Arriving in Indonesia
Given the challenges checking in for my flight to Singapore, the rest of the journey was pretty smooth.
After connecting in Vancouver, I took a 16 hour, non-stop flight from Vancouver to Singapore. My itinerary gave me a four hour layover in Singapore and then taking the short flight from Singapore to Jakarta. Once in Jakarta, I would get to the train station and take the new high-speed train to Bandung.
My flight was in Business Class on Air Canada. Although I have flown many, many times in my life, my only Air Canada experience prior to these flights to Singapore was on a domestic flight from Vancouver to Toronto about 20 years ago.
Overall, the flight was fine, but nothing special. Air Canada's business class service and food is average, maybe below average for long haul business class flights. A memorable point was that the crew completely forgot my main course on the last meal before landing.
After the issues checking in for my Air Canada flight, things went really smooth. My flight to Singapore was on time and I ended up landing in Singapore too early to check in for my flight to Jakarta.
Luckily, the Singapore airport is an amazing place to hang out for a few hours. I ended up going to “The Jewel” which is a combination shopping mall and tropical conservatory. It’s the famous part of the terminal that has an indoor waterfall called “The Vortex" that has been all the rage on social media.
Unfortunately, the Vortex doesn’t get turned on until 11AM, which is right when I was going to be boarding my flight to Jakarta, so I didn’t get to see it in action. However, the other plants and setting in the Jewel is pretty amazing.
My flight from Singapore to Jakarta was on an airline called TransNusa Airlines. I had never heard of them until I booked the flight online. They are fairly new, only have a few airplanes, and have very cheap fares. My one-way flight to Jakarta was around $90 US dollars.
The flight was fine. The airplane was an old Airbus A320. Legroom was a bit tight, but the staff was friendly and we got to Jakarta on time and safe. There's probably nothing else you could ask for on a short flight like this.
Once I landed in Jakarta, the trip from the airport to the high speed train station took about an hour. Jakarta traffic is no joke. But once on the train, the speeds were amazing, and it was about a half hour from there to cover the 150km to Bandung.
The train was amazing. I have previously taken the classic, slow train between Jakarta and Bandung. That journey takes about 2 1/2 hours. The new train is quiet, smooth, and amazingly fast. My first class ticket cost about $50 USD, and they even served a small snack. Upon arrival in Bandung, the high-speed train does not go straight into the main central station, stopping at a stop outside town. There is a shuttle train that takes passengers the five or six remaining miles into the central station.
Travel Gallery
On the High-Speed Train to Bandung
The high-speed train between Jakarta and Bandung is a joint partnership between Indonesia and China. The train runs in addition to, not as a replacement of, the older slower train. It cuts the 150 km journey from 3.5 hours to 30 minutes.
