Direct Nonstop Flight from Jakarta (CGK) to Jayapura (DJJ)

There are so many flights from Jakarta to Jayapura. Garuda Indonesia, Merpati Nusantara, Lion Air, Sriwijaya Air, Express Air, and Batavia Air.

There are some route served by the airline and the stops between Jakarta and Jayapura:

• Jakarta (CGK) - Surabaya (SUB) - Makassar/Ujung Pandang (UPG) - Sorong (SOQ) - Manokwari (MKW) - Sentani Jayapura (DJJ)


• Jakarta (CGK) - Makassar/Ujung Pandang (UPG) - Biak (BIK) - Sentani Jayapura (DJJ)


• Jakarta (CGK) - Denpasar (DPS) - Timika (TIM) - Jayapura (DJJ)
• Jakarta (CGK) - Makassar/Ujung Pandang (UPG) - Sentani Jayapura (DJJ)

Personally, I hate take-off and landing, because most airline required us to go to the terminal when the airplane stop even with same aircraft. Garuda Indonesia is one that give passengers option to leave to terminal or stay on the airplane on transit when the next flight is use the same aircraft. But, transit is still annoying me, because I can't sleep well during landing because seat have to be upright.

The good news, Lion Air now serve direct nonstop flight from Jakarta to Jayapura using JT-794 depart from Jakarta (CGK) at 22.30 GMT+7 and arrive at Jayapura (DJJ) at 06.00 GMT+9 (5 hours 30 minutes). My last flight using Lion Air was good. I slept few minutes after take-off and awake near arrival at Sentani Jayapura (DJJ). This is good for people who hate take-off and landing.

Kenduri Lebaran / Hari Raya Idul Fitri Festivy

Kenduri is a tradition in my village, where the host or home owner invite people in village to celebrate birth, marriage, new homes, death or other celebration. Our village also celebrate Idul Fitri by kenduri lebaran. Even this is celebration of Muslims, all people in the neighborhood invited in the kenduri.



The Kenduri in my neighborhood is very small celebration that held for just 15 minutes. The priest start to have a short speech and then pray. Then the host distribute the kenduri packages: cooked and uncooked. We can choose one of them to take-home.





How about Christmas celebration? Because of religious harmony in our neighborhood, we also have Christmas Kenduri in December who the host are the Christians, and all people also invited and came in the kenduri. What a peaceful neighborhood, and I just hope that this will last forever.

Happy Idul Fitri!

White Tiger in Indonesia

White tiger is endangered species in India. I have my chance to take photos of white tiger when visited Taman Safari Indonesia at Cisarua, Bogor.



Taman Safari Indonesia have white tiger babies, and we can take photo with them.



Take photo with 'big cat' is very fun!



I still have question about how to get license to take care of tiger in Indonesia. Some people already did that, and it will be interesting if I can have baby tiger in our backyard.

Garuda Indonesia Business / Executive Class Experience

August 8th, 2012 was the second time when I use Garuda Indonesia Business /Executive Class from Jayapura (DJJ). The main reason is just simple: there are no economy seat available on the flight. I went to Jakarta on the peak season on the "go-show" condition. I waited at Garuda ticketing office until they closed the check in system.

I went to Jakarta at the date and I got price about IDR 9.500.000 for business class from Jayapura (DJJ) to Jakarta (CGK). So I decided to take the business class route from Jayapura (DJJ) to Makassar (UPG) with the price of about IDR 6.500.000. The next problem, at Makassar I tried to get ticket from Makassar to Jakarta but all flights was full, so I went from Makassar (UPG) to Yogyakarta (JOG) with cost about IDR 1.400.000 by Merpati Nusantara Airlines and from Yogyakarta (JOG) to Jakarta (CGK) next morning (9th August) by Batavia Air that cost me about IDR 600.000. My home at Yogyakarta is just about 20 minutes from airport, so I saved cost for hotel.

Back to the Business / Executive class of Garuda Indonesia, the ticket is 3-4 times more expensive than Garuda Indonesia economy seats. What I got was larger space, larger seat and more food / inflight meals at business class. The "bad thing" was almost all passengers in business class were senior citizens.



There are electric plug at the seats of 737-800NG's business class, so for long haul flight we can work using laptop without afraid when facing low battery. From 11 passengers with me at the business class, just me use AVOD (Audio Video On Demand), the other passengers prefer to sleep.



Good experience, but when remember the cost, still too hard for middle class people like me. But again, the cost is "paid" when I realized that all my tasks in Jakarta is well-done on time.

The Boeing 737-800 Winglet of Sriwijaya Air PK-CLA

As the frequent traveler, I use so many airline companies with many type of aircraft. One of my favorite aircraft is Boeing 737-800 with winglet. The Boeing company said that winglet option is for fuel efficiency. I just think that winglet is just for new Boeing aircraft.



I just arrived at 1 August 2012 using Garuda Indonesia PK-GMU when I spotted Sriwijaya Air Boeing 737-800 series with registration number PK-CLA. The I search and got the history from planesplotter.net that PK_CLA is used aircraft and it's first flight was at year 1999. After search for the pictures, I noticed that this aircraft not used winglet before.

So, the old aircraft is available to have winglet. Winglets cost about 725,000 USD and take about 1 week to install which costs an extra $25-80,000 USD. Once fitted, they add 170-235kg (375-518lbs) to the weight of the aircraft, depending upon whether they were installed at production or a retrofit (b737.org.uk).

The moral story: Don't judge aircraft age by it's winglet.

Airline Inflight Meals Garuda Indonesia GA-217 and GA-652

Yesterday (31/7/2012) I went from Yogyakarta (JOG) to Jayapura (DJJ) via Jakarta (CGK) - Denpasar (DPS) - Timika (TIM) with Garuda Indonesia. I got Garuda Indonesia promo fare by booking via their web at the morning (01.00 GMT+7) so I decided to book and paid the ticket.

First flight, GA-217 boarded from Yogyakarta on 19.05 GMT+7 and then departed few 20 minutes later using Boeing 737-800 series without AVOD (Audio Video on Demand). But I love this aircraft configuration because we got more spacious comfortable seat compared with AVOD version. On the flight, we got meals with Ramadhan theme.



For flight less than 1 hour, Garuda Indonesia provide hot/cold drink with snacks. I don't to care with the meal since my stomach was full after ate at Blue Sky Lounge Adisutjipto Airport Yogyakarta.



Then we arrived at Jakarta at 20.30 GMT+7 and I went to transit desk and then proceed to Emerald Sky Lounge Cengkareng at Terminal 2F and grab some drink and vegetables. After ate and waited about 1 hour, we boarded at 22.00 GMT+7 using brand new Boeig 737-800NG PK-GMU with Boeing Sky Interior and AVOD.

From Jakarta (CGK) to Denpasar (DPS) with about 2 hours trip, we got dinner I chose tuna... arrgh, i forgot the name! Here is the screenshot.



From Ngurah Rai Airport Denpasar (DPS) to Moses Kilangin Airport Timika (TIM) is around 4 hours trip but I felt sleepy and very full, so I decided not to take the meal. After transit at Timika (TIM) we continue to went to Sentani Airport Jayapura (DJJ). We went around on the air of Jayapura for about 10 minutes because of airport traffic jam and landed safely at 09.00 GMT+9.