Day 2: Traveling

On day 2, we got up, packed our bags, and walked down the street to have some breakfast. My girls ate Subway sandwiches, chips, and pop for breakfast while I headed to the nearest coffee shop for the largest cup of caffeine I could find, a bagel, and cream cheese.

We returned to our rooms, picked up our bags, and boarded (yet another) bus to head down to the harbor front. We then carted our bags through the ferry terminal (where we got many angry stares for being a large group in our bright red t-shirts and not a 50 year old wealthy tourist ready to board a huge cruise ship) and through Vivo City mall to the movie theater where we would be attending a youth service.

We were honored guests at the church service where they all laid hands on us and prayed for our safe travels throughout the week, but then we had to rush out of the service in order to make it to the ferry terminal in time to buy tickets, check bags, and board the ferry. We had a few minutes to grab food (McDonalds unfortunately was the closest and fastest food we could find!) and then we were off.

Our team leader and the pastor

We all made it on the boat just in time, and we only had one student lose his boarding pass! We did have a group of girls who didn't have their immigration cards from arrival in Singapore when they reached the immigration counter for Indonesia, but it turned out their group leader had them, so everything worked out in the end. By the time we sat down on that ferry to eat our (cold) lunch, we were ready to sit and relax for 45 minutes!

Vivo City mall

Our ferry ride was much too short for most of us, but for one of our students, even 45 minutes was too long. She ended up getting really seasick and being dehydrated already. She was not excited about the fact that we still had to get on small boats and ride for another 2 hours!

We managed to get through some pretty disgusting bathrooms, and then haul our suitcases through the market at the ferry terminal in Sekupang (where we got called some interesting names such as "princess" and "Cinderella"), and then we made it down to the dock where we boarded the small wooden boats to take from the island of Batam to Sugi, the island where Telunas Resort is located.

the boys headed out first

The boat ride was cool, refreshing, and beautiful! Our one seasick student was able to drink some water, take some Dramamine, and take a nap on the boat, so she was feeling better once we arrived.

our first glimpse of Telunas

Upon arrival at Telunas, they brought out cool washcloths for us to wash the salt water off our faces and greeted us with an orange and pineapple drink that tasted amazing! We basically arrived in time to get settled into our rooms, change our clothes, and get washed up before dinner. We were exhausted and so happy to finally be at Telunas!