Sunday 09-Oct-2005 (day 1)
Finally the time had come. The journey to my homeland was ready to start.
My son Maurice and his girlfriend were promptly on time at 06:30 to fetch me, as promised. I had unjustly doubted if they would be on time. And with much time to spare I arrived at Schiphol airport; for a moment we drank a cup of coffee together and then my children went home and I remained on my own. Thoughts whirled in my mind about how I would experience everything later on!
What would my travel companions be like? and more....
According to the directions I would receive my travel itinerary only at Schiphol from my travel agency Djoser. Since I was early I was the first to receive my travel ticket for Indonesia along with my transfer ticket from Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) to Medan. From a distance I was afterwards able to observe my travel companions one by one.
They all seemed friendly people to me to be joined together with on such a trip for 29 days. Half of them were aged between 25 - 35 years old and the others were about my own age. Quickly we were introduced and, since we all were filled with positive intentions to make a success of this enduring trip, we were soon bound together in friendship and agreed that we would act as a solid team.
Together we checked in and afterwards proceeded to the customs desk.
The plane, a Boeing 747 from Malaysia Air with the name "Penang" was already waiting for us.
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Boeing Penang
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Precisely at 12:35 we took off in the direction of Kuala Lumpur. All the stewardesses looked bewitchingly beatiful. The last time I flew was with Transavia and in that 4-hour flight 1 cup of coffee or a fresh drink was already asking too much, leave alone some warm friendliness!!.
So I was curious to know how Malaysia Air would aproach this. Already at 13:00 we were given peanuts. And at 13:30 we received a fresh drink to make us comfortable. However, that was not all, because at 13:45 we were given a hot meal.
Even the Heineken beer, I asked, came for the account of Malaysia. Ice cream with coffee as an encore!! The crew was all friendliness, with a spontaneous smile (not forced) they treated us on fresh drinks every following hour. At last, after 12 hours of flight we arrived in Kuala Lumpur.
Upon arrival we received a "Catatan Petugas" (kind of a customs form).
Even thought we already had a visa, we still had to fill in the form and upon leaving Indonesia would have to submit it, along with Rp.100.000. My travel companions got a form in English, but I received one in Bahasa Indonesia???
I tried to change the form, but the English version had finished! I did manage to fill in the form entirely, by peeking at the forms of the others.
The Kuala Lumpur airport is amongst the most modern airports in the world. But the different gates were far and apart, but with a modern train connection you could bridge the distances quickly. After waiting for 4 hours we could fly onward towards Medan, in Sumatra. The flight duration was only 1.5 hours.
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Also read the Other Stories in Wahrweb
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