Car park art

This interesting sculpture in the car park at Jakarta airport rises from behind a tree. Probably missed by most commuters, too busy to get to their destinations to take a closer look. Well, I liked it!

Journey to Bandung - part 2

Next morning at the check-in desk, you guessed it, not allowed to fly to Indonesia without an exit ticket. Again, this problem usually does not occur, as I usually have a longer term visa that does not require an exit ticket. Incidentally, Singapore immigration did not ask to see my exit ticket! They did not make me buy a ticket, but insisted that I sign an indemnity form to clear them of any responsibility.

For peace of mind, I went to the AirAsia desk at Kuala Lumpur airport and bought a return ticket from Bandung to Kuala Lumpur, as I was going to have to buy one anyway. This significantly reduced the stress levels for the next leg of the journey. I pretty much feel like a right idiot now after flying around Asia for the last fifteen years.

Malaysian airlines is good too, but not the class of Emirates. Immigration at Jakarta went well. Again, they did not ask to see my exit ticket. I purchased a visa on arrival and had my US$25.00 ready, it gets very messy if you are not prepared with the currency, as there are no cash machines before the visa desk, been there and bought the T-shirt.

So here I am, in Indonesia and still a long journey to go and still lots of uncertainty. There were three options to get to Bandung: train, car hire and bus. The train involves a lengthy taxi ride to the station and airport taxis have you by the short and curlies and will rape you with the negotiated fares. The train ticket has risen a lot in the last few years and then there is the taxi from the station in Bandung to the house. It is no cheaper than actually renting a car from the many entrepreneur drivers hanging around the exit, all competing with each other with prices. This would have normally been my choice in more affluent times, but I was very conscious of the cost and for the first time I decided to checkout the bus possibilities.

To my astonishment, The bus to Bandung was every fifteen minutes and cost a very competitive $7.50 compared with the car hire of $65.00. The bus was reasonably comfortable and air conditioned. The journey took four hours, normally three hours apparently, but the traffic was very heavy with Bandung commuters who work in Jakarta, travelling home for the weekend. Plenty of taxis at the bus terminal, the ten minute taxi ride to the pub cost $5, 2/3 the price of the Jakarta bus trip!

So, why go to the pub instead of going to the house first, I hear you exclaim. The fact is that my wife had the key and had not responded to my email to drop the key off at my neighbors house. If I went to the house and no key was waiting, I would be stranded. The pub was a good plan and the first two beers did not touch the sides!

Next job was to buy a telephone card with a new number. The number expires if you don't top it up every month, still, a better system than the UK, were it was just not feasible to buy a number. In Indonesia, a new phone card number costs $1.00 and half of that is credit, the guy at the kiosk fits the card for you and does all the registration for you, all complete in less than five minutes. Eat your heart out Orange!!!

I tried to call wifey but the phone died straight away and the charger was buried at the bottom of my well packed rucksack. Fortunately Rena, one of the bar staff at the Northsea bar, had the same make of phone and put my phone on charge for me. By now my chances of sleeping in my own bed were diminishing fast, as the time was now 10:30pm.

After half an hour charge, the phone was now useable and I called wifey. She was in the kampung, visiting Mom and was two hours away, but she had left the key with my next door neighbor, smart girl. I phoned Benny, my neighbor, but 11pm was way past his bed time and no answer was forthcoming, so sleeping in my own bed was just not going to happen.

I still had options though, plenty of hotels in the area and I knew a lot of the girls in the bar, no cheaper than a hotel but the fringe benefits are good! Tessa (wifey) came to the rescue and phoned Boy, a close friend and he said it was OK to stay at his place. Wawan, my regular taxi driver was waiting outside and he knew Boy's place, so problem solved.

To be continued.

Dave