QIC Sabang Ashore
Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Tue 12 Feb 2019 23:57
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QIC Sabang
Ashore
  Clutching the map one of the men gave us on Beez, we parked
Baby Beez on the plastic dinghy dock, scrambled up the poor excuse for
a ladder and turned left at the Harbourmaster’s Office. Offers from a
moneychanger and motorbike tuktuks - we told the nice folk we needed to get some
stomps in. We stopped at likely looking buildings and eventually a chap offered
his young friend as our guide to take us to the other side of the car park we
were in. A scruffy little office in the far corner, with a dodgy pile of ‘stuff’ outside (cheeky monkey asked me how fresh
my lettuce was) and in we went. The taker of two cans of Bear’s beer was smoking
and after stamping his butt on the floor told us his colleague would deal with
us and went back to playing a game on his mobile. His colleague apologised for
giving us a hand written certificate as due to a power cut he couldn’t fire up
his computer. Quarantine certificate achieved it was up a hill on the left
heading for Immigration.
  More offers from help and a young
lady followed us to a main junction and urged us across and pointed to the
right. Bear sat and had his picture taken with two officers holding a piece of
paper so all that remained was to find the Customs Office. Ooo before that we
saw a cannon next to a big anchor, not knowing if it
was private property or not I had Bear pretend to do his
trigger finger.
  We crossed the big junction and a family of three
stopped on their motorbike to ask if we belonged to the cruise ship. Hope not as
we saw it moving off the dock. We showed our map and
with huge grins of relief they pointed along the road. What sweet-hearted
people. We bimbled past a lovely fence painted in happy
colours.
 We found the Customs Office, no problem and that’s when things came to a
crashing halt. Due to close at half past five but knowing we were on our way, we
bimbled in at five thirty-five. Five officers all got stuck in. They had seen a
previous record from the Indonesian Rally we had been on and thought to add to
that. No. I ended up having to change my email password, as did Bear, as did
they. The young lady officer ended up sitting and chatting to me after she
brought us a bottle of water each. Still it went on. The techy used a big
computer, gave up and brought out a laptop. Finally.............Bear used our
boat stamp several times and the staff offered us a lift down the hill. Still
needing stomps we declined and with promises that checking out would be quick we
left the building, me sporting three mosquito bites (Quarantine reassured us
that malaria had been stamped out on the island by frequent fogging). We closed
the door at seven o’clock..........
  We bimbled further along the road as
our trusty map told us there was a path down the hill that would pop out on the
main town road. We stood on a viewing platform and took each
others picture, seemed like the thing to do.
  Looking down at
the town and half way down the
path.
  Looking to the right of the path we
saw it was suddenly dusk. We popped out at the bottom
next to a very busy-looking chandler-cum-hardware
store. A young chap saw us pausing and asked what we needed, a SIM card for internet. He pointed to a mobile phone
shop, all locked but knowing things opened after evening prayers we sat on the
thoughtfully provided chairs and waited. Might as well, five minutes later the
shop keeper and his son leapt off a motorbike and unlocked.
 SIM card in hand, we groped our way down the sad
excuse for a ladder and found Baby Beez in amongst
the local girls, now a bit soft as the sun keeps her hard. By
the time we got back to Beez Neez it was pitch dark and we felt that it had been
quite a long day.
 Settled in bed after supper, I
added a red arrow to show Beez Neez in a
picture we had taken from the viewing platform.
ALL IN ALL – ALL IN ALL AND
SHRUG
A BUSY
TIME |