Wednesday, October 30, 2024
8:14 a.m. Room 19, Hotel Malahayati
Tanjung Balai, Sumatra, Indonesia
(3,081 words)
I’ve been writing quite a bit about some problems I’ve been having on this most recent trip to Sumatra. Yesterday, for example, I wrote at length about my problems with my smartphones and how my phones keep getting blocked by Indonesian customs. There is a time limit on the IMEI registration, and when that reaches its end, they put a block on the phone. I’ve also written a lot about my problems with the Indonesian e-VOA, the visa-on-arrival that you can apply for online.
There were two big problems with the e-VOA. The first is that the payment process in their online system is not clear or logical. As you go through the steps of applying for the e-visa, you suddenly find yourself at the end of the process and the application appears to have been submitted. Yet, at no point are you given the opportunity to pay for it. At the very beginning of the process, there is a big graphic that shows you all the steps in the application process. And the final step is PAYMENT. But when you keep clicking on the NEXT button and go through the steps, the PAYMENT stage never appears. That’s what happened to me. And when I went to my online account, my visa application wasn’t even there. People in online forums said that in order to pay for your visa, you had to go to the visa applications section of your account AFTER you submitted your application, find the listing of your visa application, and then click on the visa number. And that would bring you to a screen where you could pay for it. However, I wasn’t able to do this because my visa wasn’t listed.
More confusing stuff happened after that, but it’s too long a story to repeat here. But in the end I had no choice but to go through the visa application process a second time. And on the second attempt, for a brief moment, the visa appeared on my account. I was able to click on it and that opened up a payment window. And my payment was successful. But then I got a confusing email that was a combination of information about my old visa application from last year and this new visa application. I was given a download link for the new visa, but when I clicked on it, it opened up my old visa from 2023. But then down at the bottom of the email, I found the new visa embedded in the email itself. It was a complete mess.
Therefore, my application seemed to be partially successful. I had successfully applied for the visa, paid for it, and even received a digital copy of it. However, this visa still didn’t appear on my online account. And that’s a big problem, because in order to extend it online, you have to be able to see it online. And my visa wasn’t there.
I wrote to Indonesian immigration to tell them about this problem. But instead of fixing it, they sent me an automated email reply that, for unexplained reasons, contained a new visa – a 60-day Limited Stay Permit. And this type of visa requires a sponsor and other documents, none of which I had. I hadn’t applied for this visa and didn’t want this visa and didn’t have a sponsor, but they sent me a copy of this visa. But when I clicked on it, it came back as invalid anyway.
Luckily, when I actually took the ferry to Tanjungbalai, my 30-day e-VOA seemed to be fine. I couldn’t see it on my online account. But apparently, the immigration authorities could, since this visa was accepted and I was allowed into Indonesia. But despite this visa being processed, I still couldn’t see it online.
And that’s what the situation was until last night. And then last night, I decided to check my online account again. I thought maybe it just took a few days for the visa to appear after I entered the country. But the visa still wasn’t there. And then I noticed a menu at the top of the page. I never recognized it as a menu before, but there were three items in a grey bubble at the top of the page. And the three items were “Batch Application”, “Staypermit”, and “Citizenship.” And just out of curiosity, I started clicking on these items. And when I clicked on “Batch Application”, my new visa appeared! Clicking on Batch Application (whatever that means) opens a new window, and my new visa was listed there with all the proper numbers and info.
Therefore, it seems like the visa was ALWAYS there. I kept saying that this visa wasn’t listed on my account. After all, there is a main window called “My Applications”. And when you click on that, it opens up a window with a list of your visa applications – past and current. And MY visa wasn’t there. So I just assumed it wasn’t there and it was a problem. However, it appears that my visa application was there all along, but it was on this window for “Batch Applications.” I don’t know what Batch Applications means. I don’t know why this section exists. But I finally found my visa application.
Of course, there is still a problem. The main reason I wanted to find this online record of the visa is to be able to extend it online. However, I still can’t do that. In the visa listing in the Batch Application, there is no Extend option available. There is an Extend item in the main menu on the Home Page. However, when I click on that, I get a giant Error 403 Forbidden screen. There is a cartoon picture of an armed police officer telling me that I don’t have access to this page. So even though I finally found the visa online, I’m not able to extend it. Perhaps there is a time limit on this. I’ve only been in Indonesia for a couple of days. Maybe it takes a week or two for the Extend option to appear.
There isn’t much else to talk about this morning. I spent most of the day yesterday working on some older videos. I finished one and exported it. And right now I’m trying to upload it. I’m doing something risky. The WiFi in my room barely exists, so I can’t use WiFi here for uploading. However, it is much faster out in the courtyard of the hotel. So I put my phone inside a bag and hung it from a hook out there next to the router. The signal is stronger there, and I’m hoping to upload from there. However, that is taking a risk that someone could steal my phone. I tried to hide and disguise it, but anyone could stumble across it and take it. So I’m a bit worried about that. I’m doing a short 30-minute test first to see if it is even worth taking the risk. I want to see how much gets uploaded in 30 minutes. The other option is to leave my phone at the front desk while the video uploads. I should probably do that instead, but I couldn’t face the communication problem of trying to ask them if I could do this. But at least my phone would be safer there.
There was a ton of rain yesterday. I spent a long time at a Mie Ayam Bakso restaurant waiting for the rain to stop. I was there for so long that I ended up ordering a second lunch. And then for dinner, I had chicken and rice at the fast food place on the corner. I’ve eaten there three times already. I just find the big pieces of chicken to be filling, and they have comfortable indoor seating. At all the other neighborhood places, I sweat badly while I eat. And they only have plastic stools and are open to the noise of the traffic. I realized the other day that meals are significantly cheaper here than in Malaysia. I often forget to do direct comparisons like that. At this place in Tanjung Balai, I can get two big pieces of fried chicken, rice, and a drink for 27,000 rupiah. And that is 7.5 ringgit or $1.70 US. In Port Dickson, even a simple meal would cost twice that. At McDonalds, a basic cheeseburger, fries, and coke set would cost around 20 ringgit, or nearly three times as much, and it wouldn’t be as much food.
I just checked on my hidden smartphone and the video upload, and things had been going well. The phone had not been stolen. And 7 gigabytes had been uploaded in a relatively short amount of time. It appears that I have found a solution to my current WiFi problems. But I decided that the risk of leaving my phone out in the courtyard unattended (even if hidden) was too great. And I was thinking about talking to the hotel staff about leaving my phone in the lobby. But then my eyes happened to rest on my bicycle sitting down there on the first floor in the hotel courtyard. And I have a bag attached to my bike that has a zipper which can be locked. So I went down there and checked the WiFi speeds near my bike, and it seemed to be good, maybe even better than my first test. And so I put my smartphone inside the bag on my bicycle and locked the zipper. Obviously, it isn’t thief-proof. Anyone with a knife or even a pair of scissors could cut through the bag and take the phone. But that is extremely unlikely. The bicycle is quite an unusual thing and is sitting out in plain view inside the hotel interior next to the lobby where the staff are. It would take a brave and brazen soul to mess around with my bicycle in full view like that. AND they would have to know that the smartphone was inside that bag, and there is no way for anyone to know that except me. Anyway, I’m quite relaxed about my phone being down there and busy uploading away. I think it is quite safe.
I’m still trying to get caught up on YouTube videos from Vietnam and from Port Dickson before I begin any new adventures here in Sumatra. And though I haven’t done anything about it, I’m still pondering my options for Patreon. I just haven’t had the time or energy to come to grips with that. The plan was to get that done while in Port Dickson, but I never managed it. I have a bunch of thoughts but I won’t dive into them here this morning.
A friend of mine, Jamie, is currently in Yogyakarta in Java, and I noticed that a famous Canadian YouTuber travel vlogger called Lost LeBlanc had posted a video from that region recently. I sent Jamie a link to that video, and then I watched it myself. I have to say that I’ve never been a big fan of Lost LeBlanc videos. That should come as no surprise, I suppose. In fact, Lost LeBlanc was one of my original inspirations for trying to shoot YouTube videos at all. He has been posting videos to YouTube for a long time, and I became aware of him right from the beginning when he started nine years ago. And I remember how much he annoyed me. He went on and on about how he was some kind of great adventurer out there taking risks and doing amazing things, etc. He used all the jargon that YouTubers always use about how he quit his job, sold his possessions, and then bought a one-way ticket to travel solo. I get annoyed at all that self-aggrandizing hyperbole. As if buying a one-way ticket and going somewhere on your own is some kind of amazing achievement. And then when I watched his videos, I found that the reality of his experiences came nowhere close to his rhetoric. He had tons of money, for one thing. And his one-way solo flight took him to Bangkok where he had enrolled in some kind of school and he had a place to stay there all arranged in advance. And then his big adventures involved mainly beach parties, full moon parties, and going to standard tourist attractions with other foreigners. Yet, he kept up the jargon about how he was doing the most extraordinary, dangerous things. It bugged me so much at the time.
And this was all taking place at the time when the new modern form of travelling was forming. There were suddenly far more people travelling around the world, and they were doing so with all the modern conveniences and luxuries of booking fancy condos in advance online and arranging for private GRAB cars to drive them from the airport directly to their fancy accommodation with infinity pools, etc. Everyone had so much money, and they were going to places like Bali and living quite luxurious lives. And that is fine. There is nothing wrong with enjoying yourself. If you have the money to stay in nice places, then go for it. BUT don’t start to go on and on about how dangerous it is and what a crazy adventure it is. You are on a vacation, nothing more.
As I was watching his videos and getting annoyed with him, I noticed that the type of life I was living overseas wasn’t represented on YouTube. I was actually in Sumatra at the time, and I was staying in typical low-budget hotels and living more of a traditional backpacker life. My rooms were bare bones. I didn’t have my own bathroom. The shared bathroom was a dirty closet down the hallway with a big tank of cold water and a bucket. None of this bothered me. I chose to stay in these places and I chose to travel the way I did because it was cheaper. And it was also what I was accustomed to. I’d never done anything different. To me, this was how you lived in this part of the world. It had never even occurred to me to stay in fancy hotels and hire private cars with drivers and eat at fancy restaurants. I stayed in the cheapest places I could find and I travelled by bicycle or by local bus and I got my meals at the market or the simple eateries where all the local people ate. I wasn’t living any kind of grand adventure. I wasn’t out there truly exploring the world and living on the edge. But it was quite different from how Lost LeBlanc was living, and he presented his life as something very risky and adventurous. And I noticed that people like me weren’t on YouTube. So I started playing around with shooting video myself.
Anyway, I’m just saying that I have a long history with Lost LeBlanc, and I’ve disliked his videos for a long time. So it was no surprise that his most recent video didn’t have much to offer me. It was essentially a long advertisement for Insta360. It was a sponsored video in which he went on and on about the wonders of the Insta360 Go 3S. And the experiences in the video were the same as all of his experiences. It was a bit weird in that the video was called “The Most EPIC and AFFORDABLE Adventure (Central Java)”. And he talked a lot about how cheap everything was, especially the hotel. Yet, the hotel cost $80 US a night. And I think his entire time in Java amounted to a typical three-night-two-day guided tour with friends. And for that entire time, he had a private car with a driver, and he was whisked around to all the fancy restaurants and cafes and tourist attractions, such as being lowered into a cave on a rope, tubing down a river, and going up a mountain to a scenic lookout point at a famous village. Oddly enough, the entire trip was built around climbing Mount Merapi. And while he was in this famous village, he talked about how the next morning they were going to wake up early and then hike up the volcano. But they had to find a guide first. It seemed strange to me to wait until the night before to get your guide. And, of course, it was even more strange to me to plan to climb a volcano that has been closed for years. I don’t know how he could possibly NOT know this but Merapi is the most active volcano in Indonesia, and it has been closed for what feels like forever. Basically, you CAN’T climb it. It’s odd that he could have missed that bit of news.
I really didn’t like anything in the video. His time in the region was too short. It cost far too much. It was a string of tourist attractions with a private car and driver. I guess he’s just not my type of guy. They went down into a cave on a rope, and the whole idea was that you are strapped into this rope, and a group of men lower you down. And that would be fun. But Lost LeBlanc played it like he was so scared and terrified. That always bothers me, too. It over dramatizes the situation. Plus, I always figure a man should have more self-respect than that. I mean, come on, it wasn’t that scary. It was also a bit weird in that he paid his driver one million rupiah to go into the cave with him. I guess he thought it would be interesting for the video for their driver to go into the tourist attractions with him. But his driver wasn’t interested. And then Lost LeBlanc kept offering him more and more money to agree to go into the cave. And they settled on one million rupiah. I guess there’s nothing wrong with that, but it just feels weird. I think Lost LeBlanc wanted some local content in his video. He knew people would like that. But since he was going on a private guided tour, there was little chance of that. So he paid his driver to play the role of local content. It’s a bit weird.