Dec 07, 2007 – Back Home

I’d like to talk about the story when I was heading home from Melbourne to Jakarta.

I took Garuda Indonesia flight from Melbourne to Jakarta with transit in Denpasar, Bali. The flight is scheduled for 10.55 AM Melbourne Time, which is 3 hours ahead of Denpasar time.

I arrived at the airport around 8.30 AM, but then I still have to queue for almost 1.5 hours just to check-in. It’s really one of the worst queues. The queue takes a long time since they said that they have some problem with the computer.
I finished the check-in process at almost 10 AM. But, when I look back, I still see a very long queue, which I believe that would take at least another hour. So, I believe that the flight would be delayed.

So, after the check-in, I still have time to have my quick breakfast at McDonalds, and then head for the departure gate.

I got not a big problem in the immigration and security check, even though they confide my water bottle and check my bag thoroughly.

The flight is almost perfect, exclude in some part. I could see that the flight attendants are nice and professional. But, the flight is quite boring since we don’t have personal TV screen. And the movie is quite boring.

I could see that actually Garuda could compete with others in term of the service but they still need some room to improve. I believe that the service is almost perfect, even though, that I could see that one or two of the flight attendants are a bit unfriendly. But, yeah, you also could see that in another flight, even the one such as SQ.

The flight to Denpasar is delayed around 1.5 hours. That we reached Denpasar at 3 PM. Actually, the connecting flight would be at 3.25 PM. But, since I used the same airplane, and they need to clean, etc. so the flight is scheduled to 4 PM.

After the boarding process, then, there is another problem rises up. One the passenger checked in a baggage but he didn’t appear to be on board. And due to security problem, they have to set down the baggage. And the process took almost 30 minutes. It’s a very annoying thing.

The flight to Jakarta is not really nice, since I am in the same plane with some of the Indonesian bureaucracy, I don’t know from which department that they come from and what they did in Bali before. But, I just wonder about the way they behave and talk. It’s just like a bunch of high school students going out for a camp. And the way that they discuss is also something unimportant.

Overall, I reached Jakarta at around 5.00 PM. Then, I have to take my baggage and everything. The immigration process is not really a matter.

Then, I still have to queue for the taxi. It’s really annoying. You must know that. I queue for more than 1 hour just to get into a taxi. Yeah, actually, there is some other taxis waiting for passenger, but I don’t want to take a risk, since it’s already evening. So, I just am patient to wait for a blue bird taxi. And also I don’t like to discuss about the taxi meter and the tip, after all.

I reached the apartment after 7 PM. It’s been a really tiring day for me. I woke up at 6 AM Melbourne time, and reached the apartment after 7 PM in the evening West Indonesia Time. So, I take more than 17 hours for all.