T-minus-less than three weeks! I was away on a business trip this week which put a bit of a hiatus on my pre-trip planning (although somehow I did end up spending $150 on travel clothes at the mall and at REI), but I realized that I only have two more full weeks of work left before I leave. That's pretty scary but also pretty liberating. You realize quite quickly that you have great teammates and work will go on with or without you. I've received so much support from my colleagues - both in offering to help out while I'm away and wanting to make sure I send them my blog URL so they can virtually follow me on my journey.
We had our weekly team preparation call this week and found out some more details about our assignment. After our team meets up in Jakarta, we'll be touring the IBM Jakarta offices and meeting the IBM General Manager of Indonesia. Our CSC team will then travel together to Yogyakarta. Our hotel in Yogyakarta looks better than I expected and it's located near the center of town. I am not a picky traveler at all and love staying at little boutique hotels.
We also found out this week that our kickoff event is turning out to be quite a lavish and high-profile affair. It's going to be held at the palace of the Sultan of Yogyakarta and both the Sultan and the Vice President of Indonesia are scheduled to meet us and to be keynote speakers. I feel quite privileged and humbled to be participating in this event and to meet such influential leaders.
On our prep call this week we were again reminded that business dress in Indonesia is quite conservative. I had been planning already to bring a few ankle-length skirts and 3/4 length sleeved tops, but we were asked today to also bring scarves that we'll probably need to wear every day. We women on the team will want to make sure we have our necklines appropriately covered and we'll also want to be prepared for covering our heads if needed as there are often religious ceremonies before meetings or large events. I'm a bit nervous as I do fine in tropical climates so long as I am dressed appropriately for the climate - this however is going to be quite a challenge because during the week I'll need to be covered almost head to toe. I think (another) shopping trip is in order this weekend to try to find some loose long sleeved shirts that will (sort of) keep me comfortable in the heat. I definitely want to be respectful of the culture we'll be immersing ourselves in but I need to find clothes that aren't going to give me heatstroke. Another item on our list is a rain jacket. February is the monsoon season in Indonesia, so I'm quite thankful I got a Gore-Tex rain jacket for Christmas. If the rains are that heavy though, no jacket will really keep you dry. This will be quite an experience.
Amazon.com has become my best friend during this pre-trip planning process. From extra luggage locks to travel guides to rehydration powders, a first aid kit, and a small personal fan so I can try to keep cool in the oppressive heat - I probably have gone overboard with supplies. My husband has been so patient with me as I place orders at least once or twice a week and our front door often has stacks of small boxes waiting from the delivery man. This week's order consisted of a small Indonesian passphrase book and a combination-style cable lock for my laptop computer so it doesn't get stolen. I tried ordering the cable lock through work but my order got rejected 2X so I finally gave up and bought it myself. I also ordered some business cards, as I don't carry them for my regular job but we've been told that Indonesians hand them out quite frequently so we should be prepared to reciprocate.
I'm very excited about my assignment, but also very excited about my plans after the assignment. I'm going to fly to Bangkok after my assignment, and my husband Marc is going to meet me there. We're going to explore around the Bangkok area for a week - seeing the Grand Palace, the Emerald Buddha, Wat Arun, the floating markets, the Ayutthaya temples, and the Bridge on the River Kwai. Then we're going to hire a private car service to drive us to Siem Reap, Cambodia, where we'll tour the Angkor Wat temples, Tonle Sap lake, and the ancient city of Angkor Thom. We got our Cambodian visas the other day and are all set for the vacation part of the journey.
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