Paperwork time…A reality and responsibility of traveling the world…

It’s a well operating out of a local’s house in our neighborhood.
“Sightings on the Beach in Bali”
Buffaloes swimming together in the river alongside the villa.

There are currently three batches of documents to complete and process:
1.  Absentee ballots for the upcoming election on November 8th in the US
2.  Visa extension for Indonesia
3.  Tom’s driver license renewal

In just over two weeks, we’ll have to go to Lovina’s immigration office. The forms we used previously must be redone with the correct dates and information.

We’ll continue to post photos from the harrowing four or five hour drive. This is a glass shop which surely had glasa blowers in a back room making these items for sale.

This time when we apply for the visa extension we’ll be driving to Lovina on our own without Gede with us. He’ll have to create a somewhat complicated letter as our sponsor which is written in Indonesian. He was with us last time we visited the immigration office and processed the sponsorship in person.

This time, since we’re going on our own, Gede will have to sit beside me while I type the information into a document  while he translates the form which we’ll print and bring along when we apply. 

We weren’t near the airport.  This is a display of a jet engine atop a building behind many power lines.

Tom’s driver’s license expires on December 23rd. Nevada DMV doesn’t allow an applicant to submit the paperwork sooner than 60 days prior to the expiration date. The paperwork can be submitted by fax so we’ll prepare it all, email it to son Richard in Nevada and he’ll fax it from his office.

Once the renewal license is issued it can’t be mailed to our address in Nevada per their regulations.  It can only be mailed to an outside Nevada address. Daughter Tammy will handle this for us; receiving the license at her home address and placing the license into another envelope with a stamp. She’ll immediately mail it to our mailing service in Nevada.

Vegetation growing on the roof of a restaurant in Denpasar.

Once the mailing service receives it, they’ll ship it to us wherever we are at the time to arrive within 3 to 5 days by expedited international shipping. If we don’t receive the license in time for the rental car we’ll need in Tasmania, we’ll rent the car in my name since my license doesn’t expire until February 20, 2017.

I’ll have to go through the same process 60 days prior to my license expired.  At least, this one time, we’re allowed to do this by mail and fax. Next time, in four more years, we’ll have to appear in person. We’ll certainly keep this in mind when we begin to plan far into the future for 2020.  Gosh, that sounds like a long time away, but it’s only four years.

This is a modern furniture store in Denpasar.

The next item, the absentee ballots, must be processed by this upcoming Monday in order for us to actually receive the ballots in time for the election. That’s a little tricky as well with regulations varying from US state to state. I won’t bore you with the details.

All of these tasks require a huge amount of printing, scanning, copying and preparation. The printer here isn’t so good, although we can manage to get it to spew out what we need for all three of these transactions.The rest we’ll figure out.

An upscale Italian restaurant, likely visited by tourists in Denpasar.

There’s no doubt that preparing all of these documents is cumbersome and time consuming. To a degree they weigh on our minds. When we work on these types of tasks we do it together, making it a lot easier than doing it solo.

Thank goodness we still have our trusty portable scanner which proves invaluable for many aspects of these types of processes. A camera just doesn’t do a good enough scanning job on letter or legal sized documents.

Colorful display of shop on the main highway.

Once we have these tasks completed, we’ll be relieved and able to spend the remaining days in Bali with our minds free of some big responsibilities other than taking good care of ourselves and continuing to enjoy the balmy breezes, sunshine and exquisite scenery before us.

Take good care of YOURSELF and have a good day!

Photo from one year ago today, September 8, 2015:

We shot this photo from the air on our way to Savusavu. Fiji is comprised of approximately 330 islands, of which one third are inhabited. The two major islands are Viti Levu, the most commonly visited and Vanua Levu where we are staying for the next three months. When boarding this flight we had to be publicly weighed along with our baggage, an experience we’d had in the past.  For more details, please click here.

Exploring the area on a sunny day…Humidity…Plans for Bali…

Motorbikes parked at the beach.

It rains a lot in the tropics and there are plenty of cloudy days. Since our arrival in Phuket over two weeks ago, at least 75% of the days have been cloudy with rain no less than 40% of the days and nights.

Many years ago (around 30) BT (before Tom) I vacationed in Thailand, staying in Phuket at two different resorts, one week each and if I recall, it was cloudy and rainy many of those days as well.  When the sun is shining, its a scorcher. 

Its so hot, people often walk with umbrellas to protect themselves from the heat of the sun as opposed to using umbrellas in the rain. Yesterday, we compared weather conditions for both Phuket and Bali which overall are quite similar. 

Tourists dining under thatched roofs drinking cocktails with umbrellas and pineapple slices.

We don’t remember feeling this hot in Bali although it was hot each day with high humidity similar to Phuket.  Islands typically have high levels of humidity but after a little research we discovered many inland countries/cities have levels of humidity in excess of what may be the case on a tropical island.

Our old fashioned thinking seems to more readily relate to the readings for humidity and actual temperature (than for dew point )which this morning at 9:45 am is a paltry 85F, 29C with the humidity is 92%.  Needless to say it will be another uncomfortable day with a 70% likelihood of thunderstorms.
In Bali, we were situated directly on the ocean with nearly constant breezes to cool the moisture on our skin. Here, living in a residential neighborhood, a kilometer to the beach, we feel nary a breeze except when storms seem to come from nowhere and wild winds waft through the air.
Fruit and fruit drink stands are popular in Phuket.
As much as we find this house to fulfill our needs and certainly having the most amazing customer service from its owner and support staff, in an odd way, we’re both looking forward to returning to Bali. 
Perhaps, we miss the sea or the two Katuks cooking our meals or chatting with Gede or as mentioned over the past several days, the lack of English speaking news channels, avoiding the constant barrage of bad news unless we search for it online. 
We can’t help but look forward to dining at the big square table for eight staring out at the sea as the buffalo walk along the beach on their way to or from the neighboring river.
There are many restaurants located near the beaches.

The only apprehension we’ve had, particularly Tom, has been the prospect of the required three days of four hour round trip drives to Lovina, Bali to renew our visas toward the end of the first of our two-month stay. 

These three separate visits are a requirement of the Indonesian government and there’s no way around it when staying in the country over 30 days. The fact that we’re so far away from the immigration office in Lovina while living in Sumbersari only adds to the difficulty.
Many tourists use money exchange facilities such as this. We’ve found it’s more economical to use ATMs for local currency.
As many of our regular readers are aware we never had ample time to apply for the Indonesian visa extensions while in Singapore or Vietnam last month. We’d considered breaking our own rule and mailing in our passports to VisaHQ or CIBT in the US by overnight mail while they process it for us in Washington, DC at the Indonesian embassy. 
Conceivably, we could have the visa extensions back by overnight mail within seven to ten days.  But, with my recent injury, we decided that in the event of an emergency situation that required us leave the country in a hurry, we couldn’t take the risk. Not that we expect this to happen as I continue to improve a little each day.
Many hostels and “rooms for rent” are seen along the highway. Many young tourists come to Phuket for water activities and stay in lower cost facilities.
So, we were back to “square one,” the three days of driving to Lovina with the required one day  required by the immigration department. This results in starting on a Monday, returning on Wednesday and returning the third time on a Friday to collect the passports and visa extensions.
Yesterday, I had a thought that I ran by Tom. Why don’t we go to Lovina and stay in a hotel both Monday and Tuesday nights, going to the immigration office on both Monday and Wednesday? We’ll have Gede drop us off on Monday and pick us up on Wednesday after the second trip to immigration and then have Gede return to Lovina on Friday on our behalf to pick up our passports and visa extensions.

Last time we had to get the visa extensions, Gede made the third trip without us when we’d authorized him in writing to do this on our behalf.  his avoided us making the third four hour round trip drive. By staying in a hotel, we’ll have only two hours to get to Lovina and another two hours to return to Sumbersari on Wednesday afternoon having completed the second trip to the immigration office.  Tom liked this idea.

Taking photos through the car’s windows and windscreen in tricky with some sort of worn film is covering the glass.

In checking prices on hotels in Lovina, Bali, rated at least four star we can easily stay at a very nice location for an outrageously low price under US $75, IDR 984,225, THB  2,631 per night plus the cost of a few meals and low cost taxi. 

It’s a plan!  We’re relieved to have made this logical decision which ultimately turns what may have been a stressful situation into a fun “holiday” within the framework of our time in Bali.  The extra transportation cost by avoiding the one day’s drive will cover at least one night’s hotel bill.  Hope this all makes sense.
Yesterday, when the sun made an appearance for a few hours, we took off on another drive in the area.  We can’t go too far for two reasons; one, I can’t sit for too long in the low seats in the less-than-stellar rental car, especially on bumpy roads; and two, the less-than-stellar rental car is old and could easily break down. 
Road construction is prevalent in most countries, slowing down the flow of traffic.
The car’s windows have some type of darkening film on the windows that is severely distorted, making driving difficult in busy traffic. Tom, an excellent driver, who never complains about conditions, hesitates to do much driving for all these reasons. I concur. 
And yet, considering these obstacles we were still able to take some photos we happily share here each day while we continue to explore as we can during our remaining 26 days on the island. 

It can’t always be perfect. We don’t expect it to be. We accept the limitations we currently have in our midst while continuing to make the very best of each and every day. We laugh, we smile, we find ways to entertain ourselves and each other. What more could we ask for?  Not a thing. Not a single thing.

Enjoy your weekend!

Photo from one year ago today, August 6, 2015:

Amazing sunrise over Trinity Beach, Australia, where we lived one year ago today. For more photos, please click here.

Time to extend our Indonesian visas…Four hour round trip to Lovina…Photos while we’re away…Back with more tomorrow…

One of the narrow roads we walk in the area.

“Sightings on the Beach in Bali”

The midday sun reflecting in the river running along the neighboring property.

At 9:00 am this morning Gede is picking us up for the two hour drive (each way) to his hometown of Lovina Beach where we’ll visit the local immigration office to extend our visas an additional 30 days. As mentioned in an earlier post, we weren’t able to extend the visas at the airport upon our arrival.

The details we share today will have to be repeated midway through our second stay on this island beginning on September 1st when most likely again, we’ll be unable to get more than the 30 day visa at the airport. 

So it goes. We knew this well in advance, when we’d investigated the visa requirements for Bali as we do before booking each new location.

Each house’s style is quite different from others with the most common feature, the Hindu statues in the front yard.

The odd aspect in Bali is that extending the visa for an additional 30 days requires three and yes, I mean three, visits to Lovina to accomplish this for each of the 60 day periods we’re here:

Trip 1:  Apply for visas
Wait one day
Trip 2:  Return to Lovina, get fingerprinted and have photos taken.  Pay the fees.
Wait one day.
Trip 3:  Return to Lovina, pick up visas

Each of these three days and the days in between are required with no exception. Gede explained that Trip 3 can be accomplished by hiring one of the workers to make the drive for us to pick them up. We’ll choose this option. 

Blue Gecko is the name of a neighboring villa.

We don’t want to have to return three times if we can avoid it. Much to our dismay, we have to leave our passports at the immigration office for pickup on Trip 3. Neither of us is thrilled to be without our passports in our possession during this five-day period. We’ve made copies in the interim.

Trip 1 and Trip 2 require that we are personally in attendance. Guess we’ll be on a road a bit this week. Luckily, there are a few good sights to see along the way and we’ve decided to spread them out over each of the few days.

Here’s a map of Bali, we found at this site. Lovina is located in the north:

We’re currently located 35 minutes north/northwest of Negara as shown in the southwest. Lovina is almost centered in the north. Denpasar, the four-hour harrowing road trip is located in the south. Luckily, we don’t have to drive all the way back to Denpasar until we eventually leave the villa for the airport in approximately five weeks.

“Lovina Beach is a laid back 12 km stretch of coast to the West of Singaraja in North Bali. It is a welcome break from the bustle of the South. These days the mix of tourists is mainly families and couples rather than the backpackers of yesteryear. It is comprised of several narrow stretches of black volcanic sand. Lovina, like most of Bali, fills up with tourists from all over the world in August and Australians at Christmas.

Kalibukbuk is the largest and most developed village, but it is just two streets of hotels, bars, restaurants, and dive shops running down to the beach. There is a wide range of accommodation and restaurants to suit all budgets and tastes. There are two clubs and several bars, but the nightlife is generally low key and easy-going.”

Although sardine factories may appear run down on the exterior, apparently they are run safely and efficiently supplying sardines to many parts of the world.
Realizing the necessity of this trip, we prepared today’s post in advance to ensure we wouldn’t fall behind in posting. Consistency is very important to us and as we’ve seen, many of our worldwide readers may stop by each day to see what’s going on. We wouldn’t want to disappoint a single reader’s expectations if we can help it. 

We certainly appreciate the value to being able to bring up our favorite sites to read the latest posts, especially when we’re in locations such as Bali where we can’t understand the language on the TV resulting in no news updates, no entertainment and no channel surfing. Reading news and the posts of others is a good alternative for those quiet times.

Sardine factories line the beach in a few areas.

I suppose in a way its not unlike this three day visa application process. There are no alternatives. Instead of grumbling, we’ve decided to take it in our stride as one more opportunity to take photos and visit a few points of interest on the way.

Of course, we’ll be back tomorrow with another new post and the story of Day 1 on our trip to Lovina and back.  Hopefully, all goes as planned and we don’t encounter any issues. This reminds us of when we also had to renew our visas while living in Belize in January 2013. 

A local mosque. We can hear the call-to-prayer from a mosque near the villa several times a day. 

In Belize we had to go on a very small boat packed with people, called the “Hokey Pokey,” to get to the mainland to apply for the visas. For the humorous details of that outing, please click here.

We hope you find your day brings you humor in recalling your past experiences.

Photo from one year ago today, May 22, 2015:

Another breathtaking sunset in Kauai when we’d posted some of our favorite photos with only one day until departure. For more favorite Kauai photos, please click here.

Visa extension day…sheer wonder!

 
We rode on one of two identical boat across the lagoon to Mango Creek on the Hokey Pokey Water Taxi.

Initially perceived as a necessary responsibility laden experience, getting one of our two required visa extensions proved to be a fun filled day.  Having decided many months ago that creating an adventure out of what may appear to be mundane would greatly improve the possibility of a positive outcome.  Indeed., that’s true!

The hut where we waited to board the Hokey Pokey boat.

Only two and a half months ago while living in Scottsdale Arizona, preparing for our upcoming travels, Tom had to have his final dreaded colonoscopy and endoscopy.

As it turned out we ended up having a wonderful time, meeting the gastroenterologist in his office for not only great news on Tom’s results but a bird’s eye view of his wide array of photos he’d taken while on safari in Africa.  While admiring the quality of his photos, a lively conversation ensued that we’ll both remember for a long time to come….an otherwise unpleasant experience resulting in a memorable day.


While driving through the channel to the lagoon, we saw several of these houses on stilts, a common style in Belize with potential hurricanes and high tides.

His work inspired us to learn to take good photos along the way, a gift to ourselves and others who share in our passion of the treasures Mother Nature has bestowed upon us all, not only in exotic locales but in our everyday lives.

Today, was a venture out into our new everyday life…taking care of business.
Little camera in hand, our cab driver Estevan appeared at our door, promptly at 9:30 as planned to drive us the five miles to Placencia Village to the dock on the lagoon to the Hokey Pokey Water Taxi.

Estevan, what a guy!  Concerned that we might not get a knowledgeable cab driver, he started making phone calls, first to his wife to get the phone number for a cabbie he knows. “Vic” who works the Mango Creek pier was more than willing to  take us on the 10 minutes drive to Big Creek where the Immigration Department is located. 

Minutes later, he was talking to Vic, not only negotiating an equitable fare for us in advance, a mere $10 (US) round trip, but also asking that Vic would wait for us while we were in the Immigration office obtaining our 30 day extensions.  Wow!  Need I say that we were appreciative and impressed? 

Dropping us off at the tiny waiting area for the Hokey Pokey Water Taxi, Estevan suggested we met up in front of the local grocery store, The Ming at 1:30 so we could shop and perhaps find more available items.  A perfect plan.


The dock in Mango Creek where Vic picked up the five of us for the drive to the Immigration Department in Big Creek,

With Estevan’s phone number neatly tucked into my shorts pocket, we bought two one way tickets  US $6 for the boat ride to Mango Creek.  Scheduled to depart at 10:00 am, we waited patiently sitting on the wood benches in the shaded hut while more passengers purchased tickets. 

It was hot and humid.  We’d frozen two water bottles for the journey, later grateful for having done so.  As required we had our passports, ID, money and potentially required documents that we listed in yesterday’s post directly from the Belize Immigration office.  Based on comments from both locals and travelers, the likelihood of being asked for additional documentation was low. 

In our usual “be prepared just in case” way, brought along everything they asked for in their forms.  It’d be a shame to go all that way and expense to be asked for a document we didn’t have in our possession.  (When in line at Immigration, we observed that some others also had the myriad documents on hand). 

No, we weren’t asked for the additional documents.  In a month, when we return for the second extension, we’ll bring along the same package we prepared for today, just in case that we’re the one out of a hundred that is asked, we’ll be prepared.

Seventeen passengers were seated in the small boat with us which zoomed across the water with ease with its huge newer looking outboard motor humming along.  With such a load, the boat was low in the water.  We weren’t concerned as we enjoyed the cool breeze thumping across the massive lagoon to Mango Creek.

Sitting next to us, both in the hut and on the boat, was a delightful couple , Margaret and Fred from Switzerland with smooth as silk accents, whose daughter and grandchild lived in Placencia, visiting them every year.  They were not only familiar with the country of Belize but were experienced world travelers who’d spent considerable time living in Africa.  

Claus, Margaret, Jess and Fred, our newly met Visa Day companions.

The conversation with Margaret and Fred was enhanced by the four of us meeting yet another passenger, Claus from Germany, who recently moved to Placencia with his wife and young child.  They all asked if they could ride in our prearranged cab, Vic’s large van, for the ensuing trip through Mango Creek and onward to Big Creek, the location of the Immigration Department.

Arriving at the dock in Mango Creek around 10:15 am, Vic was looking for us.  Estevan, thank you!!!  Quickly agreeing to take the five of us, we were on the road for the 10 minute drive to Big Creek.  The conversation among the five of us made the time fly by not only along the ride to and fro but the 25 minutes total it took for the five of us to get our passports stamped.

We made it back to the pier in Mango Creek at 11:05 and thank goodness, the return boat had yet to depart.  Waving goodbye to our newly found “friends”, Tom and I took off on foot from the pier to walk along the busy main road of the village to for a stop at a local vegetable stand, to a bank to exchange US $100  money to Belizian money (Belize $1.98 for US $1.00) to eventually end up at The Ming grocery to hook up with Estevan for the ride back to Laru Beya, our temporary home.

The stop at the vegetable stand was more fulfilling than I could imagine.  With no marked prices on any of the fresh organic produce we loaded up all we could carry and use over the next 9 days until Estevan returns to take us grocery shopping again.  Imagine, we purchased all of these items for a total of $12!  Fresh, organic, Roundup free, vegetables in the natural colors intended by nature, not chemically induced to be darker and brighter.

  • 2 pounds of carrots
  • 2 large heads of cabbage
  • 3 pounds of green beans
  • 3 large onions
  • 2 medium size eggplants
  • 2 pounds of pea pods
  • 1 large zucchini
Tom in the vegetable stand bagging up our produce.  We couldn’t have been more enthusiastic about our loot, all for only $12

Fresh produce!!  We couldn’t have been more thrilled.  As we’ve discovered, with only occasional carrots, cabbage, onions and peppers in most grocery stores, our selection has been limited.  Without wheels and the cost of a cab into Placencia at $20 plus tip, we’d decided it greatly added to our otherwise ample grocery store budget of $800 a month (dining out adds another $700 a month). 

Thus, we’ve limited ourselves to canned vegetables and homemade home chopped coleslaw which we now have made as a staple in our diet.  With lettuce at the vegetable stand, we looked at each other wondering if we wanted lettuce salad, shaking our heads “no”. We decided to stick with our standby coleslaw using our homemade dressing.  I make it early in the day, to ensure its ice cold by dinner.

In the future, we’ll go shopping in the village which has a much wider selection than the few stores we’ve frequented in the past.  On the return trip, Estevan offered to take us to the village going forward for $15 round trip enabling us to select from a wider range of foods. We purchased enough food today at a cost of $190 to get us through until a week from Wednesday when Estevan returns.  Of course, we gave him an ample tip, appreciative for all that he did for us.

Back in our villa, we put the food away, content with our purchases and locked up our documents in our built-in safe.  I began preparing dinner for tonight, a fresh batch of coleslaw, a giant bowl of chicken salad using the leftover chicken from last night along with big plate of buttery steamed green beans.

We’ll go back on the Hokey Pokey by March 20th to extend our visa for the remaining 20 days until we sail away on April 9th.  Now, for our much anticipated vegetable laden dinner, a sense of satisfaction for another great day and an evening with a full moon. 

Humm…maybe we’ll get a few good shots tonight! Check back tomorrow to see!