Already a week has gone by in the trip and I am getting ready to move to my next destination which is Bali, I am scheduled to take a domestic flight from Jakarta to Denpasar which is the capital of the province of Bali within Indonesia.
Last Breakfast in Jakarta
I don't know if you can still call it breakfast, it was getting pretty close to lunch time by then. I have stayed in my room until checkout out, making sure everything was done for departure, bag, charging devices, water refill (The water isn't drinkable in Indonesia on tap).
When I was ready to leave then I headed to the reception desk to get my cash deposit back on the key/room, process took like 5 mins and then went to the café next to it for a final Ice Americano and a local soup with crackers.
I started checking for Grab on the app (local Uber) to see that many cares were available and that it wasn't going to be a problem, the quoted price was actually 15% lower then on the way in, maybe less people traveling at the time.
After finishing the meal and saying goodbye the bartender (same guy I saw every time I went there in the morning) I ordered my car for the Airport, it got accepted straight away for 96k IDR ($6USD) but the guys was 7mins away and he must have been doing something else because he wasn't moving at the start and got here more like 15mins in, it didn't really matter as I had plenty of time. The car ride was about 50 mins and you have to add extra for the tolls and parking at the airport which I paid cash with the tip upon arrival.
The Airport and Air Asia Checking area
Arriving at terminal 1A which must not be common for Air Asia as my driver seem a bit confuse, like are you sure you got that right? He actually called someone he knew at the airport to confirm this was the case, maybe it is just because it is a domestic flight to Bali, other Air Asia flights might be at another terminal. Anyway it was nice of the drive to do so.
A few days before my flight I got an email from the airline saying that the flight was reschedule 2h15 mins after the planned departure time but I couldn't see that reflected on the App or Boarding pass so I decided to go to the airport anyway close to the normal schedule time, at this point I didn't really want to organize another day in Jakarta and managing my luggage.
The flight was indeed rescheduled 5:45 pm instead of 3:30pm with boarding around 5pm. One positive thing was that I was able to drop my checked luggage at the airport upon arrival around 1:30pm which was nice not to carry that around, I only had my small 10L day pack with my laptop in in which I used to start writing my first articles for this series WaltInAsia which has you noticed is about 1 week delay between me being there and posting about it.
Spent my time in a café before passing security and heading airside where I actually had a small meal around 4pm before boarding as I was starving, I was originally planning to eat in the plane then having dinner upon arrival but that changed with the rescheduling.
Bonus tip: You can go thought security for domestic flight over there with your refillable water bottle filled up, I was happy not to have to drink it in front of the officer. Didn't know.
After a good 4 hours inside the domestic terminal (could have been only 2, just my choice to make it to normal time), we were ready to board the plane and leave Jakarta behind for now.
Source: https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/AWQ808/history/20241022/0840Z/WIII/WADD
The flight and arrival in Kuta, Bali
The flight itself was around 2 hours and add 1 hour for time difference between Jakarta and Bali, I learned at that moment that Indonesia actually has 3 timezones.
I had a quick meal inflight included in my ticket due to needing a checked luggage.
We would land around 8:40pm and would wait a bit to get my luggage at arrival, a good thing was that I had already booked and paid for transfer to the hotel which was nice because in Bali taxi can be a bit insistent and battling your way out at 9pm, dark already and juste wanted to arrival isn't the best felling.
I watched some Stargates Atlantis episode I had on my phone with prime video, flight was fast and nice. Meal was ok, always nice to get the food you have ordered coming in.
(I think this image was leaving Jakarta, when arriving in Bali, it was pitch black and you are flying over water for a while before just landing, not seeing much on arrival)
My driver was waiting for me with a sign and took me to th carpark and we got to the hotel by 10pm for a night checkin, the staff was waiting at reception and I even got a welcome drink before heading to bed.
Conclusion
It was a long afternoon at the airport but I was happy to fly again and getting ready to discover a new destination around Kuta, Bali. A few pictures of my home for the next Week.
You will get to see the swimming pool in my next article, stay tuned.
