My
mates and I were so excited the minute we learnt Arsenal were coming to Asia again. I was in Egypt when the details were announced and when I was in Jakarta
during Chinese New Year, I booked and paid the deposit for two rooms at the
guesthouse for the weekend Arsenal were due to visit. Flight tickets were
scoured (MAS, Garuda Indonesia, Lion Air, KLM, AirAsia) and subsequently bought the
day I returned to work from Egypt (hey, I’m a kiasu after all) and after the
ticket details were announced in early April, Aud then bought the tickets
online with the help of Budi, a mutual Twitter acquaintance who’s a Jakarta local.
Then it was a matter of just counting down the days to our trip.
Friday,
12 July 2013
And
finally the day we’d been waiting for arrived!!! (Aud had flown out the day before
and she would pick up the tickets today). Left office at 1240 and took the
train to KLIA, stopping en route at Putrajaya to meet up my mate for our long
overdue chat. She had to return to office and I had a plane to catch so we bade
goodbye to each other just before 1430. The train was a little late in arriving
and I only arrived at KLIA at 1515. Met up with Zack at row B and we joined the
long queue for baggage drop. It was a good thing we had checked in online and
changed seats from that allocated to us. I was assigned seat 26A and changed it
to 6B. I mean, if there were empty seats in front of the cabin, why should I
sit at the rear when sitting up in front would mean I got off the plane and
clear immigration earlier?
The
trip was uneventful. I tried to nap then read my novel. We landed at 1735 local
time and cleared immigration within 10 minutes. Unfortunately, the people
manning the bags had other ideas. Before long, large crowds had formed around
three of the belts there. We ended up waiting 45 blinking minutes for our bags.
I broke fast on the cake, some chocolates and small container of water given in
the flight.
Of
course there was a long queue for the cab outside. I wasn’t prepared to wait
and was contemplating our options when two men approached us and offered
transportation to central Jakarta for Rp300K. Outrageous, I said. I bargained
it down to Rp200K. Finally, they relented and we followed them to the vehicle.
We still had to pay for the airport parking though of Rp20K. Ridiculous.
We
arrived at the guesthouse at 1915 and checked in. After freshening up, Aud,
Zack and I went out to Grand Indonesia for dinner. We returned after 10 that
night.
Saturday,
13 July 2013
I
had set my alarm for 0330 local time and before long, there was a knock on the
door. One of the girls who works at the guesthouse was at the door, with a tray
of a plate of white rice, a pale fried egg and a couple of pieces of tempeh,
and a cup of black fragrant tea. The rice was dry, i.e. without a drop of
gravy. Now, normally I can’t and am not able to swallow white rice on its own
without any gravy but hey when in Rome and all that so I forced myself to eat
some of it. I stayed clear away from the egg though. It was raining steadily outside, perfect for slumber and that was
what I did after morning prayers, getting up twice to use the bathroom. Oh excuse
me, too much info.
I
woke up again at 9 and showered. I then joined Aud and Zack outside and then
went up to the rooftop to take pictures. We finally left the guesthouse at
almost 10 and took a cab to Sarinah Department Store. We spent some time there
buying Indonesian souvenirs.
It
rained while we were safely and happily engrossed and occupied in Sarinah for
the ground was wet when we finally emerged from Sarinah and headed for Grand
Hyatt Jakarta where the fans’ party was due to be. We didn’t have any
invitation but we reckoned it wouldn’t hurt to check out the action. Maybe if
we were lucky, we’d catch a glimpse of someone. It started to rain as we neared
the Hotel Indonesia Roundabout (or Bundaran H.I. in the local lingo – we all
know how fond the Indonesians are of joining names) and we quickly walked into
Plaza Indonesia to seek shelter. From Plaza Indonesia, we found our way to
Grand Hyatt and joined the many Gooners already there. We waited and waited and
waited patiently, checking out some of the quirky t-shirts sported by the
locals. It had started raining very heavily when we arrived and it continued
steadily on.
In
the end, we waited 50 minutes before finally leaving in disappointment. The players
had arrived without us realising it (they bypassed the lobby entrance) and the by-invitation-only
party was held behind closed doors (I managed to peek in but couldn’t see
anyone because there were just too many people queuing up).
We
headed back to Plaza Indonesia and while Aud was having her lunch, I managed a
quick browse at the shops. We then returned to the guesthouse and I had a
siesta after prayers. Aud wanted to check out the fair at the stadium so she left for the stadium first. I was
indifferent. I didn’t even buy anything the two times Arsenal came to KL.
Zack
and I left at 5 pm and hailed a cab to Plaza Senayan. It was overcast and dark
when we left and it started to rain just as we reached the shopping mall. We went
to the food court at the third floor and after ascertaining it was impossible
to find any seats, we decided to go find a supermarket. So we sought directions
and went to the Food Hall at Sogo basement. We were trying to find the escalator
up when we stumbled upon a smaller food court and it was only a quarter full. So
we bought our meal and sat down to break our fast.
I
went to perform prayers after breaking fast (my, the prayer room was full,
full, full and there was a long queue to the ablutions area; good thing I had
performed ablutions back at the guesthouse) and rejoined Zack at the lobby. It was
still pouring steadily and although I had borrowed and brought along a long
brolly from the guesthouse, I wasn’t keen to walk in the downpour. Zack then showed
me one chap who was also heading to the stadium with his brother. I asked him
to ask the chap if we could get a ride. He told us no at first, saying the
vehicle was already full then changed his mind and said OK – if we didn’t mind
squeezing in. Well, I didn’t mind it as long as I stayed dry.
We
waited for the driver to come and met up the rest of the family. I understood then
why he was reluctant to offer us a ride in the first place: there was his mum
(who told me she was from central Java and was there to visit her sister), his brother
(who was also going to the stadium), his sister, his aunt (who stays in Jakarta),
his cousin and himself of course. Then there was the driver and the two of us. The
eight of us climbed into the MPV and after some arranging, we set off for the
stadium.
There
was some confusion when we got to the stadium with no one seeming to know what
was going on, which gate was opened for us to enter the stadium and which way
to head. Finally, we were told to go to the west gate (or was it the east?) so
we continued on. The chap and his brother took the opposite direction as their
tickets were for a different price category.
We
finally arrived at the opened gate and entered. I went to use the bathroom
first (only two cubicles!) and then Zack did likewise. Then we headed up the
stairs to enter the seating area. We were confused at first because the crowd
ahead of us was blocking the way. We had to go down the stairs, walked across
the seats and up the stairs to get seats at what we considered a vintage
viewing point.
The
Gunners came onto the pitch just before 8:30 pm and stayed on for 90 minutes. We
left only when we were sure there were no other Gunners left on the pitch. The Indonesian
team had by then came onto the pitch for their training too.
We
had quite a wait for a cab back to the guesthouse.
Sunday,
14 July 2013
We
stayed in the whole morning. The day cleared up somewhat by noon. Aud and I decided
to take a walk to the nearby Cikini market and also Carrefour at a nearby
building. Zack didn’t mind joining so the three of us went out at 2:30 pm. It was
at Carrefour when Zack asked what our next plans were. He wanted to return to
the guesthouse as he had just realised his wallet was missing.
When
we came back, we saw him with the guesthouse staff, Tirta, in the office. Tirta
was on the phone and it turned out he was calling up the taxi company. Zack
suspected he either dropped his wallet in the cab or on the pavement as he
exited the cab last night. The thing is, I was behind him (I exited from the same door
because it was still raining when we got back to the guesthouse from the
stadium and he had the umbrella). Surely I would have noticed it if he dropped
the wallet – unless he dropped it on the cab floor and I missed stepping on it.
Or he dropped it on the pavement and I didn’t notice it either. So we searched
for the Maybank and CIMB numbers for him to cancel his ATM cards. Maybank was
more efficient at picking up the call and dealing with the situation. I had to
call CIMB twice before Zack could get through. See, there are benefits to still
being a prepaid user. I then took a short nap as I was already feeling sleepy
at Carrefour.
Woke
up at 4:15 pm and got ready. I decided to leave my purse behind and brought
only Rp200K along. We left at 4:30 and got a cab almost immediately. It was
only a 20-minute ride to the stadium and we walked to our gate, taking in the
merchandise on sale (none looked genuine, no surprise there). We joined the
queue at Gate 1 and proceeded to wait and wait. We even broke fast while
queuing. Finally, the line moved but wait, there was a system glitch and they
couldn’t scan our tickets so we had to wait some more. After some time, we were
finally let in – the old-fashioned way of tearing up along the perforations by
the side of the ticket. We quickly went in and went up the stairs.
We
chose our seats, choosing to sit by the aisle as moving further in would mean
our views would be slightly blocked by the players’ benches. Well, what did we
know. So many people were walking up and down and then so many people decided
to stand at the aisle that our view was slightly blocked anyway. I went in search of the bathroom and prayer room right after having decided on our seats. And guess what, the bathroom was mixed (for both sexes!!!) and there was no prayer room. None. Nada. Instead, there was some pieces of carpets (you know, the thin ones you usually find in offices) on which you can perform prayers right outside the washroom. And this is Indonesia we’re talking about, the country with the largest Muslim population in the world. How sad and pathetic is that. By the way, Aud related to us that on Saturday evening when she came ahead before us, the stadium was not lighted until way overdue - ‘To
save costs’ according to a local. Now, had that happened at Bukit Jalil...
We
still had a good time despite all these idiots standing and crowding the aisle testing our patience. As we all
know, Theo scored in the first half with nothing much happening after that. A series
of changes were made in the second half and Akpom then opened the floodgates.
Giroud scored the third and fourth goals (both goals were beautiful), Poldi
hammered in the fifth, Olsson slid in for Arsenal’s sixth and Eisfeld completed
the seventh goal to give the Indonesia Dream Team a real beating and a
nightmare. I was screaming when all the goals were scored.
We
finally left after 11 pm and waited a long while for a cab back. The cabs all
quoted a flat rate to us and finally, we got one for Rp40K. It had been a long
day and night and yet I still had a bowl of instant noodles before going to
bed.
Monday,
15 July 2013
Well,
it’s time to say goodbye to Jakarta. This morning, I didn’t get any pale fried egg (I think the staff had noticed I left my egg untouched the previous two mornings) but extra helping of tempeh. We still had white rice sans gravy. I showered after
the meal and after morning prayers, took a quick nap (didn’t work). Got up at
6:30 am and got dressed.
We
left at 7 and the cab Tirta had already called for us was already waiting. There
was a brief period of heavy traffic but it was a smooth ride all the way to the
airport and we reached the airport after only 40 minutes. I paid Rp122.5K for
the ride (after taking into account the toll charges. The cab on my last trip
made me pay for the tolls and I was not happy then). We went in, screened our
bags and dropped off our bags at the desk. The departure tax is Rp150K per
person.
The
flight from Kuala Lumpur was late in arriving (there was delay at take-off due
to heavy air traffic) and I was starting to panic as I was heading to the
office and had a meeting at 2:30 pm. It finally landed at 9:35 and we only took
off after 10 am. There was this Iranian guy sitting between us who had a
connecting flight at 1:30 pm – I hope he made it. We landed at 1:15 pm and I exited
the baggage claim area with four minutes to make it to the KLIA Express
platform. I finally reached office at 1425. Phew! Oh, and the meeting was rescheduled...
I
wonder if Arsenal would come to this region again next summer and if so, which country.
Hey, Asia is after all the new cash cow after the failing economies of some
European countries so it is a lucrative destination alright.
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