« | Main | No More Christmas in Dili »
June 7, 2005
Can of Burearucratic Worms
Yesterday we visited the Indonesian Head of Immigration here in Dili to request assistance with notifying the Indonesian police, army + navy the other side or the border of our coming, and to 'please not shoot us as spies!' The meeting unfortunately didn't go quite as we anticipated, and opened up a new can of bureaucratic worms, possibly delaying us for a few more days yet.
The first problem was Pak Hendisin (sp?) couldn't speak English well (contrary to what we were led to believe), so Ina had to do all the talking in Bahasa. The topic of clearing the kayaks through customs at the border then reared it's ugly head, something we were REALLY hoping to avoid by handcarrying them across as personal effects or 'handluggage'. The upshot of all this is the need for us, or rather Ina, to register the kayaks with the Ministry of Transportation for East Timor, then supply this documentation along with information about the kayaks (commercial invoices, custom clearance to E. Timor, photos etc) to Pak Hendersin who would then write some sort of letter (we're not quite sure what) with his boss's (the Indonesian Ambassador) signature included. And Ina said she needed the assistance of Carlos, the Head of Immigration for East Timor with dealing with the Minister of Transportation. So before we knew it it all sounded incredibly complicated, time consuming and costly.
So we've decided to do one of two things. We're still forging ahead with the plan to leave Friday this week, to avoid the momentum of the expedition completely grinding to a halt before it's even started. There's a very good chance, with a little gifts put in the hands of the right people at the border, that the kayaks won't pose a problem AT ALL. However, a letter from the Indonesian Ambassador would be a very handy thing to have not only for the crossing of the border but perhaps even more so for the remainder of the journey to Singapore, to wave under the noses of local officialdom who might try and hassle us along the way.
So, if this letter from the Indonesians can be acquired within 2-3 days, we'll wait. If 2-3 weeks, we'll roll the dice and see if we can get through the border. Nothing to be lost by trying at this point. The worst they can do is send us back for 'the right piece of paper' and we have to wait anway.
Frustrated in Dili!
Posted on June 7, 2005 10:46 AM
Comments
Well, I wish you all the luck and I hope being turned back IS the worst that can happen - I thought the worst would be that they impound your kayaks and yourselves for travelling without authority to do so or under suspicion of spying (!). Can the nearest Embassy help in any way?
Good luck.
Posted by: astrid at June 7, 2005 1:25 PM