Out and About

IMMIGRATION AND PASSPORTS

A bit ago we had to visit immigration to renew our KITAS residence permits. This place has an extremely small parking lot. Pak Oky dropped us off and worked his way around the building in the large line of cars who also could not park on site.  He picked us up later. We arrived super early as traffic was on our side that day. While we waited outside, we observed the greatest workout we've seen. Disclaimer: Don't try this at home. There are certain people who get to park anywhere even if there is no parking. Over and over people parked in front of the building. Mind you, they were doing this even though all of the spots were full. How? There was plenty of staff to literally push the cars around to allow previously parked cars to exit and new cars to park. With each departure, multiple cars—not just 1 or 2 cars— were pushed back in a series, the car wiggled out of its spot and another car pulled into the spot. Sometimes the driver was with the car or the parking lot helpers had the keys and actually drove the car, but mostly it was just pushing the cars around.  Remember one other time we couldn't find a place to park and Pak Oky pushed a car aside?  Everyone leaves their cars in neutral and without a parking break. It was very interesting to watch but is not a recommended method of strength training as far as we are concerned.

We recently visited the American Embassy to renew our passports.Neither was expiring any time soon, but we've filled them up pretty well.  Our new passports will automatically have 50 pages.  We had to make an appointment for the two of us. I should have read all of the fine print on the website and I would have left some items in the car. At the entrance we had to relinquish our cell phones, the 2 thumb drives and the phone charger I had in my purse. I'd left my tiny leatherman tool in the car but hadn't thought about the "electronics." The knife was apparently no problem. Once past security we took a seat in the American Citizens Services section and waited until they opened. They are open for passport and visa items from 12:30 - 2:30. We had a 12:30 appointment.

When called, we had our photos all ready, gave them our current passport, waited while they did some "research" and once cleared, paid the fees, got our current passports back and were on our way stopping to pick up the "electronics." It takes about 2 weeks to process the passport. Yes, if you are applying within the US it can take 6 weeks. When we get the email that the passports are ready, I will go back with both of our current passports. They will cancel the old ones at that time and give the old ones back to me as well as the new ones. This visit does not require an appointment however you must visit the Embassy in the window of 2:30 - 3:15 daily. I was very surprised there is only a 45 minute window each day for this process. I will have to draft a letter from B giving me permission to pick up his passport so he can sign it. Once we get them back we will have to change our passport numbers anywhere they are recorded  and also get our KITAS information switched to the new passports. Much red tape. (Late breaking news:we received an email they were ready 1 week and 1 day later. P went to pick them up and we are ready to convert our KITAS to the new passports.Further update prior to actually releasing this post: we had the KITAS information switched to the new passports but apparently we will need to now carry both passports for each of us. We are still checking this but it appears we will have to do it. It is a rather thick bundle of passport. B thinks we will only have to do it the first time we leave the country. My "friend network" says we will each have to carry both of our passports until our KITAS is renewed again next April! Not a happy thought.)

INTERESTING SIGHTS
I thought this tree was interesting. I see so many trees being cut down around town. Hope this one gets to stay.

The saga about the alternative "taxi" methods here continues. I snapped this photo of two GrabBike drivers. These are scooter taxis which you can book online. It's the same as Go-Jek scooter taxis. Some of these companies even provide a helmet to the passenger. We don't use the taxi scooters.

An interesting palm in front of our building.

On a recent day in May the morning started out with a super hazy sky.