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.
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.
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.
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…
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.
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.
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.
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.
And we were parked at Terminal 2, again at a dual-aircraft gate.
Disembarking.
Thanks for reading. Your comments are very much welcomed!
Thanks for sharing, Silk Air looks like a decent option in the south east of Asia.
Good tourist bonus; the last two pictures of the Kraton were actually taken at Water Palace.
Nam Air is a a recent subsidiary of Srijiwaya Air - there was several pages about them in SJ's in flight magazine.
Thanks for this FR !