Blog Besar Jakarta, Day 1 - 7th September 2007

Assalamualaikum and Greetings,

Folks, sorry it took a while to update our blogspace. We had just came back from a monstrously fun show in Jakarta on 8th Sept 2007, and we are glad that the trip began and ended well, with lots of new friends made. I will write up the blogs, one day at a time as not to bore you guys. Let's start with Day 1 - 7th September 2007.

All of Wynken Delirium gathered in Larkin bus station at 11.00 am together with Damokis. We waited for a while for Bob (Damokis' vocalist) while he rushed home to get his wife's passport, and we boarded the bus at about 12 noon.

We travelled to Eunos to have a super-grindcore-lightning-fast lunch (mucho thanks to Bob - Damokis' guitarist - and family!), and from there took cabs to Changi Airport. We checked in at about 4.00 pm, and board the plane at about 4.55 pm. All went smoothly according to schedule. We took Lufthansa.

In the plane, we all ended up sitting on the few last rows of seats located at the tail end of the plane. It was here that funny incidents started to happen.

Ajax wondered why his seat was marked 54E and Zaihas' was 54D, and wanted his seat number to be the same as Zaihas'. Zaihas was not willing to have Ajax sit on him through the flight- if that was what he wanted!

Muhairi (Damokis' bassist) suddenly panicked- he did not know how to open the seat belt he had just fastened!

Wan (Damokis' guitarist) sat in someone else's place and practically shoo-ed the seat owner and his girlfriend to the other side!

Midway through the flight, we were served croissant and cheese. It was exceptionally yummy, and Fad was already eyeing a lady who did not eat her meal to see if he could secure that other croissant and cheese too. He was also wondering if the croissant and cheese tasted better with chilli sauce.

Ajax came to the rescue. As he waved his pack of wet towel (which looked like an extra large pack of condiment), he innocently said, "Here's the chilli sauce you need". The rest of the people laughed like crazy!

Then a couple of people stood up to go to the restroom which was located very near where we were seated. Ajax was surprised to know that actually planes have restrooms inside them. Another round of giggles ensued!

As we were nearing Jakarta, the plane hit a few air pockets, and this caused the plane (especially the tail, where we were seated) to tremble. It was a bit unnerving, and most of the passengers chose to keep quiet. Suddenly Bob (Damokis' vocalist) exclaimed loudly, "Roller Coaster!" and we all laughed like nutters!

We reached Soekarno-Hatta Airport at about 5.35 pm WIB (or 6.35 pm Malaysian time). Shah managed to grab his guitar which was almost placed in the "Lost And Found" section of the airport- phew! Robin (Noxa's drummer) was already waiting at the nearby McDonald's and proceeded to assist us to put our luggage into the waiting van.

We snailpaced through Jakarta's heavy work evening traffic and reached Blok M about 3 hours later, tired and hungry. Harris had hot bum from sitting on top of the van engine too long, while Zaihas and Bob (Damokis' vocalist) ended up talking to each other in Pingu language from the long journey. Fad, surprisingly, had a good snore session through it all.

The van stopped by Blok M, and there was this row of stalls in which Robin invited us to drop by and have our dinner- thanks Robin! We had a good meal, and the bands discovered the good Tehbotol Sosro - we drank like 30 bottles!

We were then sent to Hotel Wisata Indah in Kemang, and we offloaded our stuff into our respective hotel rooms. We bathed, changed, prayed, and slept. Uhm, more like, we tried to sleep. Suddenly there were these really loud splashes of water from the nearby swimming pool. We thought we heard whales. No, they were Muhairi, Bob, Wan, and Bobby, swimming around happily way past midnight!

Zaihas and Ajax took the time to pack the merchandise we brought with us and also cut the stickers we brought to size. We passed some stuff to Damokis, and we had a good night's sleep.