To confess I was slightly rushing my way to immigration as I was worried about the queues at the counters, that are synonymous with evening flights. But no. I’m not even kidding, there was almost no one at immigration. I take the APEC lane and was surprised to see that the normal immigration queues were just as short as the APEC queue.
But to get through immigration so quickly probably unfairly raised my hopes about luggage collection. Of course 15mins after getting the baggage carousel I was still waiting for my luggage. I didn’t want to take check in, but I was carrying too much so needed to check in at least some of my gear.
Finally, after my luggage finally emerged I dragged it past customs (through an x ray machine) and out into the arrivals hall.
Now to find a taxi.
Taxis are one of those perennial problems that I face when going to unfamiliar countries. I realise that many locals use taxis without any issues, but exactly because they are local. Most of the time I don’t speak the local language, and even worse, when I open my mouth, it is almost as if people assume that money is pouring out!! This tends to make me a prime target for touts so I have to be on my guard when I’m arriving at an airport.
Jakarta airport is no different. As you make your way out of the arrivals hall you end up with many people trying to tout for business or to “help” carry your luggage. I was originally going to buy a SIM card at the airport, but received advice from invisible at FlyerTalk to buy it once I get into town as it would be significantly more expensive in the airport.
I had read prior to getting the Jakarta that there a several reasonably safe/reliable taxi companies that service CGK.
Silver Bird
Blue Bird
Ekspress
These have their separate taxi ranks at the terminal, and to get one of these taxis you need to queue up. From my previous research I found out that Silver Bird was the most expensive, followed by Blue Bird, and lastly Ekspress being the cheapest. I originally thought I would get the Silver Bird as it was most likely the driver spoke English, but as soon as I exited the arrivals hall, I saw the sign below.
There was an official looking guy in the Blue Bird uniform who was taking taxi numbers down and also helping with loading luggage into the taxis, so I thought I would just grab this and hopped into the next available taxi to take me to my hotel. Again, as was the case with immigration, virtually no queue!
By this time I was pretty pooped so just focused on staying awake as I didn’t want to taken for a complete ride. I can’t even remember how many toll booths I went through but I think it came to 25k IDR for tolls; and then about 200k IDR for the trip.
Next up: My review of the Mulia Hotel!
As usual, please feel free to comment while you are waiting for the rest of the TR!!!!
You can find the trip report for this leg of my journey on
this globetrekka website post