journey to the land of fathers and mothers (chapter 1)

As soon as I started my new job in MOX-Linde, one week after my first day, I departed to Jakarta for a business trip with my manager. Yeap, before I managed into fully settled down, gotta go full force into field work ady lol.

We touched down at Soekarno Hatta International Airport on Sunday evening. We were expecting a hotel taxi pick up after checking out, but as we waited at the arrival gates for about 10 minutes, there was no sign of the representative from the hotel. As our flight was already delayed (Air Asia, yeah >.<) and touched down late (almost 1 hour late), we afraid that the taxi driver is no longer there. Hence we started to search for contacts to call up the hotel. While my manager zipping up and down for the information in her luggage, a local Indon man approached us and offer to help us. Such good timing, where we need someone that can help us make local calls to check out the hotel arrangements. We gratefully get his assitance to call to the hotel.

Right after he finished the call, he turned around, flash his handphone screen to us, and spouted 'oh dear, my hp credit is a goner, would you mind tipping me RM 50?' RM 50??!! What the heck? RM50 for a local call? Within seconds, the good samaritan morphed into a day light robber!! I tak layan him at all, but he keeps on hogging us around then... my boss ended up giving him RM10, and that fella still complaints RM10 is too little, only worth 10,000 rupiah! Dude, we can do maths okay... RM1 equivalent to around 2730 rupiah weh... even a 3 years old will know RM10 is worth much more than 10,000 rupiah lah... Thank God the hotel representative popped out while we are having the 'argument'... and then within seconds, the dude took off and no where to be found.. *&*#$&*#&$*#&$ he took away RM10 juz for a measly local phone call...

Anyhow, we were chauffered to Sari Pan Pacific Hotel and settled down for dinner. The traffic condition in Jakarta is 'fantastically challenging'. If we were to compare it with KL's traffic jam, in the metaphore of level of difficulties of games, KL is juz novice/beginner level, whereas Jakarta is You-must-be-crazy-to-drive-there level. Not only the road there are swarming with motorbikes, just like the watching the beginning of the bicycle race of Tour de Langkawi, also the cars there are mostly at the size of Unser, Innova or Alphard. A Honda Civic there is considered as a small size car that does not stand chance of zooming around the high ways. To top it up, compared to Malaysia mata-mata, the local traffice polices there also dunno why they exist or what, they just literally stand there and watch over the traffic... while I was there, I somehow feel lucky to be part of Malaysia's traffic jammers lol.. I must be siao ady lol

(to be continued)