What a way to un-tie the 'travel burn out' feeling I was having: My Bandah Aceh Horror Story

If someone had told me that all I have to do to shake off the 'travel burn out feeling' I have been having for the past three months is to go to Bandah Aceh. I would have said, no way man/woman! But it seemed to have done its trick. Well of course, that is not what I would like to talk about here.

Bandah Aceh was NOT a place I was excited to go. Especially after a colleague told me that the hotels are not that great and that there is hardly anything to do there. Well, I thought no way would I be sent there. Am in the lower upper echelon so am sure others will be sent off rather than me. Also, I did tell my boss that 'maybe we should not be participating in the project there.' So I thought I could continue nursing my 'travel burn out feeling.'

But alas, the universe must have conspired such that my boss suddenly announced that she and I are going to Bandah Aceh and attend the meeting there. All throughout the weeks leading to our actual departure date, I was very reluctant and hardly showed any enthusiasm. Not even during the time that I thought well, I will be going with my boss, so there would hardly be anything I need to do. Of course, that perspective and that reality shifted 360 degrees when my boss told me to prepare the powerpoint presentation and then the day before we are supposed to go, she decided she will not go with me at all. So true to my 'very zen' spirit, I took the news calmly and told myself that what could be the worst thing that could happen to me there, except work, work and work.

Alas, once again, my intution is really strong and getting stronger these days. First, I went to the wrong terminal at Changi airport. Good thing, the skytrain was already operating so I had to slug out my luggage from terminal 1 to terminal 2. Then the bad news started to come in! Although am carrying 4 tickets, my name was not on the passengers' list. That was the start of a nightmare. Really! How could it happen that am carrying tickets and I cannot board because my name is not on their list? Of course, I had to breathe down on someone and who else but a colleague who helped me book my ticket. Good thing SilkAir is very efficient and is known for good service. Of course it helped that I am a member of Krisflyer so they were able to ensure that I could be on that plane, from Singapore to Medan. The ground stewardess did caution me that I might have a problem in Medan as I will be taking a domestic flight. And to think that I only have 35 minutes transit time, from the international airport through the immigration to the domestic airport. Well, I informed my colleague to alert our travel agent of my situation.

Then the second horror came. First, the plane landed on the end of the international airport, which means I had to walk quite a bit of a distance to go to the domestic airport. Please take note that this was my first time to be traveling to Medan, so I had to literallly run and ask quickly along the way, to be able to decipher where I should be heading to. Anyway, I was inside the domestic airport by 9.15 am. And suprise surpise! My name is not on the passenger list. Now how can Garuda Singapore issue me a ticket and not put my name on the passenger list? Up to now, I still cannot imagine how could this have happened. Well I was told not to expect good service, but really, I thought it is a simple matter and one that does not require extra effort. When an airline issues a ticket, does it not follow that my name should have been put in their system? For the life of me, I never had this experience before. Though of course, I had kinda felt already that something not good will happen to me and even my first trip to Jakarta was not that great (about five years ago), so maybe I should not be surprised eh?

But how not to be suprised and more importantly how to keep your cool and not be agitated in the midst of the reality that the plane is about to leave Medan to go to Bandah Aceh and am stuck in an airport and is not being allowed board the plane. I kept saying to the ground steward (of course, all the ground stewardesses had to refer back to this guy), that I need to be on that plane that is about to leave (by this time, it was already 9.35 am). And he kept telling me that the only way I can be on that plane is for me to pay additional fare for an upgrade to a business class ticket. What the.....of course, I could not help but be unladylike and really just had to swear....In the end I did pay that fare but only after having the assurance from our travel agent that Garuda office in Singapore will take care of this additional payment once I get back.

Good thing am a seasoned traveler by now.....And I was so sorry that I had to beat the queue just to be able to make sure I could get on the 9.40 flight. Of course, they had to escort me already and the flight was delayed because of me. Good thing I was sitting on the business class section, so very few people realized I was the culprit.

Anyway, that was just the start of a horror story. Of course, there was much more that happened while I was there, but most of it, are manageable and something I could accept, now that am back here. I would not want to sound more like a local by giving a litany of all the things that are not nice at the hotel and my four day stay there.

But I wished I could have had the chance to see a bit of Bandah Aceh. I mean I only saw the hotel where we stayed and that half day field visit to Lamnga. We did not even have the chance to get down and soak in the beach or at least walk along its shore and utter a prayer of healing and forgiveness for those who have sufffered from the tsunami.

I guess that could mean I will be going back soon. And I hope that when this happens, the horror story will not be repeated and of course, I also hope the 'eye candy' will also be around to make the stay interesting and fun!

I visited Bandah Aceh, Indonesia last April 2006