Exotic Port

“Just because you made a good plan, that doesn’t mean that’s what’s going to happen.” Taylor Swift

Insignia’s original plan for southeast Asia included China and Myanmar. Both of these ports got cancelled due to political and safety concerns, so the intrepid folks from Oceania had to scramble to come up with Plans, B, C, and D. All of which led us to Sabang Indonesia on May 11 (Day 118).

Sabang, Indonesia is a port rarely visited by cruise ships. From Wikipedia: Sabang is the Indonesia’s northernmost administrative region, directly borders with neighboring countries like Malaysia, Thailand, and India. It is surrounded by Malacca Strait in its north and east and the Indian Ocean in its south and west.

The most memorable part of our visit for me took place while eating breakfast in the Terrace Cafe on Deck 9. We were docking in Sabang as I ate. When I can, I enjoy watching the docking. No one has given me an explanation, but I’ve learned quite a bit about process through observing docking in many different ports.

For docking, the gangway is pulled out by crew. Next, officers (usually two) dressed in their spiffy white uniforms with gold stripes on their shoulders go down the gangway. The officers shake hands with a local official of some sort. While there are differences in how this happens from port to port, the officers and local officials do eventually figure out what has to happen to “clear the ship.”* I’m sure the aim is that most of this is arranged ahead of time because time is always of the essence to get passengers disembarked for their tours.

On that morning in Sabang, I looked down expecting to see some version of the usual process. Instead, it turned out the officers who went down the gangplank that morning were part of a ceremony that seemed to come out of the past.

The two officers were greeted by many local officials, including several dressed in elaborate costumes. All involved shook hands repeatedly. Then for about fifteen minutes, they were directed to have their picture taken with group after group of local individuals.

After that, the two officers were directed to sit under the canopy for a ceremony. You can see the two officers in the middle, along with the other welcoming officials. All this time, these two officers were the only two from the ship who had gone onshore.

You may be able to notice that that one of the officers is trying to shield his eyes. The canopy was positioned so that everyone had to look into the sun. And, it was hot, even though early in the day. The officers stoically sat through all of this.

The ceremony seemed to involve these young female dancers in a number of ceremonial dances. There may have been other parts I couldn’t spot from my perch. I could only imagine the officers down there, trying to be positive and go through the formalities, thinking of all the people on the ship waiting for the clearance that only seemed able to come once the ceremony was done.

After the dancing, more pictures were taken. Finally the officers came back into the ship. A while after that, the ship was cleared. This whole scene reminded me of episodes in the Master and Commander series of books from the early 1800s, where the captain had a similar process with various sultans and viziers in this part of the world.

Sebang itself was a very basic place that was not used to hosting cruise passengers (or many tourists). I tried asking when the last cruise ship had been there and got answers that ranged from many years to 11 months to 3 months. Language was challenging. The people were friendly and I felt we were strange to them. This was one of the few places where our guide wanted his picture (and his sister’s picture) taken with me. When I agreed, he seemed very pleased. Our visit was something of an event.

Our guides worked very hard to do everything they knew how to do to make our experience successful and deserved some empathy from us. I took a walking tour that was one of the more challenging excursions on the trip so far.

It was extremely hot and there was not a lot to see. We had a guide who was not very experienced in managing a group of visitors. Without going into details, I’ll just say that a guest who wanted to walk quickly and some who felt the pace was way too quick all started yelling at the guide, telling him to do different things. My fellow passengers were certainly not civil.

Here is one picture from our walking tour:

Several of us on the tour tried to soothe the feelings of the guide, and when the guide offered an air conditioned ride to our refreshment spot, I took him up on it.

At the open air restaurant, the tour had put out a whole buffet of food, none of which I ate due to potential food concerns, but the green coconut water was refreshing. After a respite with some breeze, the guide sent several of us back to the ship in an air conditioned car. By then, the fast walkers and slow walkers had mostly dispersed on their own. I gave the guide a good tip. What else to do?

*Clearing the ship: I couldn’t find an easy reference on clearing the ship from the officer’s point of view. My observation of it, however, is that clearing the ship involves making sure the immigration and customs officials have given permission for guests and crew to depart from the ship onto land. I think it also involves them agreeing to what processes need to be in place for the particular port. This could include documents needed, inspections to be performed by immigration or customs officials or ship’s officials. The idea is that most of this is arranged ahead of time and when all goes smoothly, passengers and crew can disembark within thirty minutes.