Cap Budi and Pak Manuel are the A team assigned to get us Beans safely to the Fast Ferry from Tuerperjet to Padang. A 1-hour speedboat ride from the dock in the mangroves behind Kandui Resort across 18 miles of the open ocean. Aseb brings the beats and we are bobbing away to the tunes until the older lady on the boat, dressed in full Muslim garb, chastises the young and fun Aseb for playing the music too loud. She is good-natured about it but we all know to respect our elders 🙂 We continue in silence…but for the roar of the three engines totaling 140HP.
Today happens to be the peak of the current swell. Ian was fortunate to get out for a morning Hideaways session before we departed. Despite the energy in the water, the ride is reasonably smooth, albeit slightly wet.
I am wearing long pants and sneakers, in anticipation of the dress requirement in place at the photo and fingerprint office. In hindsight, I should have dressed for the boat ride.
As we approach the island of Tuerperjet, Ian springs to his feet and picks up his jaw from the floor… there is a beautiful, long, peeling left hand breaking wave basically saying ‘suckers!!’ … ‘you picked a great day for a trip to the city haha!!’ The thing is .. there are swells almost all the time now so if we waited until we had a no swell day then we would be subject to hundreds, if not thousands of dollars in visa overstay fees!
So, the time is now and we plan on being in the city as short a time as possible.
The speed canoe we are riding in pulls into the harbor. We spot the huge Mentawais fast ferry at the dock and notice how high the dock is. Much to our amusement, Cap Boodie pulls up beside the towering ferry. The roof of our canoe is level with the deck of the ferry. There is a 1ft wide lip running around the edge of the ferry. We are instructed to climb on up. A well-placed railing and a little extra upper body strength from paddling hours a day means we have no problem climbing up. Actually, maybe there was a smarter way… I didn’t actually see how the older lady got up there before us!! In any case, I wish we had a GoPro ready. It’s a classic Pura Vida moment in the heart of West Sumatra and one of those random situations where you just get the job done as efficiently as possible even if un poco unorthodox.
We already have our masks in hand ready for compliance with local customs but as we slide in the back door we notice everyone smoking, no one wearing masks other than as a chin-hammock…
Once we take our seats, I pull out our pre-prepared bottle of honey with Thieves essential oil and we all take an extra dose. We have been super diligent in taking our Vitamin D3, zinc, probiotics, and betacarotene.. it’s part of how we best fortify our system. We feel great- have had very minor and very short-lived pre-cold feels, if at all in the entire past year and we are all pretty committed to continuing this way of maintaining optimal immune function. The knee-jerk reaction to situations such as crowded ferries is fear or catching something… just for a moment until we remind ourselves that we are actually more than well-prepared.
Kandui’s team on the ground in Padang have arranged for us to do our fingerprints and photos upon arrival this evening. It will be out of office hours and therefore will incur an additional ‘fee’. We are learning that anything is possible in Indonesia- for a price. We want to maximize our time on the gorgeous island back at Kandui so this sounds like a small price to pay. The alternative is to pay another night in the hotel, staying a total of 2 nights and all associated costs which work out higher anyway. Fingers and toes are crossed this all goes smoothly.
My morning started out glorious. It’s funny how much more we appreciate what we have got when the threat of it being gone soon is looming. In lieu of rushing for a surf (and to be honest, the menu only included some gnarly breaks that are way outside my comfort zone).. I went for an ocean swim. I will never tire of swimming ‘laps’ while observing all the coral and brightly colored fish and the whole spectacular underworld scene rippling by beneath me. It sure beats the straight black line!
For breakfast, I made toast with cashew butter and banana on top then lay out on the lawn chair for a dose of sunny rays on my somewhat light belly. I have been mostly covered up every surf session because 2- to 3-hour sessions without full cover are simply asking for trouble. The simple pleasure of soaking in 15 minutes of the beautiful morning sun was heaven.
The pure bliss of fresh, clean air and unfiltered, magic sunlight gets me through the next 24 hours. Paradise is juxtaposed against a stark reality the closer we get to ‘civilization’. Crowds, cigarette smoke and colossal chunks of trash threaten to dampen my experience but, sinking into gratitude allows this to flow over and around me. I am so grateful to live in a country where there is a greater level of awareness around single use plastic and trash in general. Costa Rica is far from perfect but there is a lot of hope and growing public policy to promote a cleaner planet. Just recently, a new decree went into effect banning the entry of all single use anything into National parks of CR. Brilliant!
Our ferry pulls up to the port in Padang, and we disembark. The way out includes also a way in, as we use the ferry adjacent as a hallway thoroughfare through to the exit.
We aren’t sure who to look for, though we know someone will be waiting for us. A driver arranged by Rini (my loyal readers will remember Rini and Roberto as the ones who made our original Arrival to Padang so smooth). We search the waiting crowd for a familiar face. There is nothing familiar aside from the ticket booth and chaos. I speak Rini’s name out loud in a random direction and a little old man with a limp takes a couple of steps toward us and questions ‘Ian?’. It took us a moment as it was out of nowhere and my protective brain processed the possibilities of someone throwing out a random name such as ‘Ian’ as bait to lure unsuspecting tourists into a terrible trap. I figured the possibility was close to 1 in a million so we followed this man to a vehicle outside. It looked a lot like the vehicle Rini and Roberto collected us in the first time and we obliged as Eduardo ushered us in.
We had a loose idea of how this evening would go. One part of the plan included an optimistic visit to a supermarket so I could grab a few things. The practical plan included just getting the immigration visit completed without a hitch and back to Kandui asap tomorrow.
We arrived at Immigrasi and at first glance it looked all locked up, but for a small opening in the blue concertina metal security sliders. We followed Eduardo inside and were pointed towards the upstairs level in the corner office.
We waited outside the office, waiting to be called. In the meantime, nature demanded to be attended to first, and we got to experience a modern, ceramic version of a hole in the ground toilet. No flush. No paper. Just a bucket with a cup to wash privates off.
While Finn was discovering this novel bathroom, immigration called his name to be processed. We wondered how long he would take in there figuring out how it all works but our he popped and into the office.
The 5 guys in the office didn’t seem to know how to work the computer system. With very little language in common Finn sat through 4 rounds of fingerprinting and photos before released with success.
He was in there for a good while for a process we estimated at 5 minutes. At some point, negative thoughts stemming from impatience and fear of being stuck an extra day in the city, started to surface in me. I indulged in these thoughts for a few minutes, allowing more impatience and annoyance to breed. ‘How can 5 guys not be able to figure this out?!’ ‘Why do they keep repeating this process?’ ‘Have they given us the B team and now we risk not having a quick turnaround as planned?’.
My inner and lesser version of me had to stop it, and now.
I closed my eyes and instead of permitting these very human yet very low vibration thoughts consume my time, I began to send love and gratitude. I felt a swell of love for these men who, after an already long day at the office, had volunteered to stay late in order to process the prints and pics for these three privileged people. Yes, we paid extra for the service and yes, these men would have received a little extra but no, it wasn’t much and I thought of their families who they are working to support. I sank into the feeling of thanks and love and allowing. My whole vibe shifted and within a couple minutes, they had it all cleared up and Finn was released. Ian went next then me.
As I sat there at the desk, I looked around and noticed what a good mood they were all in. It was 7.15pm on a Monday night yet they were cheerful and kind. The man processing my prints was named Boyke, I noticed on his name tag. He took a call on his cell and I heard a young, high pitched voice who clearly wanted Daddy’s attention. Another official had a cell phone tone that was more disco than ringtone. I danced a little in my seat and we all had a laugh. A moment of deja vu hit me all of a sudden. It does that more often when I tap into higher vibrations such as gratitude and love. It was evident in just a fleeting look, a particular perspective of Boyke as he peered at the computer screen and clicked the mouse, then looked at me with a smile. It felt as though it had happened before, in another time space reality. It felt all right.
Glenny
Wow what a wonderful experience you guys are having with all the ups and downs
Stay safe and enjoy 💕💕💕
Love always 😘