Singapore....Finally!

By most accounts, I like living in Jakarta. The people are friendly, accommodating, and helpful (my wife will say too helpful at the department stores). There are a few idiosyncratic aspects of Jakarta, however, that will annoy the typical Westerner...which means they drive me batty!

On our trip to Singapore last night, we experienced one such issue. We arrived at the airport shortly after 5 PM for our 7:30 pm international flight. I still don't have my Indonesian tax ID (it takes 181 days), so I'm still required to pay the $250 'fiskal' tax for myself and my wife anytime we leave the country. You can't pay this tax at airline check-in, and you can't obtain it in advance. To pay fiskal, first you need your boarding pass. Then you have to go to one of the banks in the airport. There are two or three behind every airline's ticket counter. Of course last night, the only ones open were at the opposite end of the airport from where we checked in.

We flew Garuda, which is Indonesia's flagship carrier - it would be like the US having an airline called "Bald Eagle". We received our hand written boarding passes after waiting 20 minutes. I'm not sure if they didn't have a functioning printer, if the airport isn't wired for computers, or if Garuda is just too cheap to buy printers. I know Cathay Pacific can check me in within a few minutes and I get a printed boarding pass. They were nice enough not to charge us for our 14kg (25 lbs) overage on luggage because the extra weight was for a stroller and a car seat.

After a quick bite to eat at an airport restaurant that satisfied none of us, we went to the gate printed on our boarding pass: E4. Empty. Not even a gate agent. Keep in mind that the airports in Jakarta, each gate is a separate room and they typically have you go through security for a third time as you enter the gate. So an empty gate for a flight was a bit odd. At 30 minutes before departure, and still no one else, I decided I'd check the screen outside the gate to make sure it was headed to Singapore. It wasn't. It said Surabaya.

So, now I have to figure out where my plane IS leaving from. This is where it starts to get really annoying. Inside each gate are 7 - 10 large, flat screen televisions. None of them have arrival/departure information. In the terminal, there are dozens of flat screens. Again, none of them have arrival departure information. So, we begin our walk. Luckily, the gate next to us - E5, says "Singapore" and our flight, so we go in there. Still no gate agent, though I verify with others already in the gate that they are headed to Singapore.

Ten minutes to departure and I don't see a plane, and still no gate agents. I'm growing concerned now. Then, a Garuda employee comes over and directs all of us to gate E6. The sign outside E6 reads "Security Check In". No destination, no flight number. There are, however, gate agents who verify our tickets and seat numbers. This is the right place.

We get to the gate, and there is still no plane. 7:30 comes and goes. No plane, no announcement. No arrival/departure information, so I have nothing to review to learn of our new departure time. I ask the gate agent who tells me thirty minutes (8 PM). I return to my seat and they announce our new departure time - apparently I'm not the only one asking - and it isn't 8 PM, it's 8:20 PM. At 8, our plane arrives. At 8:30, I get up and ask them again when we will be leaving. They tell me fifteen minutes. I sit down, and a different agent comes up to us and asks us to board since we are travelling with a small child.

We finally leave Jakarta around 9 PM, arriving in Singapore at 11:30 PM local time. We arrive at our new apartment around 12:30 AM. Other than for a few minutes during descent, our daughter has not slept. She's exhausted. We're exhausted, hungry, and thirsty, so we go to 7-11 for milk, water and dried fruit (oh, and the pregnant one got Doritos and consumed nearly the whole bag!), before going to bed.

We finally fall asleep around 2 AM local time. One thing is for sure, everything is always an adventure. If this assignment doesn't teach me patience, nothing will.