03 – Downhill to Sidikalang
FROM THE TRUCK STOP TO SIDIKALANG As I anticipated, the first part of this day involved pushing my bike up […]
02 – A Night at a Truck Stop
I woke up in my rather rough room in Pangururan with a fairly difficult climb ahead of me. I didn’t
01- Riding from Tuktuk
Yesterday was my first day of real cycling in a very long time, and it shows this morning. (I rode
Panic! – Phishing Emails Give Me a Heart Attack
I got an email claiming to be from PayPal saying that there was a problem with my account. They detected invalid information, and I needed to clear it up or they would limit my account. I was immediately suspicious, of course, because there was a log-in link included in the email. As far as I understand these things, official emails from large companies never include log-in links.
The Morality Police Raid My Hotel
It was a Saturday night. This hotel never gets very busy, but Saturday night is probably the busiest night. That’s the one night I might hear some noise and commotion and some rather odd characters (usually half-dressed men) might be spotted prowling the dark balcony. So I didn’t pay much attention when I heard some banging and crashing and loud voices.
Siantar Errand Run
I needed to buy a couple of things, and I took my camera with me as I walked around the city of Siantar, Sumatra. It’s a very long video, I suppose, but I wanted it to show what it feels like to just the walk the streets amidst all the activity.
Siantar Zoo Trip – Sleepy Animals
Lacking a GoPro, I used a GorillaPod to attach my tiny Canon point-and-shoot camera to my bike’s handlebars. The Canon
Getting a 30-Day Tourist Visa Extension in Indonesia
I’m no expert in the process of getting Indonesian tourist visas and visa extensions, but I thought I’d share my
Staring at the Camera Like a Buffoon
Today is the big day. I was told I can pick up my passport, and it should contain my 30-day extension. Technically, it will be a 28-day extension because my last visa expired two days ago. This extension should date from my previous visa’s expiry date, so it will be two days old by the time I receive it.
Later: Got the visa extension, but it wasn’t easy. I had been told to just return on Wednesday to pick up my passport. But there was more to it than that. First, I had to have my picture taken. And this has to be done as a live insert with one of their cameras tethered to a computer and logged into the national immigration website/database. You can just imagine how that went.
Successful But Predictably Weird
My trip to immigration for the interviews ended up being successful but predictably weird. I got there on my bike, of course. My sponsor, Stephani, was going to get there on her own. I assumed she would be on a scooter. I showed up a few minutes before my scheduled interview time of 10 a.m. The usual woman was sitting behind the main counter, and I went up to her just to let her know that I had arrived but my sponsor wasn’t there yet. Then I sat to wait.