Finally I have the time fo finish... let me first do a short wrap up of my
stay on the island of Sulawesi before I continue with the trip to and the
stopover in Singapore.
I think it is already more than clear that I had a great time. This again is a
proof of how much fun we had (and no - Handry is NOT really missing one arm
)
Further to the persons already mentioned I would like to thank Ann...
and Les from the UK who were at the Two Fish divers the same 2 weeks that I
was there. They were great company!
So far I didn't mention the djungle restaurant of the Minahasa Resort. It is up
on the hill and you can go there. We were in 3 but asked where the other 10
persons were... food was soo good and abundant that even though we tried we were
not able to eat half of it... the view...
The 'chef'
Part of the food...
More pics from Minahasa Lagoon resort
Here is my Singapore Sling...
First time I saw this creature live. She was sitting at the window of the
restaurant and was beautiful!
And a few more pics from the coastline on the last day... the Minahasa Lagoon
Resort seen from the water:
So, after three wonderful weeks I was not too happy to pack my stuff again and
move on to Singapore. Most of the tourists take the Silk Air flight and
accidentally most of the guests at the Minahasa left the same day that I did.
Now I have to introduce - let's call him 'Heinz' - to you. Heinz is a mid-50
german who lives close to where I live and he does not speak any english at all.
During his stay at the Minahasa he became friends with other guests who
translated for him. Heinz left the same day I did and was in the car to the
airport with me. When we arrived at the airport he got in line behind me at
check-in (which was not really a problem as of course I intended to help him if
he needed it). When I put my bags on the belt he put his bag on it right behind
mine. The woman at the counter asked me whether I wanted to sit together with 'my
friend'. I didn't want that since he was not my friend and further to that his
bag was going to Frankfurt while mine were going to Singapore. So far so good...
I helped Heinz check-in and went to pay the departure tax. Heinz was already on
the stairs to go upstairs to the duty free area when I called him back...
In the Duty Free area I left him... after a while I went through immigration and
sat with other guests waiting till the gate opened when Heinz apporached me
again 'Can you help me, I don't understand what he wants from me!' 'He' in this
case was the immigration officer. And he told me that he needed Heinz' departure
tag. Well - Heinz said that they hadn't given one to him. Another officer
approached and we were guided to his office while our gate was opened. Great...
*argh* The officer kept telling me that the departure ticket was an important
document while I kept telling him that I knew that but that Heinz just did not
have it. So the officer told me that we had to go to the police to file a report.
I didn't care about Heinz loosing his flight (I wouldn't have gone with him
because there was no way I would have lost my flight for a stranger....) but my
thinking was that Heinz was probably not the first person to loose his departure
ticket and that there must be a solution for it.
In the end it turned out that the immigration officer made Heinz pay USD 25 for
a new immigration-/departure-card and Heinz was able to fly home.
So, dear reader: please do not (I repeat DO NOT) ever remove something from your
passport that an immigration officer puts in there when you enter a country....