#949522 by honey lamb
26 Mar 2019, 16:11
Dear friends, forgive me. This trip report is 2 years overdue. I think I might not have written it but every now and again someone would guilt trip me with a mention here and there on V-Flyer, so here we go.

OK, to bring you up to speed, this was a trip to Melbourne which we took when my son, Aer John found a fare on a secret flying website offering seats in Business for £1009 on Garuda Indonesia. The TRs to Melbourne and also a side trip we took to Auckland can be found in the Other Trip Reports forum.

So let us begin on the return home. Well first of all, let me just fill you in with our final days in Melbourne. For our last few days we went to a practice session for the Australian Grand Prix which was due to be held as we were leaving; went to St Kilda to meet up with a friend from our town who also would have been in college with AJ; went back to St. Kilda the following day as we had liked what we had seen and generally explored Melbourne which I loved. We also found that our hotel for this second stay was near the Queen Victoria Market where we discovered we could do all our souvenir shopping under one roof (and probably cheaper than the conventional souvenir shops)

The first leg of our trip home was to Jakarta where we would have to stay overnight before catching an early morning flight to London. Unfortunately the terms and conditions of our ticket did not allow stopovers so we were unable to see anything of the city. AJ had spoken of his intention to visit the city but on our final night in Melbourne he was advised against it especially as the distance was 25 miles and traffic horrendous! Instead we celebrated a successful trip in an Irish pub! Well we were going home and needed to acclimatise!

Our flight was due to leave early afternoon (I think) and remembering how busy MEL had been on our way to New Zealand, we were up early, had breakfast in the hotel and then took a taxi to the airport. We were in plenty of time. I took up position in the Business check-in line behind one other passenger while AJ decided he would have a scout round this part of the airport. The queue lengthened behind me and just as AJ returned, the staff came out ready to open check-in. There was no namaste ceremony as there had been in LHR on our way out and soon they were ready for us. The economy lines started and just as the check-in agent raised his head ready to signal to the man in front of us to come forward, that good gentleman suddenly walked away from the area! Strange! I wasn’t complaining though as it meant we were dealt with straight away. Our bags were only checked as far as Jakarta and we were told that we would have to pick them up as there was no overnight storage. I half expected that. We had pre-selected seats which were honoured and then given passes to the Qantas lounge.

The lounge was large as was to be expected given that Qantas is the national carrier. Half of it was cordoned off as they were cleaning it and we were directed to another area behind a long partition. On each side of the partition there was a counter running the length of it on which food and drinks were laid out. When I later explored the side that had been closed off, I found that the two sides were a mirror image of each other. I helped myself to a glass of white wine and went in search of cheese and biscuits. There were none to be seen and I was told that they were just clearing the breakfast food away and would put them out with the lunch food! Seemed a bit odd to me as not everyone would want breakfast. Quite honestly, the lounge was big and boring and I was glad when boarding was called.

We were welcomed on board by as nice a cabin crew as you would wish. We were still settling our things when another equally nice young lady came forward and asked if we would like some champagne. AJ cheekily asked for two glasses and the dear young lady asked me if I too would like two. Well I think we know the answer to that, don’t we? Actually we nearly had to gulp down the second glass as boarding was very swift! The crew came out, made the namaste gesture that we had come to expect, did one last clearing up of glasses and we were on our way.

Once the crew were released to their duties there was a drinks run and I was soon in possession of a G&T and some crisps, and to prove that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, AJ had the same. Pity it was only Gordon’s gin. The meal was
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a rather nice soup,
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a tasty beef dish and
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some gorgeous cheese and biccies. I’m sorry I can’t remember what the other offerings were as I only took a couple of photos at the time. Humble apologies!

The flight was about 7 hours long but passed quickly thanks to the delightful lady who had been assigned to our section of the cabin. Having cleared away our lunch offerings, she offered more drinks and again we were both in possession of a G&T and for the rest of the flight, if she saw our glasses empty, she would pick up the nearest one, waggle it gently and enquire, “Another one?” What’s not to like about that? There was another snack run before we landed in Jakarta, but I can’t remember what - probably along the lines of most snack runs. (I should really have done this TR long ago, shouldn’t I?)

Soon we landed it Jakarta and that’s where the fun began! We had had experience of landing there on our outbound trip where we had found the signage poor even though we were only transiting there. I however remembered seeing the immigration area on that occasion and now headed towards it with the rest of the passengers streaming behind me. I felt a bit like the Pied Piper! We were quickly through and collected our luggage but then found we needed to book a taxi before we left the area. This was quite a performance. The taxi companies were still inside the secure area similar to what I had experienced in Chile but when we went to book one, I couldn’t help wondering if we were being fleeced! We managed to give our destination which was a hotel near the airport but when I tried to pay with a card, they didn’t have card facilities so we had to find a cash machine to get the money. The only comfort was that the fare had been pre-paid so they couldn’t add on any other items. We were then escorted to our car which seemed a bit battered but then so did most of the others. Finally we were on our way, heading at breakneck speed along a 5 lane highway where there seemed to be no gaps in the traffic! Soon we left the highway and took a road which went under it and seemed to be going through the middle of nowhere. Our anxiety levels rose when we started going through a shanty town (which was probably the kindest description you could give) but then, all of a sudden at the end of it there was a brand new, modern building with various fast food outlets and also our hotel - when the driver eventually found it!

A quick word about the hotel. I found it via Expedia when looking up airport hotels and although two names were coming up in the same area, it was difficult to know if they were the same hotel or not especially as each had on its page the legend “This hotel is known by other names”. The only difference between the two was that one didn’t have a bar and so I booked the other one. The mystery was solved when we went to explore. The building where the hotel was situated was a brand new development with shops, restaurants and fast food chains and at each end there was an hotel, ours and the other one from the website which was a low-cost hotel. The building itself was on five floors but it was so new that the top two floors were still in development. On one of the floors were a number of high-end fashion shops which surprised me. However it was so near the airport that it was obviously targetting transit passengers and showing a whole range of goods and services. Our hotel was clean and comfortable - and was the one with the bar!
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#949532 by pjh
26 Mar 2019, 22:13
A classically detailed - though I have to say, surprisingly incident free -HL TR.

How do you recall the detail? When writing up our recent trip I kept having to ask MrsPJH “What did we have to eat? Was that man as irritating as I remember?”

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