Travel(Horror)ogue

Date: 14.12.2003

[Time: 08.30 AM SGT]
Woke up late. Dammit.

[Time: 09.30 AM SGT]
Reached WTC just in time to check in. Couldn't find passengers I was supposed to help check in as a favour for parent's friend.

[Time: 09.50 AM SGT]
Turns out they've already gone inside.

[Time: 10.10 AM SGT]
Ferry pulls out of harbor, a little late as usual.

[Time: 11.00 AM SGT (10.00 AM Local)]
Reached Batam. Got into waiting van for ride to airport. Chatted with aforementioned fellow passengers, Americans from Florida, father and 13-year-old youngest daughter.

The father works for CalTex Indonesia and is in charge of all their labs in Duri (Map) and has three degrees in Chemistry. Explained how I nearly failed Chemistry in my final year of High School.

[Time: 11.30 AM SGT (10.30 AM Local)]
Reached Hang Nadim International Airport, Batam. 2nd van carrying luggage (fellow passengers has 36 pieces(!) of luggage) is late. Turns out that van is prone to overheating and cannot go beyond a fairly sedate 40-60 km/h. Driver asked me to explain this to the Americans, which I did.

[Time: 12.00 PM SGT (11.00 PM Local)]
All checked in and ready to go. Turns out that my name was somehow removed from the list, which explains heated argument between travel agent and counter staff. Which also explains why I'm Mr. R. Duane on my boarding pass.

[Time: 12.30 AM SGT (11.30 AM Local)]
Flight was supposed to leave Batam at 12.00 PM Local, but still hasn't landed yet. Fellow passenger starting to worry.

[Time: 1.00 PM SGT (12.00 PM Local)]
Time to take off and still no plane. Fellow passenger starting to complain.

[Time: 1.15 PM SGT (12.15 PM Local)]
Official-looking man came into boarding lounge to make an announcement. Turns out the plane was delayed out of Jakarta and just took off minutes ago. Flight will be delayed to 3.00 PM Local. Also that all passengers on that flight has a free lunch at the airport restaurant. Fellow passenger starting to really bitch now.

[Time: 1.30 PM SGT (12.30 PM Local)]
Had a fairly decent lunch of rice with beef rendang and cassava leaves in coconut gravy. I really missed Indonesian food.

[Time: 2.00 PM SGT (1.00 PM Local)]
Back in boarding lounge.

[Time: 2.30 PM SGT (1.30 PM Local)]
Official-looking man is back with another announcement. All passengers for Lion Air flight to Pekanbaru to move to boarding lounge at other end of airport, because the plane's gonna be parked at that gate instead of where we are now. Fellow passenger's bitching becomes more vehement.

[Time: 2.45 PM SGT (1.45 PM Local)]
Settled into new boarding lounge.

[Time: 3.00 PM SGT (2.00 PM Local)]
Plane's finally landed. Hooray!

Just looked up from my book and looked left. Saw a Buddhist monk with mobile phone in hand and hands-free earpiece in ear chatting with another person. I thought they were supposed to have a vow of poverty or something?

[Time: 3.15 PM SGT (2.15 PM Local)]
Plane is unloading cargo.

Looked up from my book again and looked up. Opposite me is mother and intelectually-challenged daughter, probably mid-20s and about 200 kilos. Said daughter glowered at me with what I can only call a malicious fatness. Imagine being stared down by Jabba the Hutt after you've referred to his mother's mating habits and you'll have an idea of what I mean.

[Time: 3.30 PM SGT (2.30 PM Local)]
Plane is still unloading cargo. Jaysus! If you're going to take in so much cargo on a passenger flight, why don't you just open a freight airline instead of a passenger airline, dickheads?

Jabba the Hutt still staring at me with unmitigated hate. What the fuck did I do?

[Time: 3.45 PM SGT (2.54 PM Local)]
Boarding call. Fina-fuckin'-ly!

[Time: 4.00 PM SGT (3.00 PM Local)]
Plane finally took off.

[Time: 4.30 PM SGT (3.30 PM Local)]
Landed in Sultan Syarif Qasim II Airport, Pekanbaru. Proceeded to arrival lounge where Mom and Cousin are waiting. Turns out that fellow passenger knows Mom's cousin who works at same installation.

I never check in any luggage, so we go straight to our car and went home. Drew oath from Mom to never ever book me on a Lion Air flight again.

[Time: 5.00 PM SGT (4.00 PM Local)]
Settled into my room and unpacking. When I should've been doing that 3 hours ago. Anyhoo, back home now, nothing much left to do except check email every day to see if any prospective employers have dropped me an email. Oh, and also enjoy time at home.