living in Indonesia means you have to deal with the bizarre & ridiculous policies from the government, and i will tell you one of them.
so, once upon a time there's this one company who hold the only license to distribute movies all over Indonesia. in 2011, it turns out that this company hasn't paid their taxes for like, the past 30 years..so the current government tries to collect the taxes from them, otherwise the can not distribute/play the movies in their theatres. along with it, came this 1 policy which forcing the studios or film companies to pay higher import tax for every movie they brought to Indonesia. cut the story short, the situation resulted in..there's no Hollywood box office movies coming to Indonesia..and this happened for months!..sweet!
so, whenever we saw a movie trailer in cable tv, there's no longer 'Indonesia' in the release date. but hey, we Indonesians never runs out ideas! so we can't watch the movies here..then why not go to Singapore to watch it?! it's only 1.5 hour flight..and that was exactly what my friend and i did..hahaha..
when the situation happened, Harry Potter: The Deathly Hallows (part 2) is on the way, and still no good news. we were so determined that we can not not watch this last piece of Harry Potter in a surround sound's theatre. because waiting the original (pirated one) DVD release will be like waiting for months. so, we decided to watch it in Singapore. we book a flight, book a hostel & and contacted one of our friend there and asked him to be our guide & helped us to buy the tickets for the movies (we also bought tickets for Transformer 3).
and guess what?! on the 'D' day (July 15, 2011), there's this news confirming that this new company (which owned by the son of the most powerful man in Indonesia) will bring Harry Potter to the country..dangg!! but show must go on, so we flew to Singapore.
by the time we checked in to the airport, i found out that we will be on the same plane with one of the boss in our company (he based in Singapore office)..i mean he's not just regular boss, but the Asia Pacific's boss. imagine, the BIG boss flying on a low budget airlines same like us..salute him (or..poor him :p).
so, we arrived in Singapore at 11:30 PM and reached the hostel at 12 AM. the hostel (Drop Inn hostel) was a very nice & clean place. we got the bunked bed, in a dorm room with 4 other girls.
the next day, we go round city tour using MRT, bus & on foot (mostly on foot :p). and then we go watch the 1st movie (Transformer 3) at Vivo City. thank God it was a 3D movie & there's Shia Le Beouf doing the action, otherwise i would've fallen to sleep while watching the movie. and guess what again?!..the BIG boss was also watching the movie in the same studio as we are..dangg!
and finally we arrived and the airport safe & sound..take our breakfast (it trully was a fast breakfast, coz we only ate cup noodles :D). before checked in we hit the toilet and forgot the time until suddenly the dispatcher announced last call for our flight to Jakarta. and there we are running like ghosts chasing us & got on board as the last two passengers (the pilot literally announces "we're now waiting for the last 2 passengers to on board" through the microphone..and yes, all eyes were on us when we on board the plane..dang!).
well..that's all folks..that was one of the craziest trip i've ever experienced..no regrets! :D
jacobvanloon
snowghoul
kaledo-art
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