Jakarta Trip August 2008 - prologue

Flying alone sucks and this morning, that’s exactly what I was doing.

Even worse when one thing or two start going wrong along the way.

The taxi I ordered arrived on the front door but didn’t bother to knock on the door. He left. I had to call Silver Top Taxi’s operator and she explained. So another taxi was on the way. I was quite sleepy due to going to bed at midnight and waking up at 5.30 in the morning. Fell asleep a few times in the taxi until I almost reached the airport.

This was when I realized that there was a blockage caused (I think) by an accident. We had to take a detour (and apparently not just us, almost everyone took the same route and that caused me a twenty-minute delay) plus I had to walk another five minutes to reach the international departure terminal.

Check-in queue was quite long. Took me half an hour to check in. I usually do it online but since my passport expires in less than six months, the system didn’t let me check-in online. Crap.

Everything was OK afterwards, the flight wasn’t full and I was finally able to doze off during take off. Sleep is good.

I HATE FLYING!!!
I love to travel, don’t get me wrong. It’s the long flights I can’t stand. Like this one I’m on right now. It’s going to go for another six & half hours.

It’s even worse when you’re flying alone. Not that I can’t go through it. I’ve done it so many times, but it’s just unbearable. I just can’t imagine flying alone much further like, say, to the USA.

I just want to land in Singapore straight away, catch the next flight to Jakarta and that’s it.

But still here I am after an airplane meal, four movies, another refreshment and some power naps here and there. The airplane meals weren’t too bad this time around. Black pepper beef on rice with tuna pasta to open with. The refreshment was a nice chicken & mushroom pie. It was creamy but not too much, just the right amount. Hopefully all airplane food will always turn up like this.

Eight hours after take off… we’re close to landing. Finally.

I’m now in transit. I’ve finally arrived at Singapore’s Changi Airport waiting for yet another flight which should take me to Jakarta.

Now that I’m in transit, this is the other thing I hate about flying. The connecting flight. You never really know where you need to go next and I seem to always get transferred to the very end of the corridor which usually take around fifteen minutes on foot. This leaves me no leisure time during transit as I need to always be in a hurry.

I’m now in the waiting lounge for the flight to Jakarta, feeling quite worried about my checked-in baggage. I didn’t get that sticker receipt from Melbourne. I forgot to ask for it and I think the customer service who checked me in forgot to give it to me. The worst thing that could happen is if he actually forgot to check it in, but hopefully not since I made sure that I could pick it up in Jakarta and he said yes. But if it did happen (he forgot to check it in), some blood will be shed. I just know it.

But hopefully all ends well. I’d hate to get stuck in the airport, especially Jakarta’s.

I’ve now arrived in Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport.

I got my luggage! I’m so relieved.

I’m missing you already.

And now it’s time to deal with… mosquito bites!!!