Thursday, February 11, 2016
Deported from Tanjong Pinang, Riau, Indonesia
Welcome??? I think not, at least for cyclists.
Wolves are known to wait patiently and attack stragglers especially those at the tail end of the sheep fold. We encountered something similar today as we cleared customs at Tg Pinang, Riau. We were the only ones left after all the crowds went through due to our bicycles being the last to unload from the ferry.
We were all happy and cheery as we began what we thought was another exciting Lovethefold Adventure to beautiful Singkep Island, deep south across the equator to visit our friends Hardi and Devi.
The immigration officials were cheerful and one lady remarked that she liked my Da Brim helmet. With our passports chopped, we proceeded to get our bags X-Rayed at the Customs as per the normal procedure. Unfortunately, a very gruff Customs lady probably in her late 40s/early 50s with thick gold bangles and rings asked very rudely for our papers to bring in our bicycles. She demanded if we had an agent and we haven't the foggiest what she was talking about as we have been bringing bicycles to the Riau Islands with no issue on numerous occasions. She was soon joined by another wolf, this time a dark, slimy ciggie smoking man who was aggressive and arrogant. They both insisted that I accompanied them to their musty office, away from public eye for their sinister kill.
There, they badgered me for $100 per bicycle or $400. I was shocked that they asked for the Singapore dollar and not their country's currency The Rupiah! The purpose they claimed was firstly that Dabo and Tg Pinang were a non-free trade zone unlike Batam so bicycles were taxable. Ah huh. Then they asked what would happen if we met up with an accident while cycling? I was really confused as now, were they offering bicycle insurance? When I told them I don't have that much money with me, their translator a very young man who spoke decent English was appalled and asked very rudely why I come to their country with so little money?
Mr Wolf soon went on a tirade about how he was asked to pay duty for ciggies that he tried to bring into Spore and so, it was now his right (and probably revenge) to ask me to pay "duty" for our bicycles. When he realised that I was not going to budge, he dropped the duty fee to $200, then $150 finally. At this stage, I was getting really annoyed as he started to point his finger at me menacingly with smoke coming out of his stained teeth mouth literally.
Dear Bro George at that time came in out of concern to see what was happening and nearly lost his temper at the sight of how these 2 wolves were going for the kill. Mrs Wolf then knew that this sheep was holding his ground and told us nastily to go back to Singapore. We were not welcomed into Tg Pinang until we came with more $. Then strangely, she made a concession later and said we could leave one bicycle at customs while the 4 of us could make our trip with 3 bicycles. She must have figured out that our Bike Friday Tikit or a Brompton was certainly worth more than $150!
I told her politely and respectfully please don't scold us as we like Indonesia and were here to enjoy ourselves with our friends. I shared that we were simply going to pay a visit to our friends who just had a new baby in Dabo, cycle a bit and that we are not crooks but law abiding tourists who unfortunately are not swimming in cash. I passed her my name card and told her that I am a Pastor whose call in life is not to make trouble but to bless people.
Unfortunately, she and Mr Wolf were not going to be blessed financially by us and instructed us to take the next ferry back to Singapore which was 430pm, another 5 hours. Our bicycles were to be kept at the Customs Office until we left on the ferry. KC with a twinkle in his eye suggested we sneaked our bikes off when they were not looking but alas, we had already missed the 1130am ferry to Dabo and who knows what trouble we could be in if we did that.
Meanwhile, Berenda our most able Chief Financial Officer was being asked by the Fish Quarantine Officials why we were stuck and were not leaving. She explained that we did not bring the required "paper" and were in the midst of negotiations. They smiled and offered their condolences.
Leaving our bikes obediently at Wolves Den, we went to town for lunch, had a very lack-luster Nasi Padang after a bit of a walkabout in the afternoon sun. Somehow, we had lost our appetite. We got a SIM card so we could convey our apologies to Hardi, who was also upset at this whole incident. He wrote, "Saya sangat kecewa sama custom indonesia. Sangat memalukan..." roughly translated - He was very disappointed with the customs. Very embarrassing.
The SIM card shopkeeper sympathised with our plight and shook his head. Then, we took a van taxi to a spa at 3km marker to kill time. Indo Spa looked decent enough but they showed us an English menu where a normal tradition massage started at 270,000 rp or S$27. This was crazy high in a forsaken place like Tg Pinang and the incredible expression of my face brought it down to $21. We decided to walk out and the manager chased us and said would 120,000 rp do? That was more like it, and since we had nothing better to do, we agreed. Another wolf scam that failed!
We caught a friendly taxi van back to the jetty and found a nice cake shop where we sat and enjoyed a delightful afternoon tea. Strolling back to the departure jetty, we were asked to give Angpows (Red packets with $) incessantly from various strangers and that really made us want to get out of this wolfie town asap. Some of the staff asked why we were going back so soon and where were our bicycles? We just smiled. Thankfully, the young custom man who spoke English allowed us to take our bicycles with no drama. I asked gently if he was a university graduate and he nodded, very pleased at the recognition of his English ability. Sadly, his bosses are such poor examples and I hope he doesn't follow in their footsteps. We proceeded upstairs to clear immigration and never felt happier being on the ferry back to Singapore.
Every country has the right to decide who gets in and who doesn't. We respect that but when it comes to blatant corruption, demanded in such a crass and rude manner, we are only too happy to be deported.
Arriving in Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal Singapore, we were greeted with the most beautiful of sunsets. The orange hue and warmth perked us greatly and we knew instantly that being in Singapore's terra firma was certainly the right decision. We nearly got devoured by greedy wolves but survived. In my heart, I knew we were protected by a very able Shepherd.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lesson Learnt - I will still continue going to enchanting Indonesia to tour because I have met enough nice people there despite today's incident. However, I will not recommend entering through Tg Pinang with bicycles. The northern ferry terminal of Bintan Lagoon is mostly corruption free as many Westerners and golfers go through there and is a better bet. Clearing immigration and customs at Batam Centre, then cycling 18km to Telaga Punggur ferry terminal, catching a ferry to Tg Uban, east of Bintan is another safer option.
Deported from Tanjong Pinang, Riau, Indonesia
Welcome??? I think not, at least for cyclists.
Wolves are known to wait patiently and attack stragglers especially those at the tail end of the sheep fold. We encountered something similar today as we cleared customs at Tg Pinang, Riau. We were the only ones left after all the crowds went through due to our bicycles being the last to unload from the ferry.
We were all happy and cheery as we began what we thought was another exciting Lovethefold Adventure to beautiful Singkep Island, deep south across the equator to visit our friends Hardi and Devi.
The immigration officials were cheerful and one lady remarked that she liked my Da Brim helmet. With our passports chopped, we proceeded to get our bags X-Rayed at the Customs as per the normal procedure. Unfortunately, a very gruff Customs lady probably in her late 40s/early 50s with thick gold bangles and rings asked very rudely for our papers to bring in our bicycles. She demanded if we had an agent and we haven't the foggiest what she was talking about as we have been bringing bicycles to the Riau Islands with no issue on numerous occasions. She was soon joined by another wolf, this time a dark, slimy ciggie smoking man who was aggressive and arrogant. They both insisted that I accompanied them to their musty office, away from public eye for their sinister kill.
There, they badgered me for $100 per bicycle or $400. I was shocked that they asked for the Singapore dollar and not their country's currency The Rupiah! The purpose they claimed was firstly that Dabo and Tg Pinang were a non-free trade zone unlike Batam so bicycles were taxable. Ah huh. Then they asked what would happen if we met up with an accident while cycling? I was really confused as now, were they offering bicycle insurance? When I told them I don't have that much money with me, their translator a very young man who spoke decent English was appalled and asked very rudely why I come to their country with so little money?
Mr Wolf soon went on a tirade about how he was asked to pay duty for ciggies that he tried to bring into Spore and so, it was now his right (and probably revenge) to ask me to pay "duty" for our bicycles. When he realised that I was not going to budge, he dropped the duty fee to $200, then $150 finally. At this stage, I was getting really annoyed as he started to point his finger at me menacingly with smoke coming out of his stained teeth mouth literally.
Dear Bro George at that time came in out of concern to see what was happening and nearly lost his temper at the sight of how these 2 wolves were going for the kill. Mrs Wolf then knew that this sheep was holding his ground and told us nastily to go back to Singapore. We were not welcomed into Tg Pinang until we came with more $. Then strangely, she made a concession later and said we could leave one bicycle at customs while the 4 of us could make our trip with 3 bicycles. She must have figured out that our Bike Friday Tikit or a Brompton was certainly worth more than $150!
I told her politely and respectfully please don't scold us as we like Indonesia and were here to enjoy ourselves with our friends. I shared that we were simply going to pay a visit to our friends who just had a new baby in Dabo, cycle a bit and that we are not crooks but law abiding tourists who unfortunately are not swimming in cash. I passed her my name card and told her that I am a Pastor whose call in life is not to make trouble but to bless people.
Unfortunately, she and Mr Wolf were not going to be blessed financially by us and instructed us to take the next ferry back to Singapore which was 430pm, another 5 hours. Our bicycles were to be kept at the Customs Office until we left on the ferry. KC with a twinkle in his eye suggested we sneaked our bikes off when they were not looking but alas, we had already missed the 1130am ferry to Dabo and who knows what trouble we could be in if we did that.
Meanwhile, Berenda our most able Chief Financial Officer was being asked by the Fish Quarantine Officials why we were stuck and were not leaving. She explained that we did not bring the required "paper" and were in the midst of negotiations. They smiled and offered their condolences.
Leaving our bikes obediently at Wolves Den, we went to town for lunch, had a very lack-luster Nasi Padang after a bit of a walkabout in the afternoon sun. Somehow, we had lost our appetite. We got a SIM card so we could convey our apologies to Hardi, who was also upset at this whole incident. He wrote, "Saya sangat kecewa sama custom indonesia. Sangat memalukan..." roughly translated - He was very disappointed with the customs. Very embarrassing.
The SIM card shopkeeper sympathised with our plight and shook his head. Then, we took a van taxi to a spa at 3km marker to kill time. Indo Spa looked decent enough but they showed us an English menu where a normal tradition massage started at 270,000 rp or S$27. This was crazy high in a forsaken place like Tg Pinang and the incredible expression of my face brought it down to $21. We decided to walk out and the manager chased us and said would 120,000 rp do? That was more like it, and since we had nothing better to do, we agreed. Another wolf scam that failed!
We caught a friendly taxi van back to the jetty and found a nice cake shop where we sat and enjoyed a delightful afternoon tea. Strolling back to the departure jetty, we were asked to give Angpows (Red packets with $) incessantly from various strangers and that really made us want to get out of this wolfie town asap. Some of the staff asked why we were going back so soon and where were our bicycles? We just smiled. Thankfully, the young custom man who spoke English allowed us to take our bicycles with no drama. I asked gently if he was a university graduate and he nodded, very pleased at the recognition of his English ability. Sadly, his bosses are such poor examples and I hope he doesn't follow in their footsteps. We proceeded upstairs to clear immigration and never felt happier being on the ferry back to Singapore.
Every country has the right to decide who gets in and who doesn't. We respect that but when it comes to blatant corruption, demanded in such a crass and rude manner, we are only too happy to be deported.
Arriving in Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal Singapore, we were greeted with the most beautiful of sunsets. The orange hue and warmth perked us greatly and we knew instantly that being in Singapore's terra firma was certainly the right decision. We nearly got devoured by greedy wolves but survived. In my heart, I knew we were protected by a very able Shepherd.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lesson Learnt - I will still continue going to enchanting Indonesia to tour because I have met enough nice people there despite today's incident. However, I will not recommend entering through Tg Pinang with bicycles. The northern ferry terminal of Bintan Lagoon is mostly corruption free as many Westerners and golfers go through there and is a better bet. Clearing immigration and customs at Batam Centre, then cycling 18km to Telaga Punggur ferry terminal, catching a ferry to Tg Uban, east of Bintan is another safer option.
