Back from Jakarta!

It was a very exciting drive from the city to the airport earlier on.. Pipimon nearly had a heart failure several times cos he was so afraid of missing our flight!

The story goes like this.. Our flight was to depart at 7pm. Usually we have to be at the airport 2 hours prior departure to check-in our baggages and collect our boarding passes. So by right, we have to be at the airport at 5pm right? Guess what? At 5.15pm we were still sitting at a cafe at Grand Indonesia Mall having an early dinner with Andree & his friends!!! T_T"

The journey from the shopping mall to the airport is approximately 30 minutes without any traffic jams but at that particular timing, it is the peak hour cos everyone is finishing work and are commuting home!

And I calculated that the latest possible time we can check in is 40 minutes prior departure as most international flights' counters will close at that timing and we MUST reach the airport by 6.20pm or we are screwed!

So we left in a hurry and Andre drove like mad to bring us to the airport.. he said very confidently that he can reach the airport within 15 minutes without any traffic jam, which I don't doubt his driving ability since I saw how he drove us to Bandung and he's super fast and daring.. weaving through the lanes like some kinda expert playing a video game.. but the problem is, if there is a jam, his car can't fly above the rest!!

He tried his best and even drove on the road shoulder (mad exciting but super scary cos there were huge trucks and trailers)!! But at some point we were stuck because the road shoulder was too narrow to pass through and there were many cars!

Along the way he kept poking fun at Pipimon's anxiety by saying "Oh you gonna miss the flight! Heehee!" & "Don't go back lah! Come my house stay a few more days! From airport to my house is very near! HAHAHA!".

Pipimon being the worrymonster that he is, was so pale and didn't dare to breathe..! And Andre's teasing just made everything worse.. Tsk tsk.

At 6.05pm, we passed the toll leading towards the airport and Pipimon breathed a little easier as we still have 15mins to spare and the drive up to Terminal 2 should take less than 10mins.. but at this moment in time, Andre's fuel tank was EMPTY! And he announced happily (evil!) that he's gonna find a petrol kiosk to top up the fuel.

Pipimon nearly fainted. Seriously.

He started rambling on about fuel tanks able to last for extra 50km before totally being empty and Andre should just drive us straight to T2 before going to top up his petrol but Andre happily ignored him and proceeded to do a U-Turn! Then Pipimon turned to me and said that usually petrol kiosks are far away from the airports due to security reason and we are really gonna miss our flight and he gave me a super sad face. Awww.

But hey, we are in Indonesia yo! The petrol kiosk is actually just a 3 minutes drive from the Terminals! Major relief for Pipimon... but when we pulled into the kiosk at 6.10pm, there were LONG QUEUES!

Pipimon nearly fainted, again.

Then it's our turn next, but the car in front of us is taking very long because the stupid driver doesn't have cash for 100,000Rupiah worth of fuel (That's only less than S$15) and insisted in using his credit card but either:

1. Card declined
2. Fuel attendant doesn't know how to operate the card machine

But thankfully Andre went down and I think he asked another attendant or something to help and we manage to leave the petrol kiosk at 6.18pm!

2 minutes to go!!!!

We arrived at T2 at 6.20pm and ran like mad to the counter, which strangely is after a security check.. so the security man will check your passport and e-tickets before you go through than you must scan your baggage and carry-ons BEFORE you reach the airline counter... they were closed!!! Pipimon panicked like hell, but luckily the Business Class counter was still opened!

We managed to check-in and receive our boarding passes!

Thankfully I remembered to do an online check-in the night before so everything went really quick and smooth!

We walked out the security barriers to meet Andre and announce the good news that we managed to get our boarding passes and you know what he said? "GOOD! I told you no problem one! Let's go for coffee man!"

Umm.. 30 minutes before our flight departs and he wants to go for coffee!! We haven't cleared immigration yet and the boarding gate may be quite far!

He was very insistent that we go for coffee, said "Come on lah bro! 10 mins only! This is Jakarta man! No problem one!"

But Pipimon was adamant cos he had like, 5 heart attack scares on the way to the airport and refuse to risk missing the flight so we said our good-byes and went in.. Poor Andre was quite disappointed he did not get his 10 minutes coffee break with Pipimon! Haha! But I agree with Pipimon cos it's really not fun if we miss our flight since we have several pre-arranged appointments tomorrow and we have to pay extra for another flight back home (which I believe Andre will gladly pay if we stay cos he's happy if we prolong our stay..) =.=

I think Andre is so relaxed cos he is not a Singaporean.. hahahahahaha! I sincerely think so. It's like the Singapore DNA to be a stickler for rules. In Indonesia, a lot of things can be settled by money which is a much different environment than Singapore.. so we kinda have different mindsets. More on that next time.. :)

Remember to keep 150,000Rupiah per person for the airport departure tax!

That's around S$22. Remember to check that the counter staff have pasted the sticker onto your boarding pass as proof of receiving the money! I thought most airports would have charged this amount into the ticket.. but apparently Jakarta has not started that practice yet.

Walking to the gate took some time.. we only stopped to go to the toilets but there was no time to do any window shopping.. There's another security check before they allow you to enter the holding room. Guess what? My water-bottle with water inside actually got through the scan! T_T" I forgot about it and only found out when I was on the plane that there was actually water in the bottle in my handbag!

Either they know it's mineral water, they are highly confident no one will bomb their airport or they simply bochup. I think it's the last reason.

Waiting in the holding room.. nice roof!

At 7.10pm, I was complaining that the plane should leave at 7pm but we are still in the holding room 10 minutes after the supposed departure time and it really sucks cos I don't want any delay like earlier on when we flew in from Singapore... than there was an announcement in Bahasa Indonesia than in broken English about an "unclaimed bag"..

I remembered our conversation went something like:

Pipimon: 'Someone never take their bag, now they paging for the owner'

Me: 'Who so stupid anyhow put?! Wah lao! Becos of him our flight delay lah!'

Pipimon: 'There! They pushing it around now asking who it belongs to..'

Me: 'Where? Oh. Huh? ...................... IT IS YOURS!!!'

Major WTF moment!

Pipimon jumped out of his seat and ran to the guy asking what is going on.. I took our stuff and went over and a staff explained to us that his luggage has no check-in tags that's why it's rejected from the plane's cargo. We showed them our check-in tags stickers (we had two, one for me and one for him) and I told them that I saw with my own eyes the airline counter guy stick the sticker onto his luggage before it was sent in... than they checked and found out my luggage was in the plane but somehow mysteriously the sticker for Pipimon's luggage fell out. HOW TO FALL OUT? IT'S A BIG STICKER LEH!

Tsk. First time this is happening out of the numerous times I flew. Madness.

They gave Pipimon's luggage a new sticker and checked it in for him.

So much dramamama can? Tsk.

Thankfully things were smoothly from then on and there was no more hiccups or heart attack inducing moments.

We boarded the plane and I was super happy cos it's a new aircraft and there was inflight entertainment!

Woohoo! Best thing was, they handed earphones really early, like before the plane moved off! Mr Birdy is super happy too! :)

No need to wait till the plane is stable in the air before you can watch movie.. it is ON the moment you board the plane! The only interruption is the safety videos but afterwards it's uninterrupted all the way until the plane landed and was parked at the arrow bridge! Woohoo! Usually other airlines will turn off the inflight entertainment before the plane lands.. but thankfully Lufthansa didn't cos my movie ended just as the plane was parking! Yayness!

I watched Gnomeo and Juliet! Wanted to watch in the cinemas but didn't have the chance to. Yay!

We got the 3 seater window and Mr Birdy sat in the middle. Haha! Afterwards I used him as a neck pillow. Yes, he can transform into a neck pillow! Amazing right? Heehee!

I love this new aircraft cos the armrest can be pushed all the way up in between the seats so you can cuddle with your loved ones or just lie flat and sleep for long flights! The plane we took from Singapore to Jakarta was the old one and the armrests couldn't be pushed up completely so it's quite cumbersome and irritating to have it stuck there poking your arm.

I put my handbag on the floor but used a plastic bag to keep it from being dirty! Yes yes, very unglam but at least my bag is clean! :P

The sandwich is PORK HAM! Hello?? Flight from Jakarta? Muslim country and you guys serve PORK!? Major WTF moment again. Pipimon can't eat it so I gave him my buttercake. I bite one mouth and I refused to eat it cos it taste horrible!! Rubber bread. Tsk.

Anyway, But I think Asian cabin crew are more hardworking.. cos the Ang Moh crew just passed out food and came back once to collect the trays. They didn't even walk around before plane depart to check if everyone has their seatbelts and when the plane is about to land, they did not come out and check if the seats are upright and window shades are up. When I take other flights with Asian crew, they are always walking up and down passing out drinks, peanuts, checking to see if passengers have their seatbelts on, blah blah. Or maybe it's a different culture thing? Hmmm. No wonder Singapore Airlines is consistently voted one of the best Airlines in the world.. it's easy when their crew is pitted against this kinda crew.

After the horrible meal, I munched on the crackers I bought in Jakarta and Pipimon went to sleep. He was so exhausted from all the 'excitement' from earlier on.. Haha!

Sorry for the lack of updates when I was in Jakarta because the internet connection speed is much slower and it takes an average of 5 minutes to upload one picture onto blogger and since I prefer lots of pictures in a post, I decided to blog when I come back to Singapore instead.

I need to unpack our luggages and clean the house cos it's been 10days and the whole house is quite stuffy and dusty... Chloe is coming home tomorrow so I need to get everything done before she comes back.