Biz class final time

Actually quite looking forward to flying biz class again. checked out the lounge at denpasar airport. Not very clean, old sofas and food was bland. but the wifi was secured and I was able to check emails. the flight to singapore was a 2 seater in biz class but still plenty of room. I got the window seat. Not quite as private as the long haul since you have another person next to you but the center armrest was wider and TV screen just as wide. Back in changi, i showed my biz class boarding pass to enter the silver KrisFlyer lounge. Good quiet dim lighting ambience, plenty of food, indian, chinese and western. however, the wifi was not secured so I couldnt gmail. Got some beef jerky at Bee Hang and Clinique Happy perfume at the duty free. The lounge in HK was dirty and dark but they did have sweet bean curd soup. One more advantage of flying biz class is the movies. The wider TV screens and better headphones allowed me to really 'watch' movies that if in coach, wouldnt have been enjoyable: the black panther (quite good), avengers infinity war (not bad), the new lara croft tomb raider (really bad, joliePitt so much better), pacific rim uprising (waste of time) and the last jedi (again). That was probably my one and only chance to enjoy biz class. I guess from now on, flying coach again would be a nightmare. why did I do that?

so this wraps up south east asia. Indonesia offered many unexpected fine surprises but also many sore disappointments. Disappointments perhaps due to my over research and therefore high expectations. What I've thought to be a well planned trip with 1 week on volcanoes and 1 week on beach resorts, it turned out it rained on the volcano and it rained on the beach. the only one time I forgot to bring my umbrella. it would have made the trip tremendously more enjoyable had I had my own umbrella. Would certainly had ventured out more to explore. But i did enjoy the tropical rain (just not while hiking a volcano or on a beach) as CA's been very dry and I did miss the rain very much.
I didn't think i'd enjoy garden hotels since there were water and trees everywhere and therefore prone to mozzies, and garden hotels usually are bungalow types. however, to my pleasant surprise, I did enjoy all the hotels as they all had a porch where I could do my evening teas and enjoy the quiet of the night, and some did have rooms on upper floors. Even the most basic ones felt comfortable. The bathrooms though were an issue. the windows couldnt be closed and thus not only mozzies could sneak in, but ants, the humidity and the heat, and no total privacy (if you could hear the people on the outside, they could hear you doing your bathroom things on the inside).
I ate so well in vietnam, the pho, the fresh seafood, the noodles. Neither Java nor Bali had any really fresh seafood, and both noodles and rice dishes were not up to par. the bebek goreng, the crispy duck at the original dirty duck diner, was actually quite tasty but very dry and with little meat. other crispy ducks were simply no good. I didnt even try the nasi goreng since I dont like fried rice anyway and didnt know where i could get the best one. Breakfast always had some sort of dry and unappetizing noodles and fried rice. The bread was always sliced, most horrible, tasted like it was made of tapioca.
For archeological monuments, Indonesia is temple galore and you'd be templed out. Prambanan was very beautiful but we got there just before sunset so the photos came out rather dark, and I did like tirta empul, with the most beautiful hindu towers, and the cave temple gunung kawi, with shrines cut into the cliff-face, much like the ones in lalibela but in a very much smaller scale, but the rest of the temples werent all that spectacular. after angkor wat, no temple could be spectacular anymore. didnt see enough buddhist temples although borobudur was quite impressive.
But it was the volcano views that were worth all the while. even without the turquoise lake and blue fire of Mtn Ijen, the smoking volcanoes and mountains were sights to remember.
Again, we traveled on all modes of transport, buses, train and boat. And Snowie, luckiest of all stuffies, was simply on top of the world, and took many photos with the volcanoes and mountains. He even made a friend, Lilephant, Kenneth's very cute and bashful stuffie . Now how much luckier can a stuffie get?

In the end, like all my trips, I've always enjoyed them but they always end too soon, and then it's always back to the grind, the stress, the worries and the anger, and the miserable daily routine.