Biz Trip: To JKT and Back

After the June rest, it is time to travel for work again. This time, I flew to Jakarta. Compared to Mumbai, give me Jakarta anytime. It is less daunting overall, the flight is shorter and the departure timings are very earthly hours. 

The flight was at 9.30am. See how decent it was! I was very entertained at the airport. 

Before long, it was time to board and I met a colleague. I knew she was heading to JKT the same week but didn't know that we would be on the same flight. 

SQ! Very pleased to be on SQ after the last painful experience on Scoot. 

Bcos it was a 1.5 hrs flight. Food was served quickly. I had egg and suasage. Just in time for my growling tummy. Not bad. 

As quickly as food was served, it was cleared as well. The flight ended right when I finished my movie. I had to fast forward the last part to catch the ending. I caught up with the colleague, who was seated behind. Immigration was a breeze (thankfully) and the car ride to the hotel was easy too when there is companion. 

Our hotels were nearby. I almost had to take  a call at the coffee lounge as the room wasn't ready. Right at the last minute, the staff passed me the room key and I got comfortable for the call. I almost forgot how big the room is in Midplaza Ayana Hotel. 

It was such pity that I barely utilised the room for the 4 days. Right after my call, it was freshening up and heading to the office. 

Time passed so quickly and I had dinner with 2 Singapore colleagues. So coincidental that everybody was there. 

Was sleep easy? Of course. I didn't even bother to try to log in to Netflix. I had planned to wake up early the next morning and it was a real struggle. I made it anyhow. 

The gym was good. Big, spacious with many equipment. I did that pull up machine too.

Then it was meeting, office and back to the hotel. Another day passed. I was tempted to do comfort food (read: rubbish/ instant food from convenient store) but at least had in room dining. I know, this wasn't much healthier but it made me happy. Hoho.

On day 3, I kept up with my gym routine before leaving the hotel at 7.20am to head to the site at Cibitung. I was told to leave early to avoid the traffic. While in the car, I was meddling with my data roam as I couldn't get mobile data. The same had happened for the previous 2 days and I had been relying on WiFi. I was starting to curse M1. After some anyhow try, I finally managed to manually select a different Indonesia network partner and was connected to the world. It was scary to have no data in a foreign country and in a car with a driver driving me to duno where. 

The traffic wasn't too bad. Just that when we "arrived" at the "destination", it was some residential condo. Luckily I got network and also luckily, an Indonesian colleague picked up my help call and rescued me. The driver had entered a same road name but different address on Google map. He had to make a detour and I eventually got to the site 20 mins later. At least it wasn't like I was in a totally opposite direction. I eventually arrived safe and sound and had to leave the site at 3ish to again avoid the traffic. 

Dinner was at the Hotel Coffee Lounge with 2 other Singapore colleagues. Ya, we were all there coincidentally. While I was in JKT, ah yee and Athena arrived safely in Singapore. 

Friday was the last day of my business trip. 

It was a repeat of gym, meeting, office and more meetings. The hotel came with free bfast but I didn't manage at all to enjoy bfast bcos time was always too tight. Very busy. 

My departing flight was at 6pm. I left with a colleague at about 2.30pm. It was Friday afternoon (aka crazy traffic) and the sky was gloomy and threatening to rain (aka going to be even crazier traffic). It turn out fine and I arrived at the airport at 3.30pm while the colleague headed on to the other terminal for a different flight. 

It is always happy to go home after business trips. Hohoho. 

I found toastbox in the transit. 

I was hoping that it would be good. The staff used a weighing scale to measure the amount of milk. Turned out, the kaya butter toast was alright but the teh C tasted funny, like a diluted bubble milk tea. 

My flight was supposed to be 6pm but was delayed to 6.40pm due to the delay of the inbound flight. It was another turnaround flight. I got work done and calls too before it was finally time to board. This time, I got the window seat. 

My center fellow passenger took the arm rest but his elbow invaded into my air space. Tsk. Luckily it was only a 1.5 hrs flight. 

The plane didn't take off until about 7.30pm. Soon after, dinner was served. I had thought that I should skip dinner since I had the kaya toast but I was hungry. Zzzzz. I chose the beef and potato and it was so good. Hoho. Or maybe I was so hungry. 

It was 10ish Singapore time when I touched down and already 11ish when I settled down into my bed. I didn't even get to see ah yee and A, who were already nicely settled in lala land. 

Yesh, it is so nice to be back. I am absolutely not looking forward to the Mumbai trip at the end of the month. Zzzzz. 

Mummy Lim