Batavia Air - from Jakarta, my associates and I boarded the worn out aircraft. The plane took off and flew for about 15 minutes; then we heard the pilot announce in Bahasa Indonesian that there was something wrong with the plane, and thus, he was not able to climb more than 10,000m. He decided that it was better if we headed back to Jakarta and change aircrafts.
We returned to Jakarta and waited for about an hour and half and was relieved to be put on the 2nd flight of the day.
We landed in Jambi Aiport, a simple 2-jet facility that had no aerobridges.
Jambi was a unassuming city, with little sophistication, but boast of the popular Pempek snacks. Pempek is apparently a Chinese-owned eatery selling fish based products, such as Otah Otah, that were made without tumeric or curry powder, tasting very much like fish cake, fish balls, fish cakes, and several other fish crackers.
What was commendable was the hygiene emphasis that the restauranteur had surely made obvious, especially in a country not always known for such sanitary standards. All the kitchen staff donned masks while preparing the dishes and foodstuffs, at least they did attempt to demonstrate compliance to this standard. A few careless kitchen staff was seen using bare hands to prepare the food. Most of the staff had their masks worn below their chins.
We stopped by another restaurant on the way to Tebing Tinggi for lunch - Aneka Rasa. They served Javanese cuisine.
What a treacherous ride from Jambi, a small city in Indonesia, to Tebing Tinggi. The road wasn't exactly gravel, but it felt like it, with numerous potholes. Tebing Tinggi was where one would find the Lontar Papyrus Pulp & Paper mill, a major paper factory that was possibly one of the vicinity's main Employer for the residents.
It was so faraway from civilization as I know it that there wasn't even a hotel / motel operating in the area. Thus, it behooved the factory to operate their own Guest House to accommodate visitors, and guests of some of their expatriate employers. Most of the expatriates were from Taiwan and China.
The lobby wasn't exactly the Shangri-La, but the chequered floor was a nice touch to bring some form of designer feel to the rustic lodging. The public toilet by the check-in counter was quite deplorable. I suggest all patrons wait till you get issued a key to your rooms.
A number of neatly lined terrace units were built for the Chinese expatriates. They were decent enough lodging. A nice canteen serves all meals to the guests. USD22/night gets you full room and board, i.e. a clean bed, a simple bathroom with hot water, pink toilet, closet space, a white bathtowel, a little bar of soap, even a toothbrush set, and all 3 meals served at their canteen. They even serve spaghetti bolognaise, fruit in their complete buffet meal.
To add to the charm, they have a full sized swimming pool with a gym and sauna.
The return road trip was a little less demanding, even though as the picture below shows, it was quite a dusty trail with visibility reduced to less than 2 metres. Careful examination of the photo will reveal that our car was actually trailing behind a sizeable green truck.
Arriving in Jambi was like a step from boot camp to a Best Western Hotel chain. It is always pleasant to check into a new hotel even though the hotel lacked certain standard offering like a hairdryer! Otherwise, after where i came from, this was like Holiday Inn in comparison. 
The hotel Abadi Suite is a new hotel that is located in Jambi City Centre, a stone's throw from Novotel Jambi, a much older hotel. The Abadi Suite was still in its Pre-Opening phase, and thus, there were a number of inconveniences that hopefully would be sorted out after a while, eg. lights that wouldn't turn off, and shone the entire night, no internet connection, and several structural defects in the rooms. 
One could easily be fooled to think the view I get from my corner suite was quite pleasant until you gaze just right under my window, and lo, the sight of poverty lurking amidst the irony of a satellite dish that rose obstrusively out of the slums.
