This is the last part of the "Turkish Summer Vacation" series I posted beginning from this August, covering the final closing of the vacation after the last day of the tour.
Friday, 6 July 2012 (Evening)
After our last dinner, we boarded our bus which would bring us to Atatürk International Airport. However, we got a surprise here. Before boarding the bus, I saw the owner of the restaurant where we had last dinner talking with several youths of our groups on the façade of the restaurant, in Indonesian language! It turned out that he was a volunteer stationed in Indonesia for several years and had been in several cities in Indonesia. No wonder he spoke fluent Indonesian. And the surprise was that that man joined us on board, without anyone knowing before Ümit introduced him to the rest of us. His name was Murat.
Ümit let Murat took over him to speak in front of all of us. Here, Murat introduced himself and his background, in Indonesian, definitely. It turned out that apart from his experiences as a volunteer in Indonesia, Murat was one of the tourist guides in Turkey with Indonesian language ability. He also summarized all things that we have went through, as well as those not on our itinerary, while in Turkey. His explanations included the Seven Churches of Asia, which are located in Ephesus (we went to that city but not to the particular church), Smyrna (present-day İzmir), Pergamon (present-day Bergama, we just passed by the city), Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia (no the US state), and Laodicea. All the churches was not on our intinerary. He also told us that the ancient Istanbul was built on top of seven hills and that according to that numbering, sorted by the year of first settlement on that area, our point of interests on the first day was on the first hill. Murat also told that the seventh hill was where his house stood. He meant it, not as a joke that we often heard from Ümit :))
As we were along the way to the airport, suddenly our bus behaved abnormally. Alarms seemed to have been raised and the bus stopped on the roadside. Everyone seemed to wonder what had actually happened.
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| Our tour leader Stevia checked what happened to our bus |
Our driver since the first day Resul, our true local guide Ümit and the guest guide Murat immediately went outside to check while asking everyone else to stay inside. But it was summer then and with air conditioner off as the bus engine was off, we could not resist and each of us, one by one, began to leave the bus. Initially I just went outside with the others to check with others (just curious). And it turned out that the alarm was raised by the leakage of lubrication oil.
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| Careful, it's slippery. Yes, this is the "culprit" that vandalizes our last day |
Yes, we were in an uncertain situation. Ümit had made a call for bus replacement but it was uncertain as to whether the bus would arrive timely as it was Friday night and the traffic was packed. Some of our group even thought that we would have missed the flight and had to stay in Istanbul for more days. They seemed somewhat happy with this as they had more days in Turkey >< but it was not the case with me. I have been granted vacation leave until Tuesday, 10 July 2012. As I indicated in Part 1, although the flight made one stop in Singapore, my ticket condition "forced" me to follow the rest to Jakarta. I had booked a flight from Jakarta to Singapore for that Tuesday. Had we missed the flight for more than 3 days (it might have happened considering that was peak season), I may have not returned to Singapore on time and I would have had to convince the school what had happened to me.
To brighten up my mood, I joined the youths of our group seemingly led by a girl named Sachi (not her real name, it was just her self-created pseodonym). This Sachi previously had "invented" a call name for me, "Ceceh" ("Thanks", Sachi, for the name ><!) I eventually got along quite well with the friendship situation and could forget my (excessive) worry about my flight. Actually I took one picture during this moment but I chose to keep it for privacy.
And it turned out that I should not have worried too much. The replacement bus with the substitute driver eventually came. We moved all our belongings, including the baggage, into that bus. Our previous driver Resul remained with our first bus. From the interior, the bus seemed to be newer than our previous bus we had used since the first day. The bus made its way to Atatürk International Airport. Before reaching the terminal, the German family that joined us from a transit hotel in the airport area was dropped to that hotel. The rest of us said goodbye to them before continuing our journey to the international departure terminal of Atatürk International Airport.
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| Signs that certainly belong to an airport |
Upon reaching the international departure terminal, Ümit immediately left us for the city, while Murat would be helping us with check-in procedures. Murat himself was to pick up a Christian pilgrimage group from Indonesia arriving from Rome that night, after all of us got our boarding passes. Murat reminded us that the metal detector of the terminal was very sensitive so we were reminded to remove all metal items from our body, including belts, mobile phones and cameras. While we were busy with that and with check-in procedures, I took no picture of terminal building before check-in was completed.
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| But I managed to get this picture while helping to lift those trunks :) |
Finally, check-in was completed and we made our way to the immigration. The immigration officers who stamped our passports were all police officers in their uniform. In Turkey, all immigration checkpoints are managed by the police.
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| The departure area of Atatürk International Airport |
I tried to spend my last Turkish liras in buying food and mineral water from the vending machine. I assumed it was insufficient to buy from the duty free shop. However I did not manage to spend all of them, there are still 25 liras left.
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| Our departure gate |
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| Our aeroplane, Turkish Airlines Airbus A330-300 TC-JNR (Haliç/Golden Horn) as TK 66 bound to Singapore and Jakarta |
Saturday, 7 July 2012
We then boarded the plane for the long journey back to Singapore and Jakarta at around midnight. The journey took approximately 11 hours to Singapore and another one hour and a half to Jakarta. The full flight report (in Indonesian, with some of Part 6 included) is available at Indoflyer.net.
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| The boarding scene |
The in-flight service itself was not so good, at least not better than the departure journey. Firstly, they somehow forgot to put my pillow on my seat so I had to ask a passing flight attendant, they acted promptly. Secondly, they also forgot to put my earphone for my seat. They also missed my row when distributing menu card. I went to the back galley to ask for both items to two flight attendants there. They provided me with menu card, but they asked me my seat number, which I forgot, to give the earphone to me. One flight attendant said that he remembered me and my seat but never returned with my earphone :(
What can entertain me on board were only the moving map of the in-flight entertainment and of course, the meals. I really compliment Turkish Airlines for their meal on board, which "wiped" my disappointment regarding their service. Here are they for the Istanbul to Singapore flight:
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| Late dinner or breakfast in Singapore time (pick one of two): zucchini, wine leaves, eggplant, stuffed with ground meat (beef), artichoke in olive oil, assorted cheese, and apple strudel |
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| Breakfast, or lunch time in Singapore time (only one set for all passengers): scrambled egg, spinach börek, grilled tomato, and yoghurt with muesli |
There was an unforgettable experience while in the airspace of Malay Peninsula. Seat belt signs are kept turned on so that passengers tended to ignore it. There was a sudden turbulence causing the aeroplane to shake. We were startled by this, but fortunately my seat belt was fastened. However, not until five minutes,
Whoooosh...
The plane fell freely to lower altitude (I did not know how many feet it went down). No prior announcement was made regarding expected turbulence, but after the incident, they did make announcement to return to our seats and fasten our seat belts (it was too late already). Luckily, the flight resumed normally all meals had been cleared from our tray tables, but I felt sorry for those two of our group who were in lavatories during the free fall :( I just knew about this when my mother told me before we left Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, Jakarta.
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| A notorious airport for me |
We landed safely at Singapore Changi Airport and parked by Terminal 1. There was not much time for us there before we re-boarded the plane to continue our journey to Jakarta. After we re-boarded the plane, the rain became heavier and our pushback was delayed up to one hour. Again, no prior announcement regarding this. The crew seemed to be always late when dealing with flight operation stuffs like this.
After the rain got lighter, we finally lined up for take off. We would surely arrive late in Jakarta, at least one hour behind schedule.
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| Sour cherry cake that I chose during the Singapore to Jakarta flight |
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| Last shot before I turned off my digital camera due to low battery |
After the very long flight, finally our plane landed safely at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, Jakarta. We disembarked the plane and gathered as a group, for the last time, before heading to the immigration and baggage claim. During this time, all of us bade farewell to one another and exchanged contact details. The trip was finally officially over.
Epilogue
I would thank God for everything. I would also thank my dad who had been willing to render this trip come true, my mom and my sister who had helped me packing for the journey. Also, I would like to thank my research supervisor Assoc Prof. Ng, who had granted me leave for my trip. I would also thank those who had been responsible for us during this trip, especially our tour leader Stevia, who had been with us since our departure from to our arrival and our local guide Ümit, who had been telling us about the places we visited in detail, as well as our driver Resul, who had been with us until the incident happened. And finally, thank you for all the tour group members, who have now become friends (but I could not enumerate one by one in this blog), for the wonderful time we shared together during the vacation.
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