The trip home
Posted in Bandung on 01/23/2006 01:28 am by jo
The trip home was very long. We started off at about 8am in the morning as Bandung is about a 3 hour drive from Jakarta and although our flight wasn’t until 6pm, Andrew had some things to do before dropping us off and also had to pick his parents up after we left. They had arrived the day before we left but was staying elsewhere that first night until we had gone (they were taking over the house that we were in). The drive to Jakarta itself was frustrating…the air con was either freezing or not on – no thermostat! Anyway, we got to the airport at about 3pm as we figured a 3 hour wait wasn’t a problem – we’d check our bags in and then wander around. As soon as we got there though, before we had checked our bags in (thankfully), Catherine threw up all over herself and me (I was carrying her). The poor thing! I think it was because during the last part of the journey, the air con in the car had been off and it was getting a bit hot and stuffy. So in the middle of the airport, we have 2 of our suitcases open (Catherine’s and Scott’s and mine) getting out clothes to change into. I head off to the toilets to change and wipe up while Scott lies Catherine on a bench to wipe her off and change her. The dirty clothes go into a couple of plastic bags and back into the suitcases.
We then head off to the counter so we can get rid of our baggage. When we get there we’re told that our flight has been delayed until 10:30pm. Thankfully the airport has a transit hotel and we decided to go and have a nap before our flight. When we get to the hotel, the conceirge tells us that checkout is at 6:30pm. We say, “Oh no.” So he asks us what time our flight is. When we tell him, he says, “You can stay until 8:30pm.” Woohoo! We then get to the room and housekeeping bring in a cot for Catherine. As you can see though, she had no intention of sleeping!
| The cot wasn’t really that effective. We were too scared she was going to jump out! |
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We checked out at 8:30pm and went to the hotel restaurant to have a very late dinner, timing it so that we finished with about an hour or so spare before the flight. When we got to a different counter, we were told that the flight was delayed until 11:30pm! We didn’t actually end up boarding the flight until about 12am and therefore didn’t leave Jakarta until 12:15am.
When we landed in Denpasar, Bali it was 2 o’clock in the morning. The airport was virtually deserted and as we were to find, we seemed to be the only ones disembarking. The moment we exited the doors, we were approached by a few taxi drivers wanting to know where we were going and offering to take us there. We had been warned before leaving Australia by our friendly travel agent not to take any taxi except for the “Bluebird taxis”. Even in Bandung, they are the ones that actually use a meter to charge their passengers. The majority of other taxis will say that their meter is broken or not even have one – you need to bargain with them for the fare. Anyway, we were emphatic with them that we only wanted a Bluebird and one smartalec said, “Come with me, I have a Bluebird taxi.” I was a bit sceptical as this was the same guy who was trying to bargain with us in the first place. He did offer to take us to our hotel for 15 000RP but Scott stuck to his guns and refused. We followed him a little way and I see this fairly old looking taxi and asked, “Is that yours?” and he says, “Yes.” Honestly, the guy must have thought we were the stupidest people on the planet. The taxi didn’t have the emblem on the side, in fact, it wasn’t even blue and just in case he didn’t realise it, I told him. I figured he might be colourblind or something.
We ended up ringing the hotel and explaining that our flight was delayed (we were supposed to arrive at 8pm, not 2am!) and that we hadn’t arranged transfers because we expected to have arrived much, much earlier. They sent a car to pick us up! For free! Woo hoo! We may have fallen into bed that night, utterly exhausted but we made it to Bali! What an epic!
