Garuda Indonesia and Plataran Borobudur Resort
The greatest mystery in the universe is not how Schrodinger's cat is both dead and alive but how Garuda Indonesia managed to get a Skytrax 5-Star rating. They clearly had to pay off someone and their inclusion in this category has me questioning the entire Skytrax rating system. Their planes are run down and their customer service is worthless. Our first experience with them was a delay from Jakarta to Jayapura which required a re-booking on a different airline. Our next experience with them was a complete cancellation of flight(s). We were supposed to fly out early this morning through Jakarta on our way to Yogyakarta so that we could see the sunset at Borobudur, but they canceled the flight(s). We managed to get re-booked on their "low-cost" carrier Citilink through Ujung Pandang to arrive at Yogyakarta roughly two hours later. So instead of seeing the sunset we would have to settle on seeing the sunrise. As it turns out Citilink is actually a much nicer airline then their parent company Garuda Indonesia. And while Garuda Indonesia is a SkyTeam member, it's not worth flying with them in order to earn miles. Enjoy your vacation and travels and work with other airlines.
We arrived at the Makassar airport and enjoyed the food in the two lounges we had access to. Still no beer and wine while we waited for our flight out.
With Indonesia spanning three time zones and all the travel back and forth we gave up on trying to adjust our sleep. We met our new guide in Yogyakarta and he picked us up in a nice van complete with a fruit basket.
With our first flight being three and a half hours and our second flight being another 50 minutes this day was largely a travel day. But apparently the guides were communicating as this van had a few cold beers for me to enjoy.
We then arrived at the Plataran Borobudur Resort and Spa and this place was amazing. After they checked our van for any explosives they let us proceed to the lobby. They first took us to the "welcome" room where we got cookies, drinks, and a 10 minute welcome massage.
This trip turned out to be perfectly planned. We would start out roughing it in West Papua, and then slowly make our way back to civilization, and then eventually to being pampered. If we only had more time here. This guy played some nice relaxing music for us.
While we posed for a picture in traditional garments.
All while they brought around transportation to our room.
I checked with Riley to make sure these accommodations were acceptable and he said they were fine. We then checked out our room. This was the main gate to our plantation from the inside of our estate.
This was our shelter complete with a private pool on the left.
Inside was a very nice bed, or should I say beds.
Along with a very spacious bathroom.
We even had a TV along with a creepy painting on the wall. We had no need to use the TV.
Outside was a nice coffee, tea, and mini-bar.
As well as a wonderful dining area. Everything takes place outside because it is so nice to be outside.
Nice views of the valley which Kim took advantage of.
While I checked out the rest of the resort.
Great restaurant.
The whole location radiated peace and serenity. I felt like I needed to spend more time here to reset and re-calibrate. In fact, in today's world we all need this more then ever. We forgot who we are and are all desperately trying to be someone we are not. It's only making things worse, and while it is hard to do we all need to look within ourselves. We all need to travel more and experience more.
We then headed to the bar to play some hearts and enjoy a pre-dinner cocktail.
We had one of the most amazing dinners and thought how can it get any better. Turns out it could get better not just once but two more times.
I then enjoyed a nightcap in our private hot tub.
And if anything went wrong this resort always took a safty first approach. Of course if things really went bad I could always just stand up.
