[Record of 10 May 2010 Monday]
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:
The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,
‘Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Having run out of obvious choices, I spent a long time considering what quote I was going to use for this last post. I wanted to use something I already knew of before going on the trip, not something I searched especially for this post. I don’t know, using something new seems a bit contrived or a bit like cheating. Just my opinion.
Eventually I settled on this one because it expresses ‘wanderlust’ very well. Having returned from my underwater adventure, I know I’ll definitely be going on another voyage someday. Also, this serves as an invitation to my friends to join me on a future trip.
From Bunaken
Exterior view of my chalet
I woke early at 6.30am but spent a bit long taking photos of the chalet, and fiddling with my bag. I’d worked out the packing last night and checked to make sure everything fit, but I was re-arranging things to make them fit better.
At 8.15am I went to the dining hall for a quick breakfast. I got my dive log signed and stamped by Iwan, and checked the bill. They’d made a mistake, writing 6 nights’ stay instead of 7 nights. I’d planned for 6 nights at ADEX a month ago, but changed it to 7 nights when making my reservation, to make flight booking easier.
Tom, the new dive boat.
Slightly after 9pm, I went to the jetty to board the new boat named Tom. It was just delivered yesterday but it needed a few final touches, so we didn’t get to use it for diving. I saw that my bag wasn’t on the boat so I asked about it. The answer was “it’s on another boat” so I settled down for the ride to the mainland, along with Willy and Valerie.
Halfway across the straits, this turned out to be a misunderstanding.
Apparently the mobile phone network extends across the sea, because one of the boatmen was calling the resort. It turned out that my bag was still on the island. Eventually, it was sent over on another boat.
It would have saved everyone, including myself, a lot of trouble if I’d enquired more closely about my bag. Lesson learned.
Manado
We arrived in the Manado harbour just before 10am and met with Alfons, who was driving us back to the airport. We all went to a cafe at a nearby hotel for some drinks, while waiting for my bag to arrive. I gave the others a treat since it was kind of my fault for not pursuing the matter of my bag. Anyway drinks were quite cheap so it was all right. I found that quite a lot of my old Rupiah bills, given to me by my mother, weren’t accepted any more.
After waiting for a while, Alfons decided that we should go pay our bills first, then come back for the bag. He drove us to the mainland office in the city centre, stopping at an ATM nearby so I could draw some Indonesian Rupiah for the tips and airport tax.
While I was sorting out the tip money and the Singapore Dollar cash payment for my bill, Willy kept pretending to steal the notes. I guess he was bored, since he was paying with a credit card which was much quicker.
After settling the bills, we drove back to the harbour to pick up my bag. Then we headed to the airport. It was sunny today, so we had a better view of the city buildings, people and other vehicles. There were quite a lot of primary school-age students walking by.
Driving in Manado is a rather nerve-wracking affair, as is usual in less-developed places. Near the harbour, it’s all old and narrow one-way roads which weren’t built for modern cars, so it’s mostly one big traffic jam. At junctions, it’s like everyone just squeezes past each other once there’s space.
A landscaped feature inside the airport
We arrived at the airport a little past noon. In Singapore terms, we’re very early since our flight leaves at 1.50pm, but here it seems that we need to check-in earlier. There wasn’t much of a queue so we all checked in quickly and spent almost an hour browsing the shops in the departure area. I spent the last Rupiah note I had, which wasn’t much [20 000 Rupiah, about 3 Singapore Dollars]. I remembered to get Willy and Valerie’s email addresses so that I could find them on Facebook.
Flight
At about 1.30pm, we all boarded the plane. Once again, there were lots of Westerners on board, though not quite as much as the previous flight I was on. There were a few more empty seats compared to the previous flight, but not a lot.
Lunch on the plane
There was very slight turbulence during the flight. It was noticeable but very minor. A late lunch was served at about 2.40pm. The in-flight shopping catalogue had some good and reasonably priced items but I’d used up most of my discretionary income on this trip. No shopping for me, for now.
Back in Singapore
View from the plane window
The return flight took much less time than the forward flight, and we even landed early, at about 4.45pm. The plane then went on a long tour of the airport grounds: past the landing strip, the cargo area, the take-off strip, and finally the terminal. So the passengers’ arrival was on time rather than early.
I browsed the shops in the transit area for a short while before going to the immigration and baggage claim. Apparently the luggage handling was very efficient, because the belt was already off and the few unclaimed bags were placed on the floor next to it.
I grabbed my bag and went outside to wait for my mother to arrive. I tried to connect to Wireless@SG with my laptop but it refused to work. I spent the time working on Wave VII and making some quick notes for this post.
My mother arrived some time later and we had dinner at Simply Wang [a restaurant version of Wang Cafe] in the airport, since my father would be quite late picking us up.
I got this free T-shirt from Froggies Divers resort. First photo is front, second is back.
Once we got home, it was the usual shower and unpacking. I took photos [above] of the T-shirt I wore today on the trip back to Singapore.
Post-script
Well, this post is EXTREMELY late, due to work and procrastination. But it is accurate since I made notes instead of purely relying on memory. I tried to be more detailed to make up for the lateness.
I actually finished typing this out on Sunday night, 16 May 2010, but somehow it refused to upload.
I sent the films for developing on Sunday too. Yes, it’s late. Work, again. They should be ready by next week and I hope they turn out OK.
There will probably be an ‘epilogue’ to this series where I post the photos and add a few more comments or summaries about this trip.
Stay tuned!
Mad Science Laboratory 