26 and 27/10/09

I sat in my hotel room most of the weekend, just watching the news over and over again. The shipping agent phoned me first thing Monday morning and asked me to go into his office again, a tuk tuk ride later, i was there.

He explained that i owed him 50 quid for his services, i don't know what he did but i paid it anyway. More people came into the office to make even more phone calls and lots of handshakes later i was whisked off to the container mans office. The container man explained to me that i owed him 91 quid, i don't know what for but i paid it. When i was paying the container man, he asked me who my 'agent' / 'fixer' was. Without an agent/fixer i wouldn't be able to get access to the port as they have some kind of 'special' licence. As there seemd to be about 1bn people all after my money, i decided that i would try and get the clearing done myself. The container man would have none of it and phoned a clearing agent up, as if by magic he was there in a flash. He quoted me 91 quid, what about that then?

So, i was once again whisked off to another office, this time it was the clearing agents office. His office was quite small and scruffy looking. There were 3 other guys there, all participated in sorting out my paperwork. One of them was giving orders and stapling stuff together, one was running backwards and forwards to the nearest photocopying fella out on the street, one was fetching teas and coffees while the other guy was doing his magic on the computer. I thought the worst when a machine made an appearance from one of the shelves. It turned out to be a 1970's typewriter, which they used to knock up some kind of dodgy looking letter.

So, once again once again i was whisked off to another building, this time it was the customs building. I was there for about 2 hours while the clearing agent and his mate went to various offices to wave their magic wand. I noticed quite a few people staring at me, i asked one guy why he was staring. "Is it because i am white?" i asked, he said "Yes", and explained that not many white people come to the customs house.

So here we are. Tomorrow, Wednesday, i have to be at the clearing agents office, where we will meet the customs man, who will then take us to whatever is left of my bike so it can be cleared for removal from the port. Looking at what the clearing agent did, i don't think i would have been able to do the same. So for 91 quid i think i have saved myself a massive headache.

I must admit i am a bit apprehensive about picking my bike up, i really do think that it will have suffered some kind of damage, but we'll see.