TPE – DPS (A330-300 – China Airlines) After the typhoon
DPS – UPG (B737-800 – Garuda) Flight above a volcano
UPG - DPS (B737-800 – Garuda) I am Marathon YOU ARE HERE
DPS - TPE (A330-300 – China Airlines) After another typhoon –> to be posted very soon
The commercial failure of Rantepao’s airport was a blessing in disguise, because the eight to ten hour drive on winding roads from UPG have saved from a massive influx of tourists. We took the more expensive and comfortable option of a private car for the ride back (I did not want to take chances with our plane). The driver stopped for his lunch break in this restaurant patronized by other tourists.
These are not UPG’s landing lights, but those of the former airport, which was very close to the new one.
UPG was then brand new, and it was a stark contrast with DPS which looked very outdated, since it the new terminal had no opened yet. This was the toll at the entrance of the airport.
Two roundabouts, including one decorated with a statue of the last Sultan of Sulawesi, after whom the airport was named.
Arrival at the terminal’s drop-off area.
Since only passengers and staff are allowed inside the terminal, the sales counters of the various airlines are under a porch outside.
There is a surprising semi-makeshift shopping area under the porch roof.
The airline ticket check consists only into checking the date, that anybody could alter on an e-ticket printout.
Next comes a safety check of all luggage.
A luggage wrapping machine which had customers at 30 000 IDR (2.70 EUR) each.
A peek in the toilets, which were clean, and equipped with the small shower head which is commonplace in Muslim countries, and a sign reminding how to not use the facilities.
The hall airside was sparkling clean, but the configuration was strictly utilitarian, with a check-in bank for each airline.
It was 15:42 and the FIDS did not go beyond 15:55, but it was easy to find GA’s counters.
Garuda had dedicated a counter per flight. There was nobody waiting for Flight GA625 because it was still so early.
The check-in agent ripped off the tag which had my name and address, having mixed it with an airline tag. She apologized deeply and offered new Garuda tags. This was the uniform of her colleague.
I hate it when they stick a luggage tag on my passport – this leaves glue traces afterwards. Under the BP, this was the receipt of the 40,000 IDR (3.60 EUR) airport tax which was paid at check in, a more efficient procedure than the succession of counter and check in DPS. (This tax is now at last included in the price of the tickets).
And once we had checked our luggage, we went upstairs.
The separation of the passenger flows is only partial : like in SIN, the departing passengers reach a shopping area (I would not call them duty free, since this was the domestic flight area) where the deplaning passengers arrive too before collecting their checked luggage downstairs. On the right, this was boarding room #1, that of my flight, but there was no point in rushing inside, since once past the security check of one of these four rooms, you were stuck in a place without any services.
There were actually many flights scheduled before mine at 6pm, including some that I presumed to be boarding by buses.
The left end of the terminal (looking at the tarmac) provided an excellent view on a parking lot for ground equipment of limited interest to me.
.. and a Merpati Airlines aircraft that I could see no better than that.
The right end of the terminal was even less spotter friendly than the left one, due to a closed deplaning corridor, which meant a double window and window frame layer.
But you know plane spotters : they always try to find an unusual angle, and I found another passenger who obviously was in that category.
A word of greeting and our accent in English were enough to reveal that we were both French, which was not all that unusual, because many French tourists visit Sulawesi. The ensuing dialogue was more unusual:
- You are taking pictures for yourself only?
- For me, but I also post them on a website.
- So, maybe on Flight-Report ?
- So you know this website ? I am Marathon.
- No kidding ! I am Biaman94!
This was the most improbable fortuitous airport meeting in Year 2 of Flight Report: although I had booked my flights and hotels directly myself, he was on the same flight, had stayed in the same hotel in Rantepao… and stopped in the same restaurant at the same time on the way to UPG. I did not know it at the time, but he appeared in the picture I took of that restaurant.
His Flight Report of this very same flight was posted here in French, and you are welcome to compare :)
… but read mine to the end first! ^^ The place where we met was not optimum for take-offs and landings – the angle of view was limited, which mandated being on the ready and reacting fast.
A reflection of a Merpati Airlines 737 on the windows of #4 jet bridge.
UPG was not as plane spotter-unfriendly as I initially feared, because in the center of the terminal, between Gates 2 and 3, a window provided an excellent view on the tarmac and the runway. There was already a local female spotter there.
As usual in my reports, I ordered the aircraft per type (I saw several similar ones for a given airline), not in chronological order, except when I was in the boarding room.
Lion Air’s 737 were plentiful
– taking off here
739ER
And another landing : touchdown …
… deployment of the thrust inverters
And begin of taxiing, once the thrust inverters have retracted. The rear of the aircraft is seriously blurred, but to the hot air from the reactors.
That was what I call throwing oneself in the Lion’s mouth.
I’ll manage to close that damn hold door !
What I was most interested in were these antiquated Sriwijaya Air 732s :
… with their vintage thin reactors
This one is at pushback
Note the fire extinguisher – you never know with these antiques
But everything seemed OK and the ground staff waved at the taxiing aircraft
This 737-200 was still airworthy, despite her commendable 32 years of operation.
This one was marginally younger, close to 30 years old:
Sriwijaya Air did not have 732 only, and this is 733 which was then 17 years old only was proof of it.
Another local curiosity : Sulawesi’s Express Air had both Dornier 328-100 and -300 in their fleet. The difference was that the latter, called DO-328JET, have reactors, as opposed to the earlier turboprop version.
Wings Air’s ATR72-500 are more commonplace.
A Merpati Airlines737
Airfast MD-82
A Citylink 737 lands, with deployed thrust inverters.
And then taxis to her parking spot
This is a Flight Report on a GA flight, so this is a sample of Garuda Airlines738, landing …
And taxiing
I really liked this livery
Now the inside of the terminal : UPG was labeled as an international airport, and had facilities to handle international flights, but there were none in that afternoon, and there was nobody at the immigration counters on the right.
Babycare seemed to be a purely feminine task there, according to the headdress of this silhouette.
A sample of the local FAs
One of the lounges – see the armchairs in the background
A shop offering rather heterogeneous souvenirs
850 000 IDR (75 EUR) for these models was not cheap, especially since the livery was wrong. Note in the foreground the clock for Chinese tourists, which was stopped at Tuseday 24 February, 2012, displayed in Chinese.
And a sample of the other shops, which were not in the luxury category, but merely high end segment.
The time came to think about boarding, this way:
…via this security check. Note the scarf that all female staff were wearing: whereas the Toraja country is quasi-entirely Christian, Makassar is fully Muslim.
At the far end of the terminal, there was THE free internet access station, where there was no crowd since it was out of operation.
The power ports on the side of the water fountain had already been requisitioned by cell phone owners.
There was fortunately a free wifi access : the name of the appropriate network was not obvious when you were not familiar with that of the airport’s operator…
…but I managed to display the current corporate screenshot.
A GA crew in the background, possibly that of my flight, but I wasn’t sure.
It was the end of the day, making takeoff pictures more difficult :
I waited until this GA 738 had reached its final parking position to take this picture.
Pushback of a Merpati Nusantara Airlines 737 with a special livery
The waning light made it had a hard time to take an acceptable picture of this Xi'an MA60, a Chinese made aircraft which is not certified in the West. Merpati Airlines made history in being the first airline to crash one without any survivors. This was the first picture of a Xi’an MA60 on this website.
There has been several reports MA60 Flight Reports posted since then, notably by Biaman94, but all are in French only. I am looking forward towards reading one by the English speaking community.
The other Airfast Indonesia MD82, registered PK-OCU
Batavia Air 737
The boarding room’s windows had a neutral, but very dark tint, which made plane spotting all the more difficult from there that the sunlight was rapidly waning, since we were a few degrees off the equator.
A last successful attempt with an Air Asia A320
After this one, I could only spot the fish in this fish tank, with Gate 1 in the background where nothing was happening.
Boarding at last :
… it was 18:25 and the flight was supposed to depart at 18:00
I did not know if I want have a second chance on this niht flight and I recorded the registration number of our aircraft in the shade before boarding.
There was a self-serve newspaper stand, with an English language title, alas a not very interesting one.
The business class : 3 rows in 2+2 layout like on the way in.
And the Economy class cabin, which was equally the same as on the inward flight.
And the seat pitch : the passenger at Seat 19F had the whole half row to him self even though the flight was quite full.
*
Garuda Airlines has a different view of the seat pitch in the safety demonstration:
Everything in that video was a shamelessly inaccurate representation of the flight experience, except the charm and smiles of the FAs at the beginning which were a fair illustration of the ones we had.
The safety card both sides, using that of my wife’s seat.
And the wing lit by the tarmac floodlights.
Distribution of small sweets.
And take-off :
With a lot of good will, you will make out the winglet and the wing off the city of Makassar.
No mistake, I am indeed seated at 19A, with a background of Toraja rice granaries.
And with unidentified background in Bahasa Indonesia.
Think about the ordeal of traveling with a Flight Reporter : Biaman94 at Row 18 was apparently having all this family test theirs IFEs’ touch screens : )
This is a sample of the IFE’s program
For such a short flight, the airshow was well enough for me
On the overall map, you could wonder if you could not imply board through a rear door and deplane through a front one.
This box wished me a happy Ramadan, which was somewhat amusing, because although Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world, I spent my vacation in the (Christian) Toraja country and then in (Hindu) Bali.
The small bread contained meat, which could reasonably expected to be halal, but I saw no confirmation of that.
I won’t mince words about minced fruit : these pictures were proof of historical feet, i.e. my first successful opening of fruit with syrup servings! On the way in, one of them successfully resisted to all tools that I had at my disposal, and the other striked back with revengeful splashing of the tray table .
I could then peacefully absorb 0 g of fat (including 0 g saturated and 0 g trans), 0 mg of cholesterol (so far,it did not fee me much), 0.4f of protein, 18 g of carbohydrate (I would run a marathon on that alone), 1 g of fiber (good for the gut), 15 g of sugar (bad for my weight), 10 mg of sodium, in capsule which was guaranteed no to have any vitamin A or vitamin C. There was nevertheless 2% of the recommended daily allowance of calcium (you would reach Plutonium FF level flying GA to reach 100% every day), and 1% of the iron (Popeye would select an airline with a different catering).
By the time I had checked these nutrition facts on the flight, we were already half way :
There was not much more to tell (and show) on that night flight, and I go directly to the landing 45 minutes late.
And a picture of the winglet with a better lighting (it’s easier after landing!)
The winglet’s profile does not count in a FR’s checklist, but the plane’s number was a lot more legible this way.
Possibly because we had landed late, we parked in the international zone of DPS, and deplaned using stairs towards these buses, and there was then a short bus ride to the domestic area.
I saw this QR 777 on the way (don’t expect sharpness miracles at night from a moving bus)
I was frustrated to see the KL aircraft in Skyteam livery which had operated the direct AMS-DPS flight, and be unable to take a picture because the bus was really going too fast. It was much easier to capture this Citylink A320, especially since the ground staff had no objections to photography.
I even managed to capture this SQ 777 at the end of pushback
The luggage delivery was in this area which was somewhat chaotic (again, this was due to the absence of renovation, since a new terminal was being built).
I had no status with GA, and my luggage had no priority.
This monitor lizard was no luggage, but a decoration
My first piece of luggage came very quickly,
And the other one a long time afterwards, under this sign which kept displaying erroneously Flight
QG652 from Jakarta.
I did not take a coffee at Prada’s
.. but joined the patient rental car staff who was waiting for me outside. I had booked a small car, but the smallest Avis had was a 7-seater van, for the same corporate rate. You usually don’t complain about being upgraded from Y to P, but that upgrade was not welcome, because I had to manage this bulky vehicle on the narrow and winding Bali roads, with poor signage, a manual gear shift and left hand driving. We had an hour of driving in the night to our hotel at the end of very long day, and that we made it without a single mistake was a tribute to my wife’s navigation skills without a GPS, despite the poor signage and the sketchiness of the map.
Paying for the gasoline was not painful : not only you can’t drive fast, gasoline was at a fixed 4,500 IDR per liter, i.e. 0.40 EUR !
Now come a small tourist bonus on the Toraja country. You don’t go there for seeing wild animals, but I nevertheless saw Ahaetulla prasina, which is mildly venimous and considered harmless for humans that it can’t really bite.
The Toraja country is especially famous for their funeral rites. The more prominent ancestors are honored by tau-tau, i.e. effigies displayed on cliffs. These are ancient …
But some are much more recent – see the glasses of the woman.
The bodies are in coffins hewn out of a single trunk like this one
And no matter that they are Christian, the Toraja nevertheless keep the tradition of offerings to their ancestors.
Guinness is good for you
But before that, there is the funeral to which hundreds of neighbors and relatives gather. This is one of the few opportunities for them to eat pork meat.
Or dog meat (I love it – Westerners do not know what they miss with their strange taboo on dog meat). I did not eat there for free; I made an offering like all other participants.
In the foreground, this was rice in a bamboo leaf wrapping :
After the meal, the traditional buffalo fights. The Indonesian buffaloes were a lot less aggressive than their Chinese cousins – their owners had to prod them a lot to get them to fight, and many would rather flee in the rice fields.
At the Kande Api Festival, it was rather an attraction of the young and the very young, with here a hen race
This Toraja greasy pole was indeed very slippery : the participants tried to create a human pyramid to try and reach the plastic cups containing slips of paper describing the prize.
These balloons provide me a daring aeronautic transition to the conclusion, with an inevitable Hello Kitty and unidentified aircraft off a Toraja granary background.
