The Bribe!

We have been waiting for our belongings to arrive for almost 5 weeks now. We didnt mind the wait at first because we still didnt have a house.
We found out last week it had arrived and customs were just going through the process of clearing it all - yipee!
Yesterday we received an email from the shipping company handling it on the Indonesian side that they have ceased our shipment because they have discovered some illegal contents.

They sent us a list saying that they had found pornagraphic magazines and DVD's and alcohol.

The packing company here in Jakarta advised us that we would have to go to customs and sort it out ourselves - yeah right mate!

We asked a rep from Mike's company if he could intervene and help us out and to also get more info or pictures of what exactly they were describing as porn!

The photos were emailed to us and as we suspected it was all a fast!

Legally Blonde 2 was our pornographic dvd!
White Wine Vinegar was part of our alcohol! (There was a bottle of contreau in there as well)
Mike's fitness magazine was our pornographic magazine!
(I guess a guy showing his abs is like soft porn)

Of course they told Mike's colleague that they would release everything if we paid 7 million Rupiah which is almost the equivalent of USD$700!

Thank goodness we have managed to get it down considerably....

Lets just say the lesson has been learnt..... my advice in these matters would be the following:

Never deal with customs on your own unless you want to pay a huge bribe! (we used an indonesian colleague)
Always use a big well known moving company! (The smaller ones have no leverage in customs)
Never pack magazines showing a shirtless man on the front!

Well it all arrives on Friday after all the transactions have been made - Finally!!