John and I had to g
o straight to Bali and then onto Singapore after the conference to renew my visa. I had initially had a social visa which was valid for 60 days and then renewable 4 times for a further 30 days. Each time I get a stamp that takes up half a page in my passport – so as you can imagine the passport fills up rapidly – 7 pages before this trip. The visa then has to be renewed and this can only happen outside Indonesia – hence a trip to Singapore. We were lucky in that the hospital have sponsored us so we are getting VITAS visa which allows us to stay for 12 months once we have registered with immigration in Indonesia and had this converted to a KITAS visa. This had however been quite a painful process for all involved as this was only the second time VSO had handled such a visa application and the requirements for the supporting documentation was very stringent. Documents had been passing back and forth between Baa, Kupand and our agent in Jakarta all the previous week – there was always something missing; hospital logo, regional logo, directors signature not covering a special stamp, that stamp not present, the hospital stamp missing etc. The stay in Singapore should have only been
24 hours but during the previous week in Kupang my leg wound had opened again so VSO arranged an appointment for me at Mount Elizabeth Hospital (one of the best hospitals in Asia) whilst I was in Singapore. It was decided I had a pocket of pus left that needed surgery to clean it out so my stay was extended. As an inpatient I caused my usual level of ‘trouble’ in my quest for high quality care. I also struggled with being in such a Western city - the fact that you have to wait for the lights to change to cross the road and that cars stop for you at zebra crossings, big modern shopping malls with everything you wanted and so much you could not ever imagine needing.
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