News and chat about and around ArrivedOK - the Personal Flight Arrival Tracker and mobile tool for travelers like you to instantly notify your friends and family when you arrive at airports worldwide
10 Jun | Author: Andrey Deriabin | Category: Air Travel
Incheon International Airport (Seoul, S Korea) has been named World’s Best Airport for 2009, in the World Airport Survey results published by Skytrax.
The most prolific World’s Best Airport winner in recent years, Hong Kong International Airport, was pipped into 2nd place by Incheon International, with Singapore Changi Airport ranking 3rd best in the world, according to the latest passenger satisfaction rankings. Skytrax reported that the final winning margins between these top 3 positions was the smallest ever known for such a large global project, and at one stage it looked possible there might be a dead-heat result between these top three airports.
One of our cool people had quite an adventure while traveling in Asia. We asked him to write about what happened to him. Here is his story… (Feed the fish before reading it.)
My 30-day Indonesian visa was about to expire and in order to stay in Indonesia for one more month I had to go to some other country and re-enter Indonesia, so that on the Indonesian border I would get another 30-day visa.
The question was what country to go to. I had consulted Vitaly and got the following picture: the closest country is Singapore but they do not give visas on the border and one cannot enter the country without visa, it seems like; may be it makes sense to go to Malaysia which can be freely entered. Then I consulted Hoki — he said it does not make sense to go to Malaysia — he goes to Singapore all the time and no visa is needed, he does not have a visa, and even if one does need a visa, it will be given there. He said: «Just show them your tickets back to Indonesia and say that you came to Singapore «to work on a business opportunity» – these words will work «like a charm». I got details about what to say and where, whether I will have problems for real — but he was very confident — so I boarded the plane to Singapore, feeling good.
My flight was at 5pm. The flight went as usual. On the plane I was anxiously waiting to get in a taxi, drive to this magic place – Sentosa, get some rest, explore the island, walk on the beach… Dusty Jakarta with its traffic jams and dirt started to get on my nerves.
In the Singaporean airport I filled out the immigration card, came to the immigration officer, showed my return ticket to Jakarta, and said the magic words «to work on a business opportunity»… to no desired effect! The officer replied that he cannot let me in Singapore and called his colleague. The colleague explained that in order to enter Singapore a person needs visa. The visa could be obtained in advance in Indonesia, and that they do not issue visas here, and all they can do is to send me back. I said that my real goal is to get a new Indonesian visa for 30 days, and I need Singapore only to leave and come back to Indonesia again. He replied that I should have received a visa beforehand, or entered some other country – not Singapore. Then he said politely: “Please come here, representatives of your airline will be coming shortly, you will need to speak to them,” and showed me to the door. Behind the door I found a chair in the middle of the room, and a camera in the corner. The massive door with a small window had closed, and I started to wait. Got in touch with Yura and Vitaly – told them that I am having problems on the border, that I can’t enter Singapore, and that they want to send me back to Indonesia. I called from an Indonesian number, so roaming charges quickly ate up my balance. Inserted the Singaporean SIM purchased beforehand but the phone broke down – took a really long (up to 15 minutes) time to turn on. I had the second phone, with an MTS SIM card, but may be some adventure spirit, may be something else made me turn it off and send it with the baggage. And problems come when you are not expecting them.
In one hour representatives of Singaporean Airlines showed up, and asked me to show the tickets that I have. Then another hour of waiting. My telephone got alive again, and Yura and Vitaly told me that they purchased for me tickets to Kuala Lumpur. If I only could talk to the customs officers, print out the tickets to Malaysia, and say that I am in transit, everything would be OK.
The door opened up and two persons ask me to follow them. We went but not in the direction of customs – in the opposite direction. I said that I have tickets to Kuala Lumpur, and one of them said: “It is not important now – tomorrow morning you are going to Jakarta, everything has been decided, and “they” won’t be listening anymore.” To my question about who are “they”, the answer was “immigration officers.” I started to think that these two were representatives of the airline and that I won’t be able to talk to the customs anymore. We boarded the train and went for about 5 minutes. When the train had arrived, one of my followers said good-bye and left. I started to ask the second guy – a gloomy man – some questions:
- Where are we going?
- To my place.
- Who are you?
- A policeman. By the way, if you want to make a phone call, do it now because later it will be forbidden.
At this time Yura calls, and I told him that I cannot go to Kuala Lumpur, that tomorrow morning I will be going back to Jakarta. Yura said that he would buy tickets to Kuala Lumpur from Indonesia for tomorrow’s afternoon flight. When we were about to finish the conversation, the policeman said: “Finish the conversation. Turn off the phone.”
On the way to the police station was a dirty narrow spiral stairs with traces of vomit here and there. Inside the station it was rather cozy and nice – there was even a TV set. All personal belongings (apart from clothing), including the phone, I was asked to put in a locker, to open which one needed two keys – one for me, the other for the policeman. I was given some paper to sign – it turned out to be a replacement for my passport (the passport was taken by the immigration service). Then I was given bed sheets and was escorted to my “apartment” – a big room full of bunk beds. Most of beds were occupied; the smell was bad and it was rather cold.
A black guy on the neighboring bed, dressed according to best traditions of American movies, had started a conversation. He told me that he is from Lebanon (although I didn’t quite get if he indeed was from Lebanon), that he was going through three countries to Singapore, and now he will be traveling through these three countries back home. When the black guy was done talking, I fell asleep, but didn’t sleep well – had been waking up all the time because of the cold.
At 6 am I was woken up and was told to get ready for a flight. In the corridor there was a table which featured hamburgers, one for each person. Hamburgers were rather disgusting but I didn’t pay much attention to this fact – I was that hungry. Moreover, if you chew slowly and follow it with a large amount of sweet tea (thanks to its unlimited supply), hamburgers seemed not that bad.
Some 30 minutes before departure I got my things back and was escorted to the gate. Me and the policeman, without standing in line (here comes the advantage of being illegal!), boarded the plane. The seat wasn’t that good – at the end of the plane – so one was the last to get food.
On exiting the airplane I was greeted by a smile of a representatives of Indonesian immigration service, and was escorted to the office. The room I came to, was strikingly different from the similar one in Singapore. There were many chairs (some of which were broken), the door didn’t close, and the ceiling was leaking. Indonesians in turn (from the lowest rank and all the way up to the head of immigration service) asked the same questions: why was I sent back, what am I doing in Indonesia, what am I going to do now. I frankly replied that I am in Indonesia «on a business trip», was sent back because I didn’t have tickets to Kuala Lumpur on hands, but I do have them, I just need to print them, I want to come to Indonesia for one more month, but if I can’t do so now, I have tickets to Kuala Lumpur which does not require visa. While I was questioned, airline representative ran and printed out my tickets to Malaysia (code for the the ticket and the flight number were sent in a SMS from Yura ) and registered me for the flight.
The head of the immigration service, having heard me, and having carefully thought about it all, decided that I am not a threat to their country, and wished me a pleasant trip, assigning me a personal guard who showed me a way to the gate. I was very hungry so I went straight to a cafe and ordered a lot of food though I didn’t have much appetite – nonetheless I finished everything ordered. The guard could not watch me eating so he went outside and sat there having me in his view. After lunch we went to the room for babies – no, we were not going to change diapers, and I think no one changed diapers in this room – the room was rather nasty. But it had a wall outlet which I used to charge my notebook before the flight, and I put some order to my documents.
In an hour I and the guard were at the gate where we were greeted by a smiling airline representative who escorted me to the waiting hall where he, at last, gave me my passport back!
- So now I’m a normal passenger? Like everybody else, right?
- Yes, Sir. Have a good trip.
In Malaysia I spend a week and a half instead of the planned 4 days – I was sick with bronchitis. Although I was emotionally cool during the adventure, stress from the flights, bad sleep, and bad food had its toll on me.
What lessons did I learn from the adventure?
It is always better to have your tickets to all your destinations printed out.
It is better to learn about visa terms from the original source (for instance from the web site of the immigration service of Singapore)
It is better to have two working phones with enough money on them.
It is easier to have ArrivedOK to notify people following you on your whereabouts.
Singapore’s leading operator, SingTel, has recently announced its $2.3 million Partner Programme which aim is to bring new applications for mobile market.
Mon, Jan 14, 2008 The Straits Times
“Developers will get access to the latest software tools, mobile phones and even preferential cellphone charges as part of plan to market more homegrown applications.
If they are deemed good enough by SingTel, their software may also be marketed to the region with the help of the telco. Altogether, SingTel and its partner telcos in the region have 158 million mobile subcriptions, dwarfing the 5.4 million subscriptions here.
< ...>Such projects are common with cellphone operators the world over as they seek the next big game or application that companies and consumers will use on their small screens”.
The project supported by Infocomm Development Authority and industry vendors like Nokia and Microsoft
12 Dec | Author: Julia G | Category: Events, Travel
15-16 March 2008. Suntec Convention Centre, Singapore
TDS is the only event of its kind Asia, where over 800 top travel executives will gather once again to expand their understanding of this exciting region.
Mobile services for travelers appear all over the world proving their vitality. In a tech-savvy Singapore development of such applications is supported by the government and is used as means leading to great results: “service will support the national Tourism 2015 goal of achieving 17 million in visitor arrivals and S$30 billion in tourism receipts”. The fact emhasizes the need for services like Eyeline Traveler’s Portal. We are on the right road :)
About Digital Concierge:
Singapore his “own concierge” service, with access to personalised information and services, anywhere, anytime, via mobile networked devices connected to the widely available Wireless@SG or the existing mobile phone networks. Even while on the move, users can receive suggestions from their Digital Concierge, on activities, restaurants, shops and attractions, based on one’s stated preferences and location».
Now the Digital concierge is able to display a map of your current location, check your flight status, integrate with Visit Singapore event calendar, integrate with Yellow Pages search interface, check Singapore Airlines Boarding Program promotions in Singapore Changi Airport, easy click-to-call taxi booking services and many more.
