Frustrating bureaucracy

3 November 2008

We got up pretty late after a long night of doing nothing, and went to the port around one o’clock. We just strolled in the port, and saw that the Kathryn bay was there! We found a customs agent and tried to get him to clear the car. He was surprisngly helpful, and signed us off straight away! We strolled around the port, and after more than a week, there was the wombat, parked with a couple of other cars in a corner. We showed a uninterested customs agent around, and would have driven off there and then if another car wasn’t blocking our way.

We found a Perkins’ guy, the shipping company we came with, and he told us we needed to get a bill of landing from the shipping company. He told us that the company could have sorted all of that out the day before, when we visited their offices. Even though he was a bit grumpy, he did call up the office, and there were a couple of people left there, so he got one of his guys to drive us there.

After over an hour of explaining and phone calls, the guys in the office told us that they couldn’t give us the bill of landing as the accoutant hadn’t done the invoice for the local charges. And the accountant, of course, was on break until Tuesday.

We came really close to actually getting our car out of the port today, but we didn’t expect to anyways, so we were just a little disappointed. Oh well, just another couple of days of overpriced hostel in Dili, and the off to Indo.

JD