Singapore

Now Oliver has a passport I decided to try and take him out of the country the first time by going to Singapore for a few days. Indonesian immigration officials, I have found are scary at the best of times. Having lived in this country for eight years and travelled a lot I have many stories to tell about the men who man the counters at airports in Indonesia, who never smile and just look plain scary even before you timidly hand them your passport. So I was expecting major problems being a single white male trying to take an Indonesian child out of the country without his mother. To make sure I had no hassles I arranged with TTC who handle immigration meet and greets for the company I work for. (I have no idea what TTC stands for). They are supposed to take you through immigration and make the whole process smooth.
We were taken through immigration by Adam from TTC, but he didn’t seem to have much idea of what to do really. We were sent back to fill in a white departure card for Oliver after one of the immigration guys asked a question about Oliver’s mother which I didn’t quite catch. I quaked nervously from head to toe and tried to look like I wasn’t going to fall to pieces on the spot. We presented our passports again this time with the departure cards filled in. Ironically I was armed to the teeth with paper work just in case they started asking questions but they didn’t ask to see anything. The heavy thump of the stamp hit Oliver’s passport and I tried not to burst into tears right in front of them. We were through – no questions asked. In the departure lounge I called mum and started blubbering. Poor Oliver was mortified but excited. He really has no idea of what a long journey it has been just to be able to take him out of Indonesia. So we spent three ridiculously expensive nights in Singapore. There was some conference on there and most major hotels were either booked out or charging obscene rates. I ended up paying $500 Singapore dollars a night for the room. Oliver liked Singapore. He has a shopping gene like me! We did a city tour and went on the cable car to Sentosa. Three nights and two whole days wasn’t quite long enough though as we didn’t get to the science place or some other things I would have liked him to see. Next time. On to Jakarta to face the Australians and attempt to procure a visa to get him into Australia. Somehow I don’t think this one will be any picnic!