Java Trip with Rain and Tante Sandra, Part 1
Here am I, sitting in my hotel room at Kemanggisan 75 Residence, Jakarta.
Emotionally to share which I came to realize, remembering that at the end of August 2018, was my first time coming to Indonesia whereas I landed in Jakarta at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport. Wandering around the airport looking for a way out and a solution to get to Fave Hotel which was booked at that time. After staying for almost 5 days in Jakarta, I then moved to Bali to participate in the Dharmasiswa Scholarship Program for one year. The closing ceremony took place in Surakarta. I had two nights stay there, and then went back to Bali. After applying for a new scholarship to pursue my Bachelor degree somewhere in Java and being rejected, I then tried to apply outside of Java whereas my current university in Padang happened to be the one that accepted me. From Bali, I had to travel to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to buy a student visa. Afterwards, I went straight to Padang, West Sumatra to continue a new chapter in my life. As you may have realized, I never had the chance to visit Jakarta again nor visit Yogyakarta or other regions in Java.
Now, after almost 5 years living in Indonesia pursuing my dreams in education, I finally got the chance to come back here again. Thanks to my beloved aunt Sandra who has been living in the Netherlands for many years, helped me make this dream of coming to Java, true as a graduation adventure, calling our trip “Java Trip with Rain and Tante Sandra”.
As for my trip; the booking for my flight I did through the application Traveloka. I booked Pelita Air which I am actually not familiar with, but I may assure you that I had a pleasant and smooth flight from departing until landing. Good service and unexpectedly, all passengers got a small snack on board. The only thing I didn’t like much was that the seats and space were a bit too small, but hey… it was a nice flight.
As I have arrived at the airport, all passengers had to step into a bus that would bring us to the airport. Inside the airport taking our baggage took some time. All Pelita Air passengers had to wait at #8 as I remembered, but while waiting so long and realizing that not only mine but also other baggage didn’t appear, we were told that they moved to #5 where I finally saw my baggage. Time to exit the airport, there were many taxi’s waiting outside ready to bring us to our destinations but very expensive. So, I decided as instructed by a friend of mine who studies at the same university as me, but is originally from Jakarta, to take a bus which is cheaper and then take a GoCar (online taxi) to my final destination.
It was already evening; I also booked a hotel room for two nights at OYO, but as I have arrived and wanted to check-in, the person in charged told me that there is a huge error with online booking with OYO hotels, so he recommended me to find another place. Fortunately, I didn’t pay yet, so I quickly searched for another hotel nearby and cheap, but couldn’t find any. At the end, I found one which I had to pay directly online through the application Traveloka. But the price happened to be doubled from the previous booking. Now trying to find this hotel by taxi was difficult, because the location couldn’t be found on Google Maps, so the driver and I had to circle around until we found it. Being exhausted and stressed of what happened with the booking, made me unsafe at some point that I couldn’t really sleep well, but hey…. I made it in Jakarta after almost 5 years again!
Looking forward what I will be doing today, Sunday 09 July 2023, while waiting for aunt Sandra to arrive on Monday 10 July 2023.
To be continued…..
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