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Experiencing Jogja via SilkAir

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  • Experiencing Jogja via SilkAir

    It has been a rather hectic month for me at work recently, and within the busy schedule, I was required to go to Yogyakarta, or more commonly known as Jogja, in Indonesia for some work-related matters with some colleagues for 5 days. This work trip also allowed me to experience some sights of Jogja, which will be shared here as well.

    As usual, online check-in was done earlier and we dropped our bags at Terminal 2 slightly more than an hour prior to departure on a Sunday morning. During booking of flights just a week prior to travel, our travel agent had informed that the flight was almost full and only had 6 full-fare economy tickets left (thus our tickets costing an exorbitant amount) but later on during the flight, the cabin was barely more than half full! Not sure why the huge difference.

    Boarding pass issued.




    Through immigration with no hassles. Many MI planes were awaiting their morning departures, including the MI's 1st B738 in MI's 25th anniversary livery.




    Departing from E24 today, which was also shared with Tiger's flight to Male departing at a slightly later time. This gate is one of the few gates in T2 where 2 narrow-body aircraft can be parked together using separate arms of the aerobridge.




    Our A320, 9V-SLG, parked at the gate, with TR's A320 parked at the other arm.




    Boarding started soon after.





    14 September 2014
    SilkAir
    MI 152
    Singapore (SIN) - Yogyakarta (JOG)
    A320
    9V-SLG
    Economy Class


    Welcomed at the door and passed the 12-seater Business Class cabin which seemed comfortable enough for short flights. However, how MI justify premium fares on these seats on flights more than 4hrs is beyond me.




    Reached my seat at the 2nd row of economy, with decent legroom. Pillows and blankets were available in the overhead bins and I helped myself to them.




    An AI Dreamliner was parked beside, and another beside it!




    Inflight magazine, duty-free and safety card.




    This aircraft is equipped with SilkAir Studio, SilkAir's wireless streaming entertainment system. The guide to using the system can be found in the seat pocket as well.






    Crew first came down offering newspapers, followed by an additional frill, hot towels nope, but packaged wet towelettes. Well, it is the thought that counts...

    Last edited by ycp81; 28 September 2014, 10:41 PM.
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  • #2
    With the light load, doors were closed early and we pushed back on time. Safety demo was shown manually as the safety video decided to go on strike and hanged whenever it was started. Tough luck for the crew. Guess some refresher safety demo training for them haha. Flight time estimated to be 1h50m.




    We taxied to Rwy20C for takeoff this morning.




    Can you spot the 3 Dreamliners?




    After a bit of a wait due to heavy traffic, we took off.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWQn...rW0dYXoZc9I2ZA


    Flying over Batam.




    After takeoff announcements.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXfb...rW0dYXoZc9I2ZA


    Our cruising altitude was announced to be 36000ft.




    The selection for SilkAir Studio was printed in the inflight magazine. Not too many choices but enough to keep one entertained on a short flight, provided you have a smartphone, tablet of laptop to stream the entertainment, and of course enough battery juice as there are no power ports in economy.








    Shortly after takeoff, breakfast was served. Being seated at the front, we were one of the first to be served by the crew. We were offered a choice of Pancakes with vanilla sauce and peach compote or Spicy chicken with noodles. Along with the meal was just a warm roll with butter and a cup of water. I requested for a coffee and an orange juice.




    Chose the pancakes, which was nothing memorable. A few small pieces of pancakes with canned-fruit mix and vanilla sauce below. It felt kind of cheap...




    My colleague had the other choice, where the noodles turned out to be beehoon aka thin rice noodles. According to him, not too great either as the bee hoon was almost tasteless.




    After the meal trays were collected, I decided to try out SilkAir Studio and downloaded the app on my Samsung S3 handphone.

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    • #3
      Some of the movie selections






      Short features






      I settled for the popular Singaporean comedy series "The Noose". Streaming of the contents were rather smooth.




      Who don't love the oh-so-famous Lulu!!




      Music CD selections are also available.




      For passengers with no streaming devices, silent short features were also shown on drop-down screens.




      View of the cabin, which was about 60% full.




      Some views during the flight.






      Soon, we started our descent, flying along the coast.

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      • #4
        Approaching Jogja, flying over the densely populated city.




        Flying over the main shopping strip Malioboro, with the palace "Kraton" just ahead.




        Our hotel, Jambuluwuk Malioboro, which is the white building sticking out among the low-rises, can be seen.




        Nearly there... The airport is located smack in the middle of the city.




        And touchdown on Rwy09 almost 20min early.




        See the video of the entire approach and landing into Yogyakarta here.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7lH...rW0dYXoZc9I2ZA


        Just a short taxi to the small terminal building with 8 parking bays. The airport may be small, but the air traffic is definitely heavy!




        Parked at our stand. No aerobridges at JOG and all flights have to be disembarked via stairs.




        Disembarking.






        And a stroll to the terminal building.




        Citilink, Garuda's LCC arm, beside us.




        Sriwijaya Air pulling into stand.




        It was a comfortable short-haul flight on SilkAir, with decent seat pitch, sufficient amenities and slightly better than before entertainment options. Service was good as usual but catering was a bit of letdown, considering that MI fares are similar to or even higher than SQ on regional routes. Still, it was a comfortable enough way to fly for short-hauls.
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        • #5
          Lunch after arrival.




          Thanks to SilkAir's 3x weekly schedule, we arrived on a Sunday and thus was able to spend the day exploring some sights. How can any trip to Jogja be without going to the Borobudor Temple, one of the World Heritage sites and the biggest Buddhist temple in South-east Asia!!




















          We stayed at Jambuluwuk Malioboro Hotel, where I had a really spacious room!




          And what can a trip to Indonesia be without at least a meal of A&W!

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          • #6
            Visit to Merapi, where a mini-museum showcases the ferocity of the 2010 eruption.










            "Alien stone" from Merapi




            Trucks were constantly loading and ferrying away the rich lava sand from the lava valley.




            Unfortunately, Merapi was hidden in the clouds.




            Visit to the palace "Kraton" and fountains.









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            • #7
              Another highlight of Jogja is Prambanam Temple, which we got to visit on our last evening in Jogja. It was simply stunning!
















              And some of the food we had in Jogja.









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              • #8
                Very nice review.

                I have to agree with you, I myself wonder how they justify premium fares on those business class seats everytime in enter an MI plane.

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                • #9
                  Now for the return journey. Online check-in was performed earlier but on the day of departure, I was informed via SMS (at the ungodly hour of 4am in the morning) from SilkAir that our flight has been re-timed and would be departing at 1120am instead of the scheduled 1015am. Checking the Changi Airport app, it seems that an arrival SQ flight from Paris into SIN was delayed for a couple of hours and hence I guessed our flight was also delayed to accommodate the connecting passengers flying SIN-JOG. At least MI informed us of the re-timing of flight and we can proceed to the airport slightly later.

                  Arriving at Jogja's small but busy airport.




                  Did some plane-spotting. Citilink Sharklet A320.




                  Garuda B738




                  An airline I have not seen before, NamAir.




                  GA taxiing for departure. JOG was really busy this morning!




                  Our aircraft finally landed after a further delay due to heavy arrival traffic.




                  Finally boarding started at 1110am for our 1120am retimed departure. Again, needed to walked on the tarmac to our aircraft. A QZ A320 just arrived and the engines were deafening!




                  A couple of Lions at the other end of the apron.




                  Walking past the Citilink which was still awaiting pushback.





                  19 September 2014
                  SilkAir
                  MI 152
                  Yogyakarta (JOG) - Singapore (SIN)
                  A320
                  9V-SLM
                  Economy Class


                  Our aircraft, 9V-SLM, awaits.






                  Up the stairs.

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                  • #10
                    Passed the Business Class cabin again, where the seat pitch at the normal rows did not seemed too generous.




                    Settled into my seat at 6A, second row of economy again.




                    Out the window, with Citilink still waiting for pusback clearance.




                    Boarding was completed within 10mins, and this was the reason why. Less than 40 passengers on this flight! Certainly a very relaxed return sector for the 7 cabin crew onboard (2 pursers and 5 other crew)!




                    As with the norm SilkAir routine, newspapers and wet towelettes were offered. Interestingly, there were 2 Korean SilkAir stewardesses onboard this flight! Didn't knew that there are Korean crew in SilkAir as well.




                    Doors closed and safety video was played. However we weren't going anywhere as due to congestion, we could only pushback 30min later. Well, not SilkAir's fault...

                    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dsf...rW0dYXoZc9I2ZA


                    A special livery AK A320 took up Citthe spot beside after the previous aircraft had pushed back.




                    Finally at 12pm, we pushed back and started taxi.




                    Only to hold again for more aircraft to land. A GA B738 landed.






                    Followed by a LionAir B739ER.




                    Then it was our turn. Backtracked down the runway and made a 180 degrees turn.






                    And we finally departed from JOG Rwy09 two hours behind the original schedule! See the video for the taxi and takeoff.

                    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fY_q...rW0dYXoZc9I2ZA
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                    • #11
                      Lift off from Jogja.






                      Making a steep left turn immediately after takeoff.




                      JOG can be seen in the distance. Notice how small the parking apron is. JOG is long due for expansion!






                      Climbing higher.






                      Announcements from the crew on the inflight service.

                      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIvB...rW0dYXoZc9I2ZA


                      Lunch was served shortly after, again starting from the front of the cabin. Only a single cart was used on this flight due to the very light load. 2 crew serving meals, 1 standing behind to attend to ad-hoc requests (eg. bringing me my Coke Light from the galley, which was not available on the meal cart) and another was working in the galley. And 3 other crew were attending to the only 2-3 pax in Business Class. Wow, really overstaffed on this flight!




                      Lunch received. The tray came with fruits, which has been the same old watermelon with canned pineapples for many years, and drinking water. Coffee/tea and other beverages were also offered.




                      My colleague had the Chicken with Orzo pasta. He commented that it tasted fine.




                      I had the Curry fish with steamed rice. It actually looked better than it tasted as the fish was a bit on the bland side. However portion of the main was quite generous.




                      Leaving the coast of Java.

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                      • #12
                        Some nice clouds.




                        This aircraft was also equipped with SilkAir Studio, but I stuck with Wipeout on the drop-down screens as my phone battery was running low.




                        Requested for playing cards and was handed 4 packs of 2 different designs by the very friendly crew!




                        Some rough clouds as we started our decent.




                        Passing during descent. Spot Batam's Hang Nadim Airport.




                        Descent was very rapid and we were soon lining up for finals from the north.




                        Reclaimed land north of Tekong Island.




                        A place where all Singaporean sons will always remember. Tekong Basic Military Training Camp.




                        Nearly there...




                        And touchdown on Rwy20R at 1507hrs, 1h37m behind schedule of our STA of 1330hrs.




                        Video of approach, landing and taxi.

                        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uV8l...rW0dYXoZc9I2ZA


                        And we were parked at Terminal 2, again at a dual-aircraft gate.




                        Disembarking.




                        Apart from the re-time and subsequent delay, it was again a comfortable short-haul flight on SilkAir.

                        Thanks for reading. Your comments are very much welcomed!
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                        • #13
                          Nice report, ycp81!

                          Was this a free-n-easy trip, or a conducted tour? Looks like there is a lot to see...how easy it is it to get around if you are on your own?

                          The local food should be very interesting as well, although it looks as if it would be difficult to decide where to eat unless you had a local contact...

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                          • #14
                            Originally posted by yflyer View Post
                            Nice report, ycp81!

                            Was this a free-n-easy trip, or a conducted tour? Looks like there is a lot to see...how easy it is it to get around if you are on your own?

                            The local food should be very interesting as well, although it looks as if it would be difficult to decide where to eat unless you had a local contact...

                            Hi, I was on a working trip, so had a driver and guide to bring us around. Think it would not be easy to get around on your own as some of these sights are rather far from town.
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                            • #15
                              Originally posted by yflyer View Post
                              Nice report, ycp81!

                              Was this a free-n-easy trip, or a conducted tour? Looks like there is a lot to see...how easy it is it to get around if you are on your own?

                              The local food should be very interesting as well, although it looks as if it would be difficult to decide where to eat unless you had a local contact...
                              There is indeed a lot to see in the region, it's the centre of Javanese culture for centuries. Borobudur is a little far. Stay around there is better and visit the place first thing in the morning for a magnificent view.

                              The sights in the city itself should be all reachable by Becak. people are friendly enough and I think you will find enough help getting around. But I am not sure how widespoken is English because I speak Indonesian and I don't know what will it be like getting around without speaking Bahasa or Javanese.

                              Food is great. Be prepared for sweet flavours in most dishes.

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