Day trip to Jakarta

It’s 5:30am and I am already up, showered, dressed and waiting at the airport for my hour and a half commute over to Jakarta for the day. I will be flying in and heading straight to the Google offices over there to present at a day long event they are hosting for publishers.

            I should probably be panicking that the slides I have aren’t good enough, or that I will forget what I’m supposed to be saying half way through (in front of 50+ people), but at the moment all I can think about is having to travel through Jakarta.

            Jakarta airport is about 30 minutes by car from the office, so I should be able to get there and back to the airport this evening without any difficulties. However, Jakarta is not very good at roads and congestion, and pretty much everyone I have spoken to tells me that it can often take over two hours to travel 20 minutes down the road. What makes it even more fun is that sometimes the traffic is totally fine, and you will cover the 20 minutes without any issues at all.

            As a lover of forward planning and always being early I know that when I land at the other end I will be fine to get to the office in time for the event, my main fear is that I won’t get back to the airport in time for my flight home this evening.  If I miss my plane then I am going to be stranded in Jakarta overnight as it’s the last flight of the day. This means I am going to have to leave the office as soon as the event finishes – I may get to the airport 4 hours before my flight is due to leave. Or I may make it by the skin of my teeth. Either way, all I hope is that I can get back to Singapore at my scheduled 00:35am landing time. I’m definitely not ready to spend a night in Jakarta today!