The Road Goes Ever On And On...
Our flight was due out on Friday 21st March from Brisbane, travelling to Medan in Sumatra, Western Indonesia, via Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. We were due to arrive in Nias from Medan on Sunday. However on arrival at Brisbane airport we soon discovered that due to technical difficulties our flight had been cancelled and we would have to spend the night in a hotel in Brisbane, catching the next flight to KL in the morning. This turned out to be a MASSIVE blessing as one of our team had managed to leave her passport and ticket on the lounge floor at our house on the Sunshine Coast (approx and hour away!!). My goodness me, we would have been stuck if the plane had left on schedule!! As it turned out we had a fantastic treat, sleeping in a 5 star hotel for the night with our own rooms and showers and didn’t have to pay a penny (or cent, I guess – we’re in Australia after all…) Check-in the following morning was a bit hectic just because we had a couple of sticky moments with all the different visas the team were on. It was sorted out ok though, and because it took so long to sort out it meant our huge amounts of excess luggage were waived through without being charged, which was a huge blessing. With the missing passport safely delivered courtesy of the Africa team (who were leaving that morning too) we were finally on our way to Nias!!
Little did we know… As we boarded the plane we noticed that our flights had been routed through Penang inbetween KL and Medan. That was quite annoying as it’s effectively going up just to come back down again, and an extra flight to cope with. But it wasn’t until we got off the plane at KL and started looking for the gate we would board to Penang that we realised that the date of that flight was the next DAY!! Brisbane had omitted to go through the new flight schedule so hadn’t told us we also had a night over in KL. According to the desk there, the transit hotel was full and so we had to get a taxi an hour into the city and stay again in a 5 star hotel for the night. Oh the trails of outreach!! Thankfully this was all courtesy of the airline as well, so we just enjoyed our luck and I got to have roti canai for breakfast J
I think we were all getting slightly weary of airports as we got on some tiny planes first to Penang and then Medan. Arriving at Medan airport was once of the most overwhelming experiences as you are literally enveloped by baggage porters and taxi drivers once you get through security. Thank you Jesus that we had people meeting us who took care of every little detail, as all the travelling and faffage was definitely getting to us!! Jenni and Mulia were our angels!! Because of the re-route through Penang we had missed the afternoon flight to Nias, so we found a hotel (a little on the expensive side but it’s only one night, right?) and then found we couldn’t buy tickets to Nias until Tuesday (it’s Sunday at this point, so no, actually it’s going to be 2 nights) and had to move to a cheaper one on Monday. After spending a couple of days in Medan we arrived early Tues morning to catch the plane to Nias… only to discover that Becaa and I had to wait for the second flight as there wasn’t enough space on the first one. By this point even little things that weren’t a big deal were feeling really stressful…! But eventually we got on the little 30 seater with plastic flowers adorning the stinky toilet (as if they would make it smell better or something?!) and a worrying white mist pouring down from the ceiling the whole way (Becaa: “I thought they were trying to gas us!”) and about an hour later arrived at Nias airport in Gunung Sitoli. This was when we learnt it was a 4 hour drive to Sorake Beach on the south of the island, where we would be staying…!! Hahaha!!!
Little did we know… As we boarded the plane we noticed that our flights had been routed through Penang inbetween KL and Medan. That was quite annoying as it’s effectively going up just to come back down again, and an extra flight to cope with. But it wasn’t until we got off the plane at KL and started looking for the gate we would board to Penang that we realised that the date of that flight was the next DAY!! Brisbane had omitted to go through the new flight schedule so hadn’t told us we also had a night over in KL. According to the desk there, the transit hotel was full and so we had to get a taxi an hour into the city and stay again in a 5 star hotel for the night. Oh the trails of outreach!! Thankfully this was all courtesy of the airline as well, so we just enjoyed our luck and I got to have roti canai for breakfast J
I think we were all getting slightly weary of airports as we got on some tiny planes first to Penang and then Medan. Arriving at Medan airport was once of the most overwhelming experiences as you are literally enveloped by baggage porters and taxi drivers once you get through security. Thank you Jesus that we had people meeting us who took care of every little detail, as all the travelling and faffage was definitely getting to us!! Jenni and Mulia were our angels!! Because of the re-route through Penang we had missed the afternoon flight to Nias, so we found a hotel (a little on the expensive side but it’s only one night, right?) and then found we couldn’t buy tickets to Nias until Tuesday (it’s Sunday at this point, so no, actually it’s going to be 2 nights) and had to move to a cheaper one on Monday. After spending a couple of days in Medan we arrived early Tues morning to catch the plane to Nias… only to discover that Becaa and I had to wait for the second flight as there wasn’t enough space on the first one. By this point even little things that weren’t a big deal were feeling really stressful…! But eventually we got on the little 30 seater with plastic flowers adorning the stinky toilet (as if they would make it smell better or something?!) and a worrying white mist pouring down from the ceiling the whole way (Becaa: “I thought they were trying to gas us!”) and about an hour later arrived at Nias airport in Gunung Sitoli. This was when we learnt it was a 4 hour drive to Sorake Beach on the south of the island, where we would be staying…!! Hahaha!!!
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