[East/Central Indonesia] Day 05 / 31st May 2006 - Recharging and House visits

You can consider today as a rest day for all of us.

After a restless night, we were up at 1000hrs. It was unusually quiet, with just the three of us, as well as Sali, father of Nanga (I think), as well as Si'a. Nanga was not around as well - the past few mornings, we had been awakened by her playing the same pre-configured tune form the keyboard repeatedly. We found out that the men had worked till 3am the night before just to get the parabola working. The original plan was for the technician and his family to stay over for the night and start work today, especially since given the arduous expedition the day before - however, it seemed that they were not quite prepared to stay so long on the island, perhaps after seeing the surroundings (this is just hypothetical - no basis established). In the end, they managed to finish it late into the night and had left for mainland early in the morning. MD was commenting that the pork that we had during last night's dinner, as well as the kueh lapis that we just had for breakfast were probably for the family more than for us...

More talk after the breakfast, and MD was talking about his experiences going around doing fieldwork in the various Austronesian places. There was this particular island where it was literally swampy everywhere, like an atoll - the place would just flood when high tide comes in. The most scary thing was that, according to him, one would not be able to walk around in the day time and open the mouth - there was the danger of mosquitoes just flying into the mouth any moment! The island was just so full of mosquitoes that people had to cover themselves up every single moment - he lasted 3 Days 2 nights there before quickly packing up and leaving.

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As noon approached, MD began work again. Naga and I were tasked to double-check on the aspirations on certain words in the word list that he had came up with prior to the trip - our informant was Sali, with Edo occasionally helping out. We started with those words beginning with "p" - turned out that alot are with aspirations. We almost completed "b"-initial words - not much aspiration there. The phonology, as it turned out, looks very interesting...

Before we knew it, it was time for lunch. We had already been accustomed to the house pets - the family dogs and this cat - hovering around us whenever we had dinner in the living room, waiting for any piece of bone or meat that we would drop or throw onto the floor. Occasionally, a scuffle would break out between any two dogs over who should get the bone/meat. Even with the door closed, the animals would still manage to find their way in! But what was most unbearable, in my opinion, was the cat - it would appear from the kitchen just before the meal would have started, start its "meows" way before the food was to be served, and continue meow-ing throughout the meal, hoping to gain some sympathy and food for itself. The cat was so particular that it only ate specific food, specifically bones and meat - the dogs were more accomodating, feeding occasionally on non-meat stuff; apparently, they loved the coconut flesh as well, and whenever we couldn't finish the flesh inside the husk, we would leave it to the dogs to lick and scrape them clean. MD commented that this was probably why people eat dogs and not cats - the meats of carnivores generally taste inferior to those of herbivores (think cows, goats - pigs are an exception I think).

After lunch, Naga and I retreated for further rest; however I couldn't sleep - afternoon naps aren't my cup of tea, unless it's cooling and I'm dead-beat tired. I came along and watched MD continue his work...

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He was chatting with a few women who had walked past the house we were staying at; initially there was eliciting and double-checking of lexical entries, but occasionally, the interaction went on to non-academic domains - like how MD had been sitting...



One of the women was remarking how MD was sitting with the pose ala a woman (see above photo), to giggles from the others present, and that made him change his pose - only to be commented later that he now looked like a woman in pregnancy. That made MD stand up to avoid more comedy!

Another instance was how another of the womenfolk commented that I closely resembled her nephew in Surabaya - her sister married an Indonesian Chinese (I think) - just that he was rounder (meaning more plump?) and perhaps darker. From then on, I became the clone of her nephew Daniel, and whenever we would see her for the next few days, MD would just remark about the round Chinese nephew Daniel amongst us, as well as jokingly suggesting that I stay behind with the woman so that she could feed me, thus becoming rounder, and eventually becoming a REAL CLONE for her nephew Daniel!

*One of the many jokes surrounding me during my stay on the island is my roundness - very round meh? Nonetheless, the people seemed to be intrigued by how "round" this orang cina is, and it's one adjective that MD never failed to describe me during the week...*

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Naga woke up a while later, and the womenfolk had went on to do their own stuff. Sia was pounding some winged beans, as well as some chilli to make the deadly sambla. We tried the winged beans (not bad, tasted like, erm, beans? Ok, like green peas), as wel as the sambal, available in both green and red chilli. Once again, it was attested that the sambal could kill.

The three of us were chatting again, this time about academic stuff - Chomsky, and the two branches of linguistics; went on to talk about various staff members, like LE, ER and OG. Can't really remember what we had been talking about, but it sort of revolved around the need for certain sub-branches of linguistics, along the lines of "If you get it, you get it; if you don't, you don't - simple as that."

It was around this time that my stomach started acting weird - I could sense the first signs of sickness coming in. Slight indigestion, then i slowly feel myself getting lethargic, body temperature getting higher. Was it because of inadequate rest? Maybe, but I was struggling to keep upself attentive and alert for the rest of the evening...

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We were invited for a house visit - and I decided against not going, hoping that the walk would do me some good...


It was evening when we made our way to the village square...

As usual, MD made the village stop in its tracks (hehe) - every house we went passed, there would surely be someone emerging from inside the house, or someone who was doing something outside the house, greeting us and asking where we would be going. Once we had reached the village square, we just had to stop because everyone just approached us and went up to him for a chat or two. Only once was the commotion interrupted - by the resident buffalo which was being brought back to its resting place for the evening. A few of the womenfolk were clamouring after MD and his camera; he duly obliged and took a few photos of them. We resumed on our house visit after stopping for 10-15 minutes.


The ever-popular Lise

Our first house visit was at this house - the back of the house was built amongst the branches of these huge trees. We made ourselves comfortable on the bamboo floor as MD started conversing with the women in the house, who had been doing their kitchen chores before we came in. There were some containers made from rattan-like material and used by the folks to store their various dried foodstuff - greenbeans, corn, etc. - and MD was quite intrigued by them, because it was another chance to expand the Palu'e lexicon. I still wasn't feeling that well, but the sight of the sunset cheered up my spirits - we coudn't resist snapping photos:


One of my Fav Photos...

As darkness set in, we were served some simple fare for dinner - some steamed/boiled pumpkins and fish. Remembering MD's advice after that evening where we had several rounds of dinner, I started to pace myself; eating slowly, in anticipation of the possibility of more dinners that might be coming up. I ended up having more pumpkins than fish - I'm not really a fan of fish, and I don't really know how to eat fish as well haha. The cats had come out by now and were frequently trying to get us to feed them. They must had been really hungry, for there was a flying beetle of some sort which happened to come to rest on the floor for a second or two, and in no time, one of the cats pounced on it and began feasting on it while the others could only stare and reflect on the missed opportunity. That was the first time I had witnessed a cat feeding on an insect!

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Next we went to Sali's house - there was no dinner, thankfully. We were just sitting around, sipping on our beverages, and listening to MD chatting with the people in the house. Oh, there was once or twice when Naga tried to take a photo of the crowd who had bathered at the window and door of the house, leading to the crowd ducking under the window or scampering for cover to svoid being captured by the camera.

We were off soon to Edo's house for - surprise, surprise - dinner. We gathered around the same table where dog meat was served previously; I made it a point NOT to occupy the same place as I had done previously, in case dog's meat was on the menu again. And I was lucky. Wasn't sure if the hosts were encourgaged by Naga eating some of the dog meat served previously, but there it was again. In addition, there was another dish with dog as well, and it's definitely not for the faint-hearted - fried noodle with dog's heart! The locals lapped it up with generous servings, but even Naga did not dare try it. At first, I was welcomed by the sight of noodles as an alternate staple to rice and tubers, but then, I quickly changed my mind. Luckily, instant noodles were on the dinner list as well, and the three of us gladly helped ourselves to it, even though MD was commenting on the relatively poor quality of the Indonesian-made instant noodles.

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There was no more surprise when we went back to our place, and there it was, our thrid dinner of the evening waiting for us. I just ate whatever I could, and I had actually been quite amazed at my own appetite, given the physical condition of my body at that time. Perhaps it was due to the exertion yesterday...

After dinner, the TV and the VCD player provided us with the first part of the evening's entertainment. This time, the songs were Christian songs translated into Bahasa Indonesian. I was particularly curious about how Jesus is spelled "Yesus" in the lyrics of the songs, and how it was strikingly similar to the Mandarin pronounciation. MD explained that "Yesus" was due to Dutch influence, but I still couldn't really figure out if there's any reason that the Mandarin pronounciation is so similar to Indonesian.

The second half of the evening was spent entertaining the crowd with the photos that both MD and Pele had taken for the past few days. There was a cable that could link the digital cameras to the TV, and everyone could see the photos on the 29" inch. We had quite a few laughs at some of the photos, like the one where Pele candidly snapped of Florida (one of his girlfriends), as well as Naga's blood-red tongue and my pissed-off/tired face during the volcano trip - which made me slightly embarrassed as I truly was not feeling pissed, and was afraid that there might be some locals who would be offended by my expression. (Ok, maybe I should stop the defence - it seems that the more I defend, the more guilty I would seem. Nah.)

MD wanted to show the videos that he had taken as well, but his video cam had ran out of batteries and needed a charge, and so entertainment ended at that point. The crowd dispersed and I went to take a shower in the dark - even though there wasn't any real sweating for the day, I felt uncomfortable enough go for a quick wash. MD and Naga subsequently retired to bed while I was bathing.

I had wanted to take some Panadol before I sleep, but after the shower, I felt way better and thought that the illness was temporary, and just went to bed after that.

4 more days on Palu'e island - what could be in store for us for the remaining days?........

To be continued...

[East/Central Indonesia] Day 04 / 30th May 2006 - Volcano!

We woke up at around 0900hrs.

Wasn't really accustomed to the bed - it was higher than my own, and the two of us were sharing the bed, with me taking the outside. But I still gotten adequate sleep - in fact I lazed on bed for about half an hour before truely waking up...

By now, I was getting accustomed to the Palu'e diet of tubers and sweet beverages; gonna go easy on sweet drinks when I get back to SG!

Pelé's sister, Nanga, for whom Pelé bought the keyboard, was already in the house - she shown one of the two typical responses that young kids would have when they see strangers.

She literally froze in expression, not acknowledging our attempts to engage her in playful banter.


Hmmm, or does the problem lie with me huh?

However, it was different when Pelé was around; she would just run up to him and throw herself into his arms, and Pelé would show as much indulgence as he could, even when he was evidently tired from a day's exhaustion. Every time I would witness this scene, my heart would just go: Awwww, so lovely....

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By now, MD had acquired a native Palu'e name - Lisé (pronounced Li-seh).

While Naga's name would not introduce complexities and confusion, mine wasn't the case.

Prior to the trip, MD had proposed an Indonesian name for me - lonceng.

Which was, well, fine for me - after all, it sounded very close to who I am.

It lasted just 2 seconds.

MD: "Oh, it means 'school bell' in Indonesian."

"______________"

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Though majority of the island people had accepted Christianity as their religion (mainly due to the successful work of earlier Catholic missionaries), they have never really abandoned their cultural practices, or at least some of them.

As outsiders-visitors to the island, we could not simply just decide to go ahead and head for the volcano - heck, even the islanders themselves had to seek permission from the village gods just about everything major that they would be undertaking. Today's ceremony was led by Pagi, Pelé's elderly Dad. It started at their place just next door - a bowl and some eggs, some chanting/praying, followed by smashing of eggs and scattering of the egg shells.

Later we went to the village square, this elevated area where the village ancestors were buried, and repeated the same thing - meanwhile, the family dogs followed, eagerly eyeing on the eggs that Pagi had been carrying, and just jumped on the smashed egg for breakfast.

Some shots of Pagi (Md took a video of one of the ceremonies):





The ceremony was repeated several times at other venues around the village - by the time everything was done, Pelé, Edo and a few others had met up with us, each of them carrying a parang with them. I guess that was the first warning signs that the day aint gonna be anything smoother than yesterday's ascent.


A "vavi" - Pig

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We set off and headed towards the slopes behind the village - as usual, the first part was still manageable. This time, the two of us wisely decided against taking fags before an expected strenuous activity, in case we huff and puff sooner than expected.

No steps or rocks this time (for the morning at least), just trees and bushes and all green.

Pagi was leading the way - his amazing prowess and fitness was jsut starting to show. If not for him stopping at certain spots for some prayers, he would have ditched us far behind and we would not have caught up with him. Furthermore, while prickly acorn-like objects and grass got stuck onto our clothing, Pagi's clothes were free of these. So much for being young and all; and it made us wonder: How did he do it???

After an hour's climb or so, we were still on the slopes. We arrived at this place where coconut trees had grown in abundance - and of course, we were grateful for the coconuts. Coconuts grown away from shore up on the slopes do indeed taste different from those near shore, as MD had said - more juice and less salty.

We also got to be entertained by Pagi's tales of his younger days - how he was involved in the last major conflict with another village some 2 decades ago; how he got captured by the other side during one of those battles, and how he survived; how curses were cast along the slopes to give trouble to their enemies, to get them lost among the forests... Of course, all these were translated by MD to the two of us.

Higher ground means a chance to capture some nice aerial shots again!



How about the slopes?



This one's supposed to capture another village on the island, but well...



And this one, the sea is the main focus...



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The next time we resumed our journey, it was the turn of the parang-wielding men to head the expedition, for ahead of us lie deeper forestation where previous paths had already been covered by overgrowth. Progress was slower due to the slashing and bashing.

As the climb went on, yesterday ordeal was quickly forgotten - usual symptoms surfaced; the sweat, the drenched shirt. MD even captured one particularly 'unglam' picture of me whereby I was showing what could be wrongly perceived as a pissed-off look, when in fact I had been cringing because of the sun directly in my face. In addition, my lips were chafing - seriously bad sign of dehydration.

As we entered into the forest proper, lethargy set in. Midway through, I grabbed a stick and used it as an aid against unfriendly terrain. Talk became sparse, and before we reached the next rest point, one strap of my right slipper broke. The rest point became a reprieve for me to try and fix the slipper, but it became apparent that nothign else could be done.

It was at this time that we got chided by MD for our lack of preparation - specifically on water. The two of us had not brought along any, and it became especially difficult for me, a perpetual sweat-er. In the end, I had to literally beg for water from the hardworking men - they had brought along a big canteen of water (but even that would run out before we started on our way back to the village...).

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It must have been mid-day when we finally caught sight of the volcano:


W/o Zoom


Zoomed in

It looked pretty near, but trust me, there was still work needed to go up. First, we needed to get out of the forest; our exit path turned out to be this almost vertical path that was craved out by the men, and was quite wet and slippery. I ended up skiing down the slope that could have been 20-25 metres high. Once I reached the bottom, the thought of climbing up the slope for our return journey immediately came to mind, and there was only one expression that I could think of to describe that moment:

Sian Jit Pua

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From then on, it was just rocky terrain. There was this dark patch along the slope of the volcano, reminisicent of the last eruption, where the hot lava had came down. Apparently, the last eruption had been so violent that it blew off part of the peak of a neighbouring mountain - Pelé himself recounted to us that the mountain had used to be taller when he saw it during his childhood.

Please don't choose the wrong moment to do your thing, I pleaded to the volcano at its foot...


That's it - all 800+ metres of the volcano

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The real ascent began, and I quickly trailed to the back of the pack; two of the men tagged along with me in case anything happened. The rocky terrain was bad enuff, but the broken slipper only made things worse, and I stumbled quite a few times. One particular time, my walking stick broke into a pair of shortened skiing sticks.

Up and up we went, and finally, we ascended upon this ridge on the side of the volcano.

It was lunchtime, but my appetite had already long extinguished - desire for liquids was my only concern and agenda. I kindly declined all offers of fish and ketupat, only eating a banana just to replenish energy for the trip back. Just settled myself on the rock and spent time restoring my spirits.

The view though, was simply quite breath-taking.



And there were signs of the activity of the volcano:


Notice the smoke...

While we were having lunch, Pagi went on to scale up the mountains, followed by two of his faithful dogs - he had neither drank any water or consumed any food! MD was filming some video and managed to capture Pagi up on the peak; there were times when he was seen clasping his hands and motioning to the heavens, as if he had been communicating with some higher beings up above...

My attempt to reach to top failed disasteriously - I got stuck while trying to follow Naga's trail and had to be "rescued" by Pelé; in the end, I had to trudge back to the base disappointingly, with two of the men accompanying me just in case.

Halfway through the descent, the slipper just became impossible to walk with - after previously declining the offer of someone else's slippers, I had no choice but to accept the offer this time round. Once we hit the base, we just waited and watched.


Naga and Pelé on their way down

The last to come down were MD and Pagi - they had taken this steep path that no one else dared to scale down - the younger men had all advised the visitors against following Pagi, which Naga did and MD just brushed aside. They came through unscathed though, much to the relief of everyone.

At the foot, everyone stopped to take a rest, recounting the sights up the volcano and examining the sulphur stones collected - actually, no one was sure if it was sulphur at all, as the stones ad deposits of different colours; yellow, white, red. Nonetheless, everyone seemed well and fine, and the return trip began shortly, but not before Pagi went on and blessed everyone to get rid of our tiredness...


Last look...

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The slope indeed proved to be quite a challenge, especially for Yours Truly. I ended up being pulled up the killer slope by Pagi, a sight that MD would be making fun of till he would leave for SG. Retrospectively, it had been the most humbling yet embarrassing moment in my life, but back then, the ends was more imperative than the means (haha!).

We traced back our trail, taking the path that we had taken earlier. We were so relieved to reach this place where coconut tress had been spotted earlier. The men wasted no time in climbing up and getting some coconuts for everyone. The fluid had been so welcoming that we just finished our coconuts in record time! For me, the coconut was like fuel - I felt much more rejuvenated and energised!

We went on, and awhile later, I damaged my saviour's slipper as well - this time it was the left side. I thought to myself: Darn it, I'll just follow Pagi and walk along bare-footed. It went well for most of the time, mainly because the ground was soft and all. However, once we came out of the deep forest back to the slopes, the terrain turned unfriendly - the path was laden with pebbles that were useful if one had footwear, but simply painful if one had thin-skinned soles and no shoes. This time, Pelé turned saviour when he offered his slippers. So many saviours in one day - so failure!

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There was one more rest stop before we hit the village - this time, we took more time in savouring the fluids and letting the oral cavity enjoy the dampness. The previous time, the coconut juice went down the throat so fast that the mouth had no chance of being "watered" on, which resulted in dryness in the mouth. After the breather, the short journey back to the village was unexpected but welcomed =D MD broke into some song that had strains of "Palu'e!" in it, and drew much laughs from Pelé and the rest.

We simply collapsed onto the chairs provided:


He's still doing well!


He's still alright...


This one's wet and gone...

Naga was feeling the onset of cramps, while MD was examining the extent of damage to his sandals. Pagi was concerned about Naga's cramps and went ahead in administrating some traditional massage that tickled us!


His hands went HIGHER than that...

I was asking around if it would be possible to replace my saviour's broken slipper with a new pair - and Edo was kind enough to run to the village grocery store and get two pairs for me, one for myself and one for my saviour:


Saviour!

If not for his slippers, I guess I would be suffering from more cuts and bruises all over my body...

We went ahead to wash up at around 1700hrs, and subsequently got ready for dinner...

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Meanwhile, the rest of the men took a short rest and immediately went back to work on something outside the house that we couldn't really comprehend at first; there was a huge pipe and alot of digging involved. I tried to assist Pelé to get the generator running for electricity, but it didn't work, and we simply gave out after awhile.

The three of us went on for our dinner - there was pork cooked with sweet dark soya sauce! Yummy! (though it was extremely oily and fatty lah....). Also on the menu was papaya leaves (Strange right? Thought they were poisonous, but they are perfectly edible and harmless when they are cooked, and a good cure at stopping bleeding, as I would soon attest to...), as well as a deadly sambal chilli, made with just chilli and lots of salt - even Naga commented it was deadly, so it must be!

After dinner, the three of us chatted in the living room - it seemed that MD would be around in SG before in Aug and after his teaching stinct in Germany. However, Aug would be too rush for him as he would be around for only a handful of days - we proceeded to earmark mid-Sept as our next meet-up date.

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By now, a group of womenfolk had gathered outside the house - we weren't really the draw, I guess; MD was. Somehow, they managed to talk MD into trying betel nut, and Naga joined in as well. The strange thing (at least to me) is that the concoction of betel nuts and some powder, plus the chewing, made the whole oral cavity and teeth blood red in colour.

*Betel nut chewing is almost exclusive to women; on the other hand, smoking is almost exclusive to men; but while some men chose not to smoke, almost all adult females indulge in betel nt chewing - of course, this is from my one-week observation.*

Anyway, Naga and especially MD got the womenfolk all excited, and they eagerly anticipated his reactions upon the chewing. One of the few things that I had discovered about myself was that I am not a risk-taker - I refrained from experimenting and instead, tried to take some clips of the whole process:


MD trying to escape keke...


Naga tries it first, with encouragement from MD...


MD's turn - and the womenfolk cheers for him!

MD had a further testimony of the betel nut experience - a photo of Naga's blood-red tongue!

Apparently, the betel nut experience left MD with a burnt tongue, and he felt a tinge of pain for the next 24 hours or so whenever his tongue touched any liquids...

And I'm still left wondering what the taste of betel nut is like.

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We finally realised what Pele and the rest of the men were busy with...

Pele had brought back a television set and a satellite dish (Parabola, they call it in Indonesia) from Batam that weighed so heavy. The intention was to enable the family to be able to catch free-to-air TV; one could only do that in Indonesia if one buys one of these Parabolas and install it outside the house to get the satellite signals.

They were busy constructing the structure on which the Parabola would be fixed upon. Pele had engaged a technician from the mainland all the way to the small island to fix the dish. The technician, probably not knowing what to expect, had brought along her wife and their little baby. I wondered if they had extra help, because I couldn't imagine a young mother ascending up to the village with a baby in tow!

Naga fell asleep at around 2130hrs, while MD similarly retired early for the night. Tried as I might, I couldn't fall asleep, partly because of the generator that had been placed just outside the house, but also outside our room; partly also because my legs were itching (literally! My legs are ultra sensitive to grass...) from the expedition in the day, and also, I was still feeling very full from the dinner. After trying so hard to sleep, I woke up twice to check out the progress of the installation. Both times, it seemed that it would be almost done, though there were some channels that could notbe received. The second time I came out to take a look, one of the womenfolk brought me a glass of warm condensed milk - I accepted the beverage, and was almost finishing it when she came out of the kitchen again with sugar-coated biscuits! I was so embarrassed - she must have thought that I couldn't sleep because I was hungry! After the drink, I headed back to the room before anyone could offer me any more food that was meant to be for the men who had been working hard all day and night....

And i finally managed to fall asleep....

To be continued...

[East/Central Indonesia] Day 03 / 29th May 2006 - Up, up and...

The morning air of Palu'e greeted us, as we woke up to our first day on the island!

After a bit of stirring, I popped my head over the side of the boat to check out the water:


So clear!

Hmmmm, MD did talked about a swimming expedition, sharks included - I wondered when will it be?

We were not the only boat anchored in; several boats were there as well, and all looked similiar:



MD was already washed up, looking all set and ready for the day!


"CHEESE!"

Once everyone had washed themselves, we got ready to disembark onto shore - Palu'e island would thus welcome the very first Singaporeans on its shore!!! SO exciting!!! There's no SG flag with us though.


Disembarking


Small hut = Coconut store

The first Singaporean (a.k.a Aku) to set foot on Palu'e ended up touching the shore butt first - much to the amusement of everyone (grrrrr!). Ok, my excuse - the boat had been so high!!!!!

There were already a few people on shore awaiting our arrival - most of them were womenfolk. I had checked my handphone, and the time was just 6am. Most of them were carrying those wooven baskets with a string that they used to secure round their forehead so that the baskets contained whatever it was carrying and hung behind their back as they climbed up the slopes. The sacks of rice and other stuff on the boat were unloaded and passed on to these womenfolk, who proceeded on to put them in their baskets and went their way back to the village! As for stuff that were too big for their baskets (like our luiggage!!!), they simply placed them on their heads and off they went!

*Mind you, the sacks of rice were like, 25kg per sack! And they disappeared beyond our sight in a matter of minutes! Who said women are the weaker sex???*

Meanwhile, we were treated to some simple breakfast - some of the villagers kindly chopped some coconuts for us, plus someone brought down some sugar-coated biscuits as well as steamed "uvi" - some yam-ish looking tubers that tasted like yam/sweet potato but were white in colour. The tubers were still piping hot - I told myself then that it meant the way to the village should be short...


Sunrise


Another scenic shot...

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We set off soon after.

Naga and myself were carrying much lighter loads than anyone else, yet the ascent was taking its toil on us after just 10 minutes! The ascent turned out to be rather steep - hardly any straight paths, and every step that you climb, more seemed to be awaiting further ahead. I found myself drenched in my own sweat even before the first resting point - and out of breath. MD tried to strike some small talk in between, but I was too occupied to save my breath; I could only reply with small gasps of laughter and short answers ("Yah", "I see") - there were even times when I just couldn't make out what he said, simply because he was just too fast...

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I don't know how long we had walked before we came to the rest point, but I'm sure we had definitely spent more time at the first rest point than the ascent to the rest point itself! I just remained sitting on this boulder (or rather, lying on it), and refused to nudge a single bit. Thankfully, MD had some water with him, just when we needed it. Thankfully too, there was a kind lady who had brought down some makan for us - "muku" (bananas) as well as some porridge that had been cooked with green beans, pumpkins and the uvi we had at the beach earlier. Ummmmm, that tasted quite nice, sweet and soft and all...

And then, after (quite) some time, we were off again...

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The second part of the ascent had been kinder - or maybe we were getting more used to it. But we were still left panting and sweating along the way...

... and we were thankful once again for a second rest point.

This time, we were served coconuts to quench our thirst, and we just devoured and emptied the fruits without the need for a second invite. There were more food as well - another kind lady had offered her fish to us, but we had to turn her down because food ain't really on our agenda at that moment.

By now, a sizeable group of folks had gathered at the rest point to check out the newcomers. MD wasted no time in chatting with the folks - indeed, the folks seemed pretty excited about us, a White, an Indian and an orang cina. MD then proceeded on to take some photos of the womenfolk, as did Pelé and Edo - the womenfolk were so excited yet exhibited shyness at having being captured on camera.

After some time deliberating on which route to take for the final leg, it was decided that we would proceed on with the landward route - the seaward route would be less tedious, but would take us a longer time to reach the village...

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The last leg of the ascent took us the shortest time, but at the same time, it nearly killed us.

For it was a climb that was almost vertical, just steps and steps that took us straight up.

The more I went on, the more I felt the tightness of my thighs.

Could feel the cramping feeling getting to me as I was climbing.

Tried to alternate the stepping-offs between my two feet - the tightness persisted.

Just when I thought I could hold back no longer, we reached the first house at the end of the ascent.

By then, we were thoroughly relieved that the ascent had ended - I readily agreed that the worst part of our visit should be over. (.... but is it?....)

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We stopped for a breather at this house that we came to; the lady owner kindly brought water for us, which we gulped down our throats.

After awhile, I noticed that a flurry of activity had descended upon us:


Students checking out the "new arrivals"

After thanking our hostess for her kind gesture, we proceeded on across what I would think is the village square - first we came to this house (I've forgotten whose house it was - the relationships between the members of the village would seem to me to be very confusing...). We sat down, and MD started conversing again while I went on to finish my glass of sweet syrup-y drink. The crowd continued to follow us, and stopped outside the house that we had stopped at. It was literally head stacked onto head onto head at the windows and door - it was unbelievable!

Next stop - Edo's place:



It turned out that it was the first time in six years since Edo had left the island; there was this ceremony where he had to walk on a ladder to enter his house, something like those old-school Chinese drama serials where the person returning home had to step over this container for luck and peace and whatever.

By now the crowds had thinned out, and the sense of flurry-ness had ebbed, and I felt less scrutinised.



Our hosts kindly showed us around the house, and at the back, we saw some interesting activity going on:


Puppies Feeding - so cute!

It was probably about 9 or 10am in the morning, but we were subsequently showered with more food - more fish, uvi, sugar biscuits, and (sweet) cocoa drinks:



After the meal, we stayed for awhile longer before heading off to the house that we were supposed to stay. We left our stuff in this room and attention suddenly shifted to the keyboard that MD had brought along. Apparently, it was meant for Pelé's little sister, but the young adults were playing with it the moment the batteries were inserted into the gadget. Naga and I were pretty exhausted by then - after some time sitting outside the house and stoning, we went to our room and just knocked out...

*Looking back, I should have taken some photos of our ascent - there's no evidence of how challenging the steps and terrain is. Anyways, that feeling cannot be described, certainly unforgettable.*

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It was around evening time when we woke up.

MD was doing some official work already - the two of us were still dazed and tired...

At around 1830hrs, we headed for Edo's place for our dinner. There was kind of like a party going on - the mainly young crowd (I suppose they are Edo's friends in the village) were in the house for some music-making and "arak" - some clear alcohol that they had made themselves in the village. I tried it for myself, and boy, was it powerful! Though it was sweet, the alcohol content was quite lethal, though probably not as lethal as hard liquor, but strong nonetheless.

Dinner was served - rice cooked with some beans, vegetables (Casava leaves? Can't really remember), more uvi... but the highlight MUST be...

DOG'S MEAT!!!

The dish was right in front of me, and though those around me tried to persuade me to try it, I didn't. In the end, I had to struggle with looking at the pieces of meat in front of me as I went through dinner, all thoughts related to the poor dog that ended up on the plate, while the rest of the folks heartily tucked in to the dish. Naga had a piece - he had tried dog's meat while he was in Thailand - but he went no further than a few pieces. In addition, there was this dish in the centre that resembled some kind of soup - upon further probing and translation, it turned out to be soup cooked with some parts of the same dog!!!! Needless to say, I steered clear of that as well...

After dinner, MD tried to encourage us to elicit some data from the folks present. Naga was doing quite well, but I was hopelessly bad - ended up having MD to sort of come up with stuff to bail me out. So much for trying to do fieldwork haha - so failure...

*Anyway, couple of Palu'e words I had managed to elicit - "Baja" is ceiling, "lampu" is light, "nua" is house and "le nua" is outside of the house while "a'e nua" is inside of the house; "tana" is floor, while "ridi" is wall and "kivé" is door.*

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We headed back to our place, abit tramatised and quite full, when a second dinner greeted us upon arrival. More rice, more fish, but thankfully, no dogs - Pelé's family seemed to treat their dogs well (We were staying with Pelé's brother, with Pelé's place being the house next to us, up on a slope...).

Ended up VERY, VERY full - 2 dinners!

After-dinner entertainment consisted of a movie that was played halfway; the rest of the time was spent playing karaoke songs on the TV, which included Bahasa Indonesia covers of 心太软 and 那一场风花雪月的事...

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The night ended early for us - the next day would be the proposed visit to the island's active volcano, and with a sense of eagerness and anticipation, I fell asleep at 2200hrs...

To be continued...

[East/Central Indonesia] Day 02 / 28th May 2006 - Flores, here we come!

Before he turned in the previous night, MD discussed with us about a trip to the beach the next morning.

After the exhaustion from yesterday's activities plus last night's walk, Naga and I decided to give it a miss - I woke up at around 9am on Day 02 to find that MD, Pelé and the rest were already preparing to set off. I wished them an enjoyable day at the beach and proceeded back to my bed...

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Re-awakened at around 10am; the clothes washed yesterday were still not dry yet. Naga woke up soon after, and we proceeded to pack up our stuff, ready to move off anytime everyone is ready.

The rest came back at around 1030am. Final washing-up and we were almost ready to set off for our next leg of the journey.

The same cab drivers who drove us to the motel last night were already waiting for us downstairs. We hopped on and proceeded back to the airport. We checked in and went for lunch at the café outside the airport.

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After lunch, it was another wait, albeit not as long, for the flight. When it was time for boarding, we were ushered in to board some buses which took us to another part of the airport.

The sight of the plane shook us quite a fair bit.


Our plane - with propellers

First time on a propeller plane. For a while, I didn't know what to expect. Thankfully, I got the window seat (not that the plane was very big).

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Having a window seat, and being close to the wings, gave me a chance to see the wheels operate during take-off...


Going up soon... (Propeller is spinning in the shadows...)


Time to let the wheels in...

Of course, the window seat also offers some nice aerial views of Bali:


Busy roads in Bali


Look at those waves!

And of course, clouds!


Fluffy pieces of cotton wool...

We also flew passed the Komodo island, as well as several others - there ain't much on some of these islands, only elevations and earth, little vegetation and signs of humans...

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After more than 2 hours of flying (from an original estimate of 1 hour; probably because it's a propeller plane), we touched down at Maumere, located on the northern end of Flores island.


2 days of flying; pink for Day 01 and green for Day 02

We came straight down onto the runway, and we just whipped out our cameras and started snapping away at the marvellous sights - the various mountains that covered the background, no high-rises, no concrete:







We slowly made our way into the building - and waited for our check-in luggage to appear. My bag came in quite late, and I was stunned into silence, then anguish...

(1) The personnel did not allow me to claim my bag until I had showed him something which caught me off-guard. I showed him my ticket but I still wasn't allowed to claim my bag.

(2) One of the handles used for hand-carrying was almost torn off from the bag; it seemed like something had sheared part of the handle to the extent that it was almost falling off.

Looking back, I think I looked pretty crossed at that time. I almost wanted to rush up and confront the personnel, to demand an explanation and perhaps compensation - if not for the language barrier. Furthermore, at that point of time, everyone else had seemed to have gotten their belongings, and as I inspected the other parts of the bag, nothing else seemed to be damaged.

My mind flashed back to the night before I had left SG - Sis had specifically told me to take care of the bag because it did not belong to her. Now, the promise had been broken, though I wasn't the direct cause of the damage. I had to let her know when I call back...

Up till now, I'm still figuring out what could have caused such devastating damage to the handle...

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The reality took quite awhile to sink in, but everything else moved on....

And thus I came to experience my first experience on "ojeks" - taxis on motorbikes.

*In Maumere, it costs Rp2000 to get you to anywhere within the town - less than 50 cents. Naga and I shall get to experience the difference in prices for ojeks on our road trip.*

Each one of us took a bike and headed for the harbour. MD took the opportunity to snap a few shots of us on the bikes. I was real tempted to do the same, but without seatbelt, helmet, and with a potential for anything bad to strike me anytime, anywhere, any place, I hestitated.

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We came to the harbour, where a row of small motorised boats were "parking" - one of them had to be our boat.

Naga and I boarded the boat, while MD went to buy some stuff for the much aniticipated swimming expedition on Palu'e as well as some other stuff for the people in the village. He came back with a pair of swimming googles and two sets of swimming masks, though the green colour of the masks masked (no pun intended) the real potential of their effectiveness, as we would learn later on.

It wasn't till sunset that we got moving, so it was idling on the boat...


Shot - Ugly

We also paid a visit to the restaurant near the harbour - Naga and I swear that it was one of the best that we visited for our trip. We had Nasi Ayam Goreng, and i ordered this additional Lalapan thingy, which turned out to be some weird veggies that i hardly touched except for the cucumber. But the tempe was super nice! Freshly fried and piping hot! Plus marvellous fried rice! (Wah, now i'm recalling that moment in the restaurant already...)

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The skies were already dark at 1900hrs, and the boat slowly made its way out of the harbour.

Some of the Palu'e people were cooking dinner behind the boat, and one of them offered to lit up the area that we were in with a kerosene lamp.

MD went up to the upper deck, and the two of us soon followed suit. The skies greeted us with a sight that we have never been able to catch in SG... countless stars - the Southern Cross, The Great Dipper (no Orion though), and a sight that just held us in awe...



Ok, not so detailed of course, but somewhere in the clusters, there was this area where its literally star dust - signifying a high concentration of stars, and the existence of some galaxy - viewable with the naked eye! I didn't have the chance to see such spectecular night-view even when I was with the Astronomy Club back in Secondary School - though I gotten to see Saturn with its ring(s) via the telescope, the rest of the time in Astronomy Club was spent attending camps and socialising; vaguely remembered a crush on someone, but I remember nothing else already...

Ever-knowledgable MD pointed out to us how to naviagate and find the South with the aid of the Southern Cross, and the North as well. Went on to talk about how various cultures inevitably came up with similar descriptions and uses for these constellations. We spent some more time basking and bathing under stars before moving down to sleep...

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The next time I woke up, I tried to stay awake, but a combination of the rough movements and Indonesian songs meant that the only way to avoid further sea-sickness is to go back to dreamland...

We finally hit shore after midnight, after a near-six hour boat ride from Maumere. The plan was to go up to the village only in the morning, as it was too dark to attempt the ascent.

We would be extremely grateful for that decision...

To be continued...

[East/Central Indonesia] Day 01 / 27th May 2006 - To Bali

The wall clock showed 8am.

Darn.

Brushed my teeth, kept the brush and toothpaste in the toiletries bag. I lingered on still, for I figured that I could still make it in time if I take a cab down. In truth, I was hoping that there would be some additional injection into my finances. The early signs looked bleak - Dad was nowhere to be seen, and there seemed to be an air of nonchalence in the house.

Then Mum explained the reason for Dad's absence; he had gone to withdraw money for me.

I thanked them both under my breath - I might not need to swim back home after all.

After more restless pacing in and out of the bedroom, to check and double-check on stuff, Dad came back and handled me some cash, plus the Supp card that I though had not been renewed. I guess my spending had been quite atrocious that Dad withheld the card from me till the time when he deemed that I needed it the most.

Said my goodbyes, to Mum, to Dad (something that caught him off-guard I think; at that moment, I just wished the moment to leave could be delayed...) , and to Grand-Dad. Decided that bus would definitely be a cheaper alternative that would ensure that I arrive later than the agreed time, I flagged for a cab. By then, Jenn had SMS-ed me, and Naga had given me a missed call.

Sped down AYE and reached Harbourfront in good time. Too good a time, I realised. Headed to McDonalds' for breakfast.

McMuffin for my last meal. Hah. Sounds pathetic.

Even after breakfast, there was still time to kill. Hanged around - caught sight of Fizah who was bringing her students to Sentosa, and went forward to say 'hi.' Such a coincidence!

Headed to the ticketing area for the ferry to Batam. Checked out the schedule - 1050hrs would be the next ferry - while waiting for Naga and MD. Naga came shortly though, and we just stood at a corner waiting for Da Man, jokingly wondering if he had decided to walk to Harbourfront from his place (haha)...

And then Da Man arrived. Boy, his bags were HUGE.

In no time, we had changed some money as well as bought the ferry tickets - the tickets were two-way, so that meant we could possibly stop by Batam on our way back before heading for home.

While the Dragon and Da Man were away changing some Rupiah, my fingers got to work:


The Adidas shoe bag and the Nike bag - My luggage


Naga's stuff


MD's stuff

(Dun be fooled by what you see - MD's stuff appeared small because I had to stand a bit farther to capture everything he had. That reddish package was actually a toy keyboard that Pelé, one of our friends from Palu'e, had requested from MD.)

Very Soon, we were on our way. Checked in at the Customs, stopped by DFS for some fags, then boarded the BatamFast ferry. The ride was pretty uncomfortable, though the ride took probably like an hour. Things accomplished on the ferry include: sorting out the air tickets money, glancing through the Palu'e list that MD brought along, and sleep - a very uncomfortable one that left me in beads of sweat when I woke up.

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Batam - Very close to Singapore

Reached Batam at 1205hrs SGT, meaning its 1105hrs Batam time. Clearing of Customs presented little problems, and we took a cab to look for Pelé at his rented place in Nagoya. On the way, we passed by the place where MD said he first made friends with the Flores people.

We came to this place, a shop selling food on the ground floor and renting its rooms in the upper floor to people like Pelé, who come from other parts of Indonesia for employment. We met other people from Flores - Edo, Sileh, and names which I had forgotten. Pelé was still at work and would be back only at around 12+. MD asked our hosts if we could be led to somewhere that we could possibly buy some stuff like sunblock lotion and all, and we were duly brought to a supermarket owned by Indonesian Chinese (surprise). Didn't manage to find what we wanted, although we bought other miscellenous stuff. A trip to a large department store brought similar results. We trudged back to the shop to continue our wait.

Pelé came back, and went for a shower - MD duly informed us of Pelé's preference of presenting a neat, well-groomed image, as well as the tendency for people to wait for transport of any kind, particularly the flights at the airport. MD went off on his own to buy some food for the journey - beancurd braised in sweet dark soy sauce as well as some tahu goreng. We finally got going at around 1315hrs - two cabs would take us to the Batam airport...

... But not before Pelé managed to drop by the place of one of his girlfriends to pass her something as well as bidding farewell.

*Apparently, he had a couple of girlfriends, and there's 2 of them who worked at the same place and lived within close proximity of each other. Pelé had taken great pains to prevent himself from being exposed - he had a couple of mobile phones with him (at least three), and I guessed that each phone contains a SIM card and contacts that are unique to each girlfriend - one girlfriend would thus be unable to find out about the other girlfriends. We had great fun watching him fumbling with his various phones as he tried to communicate with his numerous beaus for the next few days till we reach Palu'e. One of his phones was the old Ericsson type of phone, with the battery held in place by strings of rubber bands =D*

Reached Batam Domestic Airport and checked in - time check, 1340 hrs. Not bad timing considering that our plane, which was scheduled to leave at 1400hrs, left at 1500hrs instead. Our first filght of the day brought us to Jakarta - venue of our transit flight to Bali.

*As we learnt later, a lot of domestic flights would transit at Jakarta, especially if one is getting from one geographical end of the country to another.*

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Touched down in a little over 80 minutes. The airport in Jakarta was pretty spartan - air-condition was limited to areas like the waiting lounges and the shops; other areas were kept open if they could be done so. The next flight was scheduled to leave Jakarta for Denpasar at 1650hrs, and again we were kept waiting.

One hour and a few fags later, no sign of our flight. Off went Naga and I to buy some chewing gum - the previous flight had descended too quickly for our liking, and I ended up with a painful throb in my head, while Naga's ears were very much stuck and couldn't hear much.

The TV in the lounge was showing some music programme; we had learnt that Heavy Metal is hot in Indonesia, from the walls that were fully plastered with posters of some concerts back in Batam. Nonetheless, an interesting observation was that, the singer and the rest of the band were the only ones seen gyrating and grooving to the music - however heavy the band gotten, the rest of the audience just stood there.

One knows that the flight will be SERIOUSLY DELAYED when the airline stuff at the airport starts to wheel out refreshments that were seemingly meant for consumption on the flight to passengers in the waiting lounge. Almost everyone consumed their entitlement heartily - the three of us chose to head somewhere else for dinner.

Our choices were limited. Eventually, we settled on this cafe that served relatively expensive cooked food. The meat eaters ordered rice and Beef in Soto that contained coconut milk.

After dinner, we headed back to the waiting lounge, and the refreshments were just about to clear out. Further wait ensued and it was only at 2000hrs that we managed to board the plane and leave for Denpasar.

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I had not applied for roaming for the trip.

Previously, when I had first gotten this Starhub line, the kind company gave me roaming as part of the bundled services, when I didnt really need it.

About a year ago, I cancelled the roaming services.

Talk about having anything when you don't need it, and not having it when you really need it.

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Anyway, I lost track of time - I switched off my K700i, only switching it back on when I need to take photos or check the time.

It must have been around 9 or 10 pm at night when we reached Denpasar - Bali time is the same as SGT and one hour ahead of Batam...

*...which is strange, when one consider that Bali is further east than Batam - this led MD to the conclusion that SG is actually in the wrong time zone; we should be GMT +7 instead of +8. [Now, that probably explains why I'm always interpreting the times on Soccernet wrongly - I've been adding 8 hours instead of 7 to UK time!] Elsewhere, I have read that this could be a political move to align SG in accordance with our neighbours up north [justification needed]...

Another taxi ride - we arrived at this Bed and Breakfast place in Kuta. Checked out the rooms and the price that they were offering was abit steep (Rp150k) - later on, we would seriously blast this place, but more of that later. By then, time had already flew by us; only half an hour remained of what was Day 01.


Entering our room...


My Bed for my first night...

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We settled down pretty soon, Naga and I. Naga decided that we should check out the surroundings - and we were out in a little over 5 mins. Visited the nearest 24-hour convenience store, and it had a sandwich bar inside as well. We grabbed a sandwich and a beer each - our first taste of the local Bintang. We sat on the steps of the opposing Discovery Mall (looks like any other mall in SG, with KFC, Thai Express, etc...) and had our supper with the techno music booming from the neighbouring Cabaret accompanying us.

After supper, we continued walking fown the streets up north - expensive restaurants lined both sides of the street, and taxi drivers kept their verbal probes at us, urging us for rides. One went so far as to follow us for a good 50-100 metres or so, offering anything from rides to ladies to drugs (several kinds) to kids/boys - and that was it. Naga managed to shrug him off and we continued walking.

We finally hit the beach after like, 20 mins of walking. Under the camouflouge of the dark blanket overhead, the waves hitting the shore shook our very foundations, right down to our spines...

Wait. Not that scary bah

It wasn't that dark - the waves were still visible - but we were well aware of the effects of devastating waves. We decided to stay clear of the beach for the night, and managed to find this hotel/resort place with a nice pool and poolside chairs. We spent some time by the pool, chatting about parents, home, and the next few days...


The Pool...


... and the Resort...

We spent a good half an hour (or maybe more) just by the pool, before decided to head back to our beds. Spent some time washing clothes, then shower before turning in.

Eventful first day in Indonesia, I thought...

To be continued....