Lost luggage

Lost luggage

Both my husband and I came to Indonesia full of best intentions and goodwill. Before we left Australia we bought many books on Indonesia, and we came with immense interest in the country, its culture, its history and its people. To our great pleasure, we find Indonesian people very friendly, helpful and nice. But what has spoilt all our good impressions of Indonesia are the hassles we went through with our luggage.

We had 20 cartons sent from Australia containing mainly our books and clothes. But when they finally arrived at our place in Jakarta they were in appalling condition. The cartons were opened and unsealed, causing most of our books and stuff, all irreplaceable, to get wet and stained.

The worst came when we found all of our CD cassettes (19 of them) were taken. They had been packed together with our records in a small box inside a big carton. The small box was opened and all the CDs were gone. When our agents were informed of the loss, they thought it was probably due to some regulations on CDs or their contents. None of ours was pop but to our very special taste. They all have tremendous sentimental value to us. After many inquiries, customs simply denied knowing anything about the loss. They haven't given us any explanation. To us it is purely theft.

This is a very upsetting experience. We sold all our furniture in Australia, but kept books and music. They mean a lot to us. It is not just a material loss.

J. NILL

Jakarta