the transit hotel are pretty hard) and I wanted to take a long shower and dry off with a nice thick towel (the towels at the transit hotel are thin, thin, thin). So the Crowne Plaza furnished those things quite nicely. We both got about 5 hours of sleep before our wake-up call for our Silk Air flight to Solo City.
Silk Air normally allows one suitcase per passenger, weighing up to 20 kg. If you are a star alliance gold, they double your baggage allowance, which we much appreciate
Wiedy met us at the airport, and we had a long conversation with him on our way to the Phoenix. Traffic was heavy and slow (this is a four-day holiday). Wiedy is exceptionally knowledgeable and we enjoyed talking with him. We settled up with Wiedy (he asked us to bring US dollars). I should note that there is no ATM at the Solo airport, but there is an exchange window. Wiedy told the woman at the exchange window that we wouldn't accept anything less than 9000 IDR per US dollar, and she gave us 9300 per dollar.
We are relaxing and catching up with things this afternoon, tomorrow we have a driver to Borobudur and the Dieng Plateau picking us up at 5:00 am.
Nov 15th, 2012, 04:33 AM
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Kathie, glad to hear that you and Cheryl had a rather smooth journey. I cannot wait to hear about Borobudur and some of the other places you'll be visiting. I've never been, but it's on my list of places.
Nov 15th, 2012, 09:41 AM
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Glad you two arrived safely and are settling in. It's so nice to finally get somewhere after all of the planning. From the e-mails, both of us were kind of on a revolving door planning schedule for a while. LOL!
As for the 11-inch, MacBook Air, I bought the same one during the summer. I need it for work occasionally and I also figured I'd better take it to S.E.Asia since I'll be gone for over a month. It'll be cheaper than only phone calls and more convenient than internet cafes although I really don't want to travel with a computer. But, at least it's small enough to toss into my handbag. It will also be useful on trips to Paris as trying to do flight confirmations by phone is a real pain there.
I'm still getting used to the Air though and haven't totally figured it out as I haven't needed to use it a lot yet. I use my regular, white, 13-inch MacBook daily which I've had since 2008. They don't make the white ones anymore. The new Air is a bit different from my 2008 MacBook and I tend to get a bit frustrated when using it.
Keep having fun!
Happy Travels!
As for the 11-inch, MacBook Air, I bought the same one during the summer. I need it for work occasionally and I also figured I'd better take it to S.E.Asia since I'll be gone for over a month. It'll be cheaper than only phone calls and more convenient than internet cafes although I really don't want to travel with a computer. But, at least it's small enough to toss into my handbag. It will also be useful on trips to Paris as trying to do flight confirmations by phone is a real pain there.
I'm still getting used to the Air though and haven't totally figured it out as I haven't needed to use it a lot yet. I use my regular, white, 13-inch MacBook daily which I've had since 2008. They don't make the white ones anymore. The new Air is a bit different from my 2008 MacBook and I tend to get a bit frustrated when using it.
Keep having fun!
Happy Travels!
Nov 15th, 2012, 01:30 PM
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Happy belated birthday greetings! I'm happy to hear you've landed safely and things are going well. You must be jet lagged ... 20+ hours is a long flight. I haven't been to Java so I'm looking forward to reading about your experiences as well as seeing Cheryl's photos when you return. The MacBook Pro is an excellent choice and she'll love the photo editing features. I have the first Mac laptop as well as the first Mac desktop model .... both kinda old now but still in working order even though they're rather slow. lol (yes ... I'm a Mackie. And no ... I don't use them anymore.) 
Have a wonderful trip!
Have a wonderful trip!
Nov 15th, 2012, 01:37 PM
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I look forward to hearing that you were as impressed as we were with the beauty in the last 40 minutes before the Plateau was as impressive to you as it was to us. The Plateau itself is just o.k. it's that last 40 minutes of farming that took our breath away.
I assume Wiedy took you to the cattle market where the women handle all the business aspects and the men just do all the heavy lifting. We stopped fr lunch in a place where a complete lunch for 3 cost me $9US as a recall. All Wiedy eat was a fried rice, I think to not impose.
Was I correct about his knowledge about Bobodurur?
I assume Wiedy took you to the cattle market where the women handle all the business aspects and the men just do all the heavy lifting. We stopped fr lunch in a place where a complete lunch for 3 cost me $9US as a recall. All Wiedy eat was a fried rice, I think to not impose.
Was I correct about his knowledge about Bobodurur?
