27 Apr 2023
We woke up bright and early (0430!) for a 0515 departure- farewell, Amira!
Hello, pack of minivans that will take us to the airport:
Things got a little dicey at the airport- it didn’t actually open until 6; our flight was at 7 and it took 10-15 minutes/person to get through the check-in desk… I was the 6th or 7th person in line (with a ton of people queueing behind me) and thought for sure I wouldn’t make it in time. Turns out the people in front of me had excess baggage fees to take care of, whereas my bag was underweight, so I breezed through the check-in and security and made it to the plane in plenty of time:
and in traditional Indonesian fashion, we departed like 15-20 minutes late.
It must have rained shortly before our plane landed- this guy was prepared!
Our group tried to group together, but were told to move along:
Kupang airport:
I had an hour and half layover, and I’ve learned domestic security is pretty fast, so I watched the bag-tagging process to make sure my bag made it to my next flight:
These guys were grabbing bags, manually checking them off in a binder and sorting them by next flight. Seems like a lot of work, but my bag did make it, so it must work?
Once through security, I went hunting for breakfast and found this lunker of a donut!
Cappuccino glaze with a mocha filling- delicious! and only like $1!
Walking across the tarmac to meet our next plane:
(I don’t think that’ll ever get old for me!)
However, this is not Jakarta…
My flight was supposed to go from Kupang to Jakarta, but when we boarded they mentioned that we would be getting to Jakarta via Surabaya… that wasn’t on my ticket anywhere!
When we landed, everyone had to deplane (even though I’m fairly certain we’ll be boarding this same plane again). So we got off and followed the signs for Transit, which led us to a table where a couple workers were handing out tickets- show them your old ticket, they hand you a new one. Super-sketchy, but I made it back through security and reboarded my original plane, in the same seat I was in when we arrived. Totally unnecessary and kinda strange, but we did arrive close to on-time in Jakarta so maybe my ticket did have that extra stop time built in?
I don’t know if this was the same gate I departed from, but it was just as ornate as the first one I saw:
Since I had many hours to kill (and it had been many hours since I had eaten), I stopped at my favorite restaurant for one last plate of mie goreng:
this is a vegetarian version, and while it was still tasty, it wasn’t quite as good as the buntut (ox-tail) version.
I still had a lot of time to kill before my flight, so I did a lot of laps of the terminal, where I found these fun blowers that look like eyes:
and found some fun chocolates to bring home for my parents.
As my boarding time got closer, I hung out near my gate, but in the maybe 5 minutes between them announcing my flight and me running to the bathroom one last time, my plane had completely boarded and I was one of the last ones on. I’m guessing they started boarding sooner and I just totally missed it, but regardless, I’m really glad I didn’t miss my flight!
28 Apr 2023
My plan when I got to Korea was to take a transit tour to kill some of my 12 hour layover, but I don’t remember having to fill out this much paperwork last time!
I had already done the health questionnaire online and it generated a QR code that I think I can use instead of filling out the health form, but honestly, but the time I landed in Seoul, I was kind of done traveling.
So I hung out here in the transit center, where there are chairs and tables for working and eating, beds for napping, a shower area (that no longer supplies towels, but does provide a hairdryer so I used that to dry my towel):
Unfortunately, the food options at this terminal are quite limited, so I hit up the 7-11 and stocked up on snacks 🙂
That red bean roll filled me up (and was surprisingly tasty- way less beany than anticipated), so I brought home a lot of treats for Matt to try (though I did eat the 2 muffins- it was a long layover).
Otherwise, I spent the majority of the time reading (highly recommend Where the Crawdads Sing) and relaxing. Not what I had planned, but honestly, not a bad way to end my trip.
The ash that disrupted my flight out here seems to have dissipated, so we were able to take our original flight path on the way back home:
Even though it was a 12 hour flight, because we crossed the date line, I got home a couple hours before we left Seoul. Strange, but I guess it all works out in the end.
Overall, this trip was not quite what I expected, and I don’t think I would do this liveaboard route again, but still, I had fun and got to explore some new places, which is always a win to me!