Booking a direct flight from Mumbai to Denpasar had come as a relief, unlike our previous trip that involved four hours stopover at Kuala Lumpur. An upgrade to business class on Garuda Indonesia’s Bali flight transformed the mundane journey into a pleasant experience with the 5 Star Airline’s unique theme based on subtly invoking all five senses.
Smiling folded hands greeting of two elegantly uniformed crew members at the exclusive boarding ramp on to the business class cabin of Airbus A 300-200 aircraft, crew member individually accompanying us to our comfortable seats while light instrumental music mellowed our senses to adjust to cozy interiors was a welcome beginning to our overnight flight.
Karina, our hostess in beautiful tosca kebaya and matching batik sarong offered refreshing cold towels and orange juice (had preferred it over champagne) as we heard the captain announce the flight take-off on time at 9.50 pm for a 7 hours and seven minutes travel in the air.
Inhaling the fresh fragrance of tropical flowers in the cabin, we checked out on the amenity kit placed on the seat’s right hand-rest. There was a bottle of mineral water and the meal menu alongside. Soft, flip-on slippers, eye shades, hand lotion, lip balm, a hair brush cum comb and a dental care kit were all packed neatly inside the blue zip-locked pouch with an almond brown border. Flip-ons came handy in getting free from our shoes. A seven year old kid’s curious questions about the destination, air travel and things in general, to his grandfather seated next to him, right behind us, was amusing at times.
Comfortable seating
Seat foot-rests extended smoothly on touch of digital buttons as another hostess in orange uniform came with the menu card to discuss on our preference of dinner. She was patient in explaining the choice and ingredients that went into it. We agreed to her suggestion of Garuda’s signature ambarella juice and sipped the refreshing Vitamin C rich sweet and sour drink as we looked into our copies of a tempting three course menu with a choice of beverages and drinks.
First course of dinner onboard Garuda
Freshly cut fruit platter was our choice over Irisan buah segar, a fruit soup, for starter. There were three choices for hot meal. We gave a miss to Nasi kuning, Indonesian chicken rending with turmeric rice and opted for an Asian vegetarian meal that consisted of vegetable shami kabab, mint chutney, tandoori baby corn and vegetable curry puff.
Young boy behind us jumped for stir fried noodles with vegetables, ginger prawn and sauted pok choy. He was saying he was hungry as it was past his dinner time and they had to leave home early to reach the airport amidst monsoon rains.
Hot meal
Fruit plate arrived on the main platter that had main course accompaniments of soft bread rolls and rasmalai in seperate black porcelain bowls. Butter and mint chutney came in white porcelain dishes. The linen on table, anti slip meal tray and aesthetically arranged fruit pieces on cut banana leaf were impressive. Fine steel cutlery wrapped in white napkin was engraved with Garuda emblem. The aroma of the main course was mouth watering as the hostess placed the hot meal neatly served on a white porcelain plate. The taste of spicy tandoori baby corn matched its aroma. Shami kababs tasted good with mint chutney. When complimented on it, hostess informed that Garuda’s onboard food came from Taj Flight Kitchen. Food from the premier catering company very well complimented the five star service of Garuda.
Garuda Indonesia, a Skyteam member since 2014, has been named as the ‘5-Star Airline’ consecutively since 2014 by Skytrax, the international air transport rating organisation based in London. The rating includes services in all of Garuda’s classes, staff and overall airline product. We totally agree with it after experiencing an equally good hospitality in economy class on our return flight.
We chose to be happy with just the sight of the yummy looking Chocolate ganache cake that we saw the hostess taking to the young boy, as there was no place in our stomachs for a dessert at almost midnight.
Hostesses
After a small walk up and down the aisle and a visit to the washroom, it was time to stretch our cushy seats into flatbeds. The smoothness of its operation was easy even for the seven year old. We retired for the day on the comfortable and roomy bed. We woke up on bashing sounds coming from the video behind us. We had slept for just over three hours.
Non-intrusive, yet alert hostess brought hot towels placed individually on neat wood trays and also offered breakfast menu. We smiled and thanked the little fellow for giving us some time to experience rest of the service. Washrooms were clean and had wash gel, moisturiser, dental kit and even a deodorant.
Garuda offers WiFI onboard. We checked on the free service available for 15 minutes, while sipping hot Java coffee. The speed was okay for social media and surfing and was amazing to know that we were connected even in the skies. Images and videos took some time to download. Charges of $5, $11.95, $ 16.95 & $21.95 seemed reasonable for 30 minutes, one hour, 3 hours and the whole flight respectively.
The video screen at the seat unlatched smoothly and its distance offered good views of clear images that were streamed. Audio Video on Demand(AVOD) services on Garuda include movies from studios in Hollywood, the Middle East, Europe and Asia, television programming, music, streaming radio, games and original productions that include destination films and entertainment guides. A film on wildlife wonders of India was beautiful.
Hostess handed immigration forms to be filled in for arriving in Indonesia. We also filled the frequent flier form given in the in-flight magazine and handed over.
Occupancy of a third of 18 seats in the front cabin of business class seemed a good pick-up for Garuda, considering that Mumbai Denpasar non-stop flights were only 3 months into operation. A second cabin behind us had another set of 18 business class seats. Economy class had full occupancy.
A tall statue of Garuda Wisnu Kenchana (which we later learnt), came into picture as the flight touched down at Ngurah Rai airport. The tallest statue in the world (121 meters), scheduled to be unveiled on 8 August, depicts God Vishnu riding his vehicle Garuda (a mythological eagle). We smiled at the thought of being treated as gods onboard the modern day Garuda as we stepped onto the beautiful Island of Gods.
Written by Anand & Madhura Katti
.jpg){kind=tracking}
