24 Hours to the Airport

Do you believe that it took us 24 hours to go to Cengkareng airport?

We were planning to go on 1 February 2008, for our Austalia trips. And that was on the unfortunate date, when it was raining for days, and the tollway to the airport got closed due to flood.

On that day, Friday, we went straight to the bandara after picking up Kayla from school in Condet at around 13.oo. Although the Grogol tollway seemed full, we took it anyway, since there was no other alternative. The flight was scheduled on 20.45, so we thought that we started early enough. As it happened, no time was early enough to go to the airport that day. The Grogol tollway was bad, the Sedyatmo tollway was even worse. At 20.00 we were still at the Kapuk gate. We even could get out of the car and had some fresh air ... well, the traffic just stopped, couldn't move even 1 m. Every once in a while, the cars could move ... for just about 10m.

Finally, at 22.00 we got to the Sedyatmo gate :), without being able to go further. It was said that at km 24-27 the flood was around 1.5m to 2m. Well, when those big buses and trucks couldn't go pass that flood, what was our car to get through it? Alhamdulillah, my girls didn't complain even a single word. They just got through with it, and excepted the situation. Imagine, 7 and 5 year old girls got trapped in the car in the middle of traffic for more then 15 hours. Admirable, right?

At 4.00 in the morning we decided to just go back, forget about the trips, and stay instead at Mercure Ancol for compensation. And then the good news came when we were having a nice buffet breakfast at the hotel. It was said that the flight was to be delayed for 24 hours, and rescheduled to fly on the following night, the same time. Our hope raised again!

Then, at 10.00 in the morning, we started off to the airport. This time we chose the alternative way, Tangerang. Alhamdulillah, we finally got to the airport at around 13.00. I had never been that happy seeing Sukarno Hatta airport.

Well, that is 24 hour journey to go to Sukarno Hatta Cengkareng airport. Who can beat that?