A day of travel with almost 1000 kilometers on water and land is behind me. Because I couldn't get any further from the Indonesian island of Batam yesterday, I was only able to start my onward journey to the main island of Sumatra today. Yesterday evening I made an appointment with the taxi driver who drove me to my accommodation yesterday, that he would pick me up at the hotel after morning prayer and take me to the ferry terminal. I think it's a bit early, but a quarter of an hour doesn't matter. At 20 to 5 the muezzin calls to prayer and wakes me up. At half past five my alarm clock does the same thing again. At six o'clock I get in the car to the port.
I couldn't really enjoy the little bit of luxury, namely a wider bed in my capsule hotel. Because at half past one in the night a ruthless horde of South American women came up, who rumbled and yelled as if the bedroom belonged to them. I was really through with this capsule hotel. In Japan I found them so pleasant, but there were also Japanese people who are much more considerate. With the noisy, thoughtless ways of us westerners, staying in a capsule hotel feels more like a storage barracks. Garbage flies everywhere.
Today I have to move in my capsule hotel. From one honeycomb to the other, because a booking in the same "room" was not possible for my stay extension. Now I even have a queen-size bed and a bit more space. But I want to get out of here as soon as possible. Today and overall. These capsule hotels are convenient and tailored to your needs for two or three night stays. But it's been a week for me now and I'm clawing my hooves to finally get back on the road.
Today is the most important traditional Chinese holiday: the New Year's Festival. This means four days of public holiday in Singapore and most shops and restaurants are closed. That's why my plan was to travel on to Indonesia today. But just in time yesterday I remembered that that would have been a stupid mistake. Because I want to fly back home from Jakarta on February 21st. But I can only stay in Indonesia for 30 days with a tourist visa. So if I enter Indonesia on January 22, it doesn't exactly fit. Now I could have rebooked the flight and fly home a few days earlier. Or I'll just stay two more days (one to be safe) in Singapore.
Yesterday evening on the way home from the concert I finally got clarity on how my Southeast Asia trip will continue and where it will end as planned. I'm glad it all sorted itself out in my head, otherwise I would have had to will the decision. Because there is a decision compulsion in the near future that I cannot avoid: The visa for Indonesia. I want to enter there on a basic tourist visa. This is only valid for 30 days. Actually, I wanted to take the ferry to the Indonesian island of Batam tomorrow. Now that won't happen until February 24th. Now if I move to Indonesia then the only sensible International Airport is Jakarta. On February 21, I'll leave there, I've decided. I even booked the flight with Emirates. It costs a little over 500 euros. That is cheap. I flew from Frankfurt am Main to Bangkok in December for 800 euros.