On the road again

Leaving hometown

Today I make my way from hometown Kuching to Pekanbaru via Kuala Lumpur, so that I’d end up in Singapore and then Bali in a few days time to get back to New Zealand.  The Pekanbaru stop was brought about by some frequent flyer points which were expiring.  So why, not?!

My departure from Kuching was 0925, about 30mins earlier than most of the flights I take out of here.  I anticipated hassles getting a Grab car to the airport at this time.  Sure enough, I had nearly given up by the time a driver accepted my job.

I got to the airport about 1h30 before the flight.  That allowed a quick breakfast of Sarawak Laksa before boarding the AirAsia flight using their facial recognition system called “FACES”.  It worked very quickly without any hesitation, to my surprise.

With the coronavirus epidemic in China, some crew were wearing face masks during the boarding process but not inflight.  Some passengers had then through out the flight.  Having departed about 10 mins early we landed 20 mins early in Kuala Lumpur.

With 4h30 self-connect, I ventured landside to a lounge where I did a couple hours of admin, bills, book-keeping.  Not wanting any stress, I returned airside about 1h30 prior to my departure to Pekanbaru in Sumatra, Indonesia.

It was a short 55 min scheduled flight with much less in terms of flying time.  To my surprise, the safety demonstration on AirAsia was done in Malay for this very short international flight.  My previous experiences on flights to places like Medan, Aceh and Padang had seen them done in English which really didn’t make sense as very few people would understand it.  I put it down as an international requirement.   But doing in Malay makes perfect sense as Indonesians would be able to  understand most of it.

To my surprise the crew sold quite a bit of food on the short flight.  Perhaps people wanted to spend their last few ringgits before landing in their home country.

A short city stay

At Pekanbaru airport, we were lined up in groups of about twenty people as we descended the escalator to the baggage claim area.  Drug detector dogs sniffed us out.  We weren’t required to lower or backpacks or collect our checked-in luggage.  So I guess they’re more concerned about in-body and on-body concealment.  They probably have the checked-in bags sniffed out separately.  I was quite impressed with this for a Muslim country.

The Grab car price to my hotel, as shown on the app was around IDR80K (but the reverse around IDR40K suggesting an airport surcharge).  So when I was given an estimate of IDR50K by the taxi counter, I was pleased.  There was an airport fee of $5K on top.

Pekanbaru isn’t know for any attractions.  It’s more a short city stay for me, for some “me time”.  Once at the hotel, I freshened up and went for a walk to the city’s bridge of the Siak River.  The area was historically home to The Sultanate of Siak Sri Indrapura, which is related to the Johor Sultanate across the Straits of Melaka.  Despite being a Muslim sultanate (not sure if it was originally), they didn’t seem to be worried about the Hindu/Buddhist connotations of the name “Indra”.

Text continues after this gallery.
 

 
In the evening, I explored the street food scene.  I wasn’t particularly hungry and settled for a Sate Padang.  Unlike the more famous Malay version, this comes with a thick rice-flour gravy that’s made from stock with a good dose of turmeric making it yellow.  Naturally I prefer my peanut sauce because it is sweeter.  But I guess this is the perfect sate for anyone with a peanut allergy.