The world is small (& round)

The world is small. When viewed in parts.

I'm in Bali again. Flight over gave a great view of the part of the world that is Atauro and Timor, Wetar and the Alor islands, and the rest of Nusa Tengara Timor - Flores, Komodo, Rincha, Sumabawa, Lombok and Bali. Got me a little nostalgic about the amazing kayaking trip I did with dad in 2002 through those islands and also made me realise how close all these islands are, including Timor. On a clear day you can see Alor from the beach in Dili. For sure you can see Alor from the hills south of Dili on the way to Ermera. Got me thinking that if I had my kayak I could kayak across to Atauro and even onto Alor or Wetar.

That got me thinking if I could do it, for sure the Timorese and Indonesians at one stage before they were Timorese and Indonesians had done it. Whats that Noam Chiomsky / Max Weinreich said about a dialect - it "is any variety of a language spoken by a specific community of people. ... with an army and a navy."

Then I had dinner on the beach in Bali and got talking to the mother of 2 little kids. Turns out she had grown up in Maroopna and had even gone to school in Cobram for a year or two when she was growing up. Now she lives in Bali (since Tuesday!).

The world is small. When viewed in parts. Can't we all just get along?

PS. The last US troops pulled out of Iraq yesterday...

Jakarta by Jakartans

A wordy Jakartan summarised my impression of Jakarta aptly with this metaphor:

Jakarta will always be complicated. It is like a Durian. 

Not all the people like Durian because it is big, with spiky, dun coloured skin and has a very strong smell. On the inside though, it has a really soft and moist tissue and taste like heaven. 

Jakarta is just like that. Harsh, rough, and sometimes so raw that some people just can't accept it. But if your willing to come closer and see the inside of Jakarta, you will find bursts of color, the warmth of the people and the fusion of culture from almost every part of Indonesia.

Thanks Lesthia for summing it up so well, although I'm dissapointed to hear that you have retired your dirty dancing shoes, Hijab and beer bottle swigging attitude from Ally's 'Black' Bar - because that was my other favourite metaphor for Jakarta!

Kupang

Currently i'm in Kupang in West Timor. Contrary to the guide books and popular opinion, its not a dump. Although, accomodation is a bit expensive for what you get, unless you stay for free with some random you met on the 12hr bus trip from Dili to Kupang!

Here is an excerpt from the blog post I wrote for GoodReturn relating to the the bus trip:

"The difference in infrastructure between East and West Timor and the impact it has is difficult to describe. I'm not an agricultural expert or meteorologist either but it seems that the near deserted dry and dusty surrounds of Dili and the villages south west of Dili migrate to greener pastures, homes with grass and power, rice crops and population growth as the roads improve over the shared land border with Indonesian West Timor. The sheer lack of basic infrastructure in terms of appropriate drains, bridges, roads, markets, power poles and houses in Timor Leste is over-whelming when compared so directly to West Timor."


The bus ride was tiring of course, but also gave a sneak peak of the awesome ride I'm going to have getting back to Dili. The road has it all - mountain hair-pins with ancient tree-forests, coastal curves, flat straights, jungle, rice paddy savannah, the works. And I was alseep for half of it!


Arrived Thursday night in Kupang at about 10pm after leaving Dili at 9am. The first 6 hotels I tried were all full and thankfully so, because I ended up in about the same standard for half the price, at the Luvalon Hostel. 


Friday I was up early and at the shop given to me by my mysterious shippers in Jakarta. They actually existed and were expecting me, which was a relief. So down the port I went with my new friend from the bus ride, Leonardo. And there she was! Wrapped in cardboard and Hessian. 


Once teh packing was undone, I kicked her over and she went first go. Good Girl. There were a few small issues of a broken mirror coupling and a lose hose, but nothing dramatic. Until I tried to ride her out the door. The engine continually cut-out when in gear. This reeked off a safety switch error to me, so I fidled with the most suspect, which was the one connected to the stand. That did nothing. Leonardo and his brother then messed around with the clutch and gear connector for an hour, to no avail. In the end, we loader her on a truck and took her to the new Kawasaki dealership in Kupang (Thanks Siti for the address!)


They had identified the problem and had her fixed in no time. As suspected, it was a safety switch issue, but the clutch safety switch, not the stand. So we eliminated the issue by taping the switch to the handle-bars. Love these kind of fixes.


I mentioned liberally a few times that I had a friend at Kawasaki factory in Jakarta and was doing some promotional work for them. They promptly gave me a bunch of Kawasaki leaf-lets to hand out and charged me only 30,000 IRP for the service. Thats $3 folks. I gave them 50,000 IRP because they did such a good job and even finished in time for me to get to the Timor Leste embassy and get my visa application in!


Saturday night I caught ip with Leonardo again and met his family, including a number of his many brothers. I had an obligatory two dinners with them, went swimming with the local kids and tried to teach them how to do free-style and stayed the night at Leonardo's. Him and his brother basically drove me around all day Friday, and they were very keen for me to stay. Besides the huge amount of food they seemed to expect me to eat, I had a great time and hopefully they got something out of it!  I'm sure there will be some more posts to come on this topic! 


Sunday, I took the bike for a good ride into the hills and visited a exclusive waterfall. Nobody there but locals, perfect!

Moving on

I left the bike and 2,250,000 IRP with a complete stranger. All I have in return is a piece of copy paper, a 'legal' stamp and a promise to deliver it to Kupang in about 2 weeks.

To be fair, it is supposed to be a logistics company, but in reality it was just a nice house which advertised the services of a lawyer. It sounds bad, but in reality the transaction with Schenker in Australia was kidnd of the same, the only difference was that I know Schenker, and they had a warehouse. A big warehouse with lots of trucks coming and going.

I fly out to Denpasar on Sunday morning. Spend the day in bali and fly out to Dili on Monday morning. I'll be starting 'work' immediately and will take a wk'end run to Kupang to pick up the bike and ride it back to Dili when it arrives in Kupang. If i'm lucky, it will arrive in about 3 months and it will be just in time for me to take it to Ende and ride all the way back through Indonesia.

I'm ok!

All the effort doctoring my Jetstar flight receipt was in vain. The bloody immigration officer didn't even ask to see it this time. Can't help but feel i was just a tad unlucky last time because the immigration officer was having a bad day.

Up and about early today but to no avail. I still don't have transport to kupang yet and time is running out. Off to the Pelni head office now to see if they can help - they have a boat that goes but I don't know if it will take cargo like a bike.

I know its possible because its been done before, but something tells me the ferries that operate between the islands are different to the Pelni boat.

Got the bike, leaving the country

I got the bike on Friday. No dramas. No bribes, no real difficulty. Had a lot of help from the Schenker guy in clearing the paperwork through APW. It took from about 10:30am until 3pm, including an hour break for lunch.

Rode half-way across jakarta back to jaksa without issue and without getting lost. Also rode out to the Kawasaki factory today without even a hint of a traffice problem or navigational problem. Have even found the bike much better than the local scooters for stability.

Couldn't get the bike on a boat to Kupang and unfortuantely due to the public holiday on Thursday it appears all the immigration officers took the day off on Friday as well, so Its off to Singapore for me for a visa extension. I'll be back to take care of the bike and fly opff to Kupang, lets hope that doesn't take a week!

Gota go, Jetstar flight in 2hrs!

Its ok, I've adapted

Customs inspection went well on Wednesday. I arrived at DB Schenker office and Mr Farried who is handling my case and who happens to be a bike enthusiast took me out to the bike on his 150cc Kawasaki. It sounded horrifically tinny but it looked good.

DB Schenker, Tanjung Priok, Jakarta

When we arrived literally just around the corner (Easy walking distance) I realised that the location on my Delivery Order document of APW actually stood for Agung Public Warehouse, and that was as specific as it needed to be - because when we walked in and asked for "Motor" they all got excited and took us straight to it. No need for bay numbers or anything fancy when your goods stand out so much.

If I had of known this, I would have gone straight to customs and told them the bike was ready for inspection and not bothered waiting around nearly an hour for the Schenker people, because besides doing some translating and taking me for lunch and actually being really nice people, they didn't really help much! Instead, because we were at APW already I had to persuade Mr Farried and the APW people to let me go back to customs, because I wanted to make sure the customs inspector knew that I knew Mr Sofwan (his boss) and that Mr Sofwan knew that particular customs inspector was dealing with my shipment.

As it was the Schenker people, including the normal customs clearing agent (who I met on Friday and still don't trust) warned me that I might be looking at about a 2 million IRP ($200 AUD) 'Inspection fee'. I was left with no doubt that this fee was a bribe for the inspection officer. I indicated that if it ever came up it was to be referred to me immediately. My couple of hours in Mr Sofwan's office had demonstrated to me that there was typically a list of charges attached to the documents in each customs folder (copies of all my documents had gone into a similar folder). These charges were reviewed and signed off by Mr Sofwan. My feeling is that if the charges were written down and available on an invoice or receipt of some form signed of by Mr Sofwan, then I would have no real way of arguing with them. If anything was asked for that wasn't on paper signed by Mr Sofwan, then it was a bribe and I wouldn't be paying it - i'd simply play the dumb Bule card and ask for it to be included on the paperwork to be paid later.

So, due to the messing around it was Lunch and of course nothing was going to happen for an hour. All you ppl who work 9-5 in the developed world should thank capitalism that banks and post offices and government buildings don't just shut down during lunch hour - when would you ever get anything done?



After lunch we headed back to APW with our customs inspector. With much excitement and a crowd we headed to the bike, which seems to be in about the same condition as when I left her nearly 2 months ago (April 7th!). They then spent a lot of time taking photos and trying to scrath the engine numbers onto making tape for their files. Eventually they were happy. I made sure to mention a number of times when they took copies of my documents (again) that a folder of documetns already existed, that Mr Sofwan was my friend and he had already approved them. Seemed to go down a treat and not a single mention of 'inspection fee' arose. Happy with that, even if it means it just shows up later on paper! I figure if official documentation of such fees doesn't scare them no level of protesting from me is going to get them to change anyway.



Unfortuantely, Mr Sofwan was not in the port office on Wednesday - he was out at the head office. So, it meant that due to my name dropping it appears now that nobody is prepared to stamp the Carnet and that I'll have to get Mr Sofwan to do it himself! Not sure how that will go, but if it has helped me avoid a $200 bribe then I'm happy to wait an extra 2 days.

So, still no bike but its ok - I've adapted to local time now and really, another couple of days when i've been waiting 25 days already and my visa is about to expire is really not going to matter.

201 Posts, Still no bike...

The bike is definitely maybe available tomorrow. I have had this confirmed from other independent sources now, which helps keep my head above water.

These are the events that have been confirmed by multiple sources as having occurred to delay my bike:

• There was a strike in the Port over the week-end
• There has been 2 public holidays with a 3rd this week if it is not out tomorrow
• One of the shipping manifests for goods that were shipped in the same container as mine were incorrect, so the whole container was way-laid until the over-all manifest could be adjusted.
• Singapore shipping wouldn't release the cargo because they don't know what a carnet visa is and thought that (temporary) imports of motor vehicles to Indonesia was prohibited.

And I haven't even ridden it in a single country other than Australia yet!

A guiding light

In a world of shades and shadows
You were my beacon in the dark
Your sweet innocence draws a crowd
I'm but one, a moth to your halo.

You spread waves of light against the tide of darkness
It flickers and flutters
Rippling to the pulse of an uncertain beat
At risk of being gutted by rips of jealousy
It reverberates slowly

Through the rapids of affection and attention
where rocky hands tear at the crest
Over the the depths of deceit and debauchery
where the peak is lost but the swell remains
Onto the welcome shore of love
where the waves of light deposit bright new grains

This moth follows the beacon
Mindful of the darkness
Greedy for the life giving light
Contemptuous of the heat
Wary of the waters of sin

A spear of spray, a veiling mist of culture
Perilous liquid forms, forever changing, forever unsubstantiated
Weighting the wings, dragging this moth
To the depths of debauchery and deceit.

Where the nebulous lights of the discotheque twinkle and burn
The curious moth investigates each in turn
Failing to learn, each discretion
Stirs up a dark storm of excretion
And sets the white light a'churn.

The forces of darkness rejoice in the muck
They find their missing voice
The light becomes diffused, this moth confused.
Pain ensues and clears the skies
The beacon shines bright, visible again
And this moth heads for the light on weary wings

Dry, rejuvenated and refreshed
Rescued from the shades and shadows of here and now
By the halo, it passes beyond
Leaving the light, to shine bright
To noursih another, on this dangerous voyage

Though rapids of affection and attention
Over depths of deceit and debauchery
Guided by your waves of light
Onto the welcome shores of love.

Post number 199!

Been a good, productive few days.

Decided to visit the Jakarta Customs today despoite not having the notification from Schenker that the bike had been 'Stripped' yet. (First the container gets un-loaded, then it gets stripped).

I have nothing but good things to say about Jakarta customs at this stage, they were impressive.

I arrived about 10am, was informed I couldn't enter because I didn't have a collared shirt. Hotel is about an hour and $5 one way (thats a lot) taxi ride away, so shot off to the nearest market and got a shirt for $6. Its nice too.

Back to customs, its 12 noon, Friday. Everybody is at lunch and prayers. The Client Co-ordinators sit behind floor to ceiling glass panels and I could easily see when my contact - Mr Kurniawan arrived. Once he did (about 1pm, much better than the 2hrs I had to wait for Schenker) I reported to the conceirge and was taken straight to him, skipping the que (bonus!).

He was shocked that Schenker was taking that long. Because I had all the paper work he proceeded to take me up stairs and introduced me to the head of teh division that would clear the Carnet. We sat and talked with his boss intemittently over teh next 2 hrs while the whole department seemed to work on the paperwork required for my bike. 2 hrs later, everything complete except the physical inspection they give Schenker a call to see why they take so long and to arrange the physical inspection. Monday is agreed and I'm out the door with everything but one last hurdle to jump.

Thank you Indonesia Customs!

South East Asia by Harley

I ran into this Italian guy on the street in Jakarta. He has riden his Harley from Italy down through the Stans, China, Pakistan, India and then itno SEA, through Indonesia to Bali where he sips the bike to Japan and then goes home through China, Russia and Mongolia.

He had some great info on the Chinese / Pakistan border which unfortunately wasn't promising. But what got me most was his quiet, understated nature. Then I checked out his website and was blown away by his photos, they are beautiful.

You can check out his pictures here - be patient, there are a lot so it takes a while to load.

Happiest when I'm active

Its very easy to sleep during the day in Jakarta. Most people seem to do it, the librarian at the UN section of the National Library who is looking for a journal for me has just now apologised because she hasn't found the book yet and she is going off to have her after lunch nap!

The last week I have been living almost on a nocturnal basis. Its quite strange, but once in the rythym is kind of addictive somehow. My body clock now operates pretty well on the following hours +/- an hour or so:

0900 hrs - 1100 hrs: Wake up, Mandy, cooked b/fast, Internet / meetings.
1500 hrs - 1700 hrs: Return to Memories Hotel, Mandy, sleep, maybe read.
1900 hrs - 2000 hrs: Wake up, Mandy, cooked dinner, beers.
0200 hrs - 0400 hrs: Farewells, Makanan time with the Memories Hotel 'family', Mandy, sleep.

Repeat.

The hard part about this schedule is that a large portion of the waking hours are not standard business hours. In fact for a large portion of the waking hours there is not a lot to do other than sit, talk, drink beer, eat peanuts or maybe go dancing. Networking is not a huge option because lets face it, not many people want to talk about their work at 2am in the morning!

I have found therefore that the time between 1000 hrs and 1500 hrs is critical. I must get something done or else I feel like I'm stagnating. This is a very Bule way of looking at the world it seems, which is a consistent theme for white people no matter where they are in the world. We seem to be always looking for something.

It took me a week to work that out. Therefore I'm happy to report that i've had some good meetings this week. Ririn from PwC Jakarta was extremeley helpful and put me onto two organisations that she deals with in her CSR role - Mitra Dhu'afa and the Indonesia Solar Lending Program run by Khaula Foundation.

 Mitra Dhu'afa are a Grameen supported Micro-finance initiative that is assisting poor women in Jakarta. They are working with PwC to develop a PwC Village in Jakarta for the women to build their enterprises and learn about financial literacy and how to be better entreprenuers.

Indonesia Solar Lending Program  is attempting to achieve a very similar outcome as the Mercy Corp, Moris Rasik and Good Returns Energy 4 All Project that I will be working on in Timor Leste. They install small Solar Home Systems into rural villages in Indonesia. They are currently implementing a pilot program in Kalimantan.

Links to all these organisations and more have now been added to the side-bar.

Party people

New Pics from Silvia's farewell party at memories Hotel.

Silvia has been in Jakarta even longer than me, waiting and waiting. Silvia is the owner / operator and dive instructor of the rajalaut-bunaken resort in Suliwesi and is off to Italy to drum up some more business.

Full album is available here

Hmmm, dejavu.

Spent Friday morning running around trying to drum up sufficient USD to pay for my shipping charges. Because my travel money card from CBA is actually denominated in USD I thought I would spend teh extra time looking for a ATM that dispensed USD. This is not uncommon and I actually ended up at a commonwealth bank in the Landmark area (Banking area) because I figured it would be the easiest, cheapest and most convenient - since it is my bank after-all. How silly of me! Turns out that my CBA Travel money card denominated in USD can only be withdrawn in IRP, but I could use my CBA ATM card denominated in AUD to withdraw USD. Anyone think this is a little silly?

I couldn't even change my money at the CBA because I didn't have an account with that particular branch! Silly squared anyone?

Due to these delays, I finally got out to DB Schenker at 12, just in time for everyone to knock off for lunch. The receptionist spoke good english and as making goo goo eyes, so I asked her if she had already eaten, she hadn't so she grabbed her two friends who just happened to be the Cashiers and we went for lunch. Apparently the men were all off praying, which makes sense because Friday is the holy day here.

Once we came back from lunch there was a bit of a que for the Cashiers, so I let them deal with that and i spoke to a few of the poeple waiting. Managed to work out after a while that they didn't think the charges I was paying were expensive, so just paid them. The only comparison point I had was Australia and they were comparable.

Turns out that if you fold your USD it devalues the money here in Jakarta. I think I've heard this before, anyway, the Cashier girls let me off this time ;) Then came a $5 USD fee for the Delivery order which they let me pay in IRP at a good rate because I had no more USD left. Finaly Mr Dody arrived at about 2pm and the next sticking point was the original sea-way bill. I only had a copy and they were going to charge me $15 USD to re-print. I pointed out that I had never received an original sea-way bill and that it must be there responsibility to provide it, and therefore it was not a re-print because they had not yet provided it. They relented and printed me an original sea-way bill. It was 3pm and I'm starting to get worried that given that its a Friday we are not going to get to customs in time.

Then comes the big one. I ask to be taken to see the bike and a look of amazement spreads on Mr Dody's face and he tells me that the bike is not available yet, that it has been unloaded but now the cargo needs to be stripped (unpacked). He tells me that the bike will not be available for the customs process for 5 days, not including the weekend! So it will be next Friday before it will be available for inspection and customs processing.

Mr Dody has been very helpful and I put this down to a miscomunication. He never did say that the bike would be ready by Friday but that the Delivery order would be ready on this Friday. At least I have all the necessary papaer work now to proceed through customs when the day comes.

Back to waiting. In the mean-time I seem to have picked up a cold. Had the sore throat, now have a runny nose and head-aches. Hoping I don't get a temperature any time soon.

Bike update

So, apparently it takes about 2.5 days for a bike to be loaded in Singapore, shipped to Jakarta and unloaded in Jakarta. Then in takes about 2.5 days for the shipping paper work to be arranged here in Jakarta. End of story is that I cannot even commence the customs paper-work until tomorrow, 5 days after the bike was shipped from Singapore.

The Db Schenker contact here in Jakarta, Mr Dody, has been very friendly, but i can't help but get teh feeling he is deliberately delaying me for some reason, and my sinister mind draws up images of him arranging with his cronies a paperwork maze that will enable them to extract a variewty of bribes from me.

Combine this with the fact i've had the first dreams i've had for about 2 years, that i'm reading C.G.Jung's memoirs on the unconscious, that the place i'm staying in is maze for the conscience, that I've not had a feeling of being 'In motion' (see comments on Buckminster Fuller here) and you might begin to understand that describing my mental state as 'agitated' is a bit of an understatement.

Oops, wrong place, again.

Found out on Friday that the bike is not shipping until Sunday, so nothing for it but to spend even more time in the pub. Getting a little sick of Jl Jaksa by that stagfe with exceptions, such as the always fun and honest Memories staff.

Being Friday memories is full and by this time i'm known to many locals by name, which is welcoming in one way but kinda like being bakc in Cobram in another way. I get chatting to Elle, a french girl travelling on her own and Manuel, a spanish guy who has just spend a couple of months in Australia and also travelling on his own. Bopth are slightly moire mature, seasoned travellers and are refreshing to talk to compared to the constant troupe of fresh faced party poms.

Anyway, Elle and Manuel are both keen to get out of Jaksa and see some other spots. So based on a reference by Kris we head to Block M. Its a disaster! We head to "Top Gun" bar, knowing that the name should have been enough to keep us away. Its a pub with a live band. Band on the right, bar on the left, pool table at the back, young and not so young skanky asian girls in the middle, disgusting old white men loitering around the youngest and skankiest girls. I head straight for the pool table and don't bother to buy a beer. Manuel obviously hasn't quite picked up on it yet, so he buys a beer for Elle and himself. Elle is second to realise how bad the place is and I help her out with her beer so we can leave, Manuel is a bit slow but gets there when two expats start trying to take over the stage to sing their favourite song. I walk out feeling sick when I see an old white dude dry humping and worse a girl who is extrordinarily pretty and only about 18, if that.

All I can do is apologise for suggesting that we could trust Kris. But, being seasoned travellers we decide to give one other bar a go before making a hasty generalisation and deciding to write off Block M all-together. Its a little better, I can't remember the name of it but still nothing compared to the Stadium, and the fact that teeh dance floor is faced with mirrors and all the current dancers are dancing to their image in the mirror is a bit disconcerting, so we leave.

The taxi driver talks us into going to Red-Square on the way to Stadium. I have heard its good, so we agree. It looks very flash from the outside and unfortuantely we get knocked back for in-appropriate footwear! (Manuel and my sandals are ok, but Elle's thongs are not!).

So we finally make it to Stadium where the price has gone up for Friday. Its 70,000 IRP and I get the impression from the other two that I'm blowing their budget tonight! Stadium is a little more crowded but still plenty of room to dance. In fact the crowd jsut helps hide the zombies a little better, making it a bit more enjoyable, not that the Zombies do any harm. I notice this time though that the three of us are creating a small problem on the dance-floor because we are dancing in a circle. Everybody else is dancing in lines facing the stage! Strange.

Yet another good night at Stadium, eventually.

Partying In Jakarta

On Thursday I miss out on a trip to the traditional markets with Yanti and her Family due to a miscommunication but make up for it by heading to the Stadium night-club with some locals from the pub. The ring leader is Maria, who works 2 jobs - Receptionist in a hotel and also in a factory out of town near where she lives. She is in tow with some old friends who have not seen each other for 3 or more years and intend on partying to catch up. They have gone through an elaborate logistics plan to pull the whole night together, and it makes getting to Kings Cross on a Saturday look like a walk in the park. For starters, they live about 1.5hrs out of town, Maria has only just finished work (1am) and her friends arrived un-announced in town (from the Phillipines and Singapore) so had to go buy some party clothes for her!

Stadium is amazing, its like Marble Bar in Sydney but with good dance music and 3 levels of balconies looking onto an open dance floor and a stage about the size of marble bar itself. The difference is probably the 'spa' and 'massage parlour' on the 4th floor. Its busy but not over-crowded and the corwd consists almost 90% of locals. Plenty of ppl on the dance-floors but plenty of room to move, the music is loud but not to loud you can talk almost normally. Its just how I like my night-clubs.

I've been warned to watch my wallet and phone and mind the drug takers. First impression is that there is a lot of zombies on the dance floor and around, I soon find out that these are the druggies. We have been there about 10 minutes before Maria asks if I want some exctasy, I politely decline. She asks if I would be angry if her friends takes it and I reply honestly that it doesn't bother me. I'm actually curious to see the effect.

So we dance and party the night away and the girls come down off the high after about 2 hrs. In the mean-time the on stage DJ is joined by 6 scantily clad local girls who proceed to become even more scantily clad over the next hour. All up it is a good night but a tad expensive, with entry being 50,000 IRP, which includes a glass a beer and additional drinks costing around 50,000 IRP a glass.

I get home about 5:30am having not trusted the girls to drive me home and am pleased with myself at having successfully negotiated the grey areas and at having picked up the locals sleep patterns - 4am - 9/10am, 1/2pm - 4pm.

Jakarta Bike update

I was so happy when I received the customs confirmation for the temporary import of my motorbike into Indionesia, looks like I was a little hasty in my celebration though because it seems that DB Schenker Jakarta and DB Schenker Singapore just don't get it.  Its a shame, because they have been wonderful people.

I have copied below the customs confirmation and the email I just receveived from DB Schenker Jakarta that put me in a state of rage. The issue they refer to is what kept the bike in Singapore to start with for nearly 2 weeks. Read the customs confirmation and then read the email from DB Schenker Jakarta and tell me if you think they read the email from customs that I forwarded to them. Emphasis is theirs.

Customs confirmation
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From: iwan kurniawan <>

Date: Tue, May 10, 2011 at 3:19 PM
Subject: Importing Good with ATA Carnet Form
To: damianfuller@gmail.com

Dear Mr. Damian Fuller,

Regarding with our discussion this morning about the procedure of imported goods using ATA carnet, we can explain that the procedure is very easy :

Owner of imported goods must fill and signed import declaration and attach with Original documents of ATA carnet and copy of passport and the Bill of Lading.Customs officers will conduct physical inspection to imported goods by comparing data on the ATA carnet documents with imported goods to ensure conformity of goods with the documents .

After finished the inspection, customs officer will sign and give its stamp of approval on the sheet at the top left of the original ATA carnet as permit from the harbor to the regions of Indonesia. At the time of exportation from Indonesia to other countries, the owner of the goods to fill the Export Declaration form by attaching a second sheet document under the ATA carnet of original and copy of passport and copy the documents during the previous import documents.

Once again, Customs officers will inspect the physical goods by comparing data on the sheet with the ATA carnet goods to be exported to ensure conformity of goods with the documents.

After finished the inspection, customs officer will sign and give its stamp of approval on the top right sheet original ATA carnet as permit the loading of goods to the ship to be exported.thats all export import procedures using ATA carnet form in Indonesia, hopefully it can help you to do your activities in Indonesia. Good luck and have a nice trip in Indonesia.

Regards,

Kurniawan
Client Coordinator
Customs and Excise Office of Tanjung Priok
Jakarta, Indonesia

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Db Schenker Jakarta email
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Dear Mr. Damian


Received with thanks your document and email confirmation below.

Pls noted that attached Invoice and P. list was not recommended for our custom purpose, since this personal cargo. As our custom regulation, personal couldn’t import motorbike to Indonesia without under or using Diplomatic Facility (under Embassy’s facility).

Pls kindly check and advise this matter to origin for this issue soon.

Thank you

** Please be informed that our office will be closed on Tue, May 17th, in observance of Vesak Day 2555. We'll be back to open normally on Wed, May 18th.R> Dody Danar. S. STOcean Customer Service Dept

Schenker Petrolog Utama, PT - (DB) SCHENKERRuko Enggano Megah Unit 7R Tanjung Priok Jakarta Utara14220 – Indonesia

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Jakarta Pics updated

Some pics from my stay in Jakarta so far have been updated. They are mostly people as my sight-seeing has been confined to trips to and from various government buildings, and to be honest most of my time here has been spent on the computer or phone so far!

Oh-O

Well, I think my belly has done pretty well. I'm quite proud of it actually and to be honest, I did think those Sate chicken skewers were a bit raw last night.

I think "Belly proud" could be a new term. I know a few people I could name who often seem to convey a sense of pride in their belly by the way they give it a gentle rub or an affectionate pat after dinner or during beers. Hands up belly proud people, its time to stand by your belly and recognise that whilst a larger waistline contributes to your chances of life threatening disease (like diabetes, high cholesterol, heart problems) an unhealthy obsession with belly murder is tantamount to a lifestyle threatening disease. Its all about balance people.