Although the bike was gone, we could not wholly pop our legs up and relax quite yet. Nina (smartly) wanted some other things wrapped up before the weekend. But not after the most important task of the day, of course: prepare good food!

Earlier this week I promised the house a nice German green bean salad. The ingredients were in the fridge since yesterday, so I felt like getting the prep done before anything else today. The longer it can rest, the better!

Nina used the time to organize us some flights to Dili in East Timor. The cheapest ones are for the 12th. Since the bike is due to arrive on the 15th (I believe it when I see it), that gives us ample time to get our bearings before hand.

After that was out of the way, we could kindly borrow Celia and Tig’s car to get to town. The staff at the Indonesian Consulate was super nice and friendly and we got everything lined up in no time. Normally one requires return tickets for the visa, but our carnet and a written guarantee to leave the country again (plus show of sufficient funds) got us over that bump without issue.

On the way back we picked up a paper map of East Timor. A blue mood crept over us when we looked at our remaining funds back in the embassy, so we were not up for any sightseeing today (stay tuned on that, the correct term should be “suspiciously low funds”).

Before calling it a day, we followed Celia’s recommendation and had a brief excursion down to the beach through the mangrove that starts right next to the house. It was pretty cool to see the abundance of life in the salty muddy wetland. With every step we took, birds crabs and mud skippers hurried away from underfoot, until we broke out of the grove and onto the tidal beach propper.

The salad was a hit (*sigh of relief*) – Tig had to leave early for the night shift, but the rest of us current inhabitants made the best of it and emptied the odd bottle in his stead.