Chaos at the harbor

We reached the harbor slightly before 9 am. The boat was supposed to leave around 9 am. We were allowed to go inside the harbor after inspection of our tickets. Inside, its a small place where people sit and wait for their boats to go. It was quite hot and there was no shade except a small tent in one corner. Everybody tried to get into that shaded corner. It was packed there. Despite the tent, the heat of the sun passed through its thin white sheet easily and everyone was sweating. That aside, there was total chaos regarding the boats. The tickets didn't have any boat name or timings. People were walking around the small platform trying to find their boats and timings. There were boat operators shouting out names of their passengers. Most travelers being foreigners, the name calling too was not effective; people being called didn't realize it was their name being called. Some of the older people almost fainted due to the heat. It was a perfect example of mismanagement and it was hard to believe they do this every day. On top of all that, this wasn't even peak season. We too tried to squeeze in below the shade and waited for our names to be called. From 9, it went on to 9:30. Still no one called. We went over to the kiosk where we had booked our tickets. Their backside luckily opened into the port and we were able to get to them. We were told our boat would depart in 5 min. We were not happy about it since we had agreed on an early departure and a speed boat to take us there so we get enough time at the island since we were interested in snorkeling there. From 9:30 am, it went on to 9:50 am when our names got called and we sat in a boat. By now, almost 80% of the people that had been waiting had already left. We sat in the boat thankful we were leaving. The boat didn't look like a speed boat but we were happy just leaving the harbor. As it turned, the boat was a speed boat and had a fantastic pickup and top speed. Soon we passed the Monument of the Virgin and entered the open sea.Read more