December 27.... I'm going back home... again!

Martabak, first Indonesian food upon arrival!

Postings will be late for a couple of days, since I didn't get internet access until now ^^. December 27..... Vivian and I shall begun our looong journey at 0730, when my friend Cam showed up right on the clock to fetch me to the airport. So nice to be able to see at least one person I know before I go off a long journey back to my home. When I arrived at the airport, check in was easy... no line ups! Awesome start of the trip! Then of course, having last timmie's before leaving Canada for sometime is a necessety I think. Closer to boarding time, I decided to have one last smoke before going through security check and waiting for boarding time. Security check in Saskatoon is never hectic and today was the same.

After waiting pass the boarding time (which supposed to be at 0945) the boarding gate was changed.... Sure... Not a biggie.... Then waited again at the designated gate.... and waited.... and waited..... Come departure time (which supposed to be at 1020) Air Canada personel announced no tea or coffee on board because hot water system was frozen... oh yes... and also no toilet due to same. Finally at 1030 they announced boarding..... then 5 minutes later de-boarding for some reason (definitely not the weather nor ice).... then another clear for boarding. Long story short, we were delayed for over 1 hour..... and lay over in Vancouver was only 1 hr and 40 minutes..... Lovely....

We touched down at Vancouver airport only 20 minutes before my departure time (which supposed to be at 1105). By the time the plane actually stopped and everybody disembarked the plane, we only have 10 minutes to reach the gate to our connecting flight to HongKong. Viv got super pale and sick, so we sat down for a bit. Poor kid didn't look good at all.... I didn't think it was hypoglycemia cuz before we left he had timmie's french vanilla and couple of donuts..... maybe from getting up and moving too fast? Anyway, for a little bit thought I had to do CPR on this kid but he recovered... somewhat and we just walk slowly to the gate for our connecting flight. We had 5 minutes before departure time and we made it to the gate.... and........ they haven't even start boarding yet!!!!! Why was I not suprised?? No time to sneak out for ciggie and since we passed the security check point already he wouldn't let me sneak outside. And not to my suprised again, our flight was delayed for another one plus hour before we actually off to the runway... then sit for another some long minutes before we actually reach the runway and take off. Painful, painful, painful.... that's Air Canada..... and from here on, all my bitchin and irritations over mundane little things mostly related to me didn't get my nicotine shot before I boarded the long haul flight.... and the inefficiency of Air Canada.

So, the grumpy me cause I couldn't sneak out for ciggie, by now all pouty and bitchy cuz of the delays. Irritated of everything, from where my seat were (middle seat of the middle isle... worse freakin seat of all when you don't know the person next to you), to the Air Canada announcement of 'Air Canada wants to make sure you have a comfortable journey' .... Comfy my ass.... 1 plus hrs of delays sitting on a crampy seats (yepp... even for the puny me) for 12 some hours (all these irritations could've been fixed if I could have few puffs ^^) I even got irritated by this chick next to me, who was making this noisy smacking sound when she eats her bread ... so tempted to tell her 'fuckin chew your food quietly', or wake her up everytime she started to fell asleep to let me through so I can go peeeee just cuz I can.... :D

Ms Grumpie here gotten even grumpier when Air Canada failed to note my vegetarian meal request ... again. Of course, this would've been easy to solve if I would've been given the option of skipping their crappy meal for coffee and ciggie. But just the kinds of shit that irritated me are mundane things that wouldn't irritate me normally (i.e when I have coffee and ciggie), especially in terms of food. Thankfully one of the flight attendant made the flight a lot more tolerable (in the scale of still painful). She was a very pretty East Indian girl, I think her name is Kashi. The nicest, most kind flight attendant from Air Canada I've ever run into. She went to check if there's any extra vegetarian meal... something no flight attendant ever done for me when my vegetarian meal request not noted.

Nevertheless, the flight was still painful. Not the first time I was on long haul flight, but I think the fact that Air Canada screwed up with their inefficiency twice really gets to me (worsened by the fact I didn't have ciggie since 0900) ... and it gotten even better....

When we arrived in HongKong, we touched down at 1820, which was boarding time for our connecting flight with Cathay Pasific to Jakarta. As expected, Cathay Pasific is not delaying their flight.... So as soon as we disembark the plane, we have these girls dragged us to the security check and got us through fast, then off to the boarding gate. So efficient I even had time to sneaked in ciggie time since the smoking room in HongKong airport is right across from departure gate :D (most asians airports has smoking room.... err... all asian airports I think...) So, from now on you will hear nice things about Cathay Pasific, thanks to the little ciggie time ^^ hehe.

Amazing how 4 hours flight felt like nothing when you just got off a very long flight of over 12 hours... but I think because we didn't really have time to play at the airport, it did felt like we were constantly sitting on the plane. So far, everything seems to worked out just fine though.

Finally arrived in my sweet Jakarta. By this time, we already into the last hours of December 28! I didn't realize I actually missed Jakarta that much. The line up for visa was ridiculously not moving at all due to few who has some sorta issue with their visa.... and worse of all... they don't even understand english.... so the combination of two not very good english equals very very long wait :D. After this problem was solved, finally the line moved again quite fast. Finally out of the immigration area and off to baggage pick up......... and our backpacks not there! Apparently, since us the 6 passangers connecting from Vancouver arrived late and rushed so quickly onto the next flight, they didn't have time to transfer our luggage too so, the result was we ended up with none of our luggages..... they're still in HongKong! Thankfully, all it was in my backpack are old shirts and toothbrush.... They took our names and addresses, and our luggage will be on the early morning flight from HongKong.

We arrived at 2240, and when we (finally) got out of the airport it was 0030... of Dec 29. My dad had gotten ready martabak (Indonesian pancake with peanut fillings.... nomnomnom) in the car for me! What a nice welcome home present! Traffic was sweet at midnight (well... mabe still busy for Saskatoon) and I actually wouldn't mind driving us home last night.... plus no snow to worry about! As we drove by my neighborhood I saw food vendors still open (and by this time it's almost 0200) serving fried rice, fried fish with fresh veggies and hot dipping sauce, or coconut rice.... Lovely midnight snacks! (Imagine working night shift and you have all these food vendors siting outside ready to make yummies for you after dealing with trauma or just simply our beloved very high maintenance frequent flyers we have in our emerg) sooo tired when I got to my dad's place, and so nice to sleep on the bed! My first night in Jakarta and did I ever feel home once again! I am looking forward to do my blogs while sitting outside with Indonesian black coffee and ciggie!