Sorong

4/12/16
We left the hotel for the airport at 5 AM in our motorcade.  It felt very presidential! The trip there was much shorter than the trip to the hotel, and in no time at all we were checked in and through security.  Our airlines recently reintroduced an additional baggage allowance for scuba gear, so this saved most everyone a couple hundred dollars in overage fees for baggage! They were all understandably very happy!
The hotel sent us with boxed breakfasts. Mine wound up being pastries while most others had the bigger box which was fried rice, a hard boiled egg, and something meatish. I went to a place called Coffee Bean and got an orange muffin. Yum!  
While there I chatted with a married couple from Long Island. Both are in law enforcement and remind me of some people I love at home so I'm calling him the honorary third Scholl brother. 
When we flew in over Sorong, I couldn't believe the mess and the poverty.  It was worse than Manado and looked like a hurricane had hit.  It was just messy and crowded and rustic, but not in the nice Montana way.
They took us to our boat.  As we got out of our car, we were immediately assaulted by the smell of rotting dead fish baking in the sun.  I cannot describe the cringing feeling I got and it did cross my mind that this was all a terrible idea and please get me out of here!!  I looked longingly at the airplanes flying overhead!

 
Man sweeping away rotten fish so we could walk.



Thankfully, this was NOT our boat!
 We waited until they could come take us to the boat in an inflatable boat. First our gear and luggage, then us. 
The ship was a good size. Smaller than I had imagined but decent. I don't think it would be fun to have 14 people on here.
We found our rooms and got settled in. I am hitting my head going up and down the stairs, so I imagine it is going to be difficult for rest of the group!
The diesel fumes, heat, and lack of sleep finally got to me and I had to go sleep in cool room. Thank goodness for air conditioning! I slept very well and headed back up.
We met the owner and waited and waited for the harbor police to give clearance to sail.  It sounds like a wishywashy process, perhaps a bit corrupt. I found my way up to the upper deck where there was a breeze. We just wait until we are free to go.
This is a bit of a shock to my Western type A system! Thank goodness for the lady, Darlene, who keeps saying how things are nice and she's loving everything. I'll try to see things through her eyes.  She's traveled a lot and said the Philippines is far worse. Oh my!
Location: Sorong, Sorong City, West Papua, Indonesia

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
Ok - here's the big news: I bought a house! Yes, I have made the brave jump from the carefree, irresponsible life of a renter and am in the process of becoming a homeowner! It still has to be inspected and there are rumored to be a ridiculous number of papers to sign, but once that's all over .... it's mine! Woo hoo! So yes, that means I'm staying in Yakima. I like the sunshine, I like the fruit, I love my job, I love the food at the hospital most of the time, I like my Safeway store, I like my dentist, I like my doctor, I like my coworkers - basically I pretty much love my life! The location is perfect. I can (theoretically) walk to work, although we'll see about that. I'm near a fantastic park, a pool, my gym, and a few restaurants. The inside is cottage style, which really appeals to me. It's a 1940's house but appears to have been re-done on the inside. It had all the things I wanted when I made my "What my dream house looks like"...
Read more
iCooked Hooray - I got my cooking project done!  It took the better part of the day and I was proud that I only had to make 2 extra trips to the Safeway store down the street!  I'll skip the details. Anyhow, over the next month or week or whatever, I'll have lots of food essentially ready for me when I come home!  I hope I like how it tastes!  It can't help but beat running to the grocery store 2-3+ times a week and wandering around aimlessly until I wind up in the frozen section once again eating stuff I don't really like but settle for due to the fact it takes 8 minutes to heat up. Today I made Mexican Lasagne, White Chicken Chili, Chicken Nuggets, Marinated Flat Iron Steak, Swedish Meatballs, Pork Chops, French Bread Pizza, Texas Skillet, and Chicken Scalloppinne something-or-other.  I'll keep you posted on how it all works out.
Read more
Musings and thoughts.... It's amazing how many thoughts can go floating through your head while frosting cupcake after cupcake. That's how I spent part of my evening ... thinking about why I love holidays so much and thinking about Valentines Day tomorrow. I had great plans to bake all these cupcakes and then spend some quality time curling my hair with my magic curling iron. Unfortunately I fell asleep while waiting for the cupcakes to cool so I am now out of time for the hair so I have to get up really early tomorrow and get curling. I celebrated Valentines Day a day early ... doing all the self-indulgent things I wanted to do. I'm most delighted with the eyebrow waxing lady I just went to today after work. She's definately an artist! She did a wonderful job and it was a wonderful way to kick off the next few days! One of my thoughts was about holidays and if maybe I missed my calling as, oh I don't know, an elementary school teacher? I just love holidays, ...
Read more