"You made me soil my armour"

Silk Air flight to Manado was un eventful, though it was a pretty old, steam driven, Airbus.    Imagine, if you can, no personal video screen on the seat,  nor DVT socks.  Plane not very full so all of us managed to stretch out on three seats.  Having been going for 30 or so hours the rest was grand for an hour or so.   The approach to Manado was quite wobbly, and the runway(post touchdown) was pretty bumpy too.   Any landing you walk away from is a good one. There was a queue (counting us) of one plane at the airport, so the milling crowd was a major issue.   

Not that we were doing anything unlawful, or sneaky but due to prior experiences of Sandie and Lisa, we had been expecting legitimate  close attention from Customs  because  of all the medical supplies we were carrying.   Andrew even ' fessed up to his narcotic'medication.   

Now in the context of Monty Python (The holy grail) we had all figuratively 'soiled our armour' expecting the legitimate Customs enquiries, demands for Duty...   

Well 'someone' was looking after us.  It was described by Sandie  to the effect that 'it was like we were invisible'.  The Immigration  and  Customs, were relatively quick, friendly and not the impact we had been anticipating.

Outside the airport was pretty typical of many Asian airports, the apparent mayhem, noise, and smells. After Melbourne heat, the humid 27 deg over cast day was blissful.

We were met by Epen, who is the Manado representative of the Hohidia settlement.  He finessed the obtaining of taxis for us, and negotiated the ~$15 fare for a Melbourne $100 distance.

The monsoon floods of the last few days are well evidenced, on the drive from the airport, with debris high up in trees, mud lines several metres up walls, and for several kms a brown slimy mud covering everything.  Absolutely treacherous for the motor cyclists, two of whom we saw slip over. Whilst it is interesting for us to witness, it must be heartbreaking for the locals, who have 13 dead and many missing, and obviously many of the houses we saw won't  be habitable for many weeks. The town is big enough for our presence not to put any adverse effect on their recovery.  

Slick slimy mud...everywhere.

Epen, a local man, having lived in Melbourne for a time has excellent English, patience is better.

He would have spent nearly an hour trying to sort out our mobile phone SIM cards.  He will be our guide and educator tomorrow, so we are looking forward to it.

We have rooms at the Aryaduta hotel, which is (to our travel standards) pretty posh, hot and cold water sheets, lifts, a restaurant, and 24 hour reception, and a no cockroach policy. Must be getting soft!    

Yes it is a maccas! Just beside the KFC

We are on the 8 th floor (7th really because they don't have a floor 1), with pretty good views, of the harbour, and ferry terminal.

James, this is a test to see if you have read this far....if so can you copy and send to your PGF.

Very big day, so goodnight