Back on board again, after a couple of weeks back at home.
Flew into Singapore, arriving in the evening and stayed two nights in town. I really like Singapore , the more I visit. This time I finally managed to get in the visit to the Changi POW museum.
Decided that as there was luggage to be dragged about , that the easiest way of getting back into Malaysia was via a taxi, across the causeway,instead of public transport. The public transport is great , but has no facility for people with luggage. So for $50 Sgd , it was seamless transit into Johor Bahru. In fact, so seamless that we got dropped off at the Indonesian Consulate, (with all our baggage) and applied for our Indonesian visas. It being a Thursday afternoon , and Friday and Saturday being “the weekend” here, this was the better option, otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to apply until Sunday.
Two hours later, paperwork submitted, visas paid for and with advice to return on Sunday, all we had to do was find a cab back into the city of JB. Eventually managed to get one after going back into the consulate and they called one for us. Took the taxi into the city – a distance of about 3km and cost of 11RM. Reloaded credit on my sim and Peter obtained his. Then as luck would have it had time for a ice blend coffee at Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, before jumping an Uber back to the Marina. As a cost comparison, a new, air-conditioned Uber vehicle, travelling 20km and complete with random commentary, was 14RM compared to the short taxi ride.
I had previously found this to be the case ,when travelling the distance to the nearest shopping mall from the marina. Taxi flat 10RM , Uber 4-5RM for same trip. Uber clean and guaranteed air-con, taxi not so!
Having left Singapore at 1300, we were back on board at 1700.
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| Back on board. Sembawang dockyard in the background. |
The next couple of days were spent getting ready to leave. The final top up of fuel tanks, which I hadn't wanted to by myself. I preferred to wait to put the top up final 25lts in each tank for when there were two of us .One person to fill, the other to watch the tanks filling from down below!
Tried to replace the compass light on the port compass which died as we left Phuket. Obtained two spares in Oz, from two different suppliers. Both claimed to be the correct light for my compass, and indeed both the same package etc . However failed totally to get it to work. When in doubt, Skype someone who knows- Peter my friendly electrician back in Brisbane. No go, even with distant help. Annoyingly we will be (night) compass less on the port side. Naturally this is the side all the other navigation gear is located!
Also discovered that the HF radio which was working fine, when I went home, seems to have died. Having no clue about how to fix it- other than checking all the connections were good, it appears we will be HF'less as well. Annoying to say the least, as I had finally managed to master the pactor radio, side of things when we were at the Tioman Islands , and had been able to receive and send emails over the HF radio, and more importantly obtain the weather, when out of mobile phone range. Now for some reason HF is kaput!
Picked up the visas on Sunday, all ready to go.
Went through the checkout of Malaysia routine, which folks, went about as smoothly as when we arrived n Johor Bahru!
Off to Jabatan Laut, located 'conveniently' on the opposite side of town to Kastams and Imigresen..
Part one went well. So then it was off to Kastams. The first line of defence there, directed us to the passenger boarding area for the fast ferries. Being familiar with the office , I backtracked and again explained I needed to “go into the office, not trying to board a ferry.” Once in the office , it unfortunately became clear that Norman who had dealt with the check in, was not at work today. In fact not many in the office at all. Initially only one woman in civies. After about 10mins a uniformed officer turned up, then another. Eventually after several phone calls to Norman , and about 20 more minutes, I had the vital Port Clearance in my hot little hand. I asked for copies of all the other sheaf of papers I had handed over, but was told “no need”. Hmmm, each office does things differently!
Then we were kindly escorted by a 4 stripe Kastams officer , who did apologise for the delay in processing the Port Clearance “ not my usual job”, through a labyrinth, almost empty of functioning shops, of a two story facility which eventually led to Imigresen.
Our escort departed and then Imigresen asked for one of the papers that Kastams had decided they needed to keep. Quick 10minute saunter back to Kastams- again devoid of uniformed staff- wait until Mr 4 stripes turned up, more phone calls to Norman , and back to Imigresen with a set of photocopied papers.
Imigresen took the papers, didn’t actually read them, our passports were stamped, with exit stamps. Something I immediately checked, was that we had actually been checked out of the country and not into ,a fate which had befallen a fellow marina occupant, and we returned to the marina.
Later that evening, when compiling the paperwork for Indonesia, it became clear that we would not in fact be leaving “on the tide”in the morning , as we required a copy of the crew list , stamped by Imigresen from the last port of departure prior to Indonesia. I had the crew list , just not a stamped (or chopped,as they prefer up here) one.
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| Last view of Malaysia receding as we head to Batam |
Thankfully all my other check in, check outs from Malaysia had all gone without a hitch, over the last two years. Had my experiences at Johor Bahru been my first taste of “how it all happens” , I think I could be forgiven for assuming that each subsequent experience would degenerate into bouts of confusion and erroneous information.
So good bye Malaysia , Hello Indonesia.
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| From Seninbong Marina to Nongsa Point Marina and on to the Anambas Islands |
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