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....

Singapore