Temporary Accommodation

Alhamdulillah.

HQ have approved my temporary accommodation. I was quite apprehensive when submitting the list of serviced apartments which I had painstakingly searched via the internet. I was worried my CFO would jump upon seeing the rates.

Well, she didn't. She sent an SMS at 10 pm on the same day asking me to proceed with the cheapest on the list.

You know what? Sometimes I feel like I'm in the U.S of A. All serviced apartments quoted me in USD. Although I did speak to them in good Bahasa Indonesia. When asked for the rupiah rates, they simply convert them based on current exchange rate.

I seriously think that some Indonesians "worship" USD a bit too much. For instance, I was at a PC fair the other day. Most laptops were sold in USD. Have you seen the travel agency ads for overseas tour packages? They're in USD. My two previous accommodations were charged in USD.

It's as if they have no confidence in their own currency.

Did you know that rupiah depreciated almost 35% against the USD since September? Whereas, currencies of some ASEAN neighbours fell between 3%-9% during the same period. Ehmmmm........

Anyway, remember my utter frustration with Air Asia? I finally got to speak to their customer care personnel. She said the plane which was scheduled for the morning flight had some technical problems and had to be repaired. That's why morning flight passengers that day had to be moved to the afternoon flight.

I never bought her explanation. I remember telling PB that I suspect Air Asia deliberately cancelled the morning flight that day because too few seats were sold which had made that particular morning's flight to Jogja unprofitable.

And this morning, I checked Air Asia website and clicked the flight schedule for Jkt-Jogja route. Surprise! Surprise! The morning flight is no longer there!!

I reckon I was a victim of Air Asia's trial period. At the time, the Jkt-Jogja route was newly introduced. So, after initially offering the morning flights to only find out from the bookings that they're not profitable, Air Asia decided to scrap the morning flight and fly only once daily to Jogja from Jkt. And during the whole trial process, I believe they've screwed up a lot of people.

My boss said this morning that Air Asia X has started selling the KL-London tickets.... I'd say let them screw up others first before I decide to purchase that ticket.

To my dear university mates - thinking of having a reunion at Albert Road's Bombay Express? Goshhh!! ... how I miss their Chicken Tika Massala.