Borobudur Day 3 (13 May 12) – Early Flight Out

This day was rather uneventful. As our flight was at 7.35 am, we had to leave the hotel at 5.30 am latest! We had woke up at 4 am unwilling as the bed in the hotel was too comfy for us to get our ass off the bed, however, we dun have the luxury of doing that. After washing and packing up, we left the hotel at 5.30 am as planned. At the reception, while processing our check out, I had a quick chat with the staff who had been working the night shift.

“How was your shift, must be tiring to be working the night shift,” I asked

“Yes, it was rather tiring” came the very polite reply by the staff despite the toll the shift has upon him.

“So what time do you knock off?” I enquired curiously

“8 am” came the reply

“Ahh…. just 2 hours more to go, personally I felt 3 am was the toughest time to past by” I replied

“Yes, it was tough at that hour” came the reply by the staff promptly

After the check out procedure was over and done with, I inquired about the airport transfer that I had arranged with his colleague the day before. The staff at the reception told me after checking that there was no record of such an arrangement. I asked if he can arrange it. The staff gave me the look of why do you wanna spend that kind of money?

“You can catch a taxi, and we can call one for you if you want.” Said the staff which confirmed my suspicion. I asked him how much would it cost if I catch a cab to the airport? As my very limited travel experience has shed some light in how some cabbies in some countries tried to quote through the roof prices to tourists, especially when it comes to airport trips.

“Our transfer costs 60,000Rps, and the taxi is run by meters, will only cost you at most 50,000Rps” replied the ever polite staff. At this point, I was very impressed with the service that the staff rendered. He not only was polite and even spared a thought for the wallets of the guests who stayed in the hotel. True to his words, the cab fare was 30,000Rps, about half the price we would have paid should we insisted on getting the airport transfer. Wow! I turned to my friend when we reached the airport and told him what I thought of the staff who processed our checkout, he was impressed and agreed that the staff was very thoughtful.

Back at the small-ish airport terminal, checking in was a breeze. Once inside the terminal, there are a few some shops selling goods ranging from souvenirs such as Batiks to paper puppets to dried foodstuffs. The airport has 2 waiting rooms, one for domestic and the other for international departures. We headed for the international departures through the customs, and the waiting room is just ahead. We waited for our flight to arrive for more than an hour (well to be fair, the flight departed on time), the bird that took us from Yogyakarta to Singapore originates from Jakarta. Well, I guess this is the business model for low-cost carriers. The flight back home was uneventful. Guess we were too tired, after having to wake up at 4 am for 2 consecutive days, we spent the next 2 hours snoozing on board the aircraft. 2 hours seem to fly past soon we found ourselves getting ready for landing…. with this marks the end of our trip and back to reality, back to work for the next day. Not too sure where my next destination will be, hope to do a longer trip at a further destination, till then time to sleep…….