KL-Singapore-Jakarta-Bandung

KL-Singapore-Jakarta-Bandung

I didn't have time to blog for the past two days because I've been on the road since early Wednesday morning, catching the flight to Jakarta via Singapore (had to fly SIA because I had to use up my Krisflyer frequent flyer miles before they expire).

The flight from KL was delayed slightly, making me miss my connecting flight from Changi. Luckily I was able to get the next available SIA flight departing at 12.50pm. Good thing about going to Jakarta is that you gain an hour--I arrived 1.30pm at the Cengkareng airport. Unfortunately the trip from the airport to the city center took me as long as the flight itself. Still I managed to drop off my luggage at the hotel and arrived only a bit late for the meeting with our partner at the Jakarta Stock Exchange Building--well within acceptable jam karet standards.

And then early this morning we took the 6.30am Deraya flight to Bandung. We almost couldn't make it for our nine o'clock presentation at the client's place: The flight was initially delayed for half-an-hour, which was still okay, since the journey would only take 30 minutes. The plane, as usual for such short internal flights, was a sputtering turbo-prop plane (not the slightly better-looking CN235 used by Merpati. It was something else--I can't even identify the make or model ). We took off at 7.00am and was happily airborne for ten minutes before the pilot announced that we had to turn back because of some "masalah teknis".

The plane landed back at the Halim airport. All passengers had to troop back to the waiting room to wait for them to prepare another plane; luckily they had one. But somehow the look of this replacement plane--sitting tiredly on the tarmac and being fussed over by ground technicians--didn't instill any confidence in us either.

Fortunately it didn't take long before they announced for take-off again. I was quite relieved when the plane lifted itself up from the runway and remained flying even after initial 10 minutes, carrying us over the hills of Parahyangan towards Bandung--Kota Bunga, Parijs Van Java!

So we survived the flight and presentation, returning to Jakarta via a Merpati flight on the same afternoon itself. Now I have the next two days here in Jakarta to recuperate from all the hardwork I've put in over the CNY holidays. I hope to use this opportunity to pysche myself up for the next project, which will be in another city, another country...