When AirAsia started operations, they made good on their slogan “Now Everyone Can Fly.” With their fares a mere fraction of other airlines’, I dare declare that a plane ride from KL to Jakarta is often akin to a bus ride, judging from the curious mix of passengers that you get to fly with every time.
And then came KLM.
They offer daily flights to and from Jakarta, excellent service, huge wide-body planes…and, unlike AirAsia <drumroll please>, they serve free inflight meals!
Yessirree! For a mere RM460 nett (about $143), you get to check in online as early as 30 hours before the flight AND choose your seat AND even request a special meal.
Now don’t get me wrong on the meal thing. Their standard menu is excellent. KLM have this RDS concept (route-dependent service), whereby their menu is tailored to the area where they are flying.
So for the KUL-CGK flights, standard menu fare is fried rice with satay (Malaysian sweet barbecued chicken on a skewer), a small cucumber-and-tofu salad with peanut sauce and a slice of a dessert that resembles the Philippine maja blanca. On the other hand, CGK-KUL flights have fried mee hoon (rice noodles), a cucumber-and-pineapple salad, and the same dessert.
Being one who is always eager to try out new things, I decided, on an impulse, to request for a special meal when I booked our tickets (HD’s and mine) this time around. Choices were: vegetarian, low-fat/low-cholesterol, low-calorie, low-protein, low-sodium. My first thought was low-calorie, but fearing the worst possible outcome, I opted for the ’safer’ low-fat/low-cholesterol option.
HD was quite skeptical about the whole thing. But he was immediately won over when we were served our meals before everyone else and when the meals turned out to be very good!
For our KUL-CGK flight, we were served chicken breasts with carrots and potatoes, an artichoke-and-lettuce salad and some fresh fruits. Sorry, I forgot to take a photo of that meal.
As for the CGK-KUL flight, it was gnocchi with herbs and tomatoes, a green salad with feta cheese and some fresh fruits. Yummy!
It was much, much yummier than how it looks like in this crappy photo, no thanks to the poor lighting and the fact that I was using a camera phone.
It was so yummy that I got inspired to write this post right after eating it :P
My flight back to KL is delayed for 2 hours and everyone who’s been to Jakarta knows that there’s absolutely nothing to do in Cengkareng airport, unlike Changi (Singapore), Schiphol (Amsterdam) or KLIA (Malaysia). My only consolation is that they recently opened a small Starbucks outlet inside, right next to some duty-free shops. (Note: DH is extending his stay until Sunday, so I’m flying back alone.)
So here I am, nursing a Double Chocolate Chip grande as I type some ideas for my blog in my laptop. I have a working paper to finish but with this unannounced flight delay (I only found out after I checked in!), I’m just not in the right state of mind to work on it right now.
And even though Starbucks’ WiFi signal is strong, I can’t seem to connect to the internet. Apparently, I’m not the only one facing that problem because a blonde girl just came up to me to ask if I could connect to the internet or not.
Then I noticed the guy sitting in front of me — a serious-looking Japanese businessman with greying hair and a crumpled suit. He must be waiting for his flight, like me.
He’s hunched over his chair, concentrating. Is he reading the Wall Street Journal? Perusing his company’s latest Annual Report?
None of the above! He’s actually playing a game on his Sony Play Station Slim & Lite! :D
Oops…There he goes! His flight must be boarding by now.
Shucks! And I didn’t even get a decent photo of him playing ;)
Photos taken with a Sony Ericsson W710i, hence, my apologies for the quality of the photos (or lack thereof) .
Tags: Jakarta, PSP, PSP Slim&Lite, Starbucks
It’s been a loooong day and I seriously need some sleep, after having slept for only 4 hours last night. (I fell asleep at 2 am, no thanks to the cup of Colombian coffee that I had on our KLM KUL-CGK flight!)
Today has been meeting after meeting after meeting, with dinner only at 9 pm, by which time I was already too grouchy and exhausted to even have a bite of ayam pop. My DearHubby (hereinafter to be referred to as ‘DH‘) was quite shocked because he knows I always look forward to eating my all-time favourite Indonesian chicken dish every time we come to Jakarta.
Sorry, no pic of ayam pop this time. I had my Nikon D40 in my bag the whole time but I couldn’t be bothered at all.
After dinner, en route to the hotel, we stopped by Balai Kartini, an exhibition hall in Jakarta. By then, I was practically sleep-walking.
As DH perused the construction of our booth, I collapsed onto the nearest chair, oblivious to the flurry of activity around me. Exhibitors, contractors, carpenters, delivery boys and florists were milling about, furiously working on their respective booths to get them ready on time for an expo that starts on Friday. A lone radio blares out Indonesian songs from a corner, competing with the pounding of hammers and the buzz of electric saws.
That’s when it hit me – I’ve yet to buy plane tickets for my assistant and I for a factory visit in Bangkok on Monday!
So I whipped out my trusty old brick Dopod 838 Pro, opened Internet Explorer and typed “mobile.airasia.com” into the address bar. I smiled when the welcome page loaded quickly. I chose Round-Trip, entered the origin city (KUL) followed by destination city (BKK), picked out the outbound and inbound flights, entered my credit card details, and clicked on ‘CONFIRM’. When the page re-loaded, it displayed my reference number and flight details. Voila! I just got ourselves a pair of plane tickets.
My Sony Ericsson W710i blinked & buzzed. (It has my Malaysian number, which I’ve registered with AirAsia.) It was a new text message:
From: +31021878194
20-Feb-2008 15:30
AirAsia Booking:
No. XXXX
25Feb2008 FD 3572 KUL-BKK
26 Feb2008 AK 887 BKK-KUL
Thank you for choosing AirAsia.
The whole process was totally fuss-free and took less than 5 minutes to complete. And best of all, I was using a pre-paid Indonesian number the whole time, so I didn’t have to shell out megabucks for roaming and GPRS charges.
The wonders of technology still continue to amaze me…and my bulky Dopod saves the day.
Tags: AirAsia, AirAsia Mobile, Dopod, Dopod 838 Pro, Jakarta, mobile.airasia.com, Travel
The worst thing that working mothers all over the world probably ever have to deal with is guilt.
Guilt for being in the middle of a make-or-break meeting, when your son’s kindergarten teacher calls up to say he fell off the monkey bars. ..
Guilt to find your daughter’s teacher’s note reminding you to buy the English textbook that she’s been bugging you about the night before, when you were too busy finishing your monthly report to your Head Office…
I’m wracked with guilt at this very moment, as I pack my bag for a business trip to Jakarta with my husband tomorrow.
It’s just for two nights…Lola will be sleeping with them…They’ll be all right…It’s just for two nights…
Guilt. No matter how many times you’ve been through it before, it never gets any easier.
Tags: guilt, Parenting, working mom
Today is Valentine’s Day and it’s also the birthday of a good friend of mine, LittleMsFirefly. She was born on Valentine’s Day and, you guessed it, her middle name is Valentine. She and I go a looong way back — I used to draw clothes for her paper dolls — and now she’s all grown up and married (!). Just thinking about it makes me feel kinda old.
Notice how I used the word ‘kinda’. Because deep down inside, I still feel like the idealistic, naive 20-year old that I was when I was fresh from university and not yet exposed to the harsh realities of “the real world”. I still feel the same eagerness and the same hope with each new day. I still harbour a sense of daring when faced with the opportunity to try out new things. And yeah, I still play computer games ;)
But at the same time, the trials and sorrows that I’ve gone through for the past 15 years have moulded me into an entirely different person. I’m now stronger, less naive, more practical, a bit cynical, even wary at times. I feel like an old soul in a younger woman’s body.
And when I started having children, I’ve become more flexible, I’ve changed my priorities and I’m rediscovering the joys of simple things with them — playing with bubbles, sharing an ice cream cone, gazing at clouds. And yes, I play with them a lot. We play computer games and board games, we play with home-made Play Dough, I even do impromptu races with them (”Last one to the car is a rotten egg!“). I remember my children telling me at one time, “Mama, you are just like us!” And they’re right. I do feel like a kid sometimes :)
The Cuban-French author, Anais Nin, sums up beautifully exactly how I feel about ageing. She said:
“We do not grow absolutely, chronologically. We grow sometimes in one dimension, and not in another; unevenly. We grow partially. We are relative. We are mature in one realm, childish in another. The past, present, and future mingle and pull us backward, forward, or fix us in the present. We are made up of layers, cells, constellations.”
And if I’m to believe what this site says, my real age is actually 13.3!!! ;)
RealAgeTags: age, ageing, Anais Nin, Children, kids, real age, Valentine, Valentine's Day
