It took me 5 days from the moment I left São Mateus until I arrived at home! FIVE DAYS! Imagine that!! Ok, here are some things I wanna share about the trip.
…
I left São Mateus on Monday 1.30 pm. Before he left on his vacation, my boss here told me that it’s confirmed now that I’m going to be transferred permanently to São Mateus. Therefore, I didn’t get too sad and melancholic when I left. Good to know that I’m going to see these people again later… :)
Arrived in Vitória around 6 pm in the afternoon. Called Jefferson (the same taxi guy that took me to Convento da Penha on my first visit to Vitória) and he agreed to pick me up tomorrow 6am to take me to the airport. Oh this is great, I can always call him or D.Dina everytime I come to Vitória and need a taxi :D
Walked around the neighborhood of my hotel. I think it’s called Triangulo. Wow, it’s a really nice and expensive neighborhood. Lots of boutiques and fancy restaurants… So this is one of those places where rich Brazilians spend their money…
Went to bed early. (I slept at 3am the day before; that’s when I FINALLY finished packing my luggage :p) On Tuesday morning, I went early to the airport, arrived there at about 6.30am. I was happy cause GOL (the airline company) didn’t charge me at all for my excessive baggage :P Just that they couldn’t transfer my luggage directly to KLM. So I must deal with these heavy things again in São Paulo… Oh nevermind, I’ll go and look for a locker.
Arrived in São Paulo around 10.30 am. Took my luggage, walked around, found the locker, made sure of my flight schedule and the flight gate… and it’s 12.00 pm already. I asked the tourist information about where I should go to spend my time in São Paulo. I want to be back at the airport at 4.00 pm, as my flight is at 6.45pm. Going to São Paulo city centre and back will take 2 hours by bus, and considering all the hassles of finding the metro and where to go there… I guess it just doesn’t really worth it for me. I can also go to Guarulhos shopping centre, which is about 20 mins by bus and 10 mins by taxi. Great. Problem is, taxi costs 35 Reais for a one-way trip to shopping centre (What!? Are you trying to rob me??!!! This morning I only paid 13 Reais for a 10-min trip from hotel to airport!!), and up to 1pm I still couldn’t figure out where the buses that go to shopping centre actually are. And the locals didn’t seem to know either… So I decided to give it up, stay at the airport, and to treat myself with a nice lunch. After all, I AM ON VACATION so let’s relax…
I didn’t do much when I was waiting at the airport other than walk around from one end of the airport to the other end, for a couple of times… :p Finally it’s 4pm so I went to see the KLM counter and found out that I can check-in for my flight. (I thought it can’t be earlier than 2 hours before the flight). Thank God, again… no extra charge for the luggage. This morning I peeked the balance when I checked in at GOL, and just the suitcase weighed about 28kg… :p I estimated the duffel bag weighed aboout 10-15kg… Is this the advantage of checking-in early? I got aisle seats for both flights (São Paulo-Amsterdam and Amsterdam-Jakarta), that’s really really great.
I couldn’t sleep well at the plane. I felt really tired, and my right leg and knee was aching. And my back hurt too. Arrghh… Next to me sat a young boy teenager. I think he’s having the same sleeping problem as I did, but looked to me that he tried to resolve it by drinking more beer and more wine. So late at night he was singing while listening to music and I was trying to sleep. Oh what an annoying kid!!
Arrived in Amsterdam about 11.00am. I would have 10 hours of waiting in the airport and I made my plans: take a shower, window shopping and look for a camera, internet, back massage, etc… As we stepped in to the Schiphol airport, a bunch of Dutch policemen awaited us at the gate. They took a look at each of our passports and before my turn had even come, I already got the feeling that they were going to take more time with my passport.
Oh here we go… “Where did u travel form? How long have you been in Brazil, what did you do there? Oh, you lived in Germany too? What did you do there? How long was that?...” bla bla bla bla… And he looked at my identity page, which wasn’t well laminated… “Why was your passport issued in Czech?” I answered. “Ok, just a minute. Could you sit there please?” (Oh, no, pls, I had a terrible night yesterday; pls don’t give me hard time today, officer)
And I heard him talking to his colleague in Dutch (which some words are similar to German) something like: “You see this girl’s passport? It’s issued in Czech, in the Indonesian embassy, is that okay? And look, because of that, the lamination is so bad, and the identity page is hand-written…” and the other guy said:”yeah you’re right, let’s check it”.
So I had to sit and wait, while they took my passport and boarding pass away. What can I do huh? The only way to deal with European officers are: with patience. No need to push them or be offended, as it will only result in suspicion and hostility. Then I thought: “What did the theft think about when he/she stoled my passport 2 years ago? Did she realize that she still would be giving me trouble even after 2 years…??? Gosh…” And what a series of events that made me had to sit on that chair that day. First, me living in Germany, having this trip to Prague, lost my passport, Pak Deni’s first experience of releasing passport and thus the passport’s not well laminated, choosing to fly home using KLM and having a transit at Schiphol (not like the last time when I used Lufthansa and the officers didn’t complain at all)… It’s amazing how everything’s so interconnected and thus had lead to this event… Oh well, I’m losing the point here… Anyway, after 15-20 minutes, they gave me my passport back and said that everything’s okay.
I took my time in doing everything. I took a looong shower. I spent a long time eating my lunch. I walk sloowwly. I had a 10-minute back massage. I entered almost every store and took a look at almost everything. I bought my camera, Canon G9. Very happy about it.
Finally it’s almost boarding time, 7.45pm. I ate a donut at a cafetaria near my flight gate. How interesting, the guy at the cashier happened to be married to an Indonesian woman and so he had visited Indonesia a couple of times before. We talked for a while about Indonesia, and finally I mentioned that I just came from Brazil. Suddenly someone joined our conversation and talked to me about Brazil. Finally we talked about the petroleum business. This guy (the 2nd guy, not the cashier guy) is from Sweden and has been living and working in Dubai for 20 years now. He’s working on oil bankering. (to be honest, am not really sure what oil bankering does). However these two consecutive events made me believe that actually Europeans can be friendly too. The keys are (in my opinion): a friendly smile and good communication skill (=language skill).
Anyway, as we were queing up for boarding the plane, we received the news that our flight is delayed to 10.30pm and we’re supposed to be back there in about an hour (9.30pm). Decided to have a proper dinner then cause it’s getting late and I’m starving.
Back at the gate at 9.30pm and found out that the flight was further cancelled to 11.00pm. From where we were queing we could see our plane through the very big glass window. And that time, our plane was surrounded by lots of firefighters and firetrucks. OMG! Started to make me worried.
Later on, they announced that the flight was rescheduled to the next day, 11.30am. We all will be given rooms in a hotel close to the airport. Well, problems… I don’t have a visa for Netherland so I couldn’t just walk out from the airport like that. I need to go to the immigration office and solve this. Fortunately one of the stewardesses came with me and explained the problem to the officer. (Well, it’s KLM’s fault anyway, not mine!)
Waited for almost an hour to get this ‘visa’, and I was actually the first person on the queue. So I couldn’t imagine how long it took for the guys behind me to finally get theirs. And it’s not like it’s a permanent 3-month or 6-month visa, you know. It’s just a “Permission to leave the airport” which is only valid for one day… sigh… patience…patience…
Btw, during this time, I made friends with a Philipinean girl who stood behind me on the queue when we’re about to check in at the gate. It was a good feeling to know that at least I’m not so alone in this. She accompanied me when I was waiting for my visa, when we went to hotel, and we even slept at the same room. I trusted her so much with my stuff and she trusted me so much too with her stuff. I admit it is a bit risky since we didn’t know each other at all.
We stayed at IBIS Hotel (reminded me of Vitoria :p) which is about 15 minutes by shuttle bus to and from the airport.
The next day, on Thursday, thank God, the flight left on time, about 11.30am. However I got the news that the flight would not continue until Jakarta as was planned before (as I’ve booked in my ticket) but it would stop in Kuala Lumpur. Whattt??? So what about us?? And the stewardess explained to me that when I arrived in KL, I should contact ground staff and they will let me know when the next flight to Jakarta that’s available for me is…
Oh btw, I have to point this out, that morning when I pulled out my passport to give to stewardess for boarding, I realized that the lamination on the identity page has been fixed! It’s in a very good condition now! So the Dutch officers did do me a favor yesterday! Wow, thanks!
We arrived in KL at 5am, went to transfer counter and after queing for some time, I got my flight to Jakarta with Malaysian airlines at 9.10am. Not too bad. Here I made friends with a family with Indonesian origin who have lived many many years in Netherland. The parents sat behind me at the airplane which is why we began talking. They are really friendly and very nice to talk with. The children are more or less my age (I assume they are a bit older than me though considering that they’ve been working longer than I have). I stayed with them in KL until we went boarding to the plane. I hope they didn’t see me as an intruder ha-ha… :D
So, FINALLY, AT LAST, I arrived in Jakarta at about 10am local time, after a 5-day journey. First lunch: Bakmi GM (:P) and then I went home and sleeeepppp… Sleeping on a bed, with my back straight…This is just so wonderful…
…
I left São Mateus on Monday 1.30 pm. Before he left on his vacation, my boss here told me that it’s confirmed now that I’m going to be transferred permanently to São Mateus. Therefore, I didn’t get too sad and melancholic when I left. Good to know that I’m going to see these people again later… :)
Arrived in Vitória around 6 pm in the afternoon. Called Jefferson (the same taxi guy that took me to Convento da Penha on my first visit to Vitória) and he agreed to pick me up tomorrow 6am to take me to the airport. Oh this is great, I can always call him or D.Dina everytime I come to Vitória and need a taxi :D
Walked around the neighborhood of my hotel. I think it’s called Triangulo. Wow, it’s a really nice and expensive neighborhood. Lots of boutiques and fancy restaurants… So this is one of those places where rich Brazilians spend their money…
Went to bed early. (I slept at 3am the day before; that’s when I FINALLY finished packing my luggage :p) On Tuesday morning, I went early to the airport, arrived there at about 6.30am. I was happy cause GOL (the airline company) didn’t charge me at all for my excessive baggage :P Just that they couldn’t transfer my luggage directly to KLM. So I must deal with these heavy things again in São Paulo… Oh nevermind, I’ll go and look for a locker.
Arrived in São Paulo around 10.30 am. Took my luggage, walked around, found the locker, made sure of my flight schedule and the flight gate… and it’s 12.00 pm already. I asked the tourist information about where I should go to spend my time in São Paulo. I want to be back at the airport at 4.00 pm, as my flight is at 6.45pm. Going to São Paulo city centre and back will take 2 hours by bus, and considering all the hassles of finding the metro and where to go there… I guess it just doesn’t really worth it for me. I can also go to Guarulhos shopping centre, which is about 20 mins by bus and 10 mins by taxi. Great. Problem is, taxi costs 35 Reais for a one-way trip to shopping centre (What!? Are you trying to rob me??!!! This morning I only paid 13 Reais for a 10-min trip from hotel to airport!!), and up to 1pm I still couldn’t figure out where the buses that go to shopping centre actually are. And the locals didn’t seem to know either… So I decided to give it up, stay at the airport, and to treat myself with a nice lunch. After all, I AM ON VACATION so let’s relax…
I didn’t do much when I was waiting at the airport other than walk around from one end of the airport to the other end, for a couple of times… :p Finally it’s 4pm so I went to see the KLM counter and found out that I can check-in for my flight. (I thought it can’t be earlier than 2 hours before the flight). Thank God, again… no extra charge for the luggage. This morning I peeked the balance when I checked in at GOL, and just the suitcase weighed about 28kg… :p I estimated the duffel bag weighed aboout 10-15kg… Is this the advantage of checking-in early? I got aisle seats for both flights (São Paulo-Amsterdam and Amsterdam-Jakarta), that’s really really great.
I couldn’t sleep well at the plane. I felt really tired, and my right leg and knee was aching. And my back hurt too. Arrghh… Next to me sat a young boy teenager. I think he’s having the same sleeping problem as I did, but looked to me that he tried to resolve it by drinking more beer and more wine. So late at night he was singing while listening to music and I was trying to sleep. Oh what an annoying kid!!
Arrived in Amsterdam about 11.00am. I would have 10 hours of waiting in the airport and I made my plans: take a shower, window shopping and look for a camera, internet, back massage, etc… As we stepped in to the Schiphol airport, a bunch of Dutch policemen awaited us at the gate. They took a look at each of our passports and before my turn had even come, I already got the feeling that they were going to take more time with my passport.
Oh here we go… “Where did u travel form? How long have you been in Brazil, what did you do there? Oh, you lived in Germany too? What did you do there? How long was that?...” bla bla bla bla… And he looked at my identity page, which wasn’t well laminated… “Why was your passport issued in Czech?” I answered. “Ok, just a minute. Could you sit there please?” (Oh, no, pls, I had a terrible night yesterday; pls don’t give me hard time today, officer)
And I heard him talking to his colleague in Dutch (which some words are similar to German) something like: “You see this girl’s passport? It’s issued in Czech, in the Indonesian embassy, is that okay? And look, because of that, the lamination is so bad, and the identity page is hand-written…” and the other guy said:”yeah you’re right, let’s check it”.
So I had to sit and wait, while they took my passport and boarding pass away. What can I do huh? The only way to deal with European officers are: with patience. No need to push them or be offended, as it will only result in suspicion and hostility. Then I thought: “What did the theft think about when he/she stoled my passport 2 years ago? Did she realize that she still would be giving me trouble even after 2 years…??? Gosh…” And what a series of events that made me had to sit on that chair that day. First, me living in Germany, having this trip to Prague, lost my passport, Pak Deni’s first experience of releasing passport and thus the passport’s not well laminated, choosing to fly home using KLM and having a transit at Schiphol (not like the last time when I used Lufthansa and the officers didn’t complain at all)… It’s amazing how everything’s so interconnected and thus had lead to this event… Oh well, I’m losing the point here… Anyway, after 15-20 minutes, they gave me my passport back and said that everything’s okay.
I took my time in doing everything. I took a looong shower. I spent a long time eating my lunch. I walk sloowwly. I had a 10-minute back massage. I entered almost every store and took a look at almost everything. I bought my camera, Canon G9. Very happy about it.
Finally it’s almost boarding time, 7.45pm. I ate a donut at a cafetaria near my flight gate. How interesting, the guy at the cashier happened to be married to an Indonesian woman and so he had visited Indonesia a couple of times before. We talked for a while about Indonesia, and finally I mentioned that I just came from Brazil. Suddenly someone joined our conversation and talked to me about Brazil. Finally we talked about the petroleum business. This guy (the 2nd guy, not the cashier guy) is from Sweden and has been living and working in Dubai for 20 years now. He’s working on oil bankering. (to be honest, am not really sure what oil bankering does). However these two consecutive events made me believe that actually Europeans can be friendly too. The keys are (in my opinion): a friendly smile and good communication skill (=language skill).
Anyway, as we were queing up for boarding the plane, we received the news that our flight is delayed to 10.30pm and we’re supposed to be back there in about an hour (9.30pm). Decided to have a proper dinner then cause it’s getting late and I’m starving.
Back at the gate at 9.30pm and found out that the flight was further cancelled to 11.00pm. From where we were queing we could see our plane through the very big glass window. And that time, our plane was surrounded by lots of firefighters and firetrucks. OMG! Started to make me worried.
Later on, they announced that the flight was rescheduled to the next day, 11.30am. We all will be given rooms in a hotel close to the airport. Well, problems… I don’t have a visa for Netherland so I couldn’t just walk out from the airport like that. I need to go to the immigration office and solve this. Fortunately one of the stewardesses came with me and explained the problem to the officer. (Well, it’s KLM’s fault anyway, not mine!)
Waited for almost an hour to get this ‘visa’, and I was actually the first person on the queue. So I couldn’t imagine how long it took for the guys behind me to finally get theirs. And it’s not like it’s a permanent 3-month or 6-month visa, you know. It’s just a “Permission to leave the airport” which is only valid for one day… sigh… patience…patience…
Btw, during this time, I made friends with a Philipinean girl who stood behind me on the queue when we’re about to check in at the gate. It was a good feeling to know that at least I’m not so alone in this. She accompanied me when I was waiting for my visa, when we went to hotel, and we even slept at the same room. I trusted her so much with my stuff and she trusted me so much too with her stuff. I admit it is a bit risky since we didn’t know each other at all.
We stayed at IBIS Hotel (reminded me of Vitoria :p) which is about 15 minutes by shuttle bus to and from the airport.
The next day, on Thursday, thank God, the flight left on time, about 11.30am. However I got the news that the flight would not continue until Jakarta as was planned before (as I’ve booked in my ticket) but it would stop in Kuala Lumpur. Whattt??? So what about us?? And the stewardess explained to me that when I arrived in KL, I should contact ground staff and they will let me know when the next flight to Jakarta that’s available for me is…
Oh btw, I have to point this out, that morning when I pulled out my passport to give to stewardess for boarding, I realized that the lamination on the identity page has been fixed! It’s in a very good condition now! So the Dutch officers did do me a favor yesterday! Wow, thanks!
We arrived in KL at 5am, went to transfer counter and after queing for some time, I got my flight to Jakarta with Malaysian airlines at 9.10am. Not too bad. Here I made friends with a family with Indonesian origin who have lived many many years in Netherland. The parents sat behind me at the airplane which is why we began talking. They are really friendly and very nice to talk with. The children are more or less my age (I assume they are a bit older than me though considering that they’ve been working longer than I have). I stayed with them in KL until we went boarding to the plane. I hope they didn’t see me as an intruder ha-ha… :D
So, FINALLY, AT LAST, I arrived in Jakarta at about 10am local time, after a 5-day journey. First lunch: Bakmi GM (:P) and then I went home and sleeeepppp… Sleeping on a bed, with my back straight…This is just so wonderful…
