Jakarta - 2nd Last stop!

PP:
3rd May 2009: From entering the Sunda Straits (between Sumatra and Java) we entered into a security area again - for piracy, but not the hi-jacking kind. Here they sneak aboard to steal what they can, then depart hastily (I’m told). So I can’t do any deck circuits until after we leave Jakarta. Once we arrived at the dock area, we had to wait outside at anchor until our space became available - just a bit over half a day. We docked at 3 AM this morning.
About ten o’clock we had shore passes, so I went with the lady from our shipping agent - for a very cheap price!!?? No wonder, I started the journey on the back of a motor scooter! John the Pom was all ready to go, but opted out when there was a long discussion about who was going to drive us and was it going to be on a van, scooter or car, and some of the negotiation made him feel we were likely to be “short-changed. So he stayed aboard. However, it was actually quite interesting. In this teeming city of twelve million or thereabouts, I didn’t go to the main city centre, just to the nearest general commercial area. While some of this seemed to start close to the dock, it was pretty ratty, so I accepted advice and went further afield - about fifteen minutes away. We got to an internet café, with me bouncing on the back of the scooter and being nudged on the leg by only one van - crazy driver. The rest of the day I had an air-conditioned SUV (old Toyota) with the driver and the agent lady waiting for me for as long as I needed. The internet café was okay for e-mails, but not sufficient for posting the latest set of blogs - too slow and the computer had to be re-booted once.
Generally just a quick look around, plus buying a knick-knack or two. I returned about mid to late afternoon. There are very interesting sanitary arrangements here: at the dock we saw several young men using the end of the dock as a toilet, while hanging grimly onto a bollard, and only fifty feet away, others washing themselves and their clothes in the same general area! I remembered seeing something similar here thirty plus years ago, in the canals running through the city, when I was here (in the RAAF) doing aerial survey/mapping photography.
Loading seems very slow with many “tea” breaks and lots of talking - maybe explains why we were held up on the way in!
4th May: We were due to leave Jakarta at 2 AM, but the slow loading kept us there until just about 5 AM this morning, then about 8 AM we stopped for some sort of engine adjustment/maintenance for an hour and a half. We are now expecting to arrive in Singapore late afternoon tomorrow. Dan (the steward), the cook and some of the crew went ashore for a couple of hours last night, and seem a little tired this morning. All involved with the loading are still in bed because they finished just before we sailed.

---

---