Some of us aren’t lucky enough to be born in the capital city, and the nonexistence of such privilege makes the experience of visiting said city a memorable one. Me, I am born in Bali, which although can be said as the Regina George of the provinces of Indonesia, the city I was born at is far from glamorous.
It was all started with the scholarship I am up for. My professor told me about this scholarship to Holland and I decided to enter it with two of my friends. One of us didn’t pass the interview, so it left me with the other one. Together we have to go through the next stage of selection; IELTS test, which was going to be held in Jakarta.
The test was Friday, so we went to Jakarta on Thursday. The boarding was 11.00 am and the check in was not until 40 minutes before that so I figured if I took off from Buleleng as late as 7 pm I’d still had plenty of time. Everything went well until it I reached Bedugul and it started to rain. I got a little nervous. It was raining and stopped and raining again, so I had to stop repeatedly to put on and take off my raincoat, all the way to Denpasar. Then I entered Teuku Umar and something clicked in my mind. The traffic. How come I didn’t count the traffic?
The road was crowded. I moved very slowly but well I still moved anyway. Then I entered Sunset Road and all hell broke loose. It was a damn long traffic; all the vehicles were jammed and didn’t move even an inch.
Oh, and did I mention I haven’t actually figured out where the hell the airport is?
So there I was, amid pissed off office workers and parents taking their kid to school, feeling likecrying because I had less than 10 minutes to be at a place I didn’t even know where. It was not until 15 minutes later that I finally freed myself from the traffic jam and sped off along the road I roughly remember as the one heading to the airport. The road signs are also on my side though. 20 minutes later I reached the airport gate but still had to fumble my way around to park my motorbike and stuff. Ngurah Rai International Airport was under construction and if I had more time I’d love to slow down and look around a little bit. The new airport they were constructing was amazing. I think it, along with the underpass Dewa Ruci and the new highway above the sea, was an effort to impress the delegations of APEC conference. It certainly impresses me. But I digress. Anyway, after hastily parked my motorbike and ran through the aisle in high heels I severely regretted, I finally got to the domestic departure terminal. I couldn’t check in because my friend had my ticket, so I called her.
It turned out the flight was delayed and the boarding was not until 45 minutes later. I was so pissed off I almost punched the wall. But I just smiled at the airport staff and walked pass the check in gate.
