Medan/Bandung – With the end of the long holidays, Indonesia's cities are returning to normal. That means traffic, smog, and big queues for public services.

In the North Sumatra capital of Medan, residents began lining up early in the morning at Pirngadi Hospital, where they were collecting new Askes insurance cards.

M. Yahya was among hundreds of people lining up at the hospital's Askes booth. The resident of Tebing Tinggi city left home at 8 a.m. but hundreds of people had arrived much earlier than him.

After two hours of waiting, and with no movement in the queue, the 67-year-old gave up.

"I came here only to ask for a stamp for my wife's Askes card. But I've been waiting for two hours and I'm too tired to stand up that long," he told The Jakarta Post at the hospital.

He attributed the slow service to the lack of hospital employees showing up for work on Monday. "The government has given a long holiday for this year's Idul Fitri but it's been a waste since many employees have still skipped work," Yahya said.

But hospital spokesman Indah Kumala Dewi said almost all employees and doctors were already back to work.

She said the long queue at the Askes booth was due to the large number of people who had come to update their Askes cards. "They all come in the morning so the work piles up," she said.

Slow service was also seen in many subdistrict and district offices across Medan on Monday, while at the North Sumatra provincial administration, 3.2 percent of the 6,952 employees did not show up for work.

The administration's spokesman, M.L. Tobing, said the number of employees who skipped work this year was lower than last year. "Last year, only 93 percent of employees showed up on the first day after the Idul Fitri holiday," he said.

In Bandung, West Java's capital city, a 500-meter queue of trucks stretched away from the transportation office on Monday. Truck driver Asep Dedih said he was waiting for his annual vehicle document inspection for his employer's truck.

"I should have conducted the test on Oct. 26 but since it was a holiday, I could only take care of it on Monday," said Dedi, who waited three hours to be served.

Bandung city administration said most employees returned to work on Monday. "We did not find any employees skipping work. Those who did not show up were those on official leave or those taking maternity leave as well as those taking study leave," a representative said.

However, only 50 percent of Bandung Legislative Council's 45 members showed up for work on Monday. Those coming in left early, leaving the building empty by 1 p.m.

At West Java provincial administration, some 100 employees could face punishments for skipping work on Monday.