Christi slept for 14 blissful hours and woke up refreshed and feeling great. Eric slept for about 9 and woke up still feeling tired. We were supposed to meet Napa back at the Lavalon at 11:00. We figured we could get in a couple of hours of sightseeing first. By 08:30 it was so hot you would think you were in a furnace. Instead of sightseeing, we ran the air conditioning and enjoyed the cool until it was time to go.

Napa had said he would be by as soon as he was done with customs and immigration, about 11:00, maybe 12:00. He showed up at 1400 (2:00 pm) to let us know he thought it would be another hour.

While we were sitting there, we had been watching the public transit vehicles go by. They are low, small mini-vans called bemos. Normally, we pay virtually no attention at all to public transit vehicles, but the bemos are something of a spectacle. They are all pimped out (for those of you unfamiliar with the slang term “pimped out”, it means the car has been upgraded, usually with window tint, lowered body with larger than normal wheels, and a high quality sound system with the bass turned up high so the entire vehicle shakes with each beat of the music) and have brightly colored stickers and decals all over the vehicle, including on the front and back windshields. There are two workers a driver and a guy that literally hangs the majority of his body out of the open door who calls out to pedestrians asking if they want to get in. Each bemo is different, the owner obviously taking a lot of care to make his stand out from the rest. They all have names across the sides in big, bold lettering. Most names are foreign to us, but there were some names we recognized, such as Daniel, Eminem, and Jordan. The stickers usually follow some sort of theme, such as race cars or profiles of curvaceous women. There are a ton of them on the road, literally one going by every few seconds, and they are hilarious to look at. Our favorite has more bling bling (translation: upgrades) than most, is named Christi, and has an American flag. No joke. We tried to get a picture, but it went by too fast.

So with yet another hour to kill, we decided to go for a ride around town and hopped on a bemo. Inside there were two benches running vertically down the two sides of the van. There were plastic heart hand holds mounted to the ceiling and a couple stuffed animals suction cupped to the windshield. In the back were two posters of Britney Spears and two of Angelina Jolie. Indonesian dance club music was thumping and the bass booming. We actually liked most of the music.

The bemo did a circuit around town that lasted about ½ hour. The ride was something of a white knuckeler. Most of the vehicles on the road are bemos and scooters, with several heavy duty work trucks and just a smattering of cars and SUV’s (sport utility vehicle). The bemos seem to be trying to run over one another, pushing to get ahead of the others so they can be the first to claim passengers. They pass one another with literally inches to spare, seem to have no regard for lanes or medians, and make abrupt stops to pick up passengers. This is scary enough. Then throw in a bunch of scooters weaving in and out of the bemos.

The city itself looked pretty much the same to us on the entire loop. We got off right where we started. There are actually a few routes to different parts of the city, but we figured rather than take another ride we should wait for Napa to come back. We didn’t know how long another ride might last and didn’t want to be late. Turned out we should have gone, because Napa was an hour late. When he arrived, he told us about what a pain it had been to deal with immigration, but he had our visas in hand, which was good news indeed. Only two more stops to make before we are completely checked in the military and harbor master, which he said would be taken care of tomorrow.

Napa had arranged for us to go on a tour of the mountains tomorrow while he finished getting us checked in. We were also waiting on the tour guide, Ony, to meet us. He came another hour after Napa arrived. Our meeting with Ony was quick. It was now a little after 17:00 (5:00 pm). After 6 hours of waiting in the heat, we were ready to go back to Kosmos.

Looking back on this it sounds like we are whining. Yes, it was boring sitting in the restaurant for the last two days, but it was better than running all over town in a foreign city where we don’t speak the language, trying to do all the paperwork ourselves. We were glad that Napa was the one dealing with the visa headaches, because it would probably be ten times harder for us to deal with, being as we can’t speak the language and are unfamiliar with the local rules and laws. We think hiring an agent was a good choice.