"Where are you from?" "How old are you?" "Do you have children?" A crowd gathers around Rachel, continually asking questions as she watches the gear in the dark.

The gear and bikes are shuttled off the boat the same as onto the boat. The original plan was to take Patrick's gear and bike first, Rachel would go back to get her gear, then Patrick would go for the bike. The crowds were too great for Rachel; the crowd oppressive and she felt dizzy. So, she watched the gear as Patrick made trips back and forth. The bike is leaning up against the stairs, which kept rolling back and forth, a guard pointed to the bike, and Rachel had to hold the bike away from the stairs, keeping track of all the gear. For a moment Rachel became really hot and sweaty...that passed once our bikes were loaded and we started walking away from the pier and the crowd.

The day on the boat was much like yesterday. Since we left late from Jakarta, our arrival into Padang will not be at noon...first we hear arrival will be 7pm then 9pm. Either way we prepare to ride the 6-10km into town in the dark. It's about 10pm.

Patrick asks "Kota?" (city) pointing to the road where most of the traffic is headed and we set out with our headlamps on. We come to a Y junction, Patrick again asks "Kota?" and we are told the road to the left across the railroad tracks, just as the lights start flashing and the guard rails come down. The train is short and passes quickly. We are off again. Motorcyclists go slowly past and talk with Patrick.

We stop at an intersection to look at the map and try to orient ourselves. One kid on a motorcycle stops to help and says, "Hotel Immanuel?" Patrick says "yes" even though we plan to stay at the Hotel across the street from that one. The kid escorts us into the city, it starts to gently rain, people at the sides of the road say "Hallo, where are you going?" We take right and left turns, down long streets, past fancy hotels following the motorcycle. We start to wonder if he really knows where the hotel is when we see the sign for Hotel Hayam Wuruck where we planned on staying.

We say goodbye to our escort and Patrick goes in to check out the hotel. Patrick also checks out Hotel Immanuel and comes back not impressed so we stay here. We shuttle (or really, it's Patrick not we, that carries) the gear up while Rachel watches the remaining gear. It continues to rain; we decide to go for a swim and finally turn in for the night about midnight.