Dari Jakarta ke Likupang.

At five we called a cab via Grab, which proved practical again. With comparatively little traffic on the roads we rushed towards the airport. The driver even chose the highway, for which we had to pay 9.000 IDR of toll. Seconds after we had paid, first he, then we noticed the massive traffic jam on the “speedway”, while left of us traffic was moving smoothly on the pay-free road. It took half an hour until we passed the flipped truck on the single track it was not blocking.

Reaching the airport we were correspondingly stressed. Mainly, because we had made big plans; apart from flying with now four pieces of luggage, we had also noticed pass photos and pre-signed documents in our belongings. This was rather unexpected, as they were of no use in Indonesia, but essential in Germany. We had therefore gathered them in a big, brownish envelope and found ourselves, posterior to the baggage check-in for a domestic flight, running back and forth at the international terminal to find anybody apparently non-Asian to send it airborne to Europe. Peruvians and US-citizens refused the responsibility. Disillusioned and slightly embarrassed I let go of all hope. My comrade, however, when we were already queuing up for the shuttle bus, stood his man and stopped a definitely non-Asian couple as they got off and courageously stated our mission. Bendik and Lena from Hamburg spontaneously agreed to take our envelope and to send it to Bremen. A great thanks to these two and a great hurray for trust and human kindness. Maybe, the world isn’t lost after all.

Marco Serge Reinach, Director of Coral Eye Station, received us at Sam Ratulangi airport in Manado, North Sulawesi. Somehow he managed to fit in our baggage in his already loaded car and left us far agiler. While he continued back to the station on Bangka Island, we carried on with only our bag packs to the city. It took us almost a whole day to work through our shopping list of additional procurements.

Finally, we headed off to the coastal village Likupang in an acquired public transport vehicle. We were planning on staying there for a night to ferry across to Bangka in the morning. Unfortunately, we had to note that there are no guest houses in Likupang. Our driver and guide, actually a Manado bus driver, asked around and then drove us to the only close hotel close by. The three of us were startled upon our arrival at Paradise Resort. In the apparent lack of alternatives, we nevertheless decided to stay.

Besides the rather alien lifestyle in this place, which we tried to cope with by constant misbehavior, our mental peace got disturbed by a private dinner party by the pool side. After being told off for joining and helping ourselves to the buffet we retreated to our posh room and finally started to write our blog. We had the opportunity to testify a 4-hour karaoke session downstairs, which repetitively drove us mad and continued until 11pm. By the time we had calmed sufficiently to fall asleep it was one o’clock and we had designed our web