To Travel or Not To Travel. Terrorist Bombings Edition.

Jakarta was bombed a few days ago. The Ritz Carlton Hotel and JW Marriott Hotel were hit. When I heard this, something popped into my head and then I promptly got confirmation from Sari in the form of a Facebook message- her wedding venue for October 2nd was the JW Marriott Hotel. She's furious for many reasons, including now the task of finding a new venue.

Now I'm torn. Weighing the pros and cons of traveling to Jakarta now.

Pros: once-in-a-lifetime experience, quality time with Sari, her family/friends, kickass kebaya made for me and me alone

Cons: fear of terrorist bombing, kidnapping, all those bad things that aren't going away anytime soon, cost of plane ticket (still not purchased), possibly vacay time taken away from possible future job

I still haven't made up my mind and this needs to happen soon, as I need to inform Sari and send my measurements for my kebaya should I be going. Sari and Johnny will be coming to NYC for their honeymoon, so I will be seeing them only a few days after their wedding, but it's not the same :( After I returned from my extended trip in 2008, I automatically knew I wanted to return to spend more time with Sari out and about since we didn't get that chance really during that visit. And also to visit her family and friends, who I really became close to. Sari recently posted photos from the cousin's wedding I attended with her parents and it brought back some many wonderful memories from that trip to Bandung.

Even as a 27 year old woman, I still called my parents, as I am an only child and very close with them. Had a discussion with my Dad, who if he were in my shoes, said he wouldn't take the chance and cancel the trip. There's no guarantee that relations in Jakarta will become any better in the coming months or years, but I do know I want to return. The question is when is the time to go?s Is the time to go now, when the city may be a bit more unstable than usual or is it in a year or so, when we don't know what will be going on, but perhaps I'd be lucky enough to have someone travel with me (which would automatically make me feel better about any given situation)? I'd love to take someone back with me to show them everything that I got to experience when I was there the first time. The Starbucks, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, KFC, Pizza Hut- all those fabulously Indonesian places! Haha :)

I'm going to sleep on it for another night and make my decision tomorrow. I'll let ya know what happens.