Getting out of Jakarta again


I left the Grand Hyatt at five today, and passed out, exhausted, in the back of the car, waking up an hour later still not at the airport. Traffic in Jakarta really sucks.

Eventually we made it to the airport, where I oozed groggily out of the taxi and went through check-in. Again, my Gold frequent flyer status came in superfluous use; I got access to the fast track lane through Customs, but this time although I located it successfully, the fast track counter wasn’t staffed, so I still had to queue up with everyone else. Oh, the hardship of waiting in line for five minutes.

Once through, I sat in the lounge for a couple of hours, idly snacking on vegetable samosas and drinking ginger beer, until it was time to go board the plane. I’m glad they enforce queue discipline on Garuda, or at least attempt to. One of the ground staff was plaintively asking people in Economy to sit down and wait for the posh people in Business class to board first. Chameleon-like, my ludicrous frequent flyer status combined with my back-of-the-plane Economy class ticket to get me past everyone else and sat down in (approximate) comfort.

And thus, home again, after little more than 24 hours in Jakarta. Where will I be next?


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