The bizarro world that is the Jakarta airport

Okay, first up, I know that I haven't been very diligent in updating my blog. Almost three months from the last post, to be exact. Seriously, I can come up with a dozen of excuses to justify my hiatus but I'm not going to waste my precious bandwith on explaining away my lacking in production. The only piece of writing I've done in the past three months is an article for the school's monthly magazine entitled "Why English?" It's basically an article convincing the students in my pesantren that learning and mastering the English language can be both fun and extremely beneficial for their academic and career goals, and not to add, their love life. How the hell can you set up a Friendster account when you cannot even understand the English instructions? What happens if you meet a cute bule girl you're interested in but too intimidated to talk to because of your poor command in English? This ought to be enough motivation for the boys to pay more attention in my class. I sure hope so...

Anyway, I do have plenty to write about my experience living in Indonesia in the past three months and I feel almost bad for starting up the first post on a bad note since almost all of the experiences have been very exciting and mind-opening, but here it goes.

As anybody who has ever transited through the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta can attest that the experience is not really a pleasant one. I flew into Jakarta from Malaysia a couple of days ago with the assumption that I'm all checked through to Banjarmasin, which was my final destination. That was the first mistake. Never assume anything. Second mistake: Rechecking the assumption only once. Even after you recheck your assumption, make sure to ask several more people just to verify the info. My airport travail started when I was issued a boarding pass in KLIA for the second leg of my journey from Jakarta to Banjarmasin. When I arrived in Jakarta's Terminal 2 I asked an airport personnel where should I go for transit, and she said I didn't need to go anywhere since my connecting flight was supposedly in the same terminal. I did glance at the flight info screen and my flight was nowhere to be found. This should already be a cause for alarm but somehow I thought that maybe the airport hadn't had the time to update the flight info screen. Foolish me! I ended up spending the next couple of hours sitting in the foodcourt smoking and reading a book since my connecting flight was not until a few more hours--it was a long layover. Then I had the presence of mind to check the flight info screen again and lo and behold still no info on my flight. Something's fishy was going on here and I decided to ask other airport officials. The first one I asked still said that I was in the right terminal but the second one I asked told me that I was in the wrong terminal since Lion Air only flies out Terminal 1. The confusing thing was that there was a sign that said ALL domestic flights leave through Gate F in Terminal 2, when the fact was ONLY domestic flights by Garuda and Merpati leave through this terminal. What a very smart way to organize the airport system, if you ask me!

To make matter worse, it was pouring heavily outside and there was hardly any shuttle bus running between the terminals. The free yellow shuttle bus was nowhere to be found and I had to flag down a hotel shuttle van to take me to Terminal 1 and pay the driver Rp 5,000. Once I got to Terminal 1 I immediately went to the Lion Air check-in counter to find out what I should do. The agent told me to go directly to the boarding hall since I already had my pass. Happy of the fact I was not going to miss my flight I paid the Rp 10,000 departure tax and trudged myself up onto the boarding hall. After sitting for a while in the crowded hall full with screaming kids and sticky floor, I realized that my boarding pass didn't have any seat assignment. I first assumed that it was like AirAsia where it's a free seating arrangement. But by now I've learned that relying on assumption can be both painful and costly, and so I decided to ask a Lion Air employee. He was shocked to find out that I didn't have any seat assignment when the passengers were about to board the plane in 15 minutes. He rushed me downstairs through some unmarked hallways to a special transit counter, so I can get a proper boarding pass. Okay, here's the question: If I need a new boarding pass in Jakarta why did Lion Air issue me one in Malaysia? The fact that the Lion Air ticketing agent told me just go straight to the boarding hall without checking in with the transit counter was mind-boggling. Thankfully--if you can even say it that--the flight was delayed for another hour, which bought me extra time to get a proper boarding pass. I finally arrived in Banjarmasin at close to 12 midnight and fortunately Mr Jenal, a fellow teacher, was still waiting patiently for me. It was almost a three-hour wait for him! It was 1am when I finally got to my house in the pesantren and I couldn't really go to sleep because a gang of cats decided to take up residence in my attic while I was gone and the part of the attic they claimed was right above my bed! The sound of scratching and mating call does not really make a good lullaby, I tell you. And at 6am I received a call from another English teacher who wanted to find out if I'm fit for teaching (sort of) and to break the tragic news that my school-provided motorcycle had been sold so the headmaster can build a new garage by his house. It was a bit deflating to lose my reliable iron steed to escape the village whenever I feel like it, but I managed to brush it off and went back to sleep until noon, despite the cats.

By the way, I got this joke below from Bulu on the same day of my airport fiasco and it really made my day. And thanks so much Juria for being the willing ear (I supposed it was eyes and fingers because we were 'sms'ing) for me to vent out throughout the whole trial and tribulations. That definitely sounds like an Academy Award acceptance speech!

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If you're feeling down, do what Pak Lah (the current Malaysian PM) did. After his "new" marriage, he's feeling younger and it shows. All his friends go to bed in kain pelikat or pajamas but he goes to bed in "jean" but he prefer the jeans in the 50's since its "longgar tapi selesa."

Okay, this joke may not be applicable to non-Malaysian unless if they study Malaysian politics. And it's also a bit crude if you get the underlying meaning. But it definitely cracks me when I first read it. Thanks a lot Bulu for making up this joke. I don't know if this is originally his or if he got it from somebody else, but it's funny nonetheless.