Re-visit Paradise, 13th December

Right after checking-in. Finally, my birthday trip came true

The Mister woke up at 8 am and got himself ready for work while i was still snuggling in bed. Hah! My Saturday off was changed to the 13th instead! So, i got to wake up later than usual and wait for the Mister to come home from work. Got myself ready as early as 10 am (i was too hyper and excited) even after knowing the Mister will only be home at 2 pm.

Once he arrived home,  i did my last checking on all the things we needed to bring, while he showered and got ready, and left the house by 2.15 pm. We took the MRT instead of cabbing since our estimated return taxi fare will be a whopping $50! And we're trying to cut costs as much as we can.

3.30 pm, got ourselves checked-in on the flight and headed for a quick lunch at CoffeeBean & TeaLeaves. Had our last few sticks of cigarettes and we headed to the boarding gate by 4.45pm.

KLM, fare to DPS was much much cheaper than budget airlines during that period.

While waiting for more passengers to board

5pm. Boarding started and with the almost full flight, my instinct tells me that the flight will push back later den ETD. By 5.45pm, the engine has not started running and the pilot made an announcement that there was a problem with the system and they had to reboot the whole flight and re-try. With the air-con, lights and everything shut down, we were basically waiting and waiting.

This was while the flight was being shutdown. No air-con, no lights, no in-flight entertainment.

By 6.30 pm, pilot made another announcement that the flight has to be re-timed to 9.30 pm as e system wasn't able to work still. And they're trying to get a substitute part from SIA. By 9 pm, SIA has not provided the parts as yet due to regulatory issues and we're still unsure if we're still able to fly that day. Flight was re-timed again to 11 pm and by 10 pm, the part provided by SIA was being tested. The pilot announced by then that the testing will take at least 7mins and if all's well, by 10.30 pm we'll be able to start boarding. Looking at my watch, i knew that it wasn't going at all since it was over 10.30 pm.

Direct view to the cockpit. Managed to get a glimpse of the pilot's reactions during the testing

Exactly at 11 pm, the much dreaded announcement was made, "KLM is very sorry about the technical issues and we were told not to fly tonight. Denpasar airport is not going to wait for this flight and they're closing the airport at 2 am."

All the passengers started making a 'hoo-haa' and i too was disappointed. Since all bookings were made by me, I had to send emails to inform of the flight cancellation for my hotel reservation, car rental and our guide for the hiking that same night.

KLM staffs started informing that locals/Singaporeans are allowed to go home and wait for their call upon arranging alternative flights for us. While foreigners were given an all paid accommodation for the night. Of cos we didn't want to spend any of our money on taxi fare home, to Jurong from Changi, just because of this. And so, we decided to join the foreigners for the free accommodation too. Well, we were permitted to join anyway.

It was chaotic. Everyone was rushing and we're very tired too being stranded in the airport for over 5 hours. We had to wait for almost another hour for them to arrange transport for our baggage and ourselves to the hotel. By the time we checked-in, it was nearly 2am and we were extremely hungry. We tried to have McDonald's delivery, but it was having overwhelming orders then. And so, we went out to the nearest petrol kiosk just to fill our hungry tummies.

With still being confused and tired and upset, both husband and i couldn't sleep until we had that important call to inform us of our flight.

Luckily the hotel provided was awesome

Me, checking out the night view from the hotel room

Very comfortable! Not cheap for a staycation though.

Being used to work as a ground staff for 1 year at Changi Airport, i have NEVER got involved with any flight cancellations. It was definitely an experience i never want to go through again. In all the confusion and being upset, i was grateful that the flight did not fly at all. Imagine what could have happened along the way?