I'm writing this with the sounds of the Indian Ocean and the Straights of Malacca in my ears, at a wonderful spot called Freddie's on the east coast of the island of Sabang, an hour by fast ferry offshore in Banda Aceh province of the island of Sumatra in the nation of Indonesia. Whew!
I cannot believe we are here. I have been raised all my traveling life to be more than a little leary of Banda Aceh, due to its high visibility in the past as a pretty militant islamic hot spot,. Even now, the older conservatives are trying to legislate that women can't ride motorcycles unless they are sidesaddle. But, try telling this to the millions of young women who ride daily! somehow I don't think this law is going anywhere.
Anyway, whether the place has changed or what, Craig and I don't feel weird here, we love it. We just got back from a wonderful walk on down the road from Freddys, along a small paved country road, lined with small bungalows and barnyards full of goats, ducks , chickens and cats. We have been entertained by the passing friendly folks all on motorcycles, by groups of playful kids crying out "hallo!" and keeping us company and pleasant ladies in their head kerchiefs offering us water to wash our hands, and people generally smiling at us and making us feel welcome.
Since there just are not a lot of tourists here, we are pretty easy to spot as being Freddie's guests. Today we rode the 4K into town in a sidecar of a motorbike, a cheaper taxi that's called a "becak" pronounced bechock, driven by a nice man named Rossli,or something like that anyway, to go walk around the port town of Sabang, which is full of fading glory. it was a trading port that became a dutch refueling port for steamers then became a Japanese held island in WWII, full of bunkers, and then was doing pretty well touristically in the years before the great tsunami and the Great Recession, and now is slowly rebuilding its tourist trade. has some awesome scenery, a volcanic island that is probably similar in size to Molokai, but horseshoe shaped with lush green volcanic islets in the middle, with hot springs and snorkeling and wrecks to dive and all kinds of great things. Craig and I have no idea what the main diving touristic towns look like, they are on two stretches of beach inside the horseshoe, because all we have known is the little town on the south where the 'fast ferry' lands, the bigger town on the north wher e the car ferry comes, and Freddy's, which is in a backwater somewhere in between these. Anyway while we were in town, Rossli came swinging by a few times to see if we were ready to go back, and sure enough when we finally went to look for a becak to take us home, Rossli was there.
So far, the only towns we've seen on this island have had a lot of old bungalows and market buildings, no high risey types at all, and out in the country, it sort of reminds us of a more populated version of the Red Road area of the Big Island. lots of lovely palms, a few pandanus trees, crown flowers, a few beaches, lots of breakers against volcanic cliffs. The hotel we are in, is a series of bungalow like buildings cascading down a 40 foot cliff. Each building is like the local buildings here used to mostly be: the buildings sit up on piers, they are made of strong tropical hardwood that is smooth under bare feet, the walls are made of woven reeds, the walls end about six inches below the slanted ceilings to let the ocean breezes come in and out, and there are windows looking out onto verandas and out along and over the water and along the cliffs which are covered in green tropical whatever. I'm sure it would be noisy except for the regular boom of the breakers and the water on the sand. Apparently at times it is calmer out there and there is a gloriously beautiful reef, but it has been just a little windier the last few days so the water looks beautiful but not crystalline. it's nice and warm and the beach is made of coral sand with lots of chunks of coral in it, and a few big volcanic rocks sticking up here and there. really nice.
Freddy's probably has about ten such rooms, maybe there are 14; and then there are multiple layers of decks and eating areas, mostly open to the breeze, a few enclosed, it was originally his home, he's a fairly recent immigrant we think, an older man from South African, who has had a really nice sense of what would make people comfortable in this little island paradise without having things they do not need here, like TV or hot water.
The inner core of the island is always calm apparently, and good diving, so we look forward to seeing that tomorrow. Today was a giant catch up day for us, after the total journey of 42 hours it took to get us here (all of that was pretty wonderful however, and our other blog posts that will be posted, are about that). So mostly we stayed close to home, checking out the local town and hanging out around home. in the afternoon, I got a nice massage. We are eating all our breakfasts and dinners in at this hotel, because they turn out to be amazingly mouthwateringly good, a great blend of Indonesian flavors, lots of fresh vegetables in them, and lots of fresh fish locally caught, awesome. also the coffee is just amazing, and they do serve Bintang beer here, and Australian wines.
About the title of this blog: yesterday we got here after a wild ferry ride in a boat that was constantly drenched in foam because it kept crashing through the large waves whipped up by the wind. I didn't tell Craig that the window I was next to was leaking, because i didn't want to alarm him, and he didn't tell me that our floor was covered in water, because he didn't want to alarm me. Meanwhile, although he and I were both avoiding seasickness by looking off at the horizon, this was not true of most of our fellow passengers, a mix of about 10% Banda Aceh locals, 80% tourists from Malaysia and Indonesia, and 10% haoles like us (from Germany and Australia mostly, no Americans that we are aware of .
Once we got here we were so overjoyed to finally be somewhere that we could rest for a few days, we just wandered up and down the narrow beach with our toes in the warm waves and looked at the place. out in the water, I was so thrilled, because I was seeing a seal out there, bobbing in the waves! beautiful seal head. Maybe half an hour later, after seeing a blonde one, I realized I was wrong: were these coconuts? only today do I realize... they are coconuts but being used as buoys! to hold your small high prowed fishing boat or to put out a line of rope to help people get out to the reef.
Prices: I always like to share with folks what it's all about. So for our generously sized cabin with lots of local charm and ocean views, a nice king bed soft sheets and sizeable bathroom with cool not hot water (no one needs hot water here! not a sacrifice to go without it) and veranda complete with rattan chairs and hammock, it's about $25 USD a night. the incredible seven course partly self serve "buffet" meal is about $6.50 USD a person, and the breakfast which is loaded with local pastries and dim sum, about $2.50. a taxi ride from the port is about $2.50 for twenty minutes. Having a nice lady come up to my room to do a thai style massage for about an hour and a half, was about $8.50 USD plus tip. Diving for two dives is about $45 but we haven't done this yet, we might just snorkel. The high speed ferry was about $6.50 each person each way, and that was for the air con deluxe version, you could come over on the slow car ferry and not get sick, for less I'm sure. Airfare from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur bought on the spot from Air Asia was about $70 for an hour flight and from Kuala Lumpur to Banda Aceh airport, probably about the same, maybe only $55, not sure because in buying our air tickets in Singapore, buying 3 sets of tickets, we bought one set in Singapore dollars, because it started in Singapore, one set in Malay Ringits, because it started in Kuala Lumpur the capital of Malaysia, and the last one in Indonesian Rupia currently 1,000 to the dollar. Phew so confusing!
Geography: Sumatra and Malaysia somewhat parallel each other. Malaysia is a very long peninsula suspended from Thailand, and the lower tip of it is the separate country of Singapore, which is sort of like the population of the San Francisco Bay Area put entirely on the Peninsula in fancy high rises.
Sumatra, which is part of Indonesia, IS an island, but it's the fourth largest island in the world, after Greenland, Borneo and Papua New Guinea we think. it's an island as long as California or maybe as long as the entire west coast, and about 100 miles across i guess.. It's got some very high mountains, so does Malaysia, so rugged and isolating that many languages are still spoken, there are still a number of tiny ethnic groups. Tomorrow night we'll leave Sabang/Pulau Weh Island, spend the night in Banda Aceh and in the morning fly down the coast an hour to Medan, then drive four hours up, up into the high mountains of Sumatra, where an enormous crater lake, containing Lake Toba, is apparently the most scenic area of Sumatra. Since Sumatra has already captivated us with its beauty and good food and relative affordability and kindness, we are really looking forward to a place that's supposed to be MORE beautiful.
In one of the blogs we've written and not yet published, I have written a little about what it's like to be with these great muslim women. Yeah, I feel badly for them that they have to wear these head coverings and submit to the men in their lives. But they seem all in all an intelligent kindly bunch with ready smiles and very helpful, No feeling of oppression or depression. More on that later.
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