Jakarta Tales Vol 1: The Eagle Has Landed!
Secondly, the explanation for the same. The fact is I had written a 5000-word email last night but couldn't send it because I accidentally deleted all of it in the "Compose" box. Trust me to do it! Anyways, this is Act Two of the mail.
Thirdly, a warning. This is gonna be one marathon of an email. You can choose to run with me or walk over to your next email. Both are fine with me :)
KOLKATA TO SINGAPORE
Well, I've been going through a roller-coaster ride of emotions and reactions ever since the time I left home for the airport. It started with a tearful and long hug with my father at home which continued at the NSCBI Kolkata airport with my brother playing "Tragedy King" Dilip Kumar saying "Ae bhai." and my friends playing Jim Carrey and making it a "rape" sequence.
Gosh, how much I miss my dad, mom and bro. In fact, life has been so cruel that I couldn't even see my mother the day I left for Jakarta. And how much I miss my "Trust Me, I AM Bad" legacy of friends (guys, you'll are the world's best bunch of friends one could have and I don't know how I'm gonna survive out here without you (Mark, relax, I'm still straight and I'm still not interested in you.. hehe). The other bunch of people I miss a lot is my gang at Bates. Awww, the fun we had :)
After the prologue, the monologue.
I arrived at Jakarta at 8:30am (local time, 6:30am India Time) on Sunday, 9th April. Since then, in a nutshell, I've seen sprawling malls, skyscrapers, garbage, poverty, roadside stalls, Starbucks, cooked squids (my first reaction was "Oh my God! There's a fucking octopus on my table"), fried cow brains, fancycars, lovely and friendly people, bad infrastructure and a lot of humidity. I repeat, a lot of humidity. Believe me, Kolkata is heaven compared to this place when it comes to the weather.
Anyways, now the entire story in more detail.
The flight from Kolkata to Singapore was good. After all, it was Singapore Airlines. Managed to see the film "Syriana" on the flight (it's a fantastic movie). Apart from that, the service was excellent and the airhostesses sexy! In my efforts to get a window seat, I was hoping one of them would give me the heat ;) Didn't happen. The loser that I am, didn't even manage to get a phone number :) Got the window seat, though. By the way, all of you back in Kolkata who think Chinkies aren't cute, think again. You haven't seen South East Asian women. Whoa!
We landed at Changi International, Singapore at 6:30am amidst torrential rains and it was still dark! All I could make out was that it was huge considering the pilot took 20 minutes to find the right gate. When I entered the airport, I was left flabbergasted, amazed, awe-struck, astonished and stunned! I had never seen anything like it before. State-of-the-art and massive are understatements. I thought I had landed at a shopping mall that was never-ending (you actually can't see from one end to the other). Imagine, they have guide charts on the walls to tell you what you can do to spend time at the airport! And was it 7am? Nah, must have been prime time. It was so busy. Looked like the Singapore Shopping Festival was on.
Travellators, shopping malls, supermarkets, multiplexes, swimming pools, suites, spas, clubs, pubs, innumerable arrival and departure gates, carpeted floors, free Internet on PCs attached to pillars, gardens, you name it, they've got it! I was wondering whether people actually stepped out of this place because I really didn't see the need to. What on earth could be available outside when everything you could think of was here itself?! Well, I did step outside for a little while and went around the airport area. Wow, it's so organized! You would think you're in some other world. The traffic is quiet, no honking (well, may also be coz it was 7am) and things seem to be in order, unlike our Bharat Mata :)
I also realized that all of it came at a price, and a heavy one! The place was frightfully expensive! My thrift cost me 10USD at Starbucks. A day later, I realized the same thing cost 1/3rd the price at a Starbucks in Jakarta. But what was common to both was the thrill I got of being at the world's first and true coffee drinking experience.
More... coming soon
From ur favourite Indian in Jakarta
Yousuf
