Left home at 7.30 am Thursday morning (25th September) to catch 'the airline' coach at Gloucester green in Oxford. My booking was for 8.30am and I completely under-estimated the Oxford morning rush hour traffic, picking, perhaps not the best route via pear tree roundabout - for those that know Oxford - It was chockablock & then stuck crawling down the Woodstock road, it was evident that I'd miss the 8.30 - so decided to try to beat it to the next stop at Thornhill park and ride.
Funny enough it was late getting there as there were problems and they had to switch coaches. Luckily there was still space for me and my luggage and had a fairly uneventful journey to Gatwick.
Check-in there made me laugh. The lady asked for my Indonesian Visa - of course - and proof of return flight - which I didn't have but as long as you show onward travel.....
......so I show her my flight booking for Brisbane....
" I'm confused" she says, " this is not flying out from Jakarta, this is a different airport?"
"Yeah" I said, "I'm flying out from Bali"
She looked horrified and said, "No if you fly into Jakarta you have to fly out from Jakarta!"
" Well, I'm not, I'm flying out from Bali" I reply
" How are you going to get to Bali?" she asks
" By road etc....I'm backpacking so I'm travelling through Indonesia"
She looked SO confused, " By Road !!??...you're...backpacking?"
"Yeah" .........slight pause from her ......you could almost hear the cogs grinding....
"Where is Brisbane?" she asked
I laugh a little inside................ " er....it's in Australia"
"Australia?" she exclaims, "
"Yeah" I said
..........intake of breath..................Then I need to see your Visa for Australia"
"Ok!" I said, and showed her that too......
.......this seemed to satisfy her and She checked in my rucksack which I had put in a bag for safe transit.
Flying Saudia was interesting (So 2 hour change over in Saudi Arabia, didn't see much as it was dark...just another airport with a Mc Donald's and a Jamie Oliver restaurant) - obviously lots of people with that style of clothing and one or two burkas - the lady in the aisle next to me had perfectly curled and mascara'd lashes showing through her burka.....I guess that's all that's exposed!
The plane was pretty nice and I had an empty seat next to me on the first leg.
Watched a couple if films...lots of food and drink provided. They kept announcing when it was prayer time on the screens and there was a special designated space with a curtain round for praying on board.
Saudi airport
On the second flight, there were still lots of women with scarves and men in long clothing, as Indonesia is Muslim too, mainly, but the people looked different of course. The lady next to me was very sweet and kept giving me biscuits
Going through passport control etc was surprisingly uneventful and madly I went for public transport instead of a taxi.....roughly half the cost, but took a little longer, but a good experience! The staff at the stations were very helpful with advice on how to purchase tickets etc. and spoke pretty good English. They seem to have quite a few security staff milling about on the trains which I guess is good......
It was mad seeing all the hundreds of bikes and cars waiting at the railway crossings. Second largest city in the world after Tokyo
Along the railway there were lots of 'shanty town' looking houses with the backdrop of city high-rises.
......bit of a blurry pic from a moving train.....you can tell I was tired
My room is basic but a bargain at £9 a night with air-con & en-suite.
Gonna explore the old town and museums tomorrow - Its 30 degrees most days, and you could feel the heat even after sunset........& time difference is that I'm 6 hours ahead here so roughly 30 hours of travel since I got to the Hotel at 7 pm Jakarta time.
Indonesia has 3 different time zones!!
Hello ma'am this is me afif, the person how meet you in fatahilah museum..thank you so much to know each other in this time!! You are very a good person what i was know from another country..soon we have go meet again ma'am!! Enjoy your holiday in here!!😊😊
ReplyDelete