23 December 2008
We woke up at 8am after a good night’s sleep. Jonny was a little upset that the water in the shower was only luke warm (for 250 000 rp, you expect hot water!).
The plan was that I was going to meet with Mr. Indrawan at 10 am to finish up the paper work, and Jonny was going to an internet café to buy our plane tickets with Air Asia. We were hoping to get on the 2:50pm flight to Batam.
So Jonny went on his way, and I waited in the parking lot for the distinct BMW. There were many overly excited cabbies who offered me a lift wherever I wanted to go....In any case, Mr. Indrawan and his colleague (we were never properly introduced and I never learned his name) arrived on time. We went to the hotel restaurant where I ordered a coffee, and they, a tea each. Mr. Indrawan showed me the shipping invoice, the export documents and contact information for the person at port Klang. He told me that the bill of lading could be sent to me by email in pdf form. Everything looked in order, so I counted the 550 USD and 2,100,000 rupiah (we thought it would be 2,300,000, but we didn’t have to pay one of the import fees). As I was counting, the colleague grabbed his chest, and Mr Indrawan touched his arm and shoulder. Once I handed him the money, Mr. Indrawan excused himself. He said that he would have to cancel their tea order to take his colleague straight to the hospital. He said that his colleague was having a heart attack! I did not know how to react! I asked if he was ok, and he didn’t look well at all (all of us had stayed up late the night before). So I told them to go, and I told Mr. Indrawan to email me. I felt that it was a bit strange that they were so anxious to leave right when they got their money...but no one in their right mind fakes a heart attack! I felt guilty right away for doubting their intentions... I guess I’m a little paranoid about having just given them my car and a large sum of money. The whole ordeal was completely sketchy. I still don’t know how I feel about it...
Jonathan returned and was really shocked when he heard what happened... We went to pizza hut with the man the night before!
Jonathan was able to get us the right tickets for Batam! We learned that a taxi from our hotel to the airport should take 1 hour (though traffic in Jakarta is mental at all hours) and should cost 150,000 rupiah. We had a little while to relax in our room before checkout. We watched Eric Brokovich that was playing on tv and ate our left over Corn Flakes by the handful.
At noon, we grabbed a taxi to the airport. We ate lunch and checked in without a problem. The Jakarta domestic airport is quite pretty! It’s neat how in tropical countries, official buildings don’t need closed walls. The flight went very well. We played cards, read the inflight magazine and we were already there.
In Batam, we saw an add for the Singapore ferry. We asked a few questions, but with no rupiahs or Singapore dollars, we were told we could pay with a credit card at the ferry terminal. I was 445, the ferry left at 520 and a the terminal was a 15 minute taxi ride away. We were optimistic and thought we could make it (forgetting at the time that we had to go through customs). We got to the ferry terminal at 510 we thought we were in the clear...oh were we ever wrong! There were dozens of people standing around the “Penguin” ferries desk, all trying to check in. Check in closes 15 minutes before departure. The next ferry was at 630...I wanted to go, Jonny was a little worried because it meant we would be in Singapore pretty late, without a place to stay. I was keen on leaving. Batam was very nice and clean and new, but I had a feeling it would be hard to find a reasonably priced hotel. We decided to just go for it and take the ferry. I was pretty stressed out because I hate “blobby” lineups. I hate when people cut in front of you in line, and when they push because there’s no order. It’s simple, just wait your turn and stand a reasonable distance behind the person in front of you...Not in Asia! Here, pushing gets you in front faster....In any case, the 630 ferry was sold out, the next was at 730. We learned they didn’t take visa. We asked how much it would cost in rupiah. They said 120 000 rp We were short, so Jonny went to take money out as I waited. This one young woman was trying to cut in front of me in line, and i made a point not to let her. She kept sighing and throwing elbows, and I made a shield around myself on the floor, with our backpacks. She gave up and cut in front of the girl in the line next to mine instead. Jonny came back as the desk lady was entering our information for the tickets. Once it came to paying, it turns out that the person who quoted us the price didn’t speak English very well and made a mistake. We didn’t have enough. I had 45 Aussie dollars, so Jonny went to a money changers where (we later found out) they totally ripped us and gave us 31 Singaporean dollars (the exchange rate was actually 1:1). We handed over 7 Sing dollars, and the desk lady gave us 27 000 rupiah back. I don’t really understand what happened, things were pretty hectic. In any case we got out tickets.
We went to have a little meal with our left over rupiah, and sat around. You could see Singapore from the Batam port, it’s pretty neat. Once on the ferry, we realized that even though Singapore is only a 45-minute ferry ride away, it’s one hour ahead! It’s so strange, because it’s just like going from Fremantle to Rottnest, but it’s in another timezone! Anyway, the ferry was delayed about 30 minutes, so it meant that we wouldn’t get to Singapore until about 10 pm. We were a little frustrated that we would have to find a place to stay that late....
On the ferry, they put the strangest thing on tv. It was a kareoke video of obscure early 90s songs (my favourite was “Inside of my Guitar”). The videos were of late teen/early 20 white folks standing around smelling roses, petting horses, hugging, gazing in the distance, slowly running their fingers in their hair...it was so weird. It’s as thought North America and Australia didn’t know what the hell to do with all these tapes, so they sent them away. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure...it’s all about perspective. It was pretty entertaining...until the tape was done and they just restarted it. “Inside of my Guitar” is hilarious, but only once.
Immigration went fine in Singapore. We were on the MRT at about 1030. We decided to go straight to Little India. We wanted to go to the nice little hotel run by 2 couples of old Chinese darlings, but we knew they didn’t take credit card, and if they were full there was nothing else nearby. So we decided to go to the street with all the backpackers hostels. Jonny was upset not to go (it would be his third time staying with the old folks), but it was for the best. We got to the hostel, paid and got a few pints. Yum Yum.
There is free wireless everywhere in Singapore, so we took advantage of it! I skyped my papa! We got parathas from across the street for 70 cents each (the man even gave us sauce!)
It was a ridiuculously eventful Christmas eve-eve. I love it!
Marie-Claude
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