Leaving France where I have been staying since covid times, During the past year my travel was 5 days in Amsterdam for hivefest 2022 and 1 week holiday in New York in December 2023 so this 3 months planned trip to Asia is the first in a long time.
It will span over Q4 of 2024 and a bit in January 2025.
(Photo I took during the first part of the flight before night time)
1) Packing lite - AVIANT ACCESS PRO 60L+10L
This trip started around June 2024 in my head when I took the decision to buy my ticket for my first destination which would turn out to be Jakarta. I got a really good deal with Air France for this long haul trip from Paris, paying 350€ with one checked luggage.
My second action was to buy a new backpack because I wanted something I could easely carry if I wanted to/needed to. After much research I opted for an AVIANT ACCESS PRO 60 Black which is a 60L pack with a 10L smaller for daily use which can be attached easily on the larger back, either front or back.
I got a deal on the previous's years edition for 142€
I managed to reduce the weight to about 9Kg for my checked-in bag and 4Kg for the small 10L bag which can fit my MacbookAir that I use as carry on.
2) Flight Review AF258 and VN 631
My flight to Jakarta was around 18hours including a 2h layover in Hô Chi Minh-Ville airport (SGN).
I was schedule to depart CDG Airport in Paris around 13h50 but ended up with a 2 hours delay and the flight took off around 16h00 (4pm). The Air France staff was very nice and told us we could use our boarding pass as meal vouchers for something like 10€ inside the departure area for food. It is a pretty efficiente system as staff don't need to issue vouchers to all customers, this happens automatically if flight is delay (I think, maybe some manager still need to approve it or something). Anyway I got a nice wrap and drink before the flight and we got our dinner meal 90 mins after take off which is pretty standard.
On Air France for long haul flights, you can have champagne as a drink even in economy which I didn't take this time and settle in with some red wine for the meal.
After the meal I started a movie but went to sleep for about 4-6 hours as I wanted to set my body up with arrival time to try and minimise jet lag. around 1-2 hours before touchdown in Vietnam we got a quick breakfast with hot drinks, event more for (3 meals in like 16h and got an extra small sandwich during flight before breakfast)
Anyway even in economy the flight was smooth and the service was up to a full carrier standards.
Now time for my second flight with Vietnam Airline which turned also great, for a short 3h flight I was not expecting a lot but I still got a full meal and unlimited water during the flights (I think the crew came around like 3-4 times for water). The Aircraft seemed brand new and seats felts bigger then the previous flight but it might be an illusion since the plane was smaller.
I was a bit scared to have to rush my international connection but it ended up being super fast at SGN Airport, there is a dedicated security for international transit and we where like 10 passagers max. Also flight got delay a bit so I actually had time to wait at the gate.
3) Arrival and Visa
Jakarta airport is very clean and moderne, I had bought my visa on arrival online and payed for it so no queue at the airport and I was allowed to use the automatic gates at CGK. The only thing you have to keep in mind is doing the customs declaration online as well, it can be done from 3 days prior to arrival (no more) or at the airport with the wifi when landing.
Security will check the QR code on arrival to make sure you have done the customs declarations so bring it with you.
I have an international phone plan in France which does include 35 Gb of data in Indonesia so I didn't need to buy a new seem, this allowed me to get out of the airport and ordered a Grab (local Uber) to get to my first hotel where I will stay for the first week.
Taxi and Grab are very affordable here and I ended paying less then 10€ for the 45 mins + trip to my hotel.
For anyone interested the as of October 2024 the **visa on arrival cost $35USD **and can be paid online before or on arrival in cash at the airport but you might have to queue, I do recommend to do the paperwork before for smoother arrival and being able to use the automated gates.
The are rumors that Indonesia with its new president might add back some countries to the list of free visa on arrival, so if you come later you might not have to pay for the first 30 days.
Bonus tip: there is a 20 000 IDR fee ($2USD) that will be added to your Grab after the ride in order to cover fees for the toll if you go into Jakarta from the Airport so don't be alarmed to see a second charge after
Conclusion
Jakarta was planned as an easy stop for me to recover from Jetlag which during my previous experience to Asia is pretty bad on me, I needed about 2 days to fully recover, it turned out about the same here given one more day as I couldn't get to sleep before 2AM on some days.
I am writing those stories with a few days to a week delay and plan to do that for the duration of the trip. I actually landed on the 16/10 of October in Jakarta, Indonesia.