♥ A SUNNY LIFE ♥

Our journey to go to Indonesia started on October 22, 2007. Early flight out of Dothan, AL to Atlanta, GA then from there we flew Korean Airline to Incheon, Korea. During that longest leg of our trip (almost  15 hours), Alex was behaving  so good, he slept most of the time. There was only one thing on that flight that makes me fuming…here’s the story. I bought like 5 bottled waters in Atlanta airport for Alex’s formula. Unfortunately, not all of them can fit in my backpack, so I put some of them in my carry on, which I put inside the overhead bin. We were almost in Korea when I realized I almost run out of the water from my backpack, so I kindly asked the flight attendant if I could get some bottled water. She said okay, went to the galley, and returned empty handedly, saying “I’m sorry Ma'am, we don’t have anymore bottled water.” Say what???????? We’re on an international flight and there is no way in the world they will be running out of bottled water, I rest my case and decided to just pull down my carry on suitcase, grab 2 bottles out and believe me it’s hard to put that suitcase back up there with one of your hand carrying a baby. Luckily, there’s an American guy that sat right behind us who lent a hand. I got even more upset when I saw them handing out drinks and I saw mineral water on their cart. Mind you, I did not ask any help at all from the flight attendant during that flight even after one of them offered “I can hold your baby if you have to go to the lavatory.” So, ladies, don’t count on them airlines to give you bottled water, bring your own and lots of it!

We got to Incheon, Korea after 5 PM local time and guess what…we got lost! I was told that I suppose to find Korean Airline desk and pick up the hotel voucher then go to the hotel but I can’t seems to find the right booth, the airport staffs doesn’t really helped much either with their ‘barely understandable’ English, the first guy in a uniform that I asked doesn’t even speak English just pointed to the empty Information desk. I stood there waiting for nearly 20 minutes but not one person shows up behind the desk. Bummer, so I asked another guy in uniform behind the immigration desk, he said I have to walk a few meters down the terminal and I’ll find it there. A few meters turned out to be longer than I expected (actually, it’s on the other end of the airport), believe me…pushing a stroller with a heavy backpack straps to your back and a small wheeled carry on suitcase will slow you down tremendously, it also required some balancing act skills to pull your suitcase and pushing the stroller at the same time. Okay, so we finally found the Korean Airline desk and I was relieve to hear the lady said our hotel and next flight has been confirmed but my relieve was short lived because she said again, in broken English that I have to go downstairs and find another Korean Air desk there. Bummer…she can’t exactly pint point where it’s at just told me it’s downstairs. So, down we went, found another desk and again were ping pong to another desk which is this time, thanks God was the right one. Unfortunately, my walking doesn’t ended there, the guy told me (this time his English was much better) that the hotel’s shuttle bus will pick us up from Door no. 11 and we were at Door no. 2. Geez!

I didn’t get to the hotel until almost 9 PM with a totally cranky and tired baby in my hands. That poor boy just had enough so I skipped dinner time at the hotel and just take care of him in the room. He fell asleep pretty fast. The hotel, Grand Hyatt Residence was a really nice hotel. I tried to sleep but only managed to get roughly 4 hours of sleeping.

In the morning, I just let Alex be totally free in the hotel room and crawl everywhere. We had breakfast and lunch before we went back to the airport for our next flight to Jakarta. Unfortunately, Alex started to get really cranky while we were still waiting by the gate. He cried and cried and cried and I can’t seem to sooth him at all. Enough said, I was pretty aware of other passengers stare at us, at me. Since I’m travelling alone with a baby, we got the ‘privilege’ to pre-board before others, I tried just about everything to calm him but nothing works, some people offer their sympathy by trying to cheer Alex too but that also doesn’t help much. Then I saw that his nose was runny and he had a little cough, that’s when I realized he must not be feeling well. He only slept for half an hour or so during that 7 hours flight to Jakarta and spent most of it crying. Poor baby! They provided us with a baby bassinet, which he totally hates. Due to some turbulences I can’t carry him around the plane too much, thanks God the flight attendants were all pretty helpful. There’s this one flight attendant that seems to worried about Alex and how I got my hands full that I can’t even eat or drink anything, she went so far to help us by holding a cup of water for me so I could drink it (mind you, I did not ask her to do that, she offered it to me). Their services were much better than the Atlanta – Korea route, maybe because they have a joint service with Garuda Indonesia, who knows… Anyway, after several hours of dealing with a sick and cranky baby, I just decided to ignore those ‘you’re not doing enough or you’re a bad parent’ stares people gave me and put on my ignore goggles, because you know what…there’s only so much you can do as a parent to calm your baby and sometimes you just had to let them cry it out especially when you’re in that situation, Alex finally settled down in the last hour before we landed.

I was so glad to landed in Jakarta and found my brother Danny there. We went straight to the hotel and Alex immediately took to Danny, which is something amazing because normally he’s a bit timid with strangers especially man. We only spent a night in Jakarta and flew to Balikpapan the next morning. Oh and guess what...the morning in Jakarta I saw Alex's top tooth popped put! That's why he was so cranky!

By the time we got to Balikpapan, Alex’s cold and cough was getting worst he even developed a mild fever. My father immediately said we need to take him to a doctor. Unfortunately, SOS is no longer operated in Balikpapan but my mother said there’s this one doctor that used to work for SOS and now have his practice specializing for expatriates in Pertamina Hospital. So off we go there, he said it’s only normal for a baby that young to catch a cold due to the change of weather and the long flights. He prescribed some medicines; thanks God Alex get rid of his cold pretty fast.

For our flight back, it was quite an experience as well. Our flight got delayed for over 30 minutes in Jakarta and it was already after 10 PM, passed Alex’s bed time, so understandably, he’s cranky and tired. He already cried when we went inside to find the gate. We were a bit late because by the time we reached the gate, they are already boarding and when I pushed his stroller in with him crying and screaming, I saw this Korean guy, presumably Korean Airline’s boss talked in broken English to his Indonesian staffs and pointed at Alex. All I could hear was he repeatedly saying No, No, No.  I didn’t hold back and just came to him and look him in the eyes and said “Are you talking about my baby?” I can tell he was quite shock to see me staring at him like that, I just can’t stand people like him, talking about my baby as if I’m not even in the room! He told me that I can’t board the plane if Alex is still crying, well Mister you are picking the wrong mother to discriminate just because I am travelling with a baby! I told him straight in his face that my baby is tired, it’s past his bed time, and chances are he’ll fall asleep any minute and I already paid for his tickets and he can’t tell me that we are not allowed to fly just because he’s crying. I was furious of his reactions and so ready to pick a battle with him when an Indonesian staff, a lady approached me and said it’s better if we boarded last until every body else is settle because they had another 15 minutes delay. Well, that is understandable and makes sense. So I sat there holding Alex and he did fell asleep even before we boarded the plane. Sometimes you just have to stand up for your baby when things are tend to discriminate you.

Well, I had learnt a lot during this trip and although I’m glad that I am able to do it, next time, I’d rather go with my husband, besides having someone to share the ‘work' to take care of our baby on board, I’ll have more baggage allowance for all the shopping I wanted to do LOL.  So to answer my own question in this blog's tittle...I'd say SURE!