{"id":6545,"date":"2019-10-15T02:01:56","date_gmt":"2019-10-15T02:01:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/?p=6545"},"modified":"2019-10-15T02:52:54","modified_gmt":"2019-10-15T02:52:54","slug":"selamat-datang-biak-indonesia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/?p=6545","title":{"rendered":"Selamat Datang! Biak, Indonesia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Welcome to Indonesia! It\u2019s only 350NM from Vanimo but we\u2019ve been transported into a completely different world. Mosques, calls to prayer, big boats with big outboards zooming past, fishermen\u2019s houses on stilts over the water, the smell of the fish market, the noise of traffic. Our senses are bombarded by it all, and we sit slightly overwhelmed in the cockpit figuring out how to get ashore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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One of many local Indonesia boats<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The new fish market, tiny beach and wharf<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve anchored near the new fish market where there\u2019s a little beach, but it\u2019s a busy spot with fishing boats coming and going, unloading their catches. The wharf is way too high and there\u2019s no other obvious landing spot. Biak is where we have to clear in to Indonesia, so we have no option but to go ashore – we load all our paperwork into a backpack, make sure we\u2019re suitably attired for the officials (long pants, shoes and collared shirts for guys, covered knees and shoulders for women) and head in.  As we get closer, we get waved over to another small beach to the left of the fish market. Julius is a local dive operator who speaks reasonable English, and he\u2019s happy for us to use his beach for free. Another young man who\u2019s name sounds like \u201cVanuatu\u201d leads us up through the backyards and along an alley where a group of men are gambling, through the vegetable market (so many fresh vegetables! I\u2019m in heaven!) and points us in the right direction to Immigration.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Julius’s beach to the left of the fish market<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Biak waterfront – not exactly prime real estate<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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more fishermen’s houses on the waterfront<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And so starts the lengthy process of clearing in – everyone is very friendly and welcoming but I kid you not, it takes three days! After Immigration it\u2019s a walk to Customs. Quarantine is way out of town near the airport so they organise for the quarantine officers to come into town. But everyone wants to come out to the boat – there are already 5 immigration and customs officers and then 5 quarantine officers turn up! We tell them it\u2019s too many to transport in our dinghy so we manage to negotiate it down to 7 officials in total.  Then comes the fun of trying to get them in the dinghy from the beach, it\u2019s quite the spectacle as they take their shoes and socks off and scramble aboard. The onlookers ashore have quite a show! Finally on the boat, there are more forms to fill out, they photograph everything including themselves and at 4pm we think we\u2019re done. But no – we have to go back to customs the next day to collect our final form, and we still have to go to the quarantine office to pick up our green \u2018health book\u2019 and have an obligatory dose of polio vaccine.  After that, our final mission is to find the Harbourmaster and have him stamp all our documents. On our first attempt he\u2019s not in the office. They tell us to wait but after an hour we\u2019ve had enough. We come back the next day and he\u2019s there, but he tells us all his staff are in a training session so we\u2019ll need to come back later.  Finally, third time lucky we have success – our documents are stamped, the obligatory selfies are taken with us and we\u2019re officially cleared in. Welcome to Indonesia!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Friendly officials visiting Toucan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Just one more photo!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The obligatory selfie with the harbourmaster and his sidekick<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Biak is a fun kind of town – \u2018Helloo miiister, hello Missus\u2019 is the greeting we get wherever we go, everyone wants a photo with us, we\u2019re starting to feel like celebrities. When we grab lunch, the two girls at the next table ask if they can come and sit with us and have their photos taken – it\u2019s hilarious!  Meals here are ridiculously cheap – our lunch comes to the grand total of $8.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a great supermarket (Hadi) with lots of foods we haven\u2019t seen in a few months so we stock up well, and there\u2019s a superb bakery with chocolate doughnuts begging to be eaten. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The well-stocked Hadi supermarket<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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And how about this for a bakery!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Traffic! Haven’t seen much of that lately.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The busy fish market<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We even manage to find a hairdresser who\u2019s willing to shear our unruly locks for the grand sum of $5 each, which includes a neck and head massage.  Bruce wants to go back just to get another massage\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Getting shorn, Biak-style<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The sunsets are gorgeous<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The downside? The 4.30am call to prayer relayed over a loudspeaker is not something I think we\u2019ll ever get accustomed to. The garbage everywhere, including in the water, is frankly shocking. We take a bag of garbage in to Julius and ask where we can dispose of it – he promptly empties it out on the beach and hands us back the bag. We hope he\u2019s going to burn it, but there\u2019s no guarantee. Welcome to Indonesia! And apart from beer, alcohol is hard to come by and very expensive here. No chance of buying any wine, unless you\u2019re game to try the sacramental wine. I think we\u2019ll stick to beer and spirits thanks anyway\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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wine anyone?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Very few people speak English here, so the language barrier is proving to be a bit of a challenge.  I\u2019ve been trying to learn Indonesian from an online course, but it\u2019s going to take some time. For now, the Google Translate app is our best friend, together with hand gestures and pointing!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As expected, there\u2019s no chance of finding a mechanic here so we pore over the weather forecasts looking for the slightest hint of some wind to get us to Sorong. It\u2019s not looking hopeful. At this time of year the south-easterlies start to fade and then get replaced by the NW monsoon so it\u2019s only going to get worse the longer we stay. We certainly don\u2019t want to be beating into head winds, so we\u2019ll have to take our chances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We wake up Sunday morning and even though the forecast says no wind, our eyes tell us otherwise. There\u2019s a reasonable 10-12 knots out there – let\u2019s go for it!
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome to Indonesia! It\u2019s only 350NM from Vanimo but we\u2019ve been transported into a completely different world. Mosques, calls to prayer, big boats with big outboards zooming past, fishermen\u2019s houses on stilts over the water, the smell of the fish market, the noise of traffic. Our senses are bombarded by it all, and we sit … <\/p>\n

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