A Short Story - My Journey to London

Hi guyssss….. I’m backkkk!

I had been waiting for a lecture this morning and after almost one hour; some of students went out of the class since no lecturer came. Herdy and I finally followed them after trying to understand two Italian guys speaking, which was useless ;-D

I really apologize that you guys must have been waiting for my story for a while. My reason is simply because I’m still adapting with my new chapter of life. Being far from my family is really hard for me. I can’t tell you in words but maybe only mothers who can understand what it is like.

I don’t want to share flowery stories to you guys…. At first, I thought that I had a lot of reasons to motivate me doing this, but after being here, alone, the first question which crossed on my mind was “What am I doing here?” and followed by a lot of similar questions like “Why do I have to leave my son?” “Is this worth it for my family, and my son?”

Aaarrrrghhh… I know those are silly questions and no point at all, but… that happened to me!

Life goes on.. And I have to remember it whenever I’m in tears.. andddd here I am! Starting to write again for you and I thank God that I still have you guys to share my story with.

Journey to London – Part 1

This was my first flight abroad and I was quite nervous. I drank a little because I didn’t want to take a pee in plane’s toilet, and even poop (sorry). First, I have no experience with that and second, I was afraid to sit on the closet since there must be many people sitting on it (they may provide some toilet papers though, but for me yaaa like that lah..)

At the first flight, I sat on a seat near emergency exit door. Consequently, there is no seat in front of my seat and I was confused how to watch tv and enjoy my meals. After observing a passenger next to me, one way to release the tv is by pushing release knob near you right leg and then pull it out and adjust the position until you are comfortable. For the table, open the handhold on your right hand side and pull the folded table out and adjust the position. Those are important lessons for me since I’m too ndeso and katrok! :D

My second flight to London Heathrow was more comfortable for me. I was able to enjoy it more than my first flight. When I arrived at London Heathrow Airport, I found that the rest room really sucks for me. No water for flushing, not like in Indonesia and Abu Dhabi Airport. Thankfully, I brought an empty bottle with me so I filled it with water for flushing. Flushing here means flushing for women yaa! This is also (private) important lesson for me :D

Another lesson is about taxi driver. The driver was not friendly and he drove like crazy, not even better than Indonesian taxi driver. The taxi here drives you to one destination only. At that time, he drove us to my guesthouse and didn’t want to drive a bit far to Herdy’s guesthouse. So Herdy had to geret-geret his suitcase to his guesthouse in the dark! (So sorry bro..)

Finally, I have done my first short story about my trip to London. I have got to go to Uxbridge city center now to open a new account in Lloyd Bank. Be prepared ya for some of you who will depart soon to the UK! Prepare yourself mentally and physically… See you around!

Lots of kisses and hugs,

Dewi

Second Part of My Journey

To my fellow compatriots, this is the second part of my journey from Jakarta to London.

Before I continue, I forgot tell you something else before I went into the waiting room. To anticipate any flight delay which has happened to our friend Rizwan from Batch IV in Abu Dhabi, I decided to buy some US$ at the airport. I would have needed it in case the flight got delayed in Abu Dhabi, to buy some food or water, because the most common currency used in any airport in the world is US$. Even though euro and pounds are sometimes acceptable too, the price on the displayed items is usually in US$. I spent all of my remaining rupiahs to buy US$ and I got US$ 13, which I later did not use.

To answer someone’s question in WA group about bank notes and bank draft: Bank notes is like the money that we can hold in the form of coins or paper, while bank draft is like a piece of paper that order the bank to pay some money to a particular recipient which has been stated on the bank draft itself.

I had no interesting story while in Jakarta – Abu Dhabi flight other than the man who sat next to me offered me to invest in some land investments. He was a businessmen travelling to Jeddah to do umrah. He knows all the high echelons in Jawa Timur I Regional Office. He also had some tax education mobile applications that the wanted to offer to Mbak Nina’s department. Because I am just a low level employee, I couldn’t offer him anything other than my contact details and a prayer that he might become successful in his endeavor relating to DJP.

I have been to Abu Dhabi airport before, but I still forgot that the terminal for my next flight is so far away, thus if you have a heavy luggage that you bring into the cabin, It might be better to use the small trolley that can be found anywhere there. While I was going into the waiting room I got stopped by a woman officer who asked me if I got a laptop. She was not checking for piracy materials, she just scanned it with the machine and because I don’t have any adult content in my documents so I was let go :D. At first, I was confused because not many passengers experience it. I noticed Dewi didn’t have to do it also. After some observation, I was glad, and I found it was natural that my bags and laptop was inspected, because all of the people who got stopped were man and we were all very handsome :D

Again for me, nothing interesting happened in the Abu Dhabi - London flight other than the Bulgarian woman who sat next to me who was sleeping and snoring quite loud during the flight. I had to fill in some immigration form when the plane was almost landed. You can fill it at the airport when you land or in the plane. To fasten your immigration checking process, I suggest you fill it while you are on the plane like I did. The queue was very long but the process is quick so it didn’t take a lot of time to pass it. The process comprise of standard conversation such as, what will you do in the UK and where will you study. The only documents they ask were my passport and the aforementioned immigration form.

Similar to what I did in Jakarta, I had to report that I was bringing a lot of money. If you intend to do that, in Indonesia, just visit this link https://public-online.hmrc.gov.uk/lc/content/xfaforms/profiles/forms.html?contentRoot=repository:///Applications/Customs/1.0/C9011&template=C9011.xdp, fill the form online, and print it twice. I went to the declaration room and give one copy to an officer; they will stamp the other copy that you have to keep, in case you need it to explain that you bring in the cash according to the rule.

I got out and waited for my luggage. Unfortunately, my luggage handler has been broken. But because the suitcase was given to me, I did not feel too upset about it. After hearing about Esra’s missing luggage, I thanked God that my suitcase was only broken, not lost (sorry bro) :D I immediately search for phone card store because I had promised my wife that the first thing I buy would be a UK phone number so our communication will be well maintained. I didn’t find any seller, but it turned out the phone card here is sold in a vending machine. There were many providers, but I think the benefit that I would get were somehow similar, eventually I chose Vodafone.

In the next few days, my partner or I will write the next part of the journey. Right now, I have to cook my cornflake :D

Bye for now fellas.

Kind Regards



Herdy G.G. Pomantow

First Part of My Journey

Jakarta – London, 1^st of SPIRIT MOF Batch V,  Part I

I cannot begin to think where to start this journey. For purposes of maintaining my macho image, I will skip the tear-jerking moments throughout the entire experience :D.

Let’s start with the pre-departure preparation. I used the online check in option provided by Etihad, so I could choose where I would sit in 24 to 2 hours before I departed. There are two flights that I took, the first one is Jakarta – Abu Dhabi and the next one is Abu Dhabi – London, so I choose my seat twice. On the Etihad website, I could see that Dewi had chosen her seat for the latter flight but not for the first flight. I could see that maybe because we had the same ticket number. Most of the seats had already been taken by someone else, so I only had few options. Luckily, there were still some aisle-seats remain in each flight that I could choose. I took it because it is a long flight and I wanted to be able to go to the toilet freely. Some bumps from the flight attendants and a closer observation of them are also expected :D.

Our flight was scheduled to take off at 1.40 am, but to make sure that I had enough time to arrange for everything, I arrived at the airport somewhere before 11 am. Dewi had arrived before that. I met her and we introduce our family to each other. After saying my goodbye to my family, I went to the check in counter. I paid 150,000 rupiahs for the airport tax. I had a feeling that my baggage will be more than 30 kilos and my feeling was justified. I had to move 2 kilos of things from my suitcase and put it in my backpack (there goes the room in my backpack for the plane’s blanket that I intend to take :D).

I was bringing a lot of cash (bank notes and bank draft) because I don’t want to pay for the transfer fee. I had taken a bank draft to pay for my tuition fee and approximately 9,000 pounds in cash for my living cost. According to the rules, I have to declare the money I took with me on a flight to other countries if it is more than 100,000,000 rupiahs and/or its equivalent in other currencies. Therefore, I went looking for the customs office. I found it and the officer told me that I had to fill in some forms and they did not provide it, I had to prepare it myself he said. Customs at the airport is not like the tax office where you could find any form you need. (@Fajar, you should do something about this). I complaint because I had the goodwill to declare something and my beloved country, whose rules I obey, cannot provide me the means I need. He called his boss and he was told to just let me take the cash with me. I wanted to tell him to find the forms for me but because it was midnight I didn’t do it, and also because we work for the same institution and he was quite good-looking :D.

I went to the waiting room after that. I leave the next part to my partner in crime. Take it Dew :D.

Kind Regards


Herdy G.G. Pomantow