April 23rd: Indonesia Visa Extension
Day 192
Today I arrived promptly at immigration, visited the customer service desk, filled out my form, and took a ticket to have my form reviewed. I also managed to dress more like the princess and less like a go-go dancer, obeying the official dress code for visiting the immigration office.
Official dress code for Indonesia Immigration Office: princess OK, Rihanna not OK
An officer checked my form, took my passport and gave me a receipt to return and pay 3 business days later. I misunderstood and tried to pay then and the officer at the payment counter told me to get a ticket. I got my ticket, waited 15 minutes, and was then told I had to return to pay on the 28th. I have no idea why you have to pay later. Maybe it’s a ruse to get you to opt for the more expensive expedited service.
While I filled out my form, I witnessed a man from Spain being rejected because he waited to the last day to renew his visa. They require that you renew your visa at least 7 days before your expiration date. The immigration officer politely told him, I’m sorry you have to leave. He was stunned and asked, the office? No, the country, she replied. Indonesia is quite strict on this and will fine you 200,000 IDR, or 17 USD per day for overstaying your visa and bar you from re-entering the country. We would leave at our leisure which will which gave me time to finish my repairs on the trikes.
There was a reason I was making my 3rd trip in heavy traffic to an overpriced bike shop. In the past 6 months, I’ve had to replace Cher’s completely corroded cable twice, while I still have my original cables even though I regularly rode in the rain before we set off. I am using bar end shifters and Cher is using twist grips. I’ve come to the conclusion that Twist grip shifters when mounted vertically funnel water into the cable housing and dirt into the shifter. Tired of oiling, adjusting and cleaning them, I’ve been searching for another set of bar end shifters, and today I finally found a set at a well stocked shop in Kuta called Build a Bike. Without hesitation I bought them and only realized I paid about 1/3 more than they are worth when I returned to the hotel and did my research online. Then after setting them up I realized that Cher’s rear derailleur, an S-Ram X-7, has a 1:1 ratio meaning if I move the shifter 1 cm than the derailleur moves 1 cm. In short the new bar end shifter was not compatible with the old derailleur.
Balloon tire snow bike at Build a Bike
I spent all day testing whether it was the component or my mechanical ability. First testing her shifters on my trike then mine on hers. I spent 5 hours hunched over our trikes today and decided I would finish tomorrow.