Tuesday, 27th September 2011
Some days are better than others, today was an “others” day. On a brighter note, Sarah, Noah and I all slept in until 8:00am. Then mum and the other children all knocked on our door – dressed and ready for the day.
There was a nice buffet breakfast that we enjoyed in the restaurant before going back to our rooms to pack up. Felcris arrived about 9:30, and before 10:00 we checked out. We left most of our bags at reception and took a cab to the immigration office to extend our visas, it was raining.
People were lined up outside the immigration office! Eventually we worked out which desk we were supposed to go to to collect our forms, then get them stamped. Then submit them for processing, then take them over to the payments counter. Then there was a problem – I didn't have enough money on me to pay for the visa extension. Felcris and I quickly went and found another cab that could take us to a bank with an ATM, the first ATM was out of order, but the second one was okay. The cab driver waited for me and took us back to the office. Then we could pay for our visas, then we had to wait for more processing, and then finally – we could leave, now it was 12:00 and everyone was hungry.
We took another taxi to another shopping mall to get lunch, and more money out (there is a limit to the amount you can withdraw in each transaction). And go to the toilet, and buy a birthday card for Silas, and finally we could leave and take another taxi back to the hotel to collect our bags, and then get dropped to the bus terminal. There is a terminal fee so that the taxi can get into the terminal that we had to pay, Silas dropped this down the side of the seat of the taxi and it couldn't be found.
Once inside the bus terminal we had to pay another terminal fee for each of us, then I was allowed to buy tickets for all of us (change is not given until you are on the bus). The bus trip is a little under two hours.
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| Bananas and more |
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| Can you believe it? |
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| Sights from the bus |
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| More sights... |
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| And more sights |
When we arrived, the seven of us with our baggage fitted into one trike (plus the trike driver) for the short journey to the hall. This was the first time that we have seen the new hall – and we are quite impressed.
Sis Conchita and Sis Jacqui served us sun biscuits and drinks for merinada. Then a little later they served us dinner. Afterwards we took a couple trikes to the hotel.
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| Sis Conchita setting the table for dinner |
We got to Bamboo Paradise only to be told that only one room was available for us, and that another room had been booked at the resort adjacent! I told Bro Felcris that there was no way I was going to split up my family. The outcome was that Sarah, Noah and I stayed in Bamboo Paradise and Silas, Eden and Mum stayed in Palm Island next door. We took the children's pj's around to them before the doors were locked for the night, then later on we had to pass some drink bottles over the fence into next door.
Finally we all went to sleep in clean air-cond rooms.
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