Onwards to Java

My new flight on Wings Air required an early wake up at 0515 for a 0730 flight to cross the water to Semarang in Java (via Pangkalan Bun).  The driver, booked for 0600 was early for the short ride to the airport.  I chatted with him and he told me about the Sampit Conflict, which I wrote up in yesterday’s post.

Arriving at the airport at 0610, passengers weren’t able to enter the check-in area yet.  After a short wait, I was one of the first to go through and was checked-in in seconds before waiting again very briefly to go airside.

The hotel receptionist had told me that I needn’t get to the airport so early but today was a good lesson not to leave things too late.  For the first flight from Sampit to Pangkalan Bun, we left 15 mins early because the plane had arrived from Palangkaraya similarly early.  We landed in Pangkalan Bun 25 mins early and left similarly early again for the continuation to Semarang.  After flying over the gorgeous island of Karimunjawa, we touched down at Semarang (population 2 million) about 50 mins early at 0930!

Having just snacked on junk food, I thought it would be good to grab some brunch at the airport.  I found nothing suitable so taxied to the hotel and ate there instead.  I relaxed in the lobby under 2h before being given a room around 1300, which was 1h before official check-in time at the Quest Hotel.

After a rest, I inspected the hotel pool.  It was nice enough but small in real life compared to the wide-angled photos they used online.  I didn’t bother and imagine that the small body of warm water wouldn’t be refreshing in this weather.

I headed out around 1430 to try get a much needed haircut.  That took me through the back-alley kampongs which were very interesting.  One place was closed for the past holidays, one had gone out and another seemingly abandoned.  I gave up and went for a 1.5h awesomely strong oil massage for IDR100K!

From there, I went sight-seeing at Lawang Sewu, an old Dutch government building.  The name in Javanese means Thousand Doors as there were plenty of them.  But having once been a Japanese interrogation centre, it is rumoured to be haunted.  The place houses some historical photos of the region.

I finished up at Paragon Mall for dinner and a haircut before walking home.  The haircut in a nice place was IDR120K including wash and blow-dry which I declined.  It seemed wrong that a 10 min hair cut cost more than a 1.5h strong massage! It’s ridiculously expensive for Indonesia but I’ll be in Europe in a couple of days where it will cost even more. Well, not necessarily as I organised a haircut in Italy for my partner for only EUR5 a couple of years ago.