[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....
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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."
"______________"
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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...
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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...).
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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...
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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!
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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...
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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....
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
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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...
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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!
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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...
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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...
posted by RongC @ 5/30/2006 10:40:00 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home