Nai-publish: 29.11.2022
We have a pretty long travel day ahead of us. First, we will drive for about 1.5 hours to Denpasar Immigration Office. Through a website, I found one of the cheapest options to extend my visa on-site and without much effort. A few days ago, a Grab (Uber) driver picked up my passport and shortly after I received a Whatsapp message telling me to come to the office on Tuesday to have my fingerprints and photos taken. At the entrance, I was given a sarong, I pulled a number at the counter, and less than fifteen minutes later, I was done. So the Berlin registration office could take a page out of their book.
From there, we will drive for another almost an hour to Sanur Harbor. On the way there, a little girl waved at me. As you can see, safety is taken very seriously here. (Indonesia ranks 5th in traffic fatalities, Wikipedia, 2016) Shortly afterwards, another car hit us. Luckily, it was just a small dent and scratch. Our driver was so stunned that he stopped three times during the drive to inspect the damage. When we arrived at the harbor, we were almost starving. Unexpectedly, the check-in process was similar to that at the airport, and we couldn't leave the building. No worries... because it started pouring rain incredibly hard and we found a crushed packet of crackers. It stopped raining just in time for boarding. Fortunately, I have great shoes and can wade through the puddles to the boat. The crossing was exhausting for me. It was very choppy and I had to concentrate. Actually, it came in quite handy as an excuse not to participate in a conversation with a young German backpacking couple. The two had to drive to the other end of the island and gave us a ride in their taxi for a bit. We had to negotiate with the driver a lot because he insisted that we take two cars. In the end, we managed to negotiate a good price for us. Finally, we arrive at the accommodation and I am excited to unpack all my things and 'live' here for the next 30 nights.