Jakarta Trip August 2008 - beaureaucracy

I’m pretty sure Indonesian Beaureaucracy people don’t appreciate time… our time.

I had to renew my passport today. It took me two and a half hours to queue up and had my photo taken in the interview room.

They told me that they have this new system in place that they couldn’t do it like they used to. Crap! Well maybe if they made sure the system would work first before implementing it, maybe it’d be so much better.

And after all that they didn’t even get my name right. I was only told that they’re putting my full name on the “see page” and it should be OK. I’m not keeping my hopes up. I already told them that I need my surname at the end of my given names. This is yet another problem with Indonesian Beaureaucracy. On my birth certificate, only my given names were jotted down. The rule is usually I’d take my father’s surname as my surname even though it’s not on my birth certificate.

Not sure if I could get the passport done tomorrow even if I asked for the ‘express’. If it’s not finished by tomorrow, I’m not going to Malaysia. Dammit!

We’ll see what happens tomorrow.

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!!!

Tasmania trip tomorrow; REVISED: we didn't make it

I'm super excited.

I hope I'll be able to snap a lot of nice photos while there.

I'll see yous back on Sunday.

It's time for bed as I have to wake up 4 A.M tomorrow morning.

Ciao.

More like we were late for check-in and were left by the plane.

One of my friends were late when we picked her up and we arrived I think fifteen minutes before the plane took off.

It was nine of us and there were no other flights available. So what could we do?

I feel really really disappointed. Quite super pissed frustrated and irritated really. This was one of those things I was really looking forward to do. It's like when you've built up your excitement since a few months back just for these next (supposedly) few days and it just didn't happen the way you planned them just like that. All over in just a matter of minutes.

Tried to find more flights with other airlines but as my guess was quite accurate, we couldn't get a flight where the nine of us would fit in and the others just didn't feel like going anymore.

I was speechless. I still am.

It's my first time missing a flight and I felt really frustrated since I'm thinking that I wasn't the cause of it and more because there was nothing I could do. I mean, it's not just the money. It's what you know you could have had if you were there probably fifteen minutes earlier and it's still eating me up inside.

I would love to be in Hobart by now.

Guilt was expressed for sure, and there WILL be the next trip for sure, but why this? When everything's been planned so well from so long before, and all those efforts of trying to find a mere decent accommodation and flights, snoozing & oversleeping (plus make ups, which sound so trivial) shouldn't make a difference like day and night but it did.

And why couldn't the airline (Jetstar *coughs*) make a simple announcement of a final call for the nine passengers they still haven't got on board? Virgin (Blue) made that very effort by having their customer service representatives shouting in the check-in lounge if there are people still queueing for the flight which would be taking off in a few minutes.

I still think about it, on my way home tonight, even now. I guess I'm the sort of guy who doesn't let these kinds of things easily having been raised by two strict parents who always told me that it's always better to arrive early than late (which could also be the cause why I'm so time-conscious by now). I can guarantee that my father would yell at me, in front of everyone, right then and there, if I were to cause us missing a flight. Probably swear a bit too and will definitely preach about how money doesn't just fall to your lap from the sky etc etc.

A commitment is a commitment no matter how you look at it. If you don't think you're not up for it, then don't.

So we went to Macclesfield rainbow trout farm instead. It's not much of a substitute but since I've never went there anyway. The grilled trout (marinated with lemon pepper) was really nice. And it would've been nicer if we didn't forget to bring the rice with us and flies weren't there (they're like super duper active out there).

Things just sort of went wrong today with both trips. Double bummer, no actually, triple bummer... or as many bummers as I can get.

So... 'til the next trip.

ARGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!Dammit!!!