The 777-300ER to Dubai was one of the most modern in the Emirates fleet. Lie-flat seat with all sorts of adjustments and back massage. Most confusing was the latest implementation of the ‘ICE’ entertainment system. They print it as “ice” using lower case and two font heights in the illiterate way of today’s marketing. The letters stand for information, communications and entertainment.
There’s a fairly large Panasonic flat screen touch-sensitive display, either fixed to the bulkhead in front (if you’re at the front of the cabin section, as I was) or fixed to the ‘shield’ around the seat in front. You can control the system by touching the screen prompts or there’s the customary ‘handset on an extending cord’ with audio and video controls on one side, telephone on the other side and a slot for a credit card (to pay for telephone calls). But what I’d not seen before was an extra passenger communication terminal fitted to the right of the seat. This is a fairly chunky touch-screen ‘book’ computer which is normally plugged into a docking station built into the seat. For take-off and landing, this locks itself in position but in normal flight pressing another button built into the seat releases the lock and allows the ‘book’ to be removed for ease of use, particularly when used as a games console. It took me a while to figure out how to drive the thing as the controls seemed a bit erratic but I was quite pleased when I managed to get the latest George Clooney film ‘Up in the Air’ running. It’s ‘video on demand', of course, so I was able to pause the film for a visit to the washroom. When I returned, the film started up again in the right place but without sound. Nothing I tried worked so I asked a cabin attendant for help. She failed, as did two of her colleagues, despite rebooting my seat position. It took about five minutes to finish the reboot and the video worked but still without sound. The startup messages were quite interesting – looks as if it might be a ‘Linux’ based system and certainly an nvidea graphics card. The senior attendant tried to synchronise the playback with the empty seat next to me and plug the headphones into that seat. Eventually, we decided I should move to the empty aisle seat and I watched the first half hour of the film until suddenly, with a ‘click’ in the headphones, the sound went off. The senior attendant regarded this as a challenge and did a reboot on that seat, after which I was able to complete my viewing without further problems.
We arrived at a Dubai covered in a heavy fog. There are two parallel runways designated 12/30. This means arriving from the north-west, you steer 120 degrees. In the other direction, the reciprocal heading is 300 degrees. ‘L’ and ‘R’ are appended indicating ‘left’ and ‘right’ (as you approach). We landed on 12R, which is 30L in the other direction. We arrived at a new and largely-deserted terminal I’d not been into before. I found my departure gate for my next leg and, with only a little backtracking, found the huge business lounge. I spent only a few minutes here, then it was time to board the flight to Jakarta.
The aircraft was a 777-300 with the earlier generation of entertainment system with individual screens which ‘pop up’from the arm of the seat. The system still has hundreds of channels and is ‘on demand’. It also has the slight advantage that it seems more reliable. 0nly after we’d completed boarding and closed up were we told that because of the weather airport capacity had been reduced and we would be departing 90 minutes late. So they served breakfast on the ground. In fact, it was almost three hours behind schedule when we got away, by which time my carefully-crafted itinerary requiring a third flight from Jakarta to Yogyakarta was shot. The purser told me there were eight connecting passengers on the flight who would be in trouble but he didn’t know how the station staff at Jakarta would handle the problem. So I tried to divert myself on the flight watching new release ‘2012’ (fine if you like CGI and banal dialogue), WALL-E (excellent but reminding me even more than I expected of ‘Short Circuit’) and 'Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.
We came in over the sea at Jakarta, just as it was getting dark. Somewhere between 50 and 100 ships, mainly of coastal vessel size, were moored just offshore, presumably waiting their turn. But I was more concerned with whether I'd ever meet up with my guide in Yogyakarta and where I'd get a bed for the night. It became a bit of an adventure but it turned out alright in the end.
