Kari and I left the hotel two hours before our flight, and paid half the price to return as when we had arrived (minus the late-night surcharge of 50% and minus five extra ringgits? awesome!) The ride to the airport took only about ten minutes, and security took all of 30 seconds to pass through. We found a Famous Amos store on the other side (yes, like the little vending machine cookies), with about ten varieties of cookie as well as traditional American movie-theater snacks. Would-be yummy, but both of us are a little ready to detox after the eating binge that has been Asia.
While we were waiting, Air Asia made an announcement that our flight was delayed, and I looked at Kari in terror, as my international connection in KL was only an hour and a half, and I knew that if there was a delay, I wouldn't make it.
Ten minutes is not a delay. Air Asia made an announcement that our flight would take off at 6:40 instead of 6:30. Um, don't all flights take off ten minutes, give or take, from the actual departure time? And it turns out we were in the air by 6:35 anyways. False alarm.
Somehow, even though we booked separately and at different times, Air Asia placed us next to each other, which was fantastic. What was not fantastic was the flight composition--probably about 25% children under the age of 8 years of age. Neither of us have ever seen anything like that. The row in front of us was made up of three children who didn't seem to know what a seatbelt, or a seat was. While they didn't bother us too much, we did worry slightly for their safety--one of them spent the flight either on his brother's lap or on the floor.
Upon arrival, I bade a quick farewell to Kari (NOOOOOO MY TRAVEL PARTNER IS GOOOOOOONE!) so I could get my ticket verified, go through immigration, and go through security again before my boarding time in less than an hour. No line for any of the above, and I arrived at the gate with 20 minutes to spare.
I was pretty humgry by that time, so I decided to try something new for dinner: a chicken satay paratha wrap from Hot& Roll. It was looking good as he made it, until out of no where, he picked up a giant bottle of mayonnaise as I shouted NO! NO! and squirted it all over the chicken. Since when does chicken satay go with mayonnaise? Since when does any Asian food go with mayonnaise? Luckily, he was able to remove most of it, and covered the rest with black pepper sauce. The concoction was very bizarre and not great, but okay. I used up the rest of my ringgits buying souvenirs for folks back home, checked my e-mail on my kindle (aka battled with the LCCT internet for 20 minutes), and was ready to go.
But my flight was not to be. After they finally make an announcement that it was delayed after it was already supposed to have taken off, they still didn't update the departures screen, and I decided to kill some time by scouring duty-free for a bottle of wine, as wine is super expensive in Jakarta. Turns out, wine is expensive there, too-the cheapest was a bottle of Yellowtail for $30. No thank you.
Finally, my flight took off an hour late, and I immediately passed out on the plane. I did notice, however, there were at least ten other Westerners on my flight, nine more than I have ever seen on a flight to Jakarta before. When we got to immigration, I took a peek at one of their passports, and it turns out they were a contingent from the World Bank, presumably here for a conference?
Since the terminal was deserted, I breezed through immigration and customs and was ready to head home!
Not quite so fast. I learned my lesson after my arrival in Jakarta to never get in a cab that is not a Bluebird. So once I went straight to the Bluebird man at the airport and took my number (13)without a second thought. And I waited...and waited...and waited. Not a Bluebird in sight, the number of people waiting growing, and the number of alternative taxi drivers offering increasingly lower fares also growing. One Bluebird came, and left with passenger #1. And then...nothing.
After half an hour, and after a number of people gave up and took their chances with other companies (I was ready to get a room at the Air Transit Hotel before doing that!), I asked how much for a Silver Bird (read: Mercedes)to where I needed to go. 180,000 rupiyah, give or take--$22. At this rate, music to my ears.
Nope. I went to the Silver Bird counter and he said not available. But I have been watching tens of them drive by! Nope.
Back to Bluebird, another fifteen minutes wait, and finally enough cabs came through that I could get in one. And this was only because a nice Irish woman also gave up to go with an unsafe company and gave me her number (7).
Home free? Not yet. My Indonesian phone had run out of credit when I arrived in Sabah and my texts to my roommates from my American cell weren't going through. So when I arrived at the kost, I had to spend five minutes banging on the gate and ringing the doorbell before the owner woke up and unlocked the gate. I felt terrible about waking her up at 2 AM, especially with the call to prayer at 4:30 AM, but you gotta do what you gotta do.
The rest of our trip was amazing. More on that later (if you can't tell, I like working backwards!)
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