I have been wanting to visit Semarang for some time as I wanted to see its colonial buildings. As AirAsia no longer flies there, I decided to fly to Jakarta and make my way to Semarang from there. I could of course take the train but I’d have to travel into the city and train takes too long anyway. So after having making my research, I bought Batik Air flight to Jakarta before buying KLM ticket (costs less if you don’t check in your bag and there’s inflight meal too) and then searched the airlines flying to Semarang. I had almost bought Batik Air (somehow it cost lower than Lion Air) before I remembered to check Garuda Indonesia and guess what, it cost lower than Batik Air. Batik Air then changed its flight time from KL and then gave options to passengers so I opted for a refund.
Wednesday,
27 March 2024
I left
office during lunchtime and made my way to the airport. I missed the 13:52 KLIA
Transit train from Putrajaya so decided to performed prayers while waiting. I
reached KLIA at 14:39 and immediately went in. I was a bit surprised to find
that I have to go to the Satellite Building but I guess it’s because the KLM
flight was from Amsterdam. I haven’t been to the Satellite Building since
end-December 2019 when I came back from Pakistan. I followed the signs and went
down the escalator to ground floor where the buses were.
Many shop
lots were closed so after a quick walk around, I made my way to the gate. As I
was carrying cabin bags, I had to declare my liquids and I had already prepared
for that.
We took off
on time as passengers were punctual. There were a few empty seats and had I not
been chosen a window seat and had my bag in the overhead compartment, I
would’ve been tempted to change seats. The inflight meal wasn’t much to shout
about but it’s better than nothing which was what I would’ve got on Batik Air.
We landed around 18:00 local time. The airport Wi-Fi wasn’t great at all but I
managed to access it near Customs (we need to scan QR code and declare our
items to the Customs before we could exit).
After
breaking fast, I made my way to the domestic parking area. The hotel I booked
(which I booked mainly because of its complimentary airport transfers) had
informed me to wait there. I stopped en route to perform prayers including
tarawikh and witir prayers (I still had some time so I might as well). I
reached the waiting area near the domestic parking area at 19:40 and sat down
to eat the rice from my inflight meal. It was just adequate and nothing to
shout about at all.
I finally
asked a Grab driver if I could borrow his hotspot and messaged the hotel. I was
not amused to find a message asking where I was. This after I had arranged and
reminded the hotel when I needed the shuttle (shuttle is every two hours)! I
ended up waiting until 20:55 for the 20:00 shuttle. Simply outrageous! I was
fuming.
It took
almost 20 minutes to reach the hotel and immediately after checking in, I
walked out to find restaurants or convenience store or supermarket but there
was none. Zilch. Nothing. I went to the hotel restaurant and was told it had
closed for dinner but I could order room service (room service prices are
higher than restaurant prices) 24/7.
Thursday,
28 March 2024
I woke up
at 03:45 and rang the room service. I had to ring it twice before anyone
deigned to pick up. Imagine my displeasure when I was told there was no one to
cook as they were busy with the ‘breakfast’ buffet. I had to get dressed and go
down to the restaurant. And yes, pay buffer price for a plate of rice. Oh and
the hotel didn’t accept cash so I reluctantly had to pay by card. Definitely
NOT going to return to the hotel ever again.
I returned
to my room, showered, performed prayers and finished packing. I went down and
checked out at 05:45 and just before 06:00, boarded the hotel bus to the airport.
The transfer was better than the evening before and we stopped at Terminal 1,
Terminal 2 and last but not least, Terminal 3. I was the last one out as my
flight was at gate 5 of Terminal 3. My bag weighed about 7 kg and I decided to
bring it on board. However, just before boarding, I was told to leave my bag
(because many people were bringing their bags on board too) and that it’d go
into the cargo but that it’d be among the first ones out. Nevertheless when I
sat down, I saw that the overhead compartment could still fit in cabin bags.
We took off
on time and landed just after 09:00. I dozed off during take-off. My bag came
out early and I made my way out to Trans Semarang stop across the street from
the exit. The ticket cost Rp4k and I sat down to wait. The bus came 30 minutes
later. I was told to change buses at one of the halts and had help from the
staff there to board the right bus for ibis Budget Semarang Tandean Hotel. The halt was only metres away
from my hotel, so convenient! Unfortunately, the bus service starts only at
06:30 so I couldn’t take it back to the airport for my early morning flight
back to Jakarta on Saturday.
After leaving my bag, I set off and walked in the general direction of the Old Town. I stopped at two hotels to ask for directions before I arrived at the Old Town. Despite it being a sunny day, it didn’t feel too hot. I spent some time walking around the Old Town before taking Jl. Pemuda back in the direction of my hotel. I stopped first at Paragon Mall. Mind you, it’s nothing like the Singapore Paragon or Siam Paragon. I was appalled when I saw covered girls eating openly in public. I mean, why announce to the world that you couldn’t fast? And even more disturbing are the families who sat down together to have meals with covered girls and men. Don’t you have respect for Ramadan at all?
I returned
to the hotel to check in but I had to go out again when I couldn’t charge my
devices. I cut across Novotel Hotel to get to Paragon. It turned out my charger
had gone kaput so I had to fork out money to buy a new charger. Arghhhh! I had
spotted a hypermart in the basement floor so went there to get some groceries.
My, things are not cheap in Indonesia. Sunquick for instance cost more than
RM18 and a small bottle of isotonic drink (not even Pocari Sweat) cost more
than RM6.
I went out
again in the evening to find food for my predawn meal. I finally found a
restaurant across from Paragon and bought fried rice to go.
Good
Friday, 29 March 2024
I woke up
early for my predawn meal and stayed up until after morning prayers. I was too
sleepy so succumbed to sleep. I woke again at 08:00 and left an hour later for
Lawang Sewu which was quite near the hotel. This magnificent building was the
head office of the Dutch East Indies Railway Co. and is owned by the national
railway company. I paid Rp30k for my entrance ticket (foreigners pay more) and
spent some time there. And there were a lot of cats in the grounds! Sleeping,
prowling, minding their own business.
After that,
I walked to Kampung Pelangi but after climbing up to some cemetery, I made my
way back down. Today was hotter than the day before and I didn’t want to exert
myself.
I continued
on my walk to Sam Poo Kong Temple, passing florist shops and small nurseries on
my way. I reached the temple but decided not to enter in the end so I turned
back and walked back to my hotel. Performed prayers, rested and had a shower
before going out at 16:00 for a massage at a place nearby. I had a hot stone
massage followed by face massage. Then I crossed over to Paragon and had a
small bowl of soto for iftar at the hypermart. I stopped at the restaurant
where I bought the fried rice the evening before and bought another pack of
fried rice to go for my predawn meal.
Saturday,
30 March 2024
I woke for
predawn meal, showered and performed prayers. I had just about finished packing
when I got a call from Maxim driver. I was surprised to find another driver
with another vehicle waiting. I had agreed with the earlier driver to come at
06:00 (I initially ordered a car for 05:50) and because Maxim or the driver
changed drivers, I had to pay for waiting fee and I was not happy with this.
Why should I bear the cost when Maxim or the initial driver changed their plan?
And passengers also have to pay for parking? Or was it entrance fee to the
airport. Annoying!
We boarded
on time and landed at CGK at 08:20. I dozed on and off during the flight. I
dropped by the prayer room and performed dhuha prayers before finding my way
out and up to departure area for my Citilink flight back to KL. Turned out my
bag was 7.4kg with water bottles so I told the counter staff that I’d bring my
bag onboard. I gave away the water to a family with toddlers then went in to
clear security and immigration. I had a while to kill so I browsed some shops
before settling down to read.
The flight
took off on time and unlike the Citilink flights I took to and from Dili, this
one didn’t serve complimentary inflight meal. We landed into a wet KLIA at
14:30 and I was dismayed to find that we landed at the Satellite Building
because I had to walk from the gate to gate C5 to get the bus back to the main
terminal. I missed the 14:52 KLIA Transit train so performed prayers first
before making my way home. So, I finally managed to visit Semarang.
Alhamdulillah.
