MY: Trip Back

Reached CGK around 5pm. KLM departed from Terminal 2E at CGK. There were four counters for Economy class check in and all four have at least 4 passengers queuing at each counter.

There were six of us and it took the check in agent nearly 10 minutes to check all of us in. I wonder why it took so long. As far as I know, you just check the identity, print boarding pass and baggage tag, and walla, you are done!

CGK airport is a bit dim. Dull and IMHO, not enough lighting. I guess it is time to refurbish the airport. Once all of us were checked in, we proceeded to the airside. Since we were in 2E, we decided to go through the immigration over there. There are other immigration counters at 2D. At 2E, all the counters were empty and immigration was a breeze for all of us.


It was nearly 6pm and our bird was already there. I went to look for a surau for maghrib and according to staff there, the only surau at terminal 2 is all the way at 2D adjacent to the airline lounge. It was a good 10 minutes walk to the surau from the gate. They should build another one over at 2E.

Boarding started around 6:30pm and it was smooth. The flight was full and majority of passengers terminated at KUL. Only a handful of them continue the journey to AMS. As per my trip to CGK from KUL, the service on this sector was not worth talking about. Instead of bihun goreng, now we got mee goreng :-) One thing I noticed though was most of the Malaysians on board the aircraft did go to Bandung :-) You can see them either carrying Rumah Mode paper bag or Kartika Sari brownies. And couple of them has boxes of J. Co donuts with them :-))


Touched down at KUL at 9:40pm local time. Five minutes ahead of schedule. Baggage, as usual, has to wait for quite sometime. No issue with Custom since we don't have anything to declare.

Once outside, bid farewell to my younger brother since he as heading to CJ and BH to Dsara. My other family members took KLIA limo back home and we were in the comfort of our home around 11:30pm.

It was a good trip and my mum is now planning for the next trip.. arrghh.. this is contagious. Once you travel, you will always looking forward for another one.... :-))


~ MT @ Malaysia
~~ Ampang, Selangor

~ To Travel Is To Discover Oneself ~

ID: Family Trip

Time for a family vacation. This is the first time for me to have a family vacation overseas. The planned trip is to Bandung, Ind0nesia. I have booked tickets with KLM, the Dutch airlines and my brother settled for the accommodation and ground transport from CGK to BDO.

We left for KUL at 1:15pm and reached the airport within one hour. My younger brother was already there waiting for us. Since I already checked in via the internet the night before, I just need to drop the luggage at the counter. Unfortunately, this was not what happens. I have to “recheck-in” for boarding passes and was also issued an e-ticket. According to the lady behind the counter, a print out from the computer might pose some problems over in CGK when checking in for return flight.



The gate for today’s flight is C15 and the flight was full. The “City of Dubai” departed on time and as expected, the service on-board was way below what you experience with Asian airlines. The flight time was 1hr 30 minutes and was expected to land as scheduled.

The flight was uneventful and nothing great to share on my first time with KLM. Overall, I would rate the whole experience with KLM only 2 out of 5. Most of the negative points are from the service on board. But the food was not bad though.



Landed on 25R and within 10 minutes we were at bay E71. Not many arrivals at Terminal E at that time, so immigration was a breeze. So did our luggage. Within 5 minutes after immigration formality, our luggage arrived at the carousel. Not bad...

We went outside of the arrival hall and walked to adjacent Terminal D. My elder brother arrived via MH 30 minutes after our landing.

My brother has arranged for two transports, one for us to go to Bandung and another for him and his work colleague to down town Jakarta. However, before we parted, we went to old town for a dinner at this restaurant called “Pondok Laguna”. The dinner was good and I don’t know how much was the damage. :-)

After dinner, we made a small tour around Jakarta – MONAS, mosque and passed by some busy streets of Jakarta. We said goodbye to my brother at MONAS and soon we were on the highway to Bandung. Driving here is crazy! The emergency lane is used as a fast lane… crazy….

We reached the hotel in Bandung just before midnight and once unpacked, I doze off for the shopping day tomorrow...


~ MT @ Indonesia
~~ Aston, Bandung


~ To Travel Is To Discover Oneself ~