It's been 6 months since we were last in Indonesia and what a welcome back we've had! Clearing in was a breeze when compared to last time. The locals have been so friendly and welcoming that we're really glad we made the effort to come back. It is a change to again have people so interested in you, in Malaysia and Thailand the locals are fairly stand offish unless you speak to them first. Here people yell across the street to you and wave, stop to have a chat with you or give you a friendly pat on the arm and a smile as they pass by on the street. Even as we neared Pulau Wei fisherman were nearly falling over themselves to wave at us! We had a good feeling about the place already and that can't be said of a lot of harbours we've had to enter in the past.

We informed the Harbour Master of our arrival via VHF when we had anchored in the harbour and it wasn't long before he rounded up all the officials and called us from the shore to go and pick them up. In the first wave of guests we had 3 officials from Quarantine and 2 from the Harbour Masters office, the paperwork had begun! Quarantine did a quick inspection of the boat and checked our medical kit but the ladies from quarantine seemed more interested in seeing where we slept. Once they had viewed our bedroom they happily left the boat with our Green Health books which we were issued with last time we entered Indonesia. The next wave was Customs and Immigration, more paperwork, an inspection by Customs, handing over our passports to the Immigration official and they too were gone. Surely it couldn't be that easy? But it was! We were soon heading into shore to organise phones, internet and to purchase some fresh produce.

We now have a new phone number for Indonesia +62 081 362 673 600, internet was a little harder to sort out and though we think we have now it is very slow and we will not have access everywhere. For those of you sending emails could you please refrain from sending attachments, we love getting photos but we just won't be able to download them!

Along with Ian and Michelle from Raku, we decided to take advantage of being able to eat out in some restaurants while we were here as most of the places we will be visiting are fairly isolated. We sampled Aceh Noodles for lunch which is a peppery take on the traditional Mie Goreng (Fried Noodles), that night we entered a restaurant asking to see a menu but the owner refused to tell us what they served, we decided to try our luck though and we ended up with some very tasty omelettes which cost us about 50 cents each not yet full we moved on to another restaurant where we were served some rather dubious duck but luckily we all woke up ok.

After a good night's sleep we tackled the vegetable markets where again we were welcomed by everyone that we came across. It was one of the best markets we have been to in Indonesia, all of the produce was nice and fresh although some seemed to be a little too fresh... While we were completing a transaction with a local man for a cabbage I heard a squawk behind me, on turning I realised that they were killing chickens and quickly cutting them up for sale while other chickens trussed up on the ground awaited their fate. Loaded up with our vegies we returned to the boat, up-anchored and said goodbye to Sabang, we'll be back here again in 6 months.