Ugly goes Travelling

Seoul - 19th July

2008-07-19T21:10:00.001+08:00

很快的，三天就这样过去了。

第一天到达首尔下了一场雨；今天离开前，吹袭邻近台湾的台风从清晨也为首尔带来了一场微细但丝毫不会停歇的雨。来了四天，遇到了两天的雨天，我想在夏季还真不常见。

上午十一时才起床，一发现已经快要到中午时，还差点从床上跳下来呢。昨晚还抱着恨不得马上回家的念头，今天起床后在洗澡时不知何故，心里突然有着有点不舍的心情。似乎每次要回返新加坡时，都会有这种感想。嗨，还不知是否还有在有生之年再次回到南韩好好的走一趟。

这场雨似乎很想把我们留下（哈哈，还真有点臭美嘞。）；再加上我们两儿各自多了两三袋买回家孝敬亲戚朋友的韩国土产，这让我们原本想乘搭地下铁去机场的计划化为泡影。在旅馆的接待处徘徊了一阵，才决定付多点钱请旅馆的老板载我们到金铺机场，然后我们再自己乘搭专程来回国际机场与金铺机场的机场快铁。

办了登机手续后，马上去解决早餐 – 我们已有大半天还没想享用到一个完完整整的正餐呢！如果说韩国的物价指数是世界最高之一的国家，那机场里所卖的东西都能为这句话作物证。买了一个新币十几元的日本套餐，然后饭后再来两个“C”，准备登机时，才发现起飞会有些延误。。。

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这次的飞行航程比去韩国时碰到更恶劣的气流。虽然次数少了些，但还是觉得惊险（- 多亏我看了太多关于飞机失事的纪录片子。。。）。比如起飞后的半小时遇到了第二个气流。我正在投入于手中的那一本会议手册，突然从右眼角那边闪了一次非比寻常的亮灯。我抬了起头，本以为是隔壁的“自己人”在用闪亮灯来拍照，但，没人手里拿着相机。这时，又闪一次灯 – 灯原不是来自机内，而是在机外！在这一两分钟内，机身也不停地在摇摇晃晃，使得机内有了一段不安稳的平静。后来，飞机停止摇晃，服务员也恢复了服务，再过一阵子，机长也作出了广播，通知大家刚才飞机本身的确被雷电击中，但这没对机身造成任何损害。虽然他呼吁搭客无需感到惊惶，但还是不能不承认好像有点骗过死神的那种感觉似的。

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多时分钟就要降落了，这次的南韩之旅也将划上句号。短时期之内，应该不会再“远行出征”了吧哈哈。我想这儿会在短期内平静好一段阵子。谢谢你的“收看”，也恭喜自己终于能完成一个完整的旅游日记！

准备降落咯！

~RC~

Seoul - 18th July

2008-07-18T19:35:00.008+08:00

0400 - Had a bowl of instant spaghetti ramen. Finally managed to sleep.
0830 - I woke up. Should be late.
0940 - The first speaker had just finished his talk.
1200 - Slack day. The "fire" seems to be gone; the trip, having served its purpose, seemed to be a formality, just counting down till Sat afternoon. Still, an eventful day ahead.
1215 - Lunch at the cafeteria. Had a nice chat with S-e-a-n W-i-t-t-y. Left Dongguk and headed back to our hotel.
1530 - Headed out to downtown. Pretty much spent the whole afternoon walking, looking for a bank/ATM so that Naga could withdraw money. Walked alot, saw alot. And the police force seemed to be out in full force, in preparation for the impending evening strikes. Caught the scenic Han River that runs through the heart of Seoul that provides a below-ground level extensive park for the people and tourists. Decided to head back to somewhere near our area after going round and round the Shenton-way like part of downtown, but not before taking a break at KFC. On the way back, the spree began. Had to trouble Naga to wait for me everytime I stumbled across a shop that sells skincare and cosmetic products. Bought some Korean kueh and went crazy at the minimart. Headed back to the room for a good shower.
2045 - Fell asleep for awhile, then woke up for dinner. Settled for some Korean steamboat which turned out to be spicy-sweet-salty. Not bad, but made us down alot of water. Walked around some more, bought some Starbucks before heading back.
2200 - Naga's out. Chatting online and planning in the mind about tml's plans. Seems like its gonna be pretty hectic, and HEAVY. Last night in Seoul le - time to reach out for my bowl of instant noodles.

Out.

~Ugly~

Seoul - 17th July 2008

2008-07-17T23:55:00.000+08:00

0730 - Naga woke me up. Showered, get geared up for battle.
0810 - Head for Dunkin' Donuts for coffee and breakfast. Brought coffee and breakfast onto the Metro. Reached Dongguk at approx. 0850.
0910 - We got our hands on the proceedings - our work in a proper book! Well, most of it done by Naga and K. But it was pretty satisfying nonetheless.
0930 - Conference officially starts. J-a-s-o-n M-e-r-c-h-a-n-t spoke first.
1100 - The first two paper presentations. Content was pretty heavy, though not as heavy as that of the first guest speaker's. The 4 invited speakers sort of grilled the presenters with questions and the speakers seem to handle them pretty well. We is gotten worried.
1200 - Lunch. Collected lunch coupon. K-o H-e-e J-e-o-u-n-g was queuing behind us. A lady came up to us, introduced herself as Hyun-yu, who'd gotten her Ph.D from NUS. She said she specially came for this conference partly because she saw presenters (us) from NUS. She also revealed that she'd been Prof. Tara Mohanan's (last) Ph.D supervisee.
1245 - After lunch (some rice with tonkatsu and corn soup) at the "cookhouse", Ms. Hyun-yu offered to treat us to coffee. We chatted quite abit - about her academic journey (City University for BA and MA, Chris Manning as supervisor before he left for Stanford), her "leave" halfway through her Ph.D to give birth, her naughty little gal, the Mohanans... it was nice knowing how our affiliations with NUS had helped us make friends and our stays overseas much better, albeit indirectly (the insitution probably deserves 2nd mention, the people 1st).
1335 - Was late for the talk before us. Again, got much substance.
1405 - Our turn. It went pretty ok, at least we were done in abt 20 mins. Surprisingly, the onslaught never really came - the Big Four were quite "subdued", one of them even sat out our presentation I think. After all the tension and mention, it was not quite what we had expected. Either we overwhelmed them, or we underwhelmed - sadly, it seems to be the later.
1450 - Tea-break. M-a-r-c-e-l had some positive comments, but we didn't get to speak to the other 3. Instead, one of the guys that had his poster on display was explaining to us his stuff about Korean DPs - got the both of us =S =S.
1500 - Went back for part one of the plenary talk. Pretty heavy stuff that ended at 1810. Headed back to Anguk area for dinner. Learnt that the elderly, besides having seats reserved for them on the Metro, actually travels for free on the Metro!
1830 - BBQ again. One of the waitresses was Chinese, which made ordering and all easier. She even came up to me and asked for some translations, mainly because she encountered a group of English-speaking customers earlier on in the day and couldn't really communicate with them. Her Korean was impeccable - she even wrote the syllables of the words I'd translated into Korean syllables/characters that had roughly the same sound! AND, beef in Korea is really at a PREMIUM...
2000 - Back at hotel. Showered and chilled online, while Naga slept.
2200 - Decided to head out and explore new places. Central Seoul is still bustling with activity - 24 hour Macs, KFCs, BKs, coffee joints, food places both on and off the street - there's this satay that they are selling (amongst other things) that's longer than a foot-long Subs... AND the protestors are still on the streets at 10pm! Hundreds of them! Doing what they believe is right... that's democratic citizenship! Even the police were busy closing the streets for them to march on lol...
2315 - Dropped by the minimart, picked up some bowl noodles and foodstuff for home, and headed back to Yims'. Naga still out cold. Showered and typing now; I've been blogging and chatting for 2+ hours le.... It's Friday, our last full day... gonna find out where else is selling BB cream....

Out.

~Ugly~

Seoul - 15th & 16th July 2008

2008-07-16T13:20:00.008+08:00

15th July 2008
1900 - Reached home from school, packed, ate dinner, showered.
2020 - Train from BL.
2130 - Alighted from Skytrain, reach T1.
2140 - Met Naga, Jeremy and Terrence (nice of them to send Naga off); checked in trolley luggage, first time gotten mistaken for a Korean, went thru Immigrations, bought YSL fags, coffee.
2235 - Boarded KE642.
2255 - Take-off.

16th July 2008
0200(???) - Possibly the closest ever I can get near to Moon in my lifetime.
0400(???) - Breakfast; friendly beautiful stewardess passed me a Western b/f without asking, then proceeded to ask Naga for his preference for b/f. Went for Bibimbop; wasn't too bad.
0558 - Touched down Incheon.
0650 - Took A*REX, their Airport Railway.
0730 - Transferred to Seoul Metro. Sat down, then realised we were sitting on seats reserved for the elderly/disabled/pregnant. Converted to standing position and encountered our first experience of the Seoul rush hour.
0820 - Two transfers and a 50 m 30degrees upslope later, reached Dongguk University.
0910 - Finally found out where's the conference room. Drenched in sweat already.
1000 - Reached Jongno 3rd Street station, hor lan-ded while searching for Yims' House. Kind passerby called the hotel for us and managed to get one of the Yim brothers to fetch us to the hotel. Yims' House is run by two brothers, friendly, and can converse in English. Turned out we are living close to Changdeokgung, a UNESCO Heritage Site and one of the filming sites for Dae Jang Geum. Cannot check in till after 12, so went to Internet lounge and then out for a walk.
1130 - Tried in vain to look for lunch place; most places aren't ready for lunch yet. Passed by this BBQ place - boss understood and spoke English, told us "Too early!" Other places told us the same thing, only that they used gestures. Settled for (Expensive - Seoul is one of the most expensive cities to live in) coffee in a coffee house
1200 - Went back to "Too early!" and finally settled on the two person set meal with pork belly. Damage: 20,000 won (Slightly over S$20) for two. The lady working in the shop speaks Mandarin, and asked me if Singaporeans spoke 中国话。I told her, yah, mostly the Chinese.
1300 - Stepped out of "Too early!" and was greeted with a shower - finally the grey skies opened up, albeit at the wrong time. Took refuge in a mini-mart and bought an umbrella amongst other things.
1315 - Finally checked into our room. Small, but good enough. And there's wireless! Showered, and now, preparing to rest - one freaking hour of sleep on the plane...

To be continued...

2000 - Woke up from sleep.

2030 - Headed out for dinner. Tried a different area - around Anguk Station - and had this oxtail stew dish called Seolleongtang with rice and kimchi. Pretty warming dish in the cool night weather. Had a coffee from Dunkin' Donuts on the way back to hotel.

2350 - Preparations for conference. Last round of rehearsals.

17th July 2008 0130 - Feels hungry. Should sleep. Soon

Out.

~Ugly~

Italy (Northern Exposure) - Day 4

2007-08-03T23:57:00.000+08:00

Day 4 seems to be the most exciting day of all.

We wake up because Adriana, our hostess, comes in to try to tell something - I gather that she is going out somewhere and will be back to fetch us to the Mass at the Piazza later in the morning.

Since Mass isn't due to start till 11, we figure we can sleep in a little bit later...

I figure we may have some more guests in the house this weekend, since the previous night, I spotted a caravan in the backyard.

This is to be attested later, but first, after breakfast, we realise that we are the only ones left in the house!

Well, almost - we soon find Renato going about doing his stuff. Weird that we hardly see him around even though his bedroom is just opposite us, a few feet from where we sleep.

A relief that he speaks some English; at least there are few instances which both parties have to resort to reaching out for the dictionary.

He offers to drive us to Piazza, and before we set off, another surprise welcomes us - his fiancee is going along with us as well. She seems to have come here to look for Renato, parking her red little car outside the residence before jumping onboard Renato's BMW hatchback.

Unlike his parents, Renato prefers to turn on the air-conditioning while driving, and full-blast at that. We reach the Piazza in no time and abit too early, so our host suggests a drink at the cafe. Gleefully I glup down my foamy caffè latte, while Ben savours his cappuccino.

We left after our drink to look for fellow bandmates. Not long after, the Mass starts. It feels awkwardly strange to be in the thick of things of something that hardly means anything to me. Probably the only connection with the ceremony is when the music fills the air. The kids infront are busy following the actions towards the end, which makes it a cute sight on a Sunday morning and lessens the solemn mood that presents itself earlier.

After the Mass, there was some sort of ceremony/performance outside the Piazza by one of the visiting bands; my guess is that its some sort of tribute to the those who have had fallen in the past wars or other significant historical events.

Lunch back at our residence is at its most elaborate yet. This time, it's Yang's and Xian's turn to bear witness to us as part of hosting party to other visiting guests.

The family friends are around at the right time, for we are also celebrating the other son's (Renato's brother - I can't remember his name now, and that's because he's hardly around at home... abit sad cos he's quite a looker...) birthday. Besides the usual vino rosso, our hosts bring out vino bianco as well, and no time is spent watching as we savour the feast laid out before us. We even try our hands (and tastebuds!) on hare's meat - well, not all of us anyway - and conclude that it tastes similar to chicken. I tell myself: hare is strictly reserved for Italy.

Meanwhile, a tiny visitor slept through most of the proceedings in oblivion.

After lunch, we take the chance to check out the caravan. It costs what a mid-range Continental car will have cost back here locally, which further highlights the insanity of automobile prices back home - hosts shake their head in shock and disbelief at just how dear our Toyotas and Hyundais cost us. We are equally amazed at how a caravan can be a comfortable mobile home for a family of seven.

After lunch we have to prepare for the afternoon opening parade.

A lot of waiting, but we finally get going. Marching on the streets, and as we approach the square, these guys with extension (wireless?) mikes come towards some of us and place their stuff above the selected few - me is amongst the (un)fortunate ones (hope the mike didn't pick up any 'loose' stuff).

The young Columbian band sashays their way into the square in style. The Lithuanian band impresses with their big sound despite their strength being half of ours.

After the parade, dinner is back with the hosts. They try to play their recording of the parade from the camcorder, but they aren't quite successful. In the end, we arrive late for the pre-concert briefing lol.

Concert turns out to be pretty overwhelming. No real need for elaboration, but the level of appreciation from the crowd warms my heart at least, if not, the majority of the band.

A huge burden is lifted off everyone then, and the next best enjoyable time of the trip begins henceforth.........

Lights..........

Out.

~Ugly~

Italy (Northern Exposure) - Day 3

2007-07-31T15:48:00.000+08:00

Some photos of Day 2 opening ceremony, marching segment.

Besana Marching Band

First Saturday in Italy. First concert. But first, what happened in the day...

We are supposed to attend a ceremony at the town hall; however it is unable to accomodate everyone, so most of us set off on a supermarket trip instead. For a moment, we become la NUS (pronounced "noose") Supermarket Shopping Symphony.

The meat section is always fascinating - at least to a meat-lover like me.

Residences in Besana always have their own gardens or little spots where they grow some shrubs or bushes that turn out magnificant - proof:

What needs stocking up in Italy, or at least this part of Italy, is bottled water. Drinking water, fizzy or normal, comes from bottles - somehow no one believes in boiling tap water. I buy a few huge bottles for myself and Ben to last for the next few days.

Lunch is a outdoor buffet-style affair at the park opposite the town square, otherwise known as Villa Filippini. Pretty good spread of food - proof:

After lunch, we adjourn to a nearby cafe for some coffee - someone's (Italian - Simeone? Reminds me of that tomboy in Bookworm Club...) treat. I abstain from espresso-neat, but almost charge up to the machine to try my hands on it, because its a Rancilio, the same brand that I'm seeing and touching and cleaning day-in, day-out.

Somehow, we break up into small groups and I find myself going around the park...

There's this tree in the park that's supposed to the biggest in the park, and possibly Besana(??).

I'll show you the way in:

This is how it looks like from the inside:

I settle on this spot:

After the park, we drop by the supermarket again. Nothing much; we head further down to the train station to pass our time.

Perhaps, this is Life symbolised...

Walking away, from the troubles in my life...

The train pulls into the station at abit after half past three.......

We head back to the town square to wait for our bus to Medolago. After some anxious moments and false information, la NUS Wind Symphony is now complete, hours before its maiden performance in Italy (discounting the NUS Band which took part in 1997 of course).

The REALLY old ones (minus the OLDEST ONE of course.)

Medolago is about an hour's ride from Besana - the bus never really hit the highway.

We reach our dinner place slightly after 1900hrs local time. Dinner is at this outdoor place; this elderly Italian guy who spoke articulate, if slow, English explain our dinner menu to us.

Dinner stretches us to our limits, both physically and temporally. The programme says we are up for performance at 2100hrs; we formed up just before 2100hrs for the street parade. It is a really funny sight - trying hard to memorise the national anthem and the three songs just before marching off. The parade route is longer than expected; a further surprise awaits us when we finish our parade. We (most of us anyway) end up rushing off looking for the bus, retriving our files and then scampering onstage to start performing.

I guess the performance is a hit with the locals. On the other hand, my mis-count affair with a particular piece begins on this night - I am to play the same part wrongly in all 3 public performances.

Each one of us receives a token gift at the end - ties for the guys, scarves for the gals. The local town band even invites us for a post-concert reception - free-flow of snacks and drinks.

And photos too.

I guess most of us head back to our host families feeling buoyed by the response we have had from the Medolago crowd, and secretly anticipating the same but magnified response from the Besana crowd the next evening. A pity I fail to catch the Lithuanian Army band perform their "thang" at the dopofestival; from the accolades they receive, they seem pretty awesome.

Meanwhile, its back to our haven in Montesiro, to our comforts of our room...

Marching awaits.....

Out.

~Ugly~

Italy (Northern Exposure) - Day 2

2007-07-31T01:39:00.000+08:00

(Photos from Michele, Jennifer and my own)

Ugly's first breakfast on Italian soil - EBF tea, plus biscotti and biscotate over very fine and non-greasy butter. Ben feels like eating the whole block of butter for breakfast.

After breakfast, it is back to Besana for our first (and only) rehearsal.

Unpacking the instruments out of their bubble wrap sure takes up a fair bit of time.

It does not turn out that well. We choke, and I think our repertoire becomes the way it is based on this rehearsal.

On the brighter side of things, the compound outside the rehearsal venue provides ample opportunities for snapshots.

Lunch is at the communal canteen - we wait and wait.... and take photos while we wait.

While in the queue for food, Ugly helps some guys from the Columbian contingent take a photo - they give me something in return:

Ugly still feels abit paiseh that he has almost nothing on him that is worth exchanging as a token of friendship - he contemplates giving a pack, but decides not to - and silently laments on the severe ill-preparedness for this trip. It makes him wonder about the purpose(s) of the trip that he has neglected...

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After lunch, we proceed for our very first sight-seeing tour of Italy - Lago di Lecco.

A wonderful and magnificant sight greets us upon our arrival.

Posing time:

Ugly spots a gelato shop and heads to try his hands (and tongue!) on "native" gelato for the maiden time!

We have about two hours to walk around the small town. Ugly decides to stick with the old-timers, Z-x and Jennifer.

Before we board the bus to head back for Besana, Ugly finds a vending machine that dispenses Coke - it turns out to be some kids' size of Coke in a can that one is unlikely to be found here.

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After dinner, we head back to the piazza again for the opening concert by Banda Besana.

Can't remember if it is that very cold night, but Ugly remembers himself not staying too long for the concert.

Day 2 ended pretty much the same way had previous night, except that I can shower with warm water now.

The first concert awaits in Day 3.....

Out.

~Ugly~

Italy (Northern Exposure) - Day 1

2007-07-26T00:22:00.000+08:00

We finally touch down at Mapensa - Ugly sent my first SMS to my sis to inform that I'm fine and well.

While everyone can't wait to get to Besana (at least this is what I think), what Ugly can't wait is to start on my DFS fags - ten packs over ten days to finish, and Ugly's gone 11+ hours awake without a single stick.

*shivers*

A vehicular bridge outside the airport

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An hour drive from Mapensa is where Besana Brianza is.

Sunny and breezy weather, the smell of fresh air, and.... no mozzies!

The Hosts and Hostesses (Photo courtesy of Huijuan a.k.a 'Jane')

Generous servings of chips and tidbits plus drinks are served while we await to be called and paired up with our host families.

Is amongst the last to leave the piazza - our hostess was late.

The town church

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Our host family coincidentally shares some relation and building with ZX's and Yang's family.

And our hosts are parents of 'Jane' and Min's hostess lol.

Ben and Ugly share a cosy room with a good view of the suburbs.

One shock we get when we step into the house is that our hostess (Adriana) does not remove her footwear - after some attempt to convey that our practice is to do otherwise, we nonetheless decided to follow the Romans do when in Rome.

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Lunch turns out to be a simple fare of spaghetti.

Or so we thought - the noodles serve as appetiser.

The ham, the bread, the vino rosso with fizzy water, the greens, the fruits, the cafe that came after that - we are looking forward to dinner already hah.

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After lunch, we arranged to meet up with the Hui sisters and ZX to go shopping.

By foot.

Sight-seeing

After a relatively long walk avoiding the big trucks and some asking for directions, we finally arrive at Ipael supermercato. The Hui sisters begin their Italy shopping spree, while Ben, ZX and Ugly go for something more practical - aiming to quench our thirst.

Our return journey takes us back at Besana town square, but not before we rest our legs at the nearby Villa Filipini.

Part of the Shoppers - 'Jane' is the photographer (Photo courtesy of Huijuan a.k.a 'Jane')

Dinner remains vague - its filling and that's all that matters.

The beautiful daughter of ZX's hosts offers to drive the 3 of us to the town square to watch the town band in rehearsal.

First evening in Italy and we observe that sunset doesn't begin until 9pm.

The Besana Band was very powering. Ugly hopes that the concert venue won't make us so grossly overpowering when our turn comes to take to the stage.

Banda Besana in action

Day 1 nears its end - the beautiful daughter comes to drive us back.

Ugly stupidly showers in cold water, before Ben updates me on how the hot water will come about.

A smooth transition to Italy, Ugly will say.

Oh, and it looks like Italians in general look younger than their ages suggest. Is it the vino? *grin*

Day 2 and a rehearsal awaits.

Out.

~Ugly~

Italy (Northern Exposure) - Day 0

2007-07-24T00:52:00.000+08:00

11AM?!

My last-minute prep for the trip seems to be endangered by my reluctantness to climb out of bed.

The "casualty list" from JP included a waist pouch with a holder for a water bottle, wet tissues and 7D dried mangoes (best mangoes in the world - for the host family).

My luggage is now filled to the brim - how to bring stuff for everyone, I wonder...

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Ah Gong ain't around when I took my leave, so I only bidded farewell to mom this time.

Cabbing to school is definitely cheaper than cabbing to the airport - but even then, I have to drag my luggage to Central Library first, because I can't renew the books I have in hand.

In some way, its good because Fate let me bump into QZ - we went to the Graduate Division to submit some documents and then had a drink + a stick before we headed towards CFA.

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Yong Kiat and a few others were already there, the lorry also just reached only.

Within half an hour, we load the stuff up, and I have Yong Kiat as company on the lorry ride to Changi.

Last time round for the Thailand trip, it was me driving. Somehow this time round, it feels more comforting to be driven off.

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Miscellanous issues to be settled upon reaching the airport.

Most important - taking photos.

Our first (Italy) section photo (after countless attempts - most of the time, it's 60% or 80%)

There's always this fear-of-being-homesick feeling just before embarking on a long journey. I feel sicky and worn-out already while waiting to board. Anxiety? Excitement?

My neighbours

But then, the first part is the easy part. Transit is a tense, tiring wait - making sure that nothing goes wrong in this early part of the trip is essential I guess, especially in a foreign place.

Travellator

The waiting game

Finally, we lift off after midnight. And I knock out.

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Almost misses out on the inflight meal - luckily they still have extra. Ben sits out of this meal though - probably thinking of his beau in his extended dream(s)...

After makan, I become the willing/reluctant slave to the in-flight entertainment. Maybe I will only get a chance to take such a long-distance flight in my next life...

Sunlight peeking out of Darkness - Feels like I'm in the movie Armageddon/any other end-of-the-world disaster movie...

Are these the Alps?

Nothing very eventful happens onboard - erm, well, maybe there is.... but that's just it.

Day 1 shall start upon touch down in Mapensa.

Hopefully.

Out.

~ Ugly ~

[East/Central Indonesia] Day 08 / 3rd June 2006 - And there were Two, on the Road...

2006-06-03T23:08:00.000+08:00

I remember we tucked into bed at around 2230hrs on the 2nd of June...

What happened turned out to be one helluva night...

Despite sweeping off the soil grains from the bed, we still felt that the soil weren't completely removed - never mind, we thought we could live with it. Subsequently, we opened up the mosquito net, hoping that it would provide us with some form of protection.

In the end, I think we did ourselves in.

One hour later, and I realised that we had been shut in - either the net didnt work, or there were already mosquitoes around us when we set up the net. Naga managed a few winks, but the way he slept, I was feeling very worried. His breaths were short, deep and quick; not that they were disturbing my sleep, but they seemed like coming from someone asthmatic. I wanted to wake him up and tell him, but I didn't, for fear that he might not be able to fall back into sleep. Besides that, he would also roll left and right, and scratched himself; I was also scratching myself constantly, all-over. I had no choice but to resort to my Axe Brand Medicated Oil and Mopiko - after all, my latest incarnation, according to Naga and MD, was the Ointment Man, the man constantly applying stuff onto himself heh. But on this night, whatever amount of stuff I applied on my body only relieved my discomfort for that little while, never able to settle me down in a condition where I could drift into dreamland...

Naga's breathing pattern finally settled into a somewhat more regular, shallower pattern, but my level of discomfort still remained the same. I could tell that Naga was suffering too, even in his sleep. Every moment when I felt I was closing to shutting down, I felt a mosquito or two resting on my legs, and instinctively, I would reach out and start hitting the spot and then scratching. This was repeated countless, endless times throughout the night that I got so frustrated. Furthermore, the constant buzzing of the mosquitoes heard as they zoomed past my ears just upped my frustration levels a few more notches. The biggest regret - not bringing any repellent or mosquito coil.

For awhile, I so wanted to try something, but fear that it would a big taboo. I was lying and waiting, checking to see if everyone outside had gone to sleep. Realised that I had to go outside the room and check if everyone had turned in; the lights had been on for quite awhile and one couldn't tell is everyone outside ahd gone to sleep or not. One check - good, everyone's sleeping. Even then, I waited for awhile more, just to be sure.

Then I lighted a fag. Gotta generate some smoke to fog out the mozzies.

It worked.

But not permanently.

Back to scratching and rolling around on the bed.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The mind began to wander off, in an attempt to be distracted from the then-conditions…S

omehow, the mind conjured up images of home, of the people back home…

My bed + my twin pillows. Ingterneck/MSN/Email. Family. Friends.

It must have been that phonecall. Plus aided from the then-conditions.

It was one of those nights where one couldn’t wait for day to break.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Naga woke up to visit the toilet once, then went back to sleep.

Then, it was my turn. Why must it be now?

I turned around to check; Naga had went back to sleep. Felt like slapping myself, because I didn’t know where the toilet was, and it would be a potential disaster waiting to happen, groping and moving around.

I held back.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I had resisted the urge to switch the phone on to check the time.

There’s this hypothesis of mine, or rather weird workings of my own mind – if I hope for time to pass, I better not know what time it is, else time would just crawl on slowly.

By then, it didn’t really matter to me. I just wanted to know how long I had been in that state of mental torture.

Pressed and held ON for a few secs.

Punched in password.

Waited.

It was 0430hrs.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I did eventually fall asleep. The next time I woke up, the skies were beginning to brighten up, and I checked the wall clock outside the room – 0615hrs.

I slept for less than 2 hours, hardly the best preparation for us on the day where we would be embarking on our road trip.

And I’m pretty sure, that I have not lay on bed and yet not been able to fall asleep for this long – 6 solid hours of consciousness and itchiness.

The room where we spent a very bad night…

MD was up, and Naga, whom I guessed finally went into the REM phase, needed some “persuasion” to be woken up. The first conversation topic of the day, naturally, was on the (lack of) sleep the night before. Once again, MD was there to chide us on our level of preparedness; however, he was also ever-prepared, and ever-ready to help us. Out came a bottle of insect repellent, the roll-on type, which he vouched for its effectiveness. He was so kind to pass it to us for the remainder of our trip. Thinking back, it could be a bad move for him, considering he’s still in IJ as I’m typing this log out…

Breakfast was simple – sugar-coated crackers and some sweet cocoa beverage. MD had some breakfast outside when he went out with Edo for a walk, but he finished his drink and some crackers as though it was his first meal of the day.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Naga and I had been intrigued by the pet vavi which was tied to the backyard ever since we arrived. While waiting for everyone to get ready for a visit to the town centre, we sat outside and analysed the black pig…It had a pretty long nose, and most of the time we caught sight of it, its head was bowed down, mouth in contact with the ground, eating away – it seemed to eat anything and everything, even its own “by-products.” Later on in the day, we would be throwing tuber and banana skins towards the vavi, only for it to finish them up efficiently. We were asked by our hosts to guess how old the vavi is; we guessed about close to a year old or so, for it did looked pretty big, about as long as my feet, and its tummy was almost touching the ground. Our hosts replied that it was actually a few months / less than half a year old, and we were quite astonished at how a pig can grow so big so fast. Naga then went near it, and it was apparently quite shy, for it tried to keep a distance from Naga while making the snorting noises.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Once everyone was ready, we headed off to town, as usual on ojeks. My driver nearly led me to somewhere else! MD had to come back and lead my driver to our intended destination.

For a start, MD went to look for a cobbler to mend his sandals – the straps had came off whilst the volcano expedition, and he wanted to get them fixed as he promised to give them to Pagi as a gift. That didn’t take long as we watched the skilful hands of the cobbler and his apprentice at work, cutting slits on the sides of the sandals, slotting the straps back in and putting some neat stitchwork to secure the straps. All that for S$2 thereabouts.

Next, we went to this provision shop. I noticed something that MD had remarked previously; that most owners of these shops were Indo-Chinese. We bought some iodine solution for my wound – the locals call it “bendictin” – as well as some lozenges for Naga, who was starting to develop some cough symptoms.

We moved on and went to this shop that develops photos. Naga was looking to transfer his photos from his camera to CD-R. He had forgotten to bring his memory card and thus had to rely on the internal memory of the camera. It was almost full after the one week on Palu’e. Unfortunately, we had little luck, and it seemed like he had to be very selective in photo-taking for the rest of the trip…

More shopping, and we managed to find our adaptor – finally, we can charge our MP3 players and handphones! After that, we headed to the harbour, to bid goodbye to some of the folks who were going back to Palu’e. We saw this big cruise ship that was parked in the harbour…

Last bit of shopping involved MD and Naga trying to buy some more clothes; MD had given his clothes away, and Naga needed a set of clothings or two more, just in case. No luck though, as there weren’t really any suitable clothing stores around. We stopped for a drink at this makan place though; I didn’t stop myself from gulping down two cups of cold mandarin orange drinks. After that, it was back to Sentrum.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

MD and Pelé got themselves ready to leave for the airport. There was still enough time for them to check in their luggage first and then come back for the rest of their stuff. Most of us went along and accompanied them to the airport. On the way, Naga’s cap fell off and luckily, Si’a managed to stop and retrieve it for him.

It was kinda weird; after all, it was only one week ago that we had met up with MD at Harbourfront for this adventure. During the past week, the two of us had certainly learnt even more things from the man. Plus the countless times that he came to our rescue. One part of me felt guilty for imposing on him, one part of me felt grateful for his help and all. Things that we definitely do when we get back include finding a replacement bottle of insect repellent for him, and organising a last get-together before he leaves SG for a long time. And I need to get him handkies!

THE MAN – one of the reasons I won’t forget my 4 years in NUS

Pelé and Si’a – both very nice people who treated us with the utmost warmth and hospitality for the past few days.

Goodbye, for a long time…

As they walked through the fates, the realisation finally set in. I had to rely a lot on Naga from now on, in terms of communication. First thing we did was to get back to Sentrum for our stuff. Once back there, Edo was kind enough to go out to the bus terminal to check out the departure timings for us. Naga and I had planned to head for Ende after analysing the maps that MD had drawn for us the night before. Our plan was to reach Ende before nightfall, and maybe go and visit Kelimutu the day after. Kelimutu is this volcano with three craters, each with the water in the crater showing different colours – sounds pretty scenic. Turned out that the bus would be leaving at 1300hrs, bus fare would be Rp40,000 per head, and it would drop by Sentrum, meaning we still had about one hour to hang around. The duration of the trip was not very consistent though; Edo said we would reach in 2 hours, but other sources told us it was gonna be a 4-5 hour trip.

Meanwhile, Si’a had brought out lunch for us – more crackers and some green bean-pumpkin congee, as well as some coffee that Naga had brought from home. Even though we weren’t very hungry, we finished what we had been offered, for we figured it would be quite some time before we were going to eat anything.

Before long, it was time to bid farewell. The bus had been horning for us from the main road. We waved our goodbyes, and with a heavy heart, set off towards a journey unknown…

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The road trip did not kick off to a good start.

The bad thing about not taking the bus from the terminal was that we could not choose where we wanted to sit – we were left with the only two seats available. Actually they were more like half-seats – Naga ended up with half of his butt hanging in the air, while I was just a little bit luckier, but no less lucky, for though my bum has enough space, my shoulders hadn’t. For half the journey, I could not rest myself on the back of the seat, and had to resort sitting upright, with my bag on my lap.

It didn’t help that the journey was laden with countless curves and slopes. Ok, slopes weren’t too bad, but when the bus had to turn every now and then to negotiate the curves, it soon became unbearable. My medicated oil came in handy, though I had almost used up one bottle the night before combating my itch, I still had some spare reserves. What aggravated the agony was the loud throbbing music that rocked my ear drums to no end – the decibel level was past the level of tolerance, and one of the speakers just so happened to be right above my right ear. The European man beside me used paper to stuff his ears; with my mobility severely limited by the passengers on my left and right, I had no choice but to rest my right ear on my bag to shut out the music.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

It soon transpired that the trip was going to take much more than 2-3 hours.

There were a few stops that the bus made, but we failed to see any place that resembled any place that we could put up for the night. We persisted to wait till we would get out of the mountains and villages to somewhere that we could get accommodation and food.

It turned out that Ende is more than just a town; it’s a regency, probably comparable in terms of a GRC here, not in size, but in scale. Fortunately, some of the passengers had got off the bus, and we were able to settle in more comfortable positions for the rest of the trip.

We were still travelling at around 1700hrs; by then, my hunch was that we had passed the stop where Kelimutu would have been. According to the map, the place where we would be stopping is a sea-side town; however, we were still high up in the mountainous area. Hungry, weary and abit sick, I was wondering if we had missed out stop yet…

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Finally, we came to a place that seemed to indicate that it’s a bus terminal.

Even before we pulled into the terminal, the ojek drivers were trying to pester us to take their bikes; running alongside the bus outside the windows, grabbing the windows and sometimes our arms.

When we got off, we were swarmed by these ojek drivers. I felt completely lost, as only Naga could understand what they were saying. In the end, we managed to get two drivers to drive us to a budget motel; the catch was that we had to pay 10 times more for the ojek than we had done in Maumere. It was obviously an attempt to rip us off, and it was successful, for we were too worn out to argue. Furthermore, the terminal seemed to be “conveniently” located in a particular remote part of the town; with night increasingly getting closer, we faced the prospect of getting stranded on foreign land on our very first day.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

If the ojek drivers were ripping us off, at least they were pretty friendly and helpful.

We learnt that Kelimutu is actually a two-hour ride (approximately) from this town where we would be spending the night. It became obvious that we would not be able to make it up there after all; the transport would probably eat up our finances, and we would have to spend an additional night in the town, which seemed to be exactly what MD had described – quiet, not a lot of places to look around.

We got driven to this Hotel Safari, where we checked the rooms before checking in. We arranged for the ojeks to pick us up tomorrow morning at 1000hrs to the next terminal, and proceeded to our room. We didn’t stay long; our plan was to check out the town and have dinner before it became too late. We wondered into a shop resembling a pharmacy and gotten ourselves some more lozenges. Then we stopped by this roadside restaurant that had a menu similar to the restaurant at the Maumere harbour. We had Nasi Goreng; Naga’s order came with fried chicken while mine had a few sticks of satay. We also ordered an extra plate of kangkong, plus our standard tea/coffee. Though the food wasn’t as fresh as the one we had at Maumere, it was nonetheless good enough, especially after the long day…

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

We headed back to the hotel, then washed clothes and showered.

Naga was kind enough to offer the bigger bed to me heh. After our shower, I took out my Neeon, plugged in the earphones and began doing abit of book-keeping for this travel log. The last thing that I did was to edit the photos that I had taken for the past week, since there was some time to kill.

Naga was still was on his book when I dozed off…

To be continued…

[East/Central Indonesia] Day 07 / 2nd June 2006 - Goodbye, Palu'e...

2006-06-02T23:10:00.000+08:00

We had to wake up early to prepare for our departure; I got up at six.

In a way, a part of me was quite relieved that my stay on Palu'e would be ending soon - all the climbing and slopes made me realise how much I missed the ease of travelling around back home. The terrain, plus the lack of automobiles of any sort meant that you can only and have to rely on "Bus No. 11" to get around. I swear that the vigorous activities were ten times more strenuous than any dismounted exercise I have ever done during active NSF days, including my very first FTX with Four-Zero XXX, where, after a whole night of bashing and walking, I came to the top of the hill and just puked. If the SA-of-F ever gets shut out of Rockhampton, they can seriously consider this little island as a training outpost. On second thoughts, maybe not - the island will be overflooding with remains of combat rations faster than lava and ash covering the island during an eruption. Also, the diet on the island, though a refreshing change from junk food and MSG, would probably not last me in the long run - I guess my appetite is just too spoilt by the variety of food back home.

On the other hand, I will also miss the Nitung village. The warm reception from the people, who are almost always friendly and with a smile. The kids who are so interested in us, yet shun away the moment we get close. The cooling environment, even in the middle of the day. Dusta and the dogs. The outdoor lavatory that surprisingly has no sandflies. The endless supply of coconuts. The sight of Pagi doing things that no one else half his age could even dream of doing (As proof of his prowess and agility, just yesterday, Pagi had been climbing up tress that were about 20 metres or more in height - he then proceeded on to "trim" the trees of excess branches and all; we estimated that he was at it for a full 6-7 hours. Nothing, I repeat, NOTHING, can stop the Man. And I'm still indebted to him for pulling me up that treacherous upslope during the volcano expedition.).

Remember what I had said about the strength of the womenfolk that were on display when we first climbed up from the shore to the village? Throughout the stay, the scene just got repeated over and over again, albeit with different loads on their heads. Soil, bricks (sometimes weighing 40-50kgs), local produce, etc. Plus the daily household chores. Plus producing those sarongs in three weeks. Now, add one more feature - women only get to eat leftovers from the meals. The practice during mealtimes is for the food to be served on the table, and then all the men will gather to eat first, while the women will remain in the background; I must confess that I have hardly, if ever, seen, with my both eyes, any Palu'e woman eating a proper meal throughout my stay (of course, Nanga doesn't count, but even then, kids seldom get to eat first as well). This means of course, that the women stand a higher chance of being undernourished, if what they get to eat is lesser than what their bodies require. This sort of practice probably originated from olden times, and I can probably understand (but not agree with) such logic behind such practices - that men were probably busy with fishing and hunting and fighting and building, thus leading to such patriarchial practices. However, the practice seems less logical in present days; furthermore, with the need to protect against other hostile invaders gone, it seemed that men have pretty much more free time on hand. Of course, I am just an outsider who just happened to stay over on the island for a couple of days - my words weigh little. I probably can't get over the fact that women are doing alot, and yet can't eat together during mealtimes.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Where was I? Oh yes, we woke up early...

After washing up, we packed our remaining stuff and brought our bags out. Breakfast was already laid out on the table. We consumed our breakfast without much fuss; after that, we did our own stuff and waited till Pelé was ready...

It was close to eight when we were about to leave. We came out of the house, and found our bags missing! The women had done it again! Our bags had reached our intended destination before us...

We bidded goodbye to those who had gathered around the house, and then proceeded to walk through the village. Our last chance to rack up a ruckus, I thought. And there was one, though not as big as the one who created on our first day in the village.

We had to stop by the mini-provision shop - I needed some plasters. My wound, which I had thought was healing perfectly fine, had managed to open up during the course of my sleep. Gotten two plasters, but was left red-faced when I realised that my wallet was in my bag. I promised Pelé to pass him some money when we reach shore.

We pressed on and bidded more goodbyes; Naga passed our remaining carton to one of the men to be shared amongst the rest of the men - our parting gesture. We took the same route that we had taken the previous day for our swim; but before that, MD stopped to tie up and secure my plaster with his handkie - now I owe him one handkie, in addition to other endless favours that he had done for us for this trip.

We made our way down; I couldn't spring down the downslopes as I had the day before. Every step taken reminded me of the many more that would be following. It didn't take long for my shirt to be drenched in sweat. Nonetheless, after a few trips and falls, we managed to reach shore without any major glitches. There was already a party of people whom had descended via the other route. Ran to my bag and fished out some cash to pay for my plasters. Said the very last goodbyes to those who had gathered to send us off, and boarded the boat with the rest who were going to head for Maumere...

Leaving on a Motor Boat...

It wasn't that long when the first ever Singaporean landed on Palu'e shore with his butt; now this Singaporean couldn't help but savour the last few moments on this island, asking himself if he will ever get the chance to come back again, to scale the cliffs and the volcano, to wonder amongst the corals and the fishes, to banter with the womenfolk, to befriend Dusta and the dogs, to (perhaps) get a piece of that famous sarong for Mum, to get to learn how to climb a coconut tree...

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The boat slowly pulled out and headed East at around 0830 hrs; we were to travel eastwards and then southwards round the island before travelling east for Maumere (on our way here, we had travelled westwards and then northwards round the island)...

But it appeared that we weren't really headed straight for Maumere - not yet anyway.

We made two stops to pick up more passengers (including a black vavi, which one of the poor helpers had to row out from the boat to the shore in the tiny and spare rescue boat); by then all of us had moved up to the top deck of the boat.

And then we were finally on our way.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Si'a and some of the others followed us to Maumere - some were coming along to visit some friends, some just to tag along, Pelé gotta go back Batam for work, and Edo just wanna leave home to avoid being nagged at in home by his dad; he was planning to leave for Surabaya on the coming Monday via a four-day ferry trip. Naga and I were half-deliberating on whether to follow him on the trip, but then decided against spending 4 days out at sea...

As morning progressed into noon, the heat became scorching. I had been sleeping during the first hour or so, but found myself hardly able to continue to do so. I woke up and turned to staring at the surroundings to pass time; of course, there were opportunities to take some nice photos as well.

One last shot at Palu'e...

First Signs of Flores

MD occupied himself with a copy of last Sunday's papers, while Naga carried on sleeping before awaking and continuing with his "classic" book, the book that I still couldn't remember the name of. I took the opportunity of the strong sunlight to tan my arms and legs keke...

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Hours passed...

... and yet we didn't appear to be nearing Maumere one bit...

Something worse cropped up after noon - the boat ran out of fuel.

Two helpers had to row out to shore in the same spare tiny boat to buy more fuel, while the boat and the rest of us were left to drift in the seas - we ended up spinning round and round, and that got me into a headache, which meant that I would have to lie down...

The episode did provide a chance for MD and us to chat though; somehow we managed to diverge to the workings of English prefixes, with particular focus on the prefix "be" - what is "be" doing in the various English words? And then we tried to think of archaic words that has "be" prefix; MD came up with a few that we really had not herad of, but we did ocme up with one - bejewelled - that caught him as well. Hmmm, now, how did we come up with "bejewelled"?

When Naga returned to his "classic", I was suddenly reminded that I still had my last few pages of Foucault's Pendulum that I had not finished. Fished it out from my bag and finished it in, like half an hour. By then, the boat had started to move again, after the fuel had arrived. Now the whole boat reeked of the smell from the fuel...

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

We finally touched Maumere shore at around half past three. As soon as it appeared that we would be staying at the harbour for quite some time, the three of us made a beeline for the restaurant!

And I made another of those mistakes once again. I wanted to try something new, so I went for something in the menu with this lexical item "Lele" in the name. When the dish finally came...

... it was some sort of fish. A catfish...

Is this some kind of joke??? After avoiding fish for the past few days, I had to order fish!

By then, the rest of those following us on the boat had came into the restaurant as well. I was faced with a dilemma; I was quite sure that at least some of them might be offended by the fish sitting in front of me, thinking: "This rascal ordered fish the first thing he left Palu'e??? Was our fish back in the village that terrible???"

In the end, I have to try to eat the fish discreetly, taking care not to outwardly display any sign of positive expressions so that no one would be under the impression the catfish tasted way better than any other that I had tasted. It was pretty weird, my first time eating catfish and all. The best thing during the meal for me was ironically the mandarin drink, which MD had been drinking - it was sweet, ice-cold and simply best especially on a hot sunny Friday afternoon.

We ended up having a pretty sweet meal, with Naga ordering an addition serving of Ayam Goreng; as he later commented, "From today onwards, we gotta say 'goodbye' to green sh*t and 'hi' again to brown sh*t..."

As a sign of reciprocration, Naga and I shared the meal, which came up to less than RP200k for about 8 or 9 of us. We left the restaurant and left the harbour soon after, in a convoy of ojeks, towards Sentrum; this is a place where we were supposed to spend the night before departing for our separate locations. Off the main road, we were led to a village-like settlement, with small houses and mini-gardens. Our hostess was quick in receiving us, and we were led to put our bags down.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

It appeared that we were not done with travelling yet.

As evening approached, we were told to pack some stuff, for we were going to visit Pelé's "sister" who lives in another part of Maumere.

*The kinship system of the Palu'e people is quite interesting and different from ours. MD spent some time trying to find out how it actually works, and I doubt we have yet apprehend fully the mechanisms behind the system. For a start, everyone who comes from the village has two/three names; one which I have forgotten is for what, but one is definitely the baptised name, and the other is a name which one inherits from another ancestor - a good way of important who your ancestors are, according to MD (and I absolutely agree), but at the same time, confuses things. Then, it seems that someone's brother/sister need not be related directly by blood - apparently, if B is A's wife, then C, B is also the sister of C, who is A's husband. And it gets more complicated, which, at this point in time, I cannot have an example here because I'm still quite lost in the tree of things. But, yah, I have my reasons for putting "sister" in inverted commas...

This time, we took a sort of mini-bus, which is actually those type of vans that are meant to carry passengers at the back instead of goods. Which is kind of ok, except that these vans are often overloaded and overcrowded, they often have loud-blasting 90s' techno music from the blaring speakers, and that they are co-manned by teenagers who just hung out from the side door of the vans while the vans are moving. Luckily the trip didn't take very long, even though we stopped by a market to shop for rice and vegetables (presumbly for dinner).

We arrived at this neighbourhood where most people had settled after the last great eruption of the volcano on the Palu'e island. We had our shower in the bathroom; though there was candlelight, it couldn't beat the shower I had the previous day, under the moonlight and stars and all...

We had a simple dinner with some instant noodles, and as the other Palu'e men were chatting and catching up outside the proch, the three of us indulged in our own "candle-side chat" in the living room - apparently, our coming coincided with an unexpected power cut for the evening. A wide range of topics ensued, from eruptions (Krakatoa, St. Helens') to Indonesian politics (how Parabolas brought down the Suharto regime, how the Government used to divert international aid intended for those who had been affected by natural disasters to the capital and its insistence for cash instead of material aid, how Indonesians were subjected to propagandic broadcasts of ministers meeting up and discussing policies and other stuff of seemingly national interests.) to the issue of standard languages (ok I can't really remember how we got there, but it seems that the idea of a standard language spells something Facist or Marxist - this, I cannot verify haha...).

We were supposed to head for the town centre which, according to Edo, was supposed to be bustling with night activity and all. We left the house at around 8 or 9, and instead headed back for Sentrum. Which was ok with us as well, for tomorrow seemed to be a rather busy and hectic day for Naga and me; tomorrow would be the start of a real adventure...

We got back to Sentrum in a similar van, minus the techno music and the sidekicks. I finally got to call back home! I had borrowed Naga's phone and made the call. Mum picked up the phone and there was an inner sense of relief and delight as I spoke to her for the first time since the morning I had left for the trip. She asked of my trip and whether I was affected by the earthquake; I told her to inform my sis about the bag and whether I would need to replace it. On hindsight, I had probably been too anxious about letting my sis know about the bag that I forgot about other things, like how had things been going on at home, how had others in the family been doing lately. Before long, both of us felt compelled to end the call, for fear of the astronomical costs of international calls. It felt comforting, but at the same time, I was left with a sense of homesickness, that familiar feeling of being around with your own family, and an environment that you are at ease with, familiar at the back of your hand...

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Since it was getting late, we went to bed soon; MD got a room, while Naga and I shared a bed in another. I felt bad as I realised that there weren't any rooms left around, and the rest had to spread mattresses on the floor and hush around in the common area...

We swept off the grains of sand and soil on our mattress, and opened up the mosquito net, and soon tried to sleep...

But sleep would become very elusive throughout the night...

To be continued...

[East/Central Indonesia] Day 06 / 1st June 2006 - Swim, then Injury

2006-06-01T23:55:00.000+08:00

I didn't realise we had slept for so long...

Before I continue, I shall introduce one special member of the family - Dusta. Dusta is this dog which is slightly bigger than the rest of the dogs in the household. What makes him stand out is that he is just like a friendly giant, big in size but gentle in manner - he would just go about without any hassle or barking. He could be lying down on top of the water tank, enjoying the warm of the afternoon sun, or he could be just policing the outside of the house, ensuring that the other dogs do not break out into fights. On the other hand, there were a couple of small dogs that were constantly standing off against one another during meal times, and they had to be (literally) kicked out of the dining area...

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ok, the reason why I introduced Dusta at this point of my log is because...

I had been "complimented" on my snoring - everyone else in the household heard some low growl-like noises and had thought that Dusta had wandered into our ( Naga and me) room earlier on in the morning. It turned out that it was my snoring! I almost wanted to jump up in protest of my innocence - how could snores be likened to growls of a dog??? Were my snores really THAT BAD??? Anyhow, it left me face-reddened, and MD would continue to tease me throughout the day by "promising" the real Dusta beside me on bed the next morning! That aside, MD did recount an experience where he had been awakened by his family dog, when the whole family wasn't around; still, the growl-like snores had already left a deep impression on everyone. GRRRRRR...

We also woke up to a scare - MD had been bitten by a scorpion that had came out of hiding from one of the holes in the brick wall during his sleep. For awhile, there was some concern and talks of a scorpion hunt were on the cards. Eventually, everything settled down, except for some pain and discomfort, MD was otherwise well and healthy.

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After we had our breakfast, MD suggested bringing us to the outdoor chapel that he had came across several days ago. We went ahead and came to this place where it looked like an amphitheatre without the tiers of seats. The rostrum/podium was elaborately built from rocks and stones and all, and corals were actually brought up to decorate the place:

Small statue of Virgin Mary (or Gua Maria, I think, in Indonesian); the green thing above is a large piece of coral

The rostrum/podium, where the priest would be standing...

A closer look at the rostrum/podium

A panaromic shot

Before we left, we came across this cluster of bamboo trees, and MD was trying to climb up the trees using the trunks as support, like this:

Never fails to amaze us with his dexterity and agility!

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We took a route that Naga and I had not came across before, and we were soon in Nil - this extreme end of the Nitung village. We stopped by a few households, and saw how the Palu'e sarongs were painstakingly made; instead of merely sewing on the designs onto the cloth, the designs had to be laid out on this huge board, and then the threads/strings had to be aligned so that the designs were already visible even before any sewing or knitting had started. The result is not a piece of work where the designs are added to the cloth; instead the cloth is the design itself. Normally, a piece of sarong would take 3 weeks to make, and MD was singing praises of how good a quality these handmade sarongs were (Pelé had given him one, and so had someone else whom I can't remember the name of). We also saw some houses that were entirely made of wood and ratten and bamboo - the other houses we had seen beforehand mostly had zinc roofs and walls made from bricks. The womenfolk were happy to receive us with the warmest of hospitality, but the dogs did not seem to welcome the three strangers.

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We went back just in time for some lunch. I had not been my usual self in the morning, possibly because I was still recovering from the sickness that plagued me yesterday. I found myself talking alot less during the morning walk and visits. However, news of swimming and hot springs in the afternoon brought some life back into me. I was eager to check out if there are indeed friendly sharks in the waters as told to us by the village folks. At the same time, I realised that we have to negotiate the way up to the village from the shore again; I still haven't gotten over the difficulty we had encountered the first time we tried climbing up. Lunchtime provided a window of opportunity to sort out the assorted feelings within myself...

And then, there were two lunches! *FAINTS*

First time, we were served food that were more or less similar from what we had for breakfast. We were told to eat first because Pelé was not yet ready for the swim; when we had finished eating, he was still nowhere to be seen. So, after eating, there wasn't much to do except to chat! And then, we found out that today would be our last day on the island; we would be heading back to mainland tomorrow morning. It came as a surprise to Naga and myself, for we had thought that we would be staying on the island till at least Saturday. It turned out that MD had to reach SG on Sunday for some meeting the next day, while Pelé had to go back to work in Batam as well. To me, it was quite a pity; just when I thought I was getting to know about the island and its people, I had to pack up and leave. At the same time, though MD repeatedly encouraged us to stay on and told us that there wasn't any need to follow them back to mainland, we decided not to - for me, I guess it would be extremely embarrassing to hang around and yet unable to carry out a decent conversation with anyone in the village. What turmoil!

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When Pelé did arrive, MD could sense some reluctance in pursuing the activities planned for the day. Firstly, a second lunch was served - this time, there was instant noodles, pork (but not in soya sauce; just boiled I think), rice, fish and other stuff (Speaking of fish, I hardly had any fish since the first day on the island...). After the 2nd lunch, we waited again...

... while Pelé was busy bringing out some weapons that he intended to bring down to the beach - a bow and some arrows. These weapons aren't the normal ones used in those kind of competition; rather, the arrows are quite long, and the bow is almost the height of an average human. We took turns getting our hands on the bow and tried tightening and loosening the string. Sali and Edo, on the other hand, were busy sharpening and de-rusting the arow heads. Exactly how the weapons were going to be used during our swim, we had no idea, but we were let in on some history of the weapons - the last time they were used was during the last major conflict with the neighbouring village almost some twenty years ago. There had been some fatalities, though it wasn't clear if this particular set of weapons had seen bloodshed during that conflict.

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We finally got to set off during mid-noon. By then, it was apparent that we would have time only for the swim, and that we wouldn't be able to do the hot springs this time round. Which wasn't a bad thing, for we were told that getting to the hot springs would require a fair bit of climbing as well. This time, we went down to the shore via this part of the village called Chu'a - the route is this winding path without any steps, but at the same time, most of it consists of rocky terrain that threatens to destroy our footwear again! Luckily we went through it unscathed, and it only took us about half an hour to reach shore. Even then, we were still too slow - a family whom had bidded us goodbye at the village had already settled down on shore for some time when we just arrived.

The weather was just perfect for a dip. The kids were already enjoying their time in the water for some time:

MD was, as usual, game for a chat with the local folks; and, as usual, he's always a guaranteed crowd-puller :D

We brought out the swimming masks and googles that MD had bought at Maumere and began adjusting them for our use. MD and Naga would use the masks, while I would use the googles, since I couldn't fit my face plus my specs into the googles that came with the masks. After everything was fine and adjusted, we went into the water...

... and discovered that the depth of the waters increased steeply after about 10 metres away from shore. We also realised that the sea water was super-duper salty, so much so that I could feel my throat dry up when I had accidentally tasted some of the water. Nonetheless, we kept swimming further and further out...

We could see the beautiful corals on the seabed, though I didn't dive down and hence didn't get as good a view as the others. We also caught sight of schools of fish swimming amongst the corals. MD soon ventured off farther than we had imagined, and we lost sight of him for awhile.

It got to a point where the saltwater became abit too much for me to bear, and I slowly made my way back to shore...

... I finally felt my feet touch the ground, the rocks; while traversing the rocks, I felt my toe hit something, something sharp...

... I continued; as I got closer to shore, I tried to spot where the others were...

... And was about to go look for them, when I lifted my foot to check...

... Only to see fresh blood slowly leaking from an open wound on my toe...

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I made my way onto shore; once I left the waters, I took note of how the bleeding went on - the blood flowed much more freely than in water, and before long, my big toe was already covered with fresh blood.

Edo came over to check what was wrong; when he saw the injury, he motioned for me to follow him. He plucked some leaves and proceeded on to administer some traditional plant remedy that I thought only existed in Chinese period kungfu dramas, involving the chewing of the leaves and then applying the chewed leaves on the wound to stop the bleeding. The first round of treatment was not as effective; by now, another lady had come by and offered more help in the form of chewed papaya leaves. This time, it seemed to work better - the wound was temporarily bandaged up, with the leaves still there. Meanwhile, everyone else came over to check on the extent of the wound, and MD jokingly asked me if I had intentionally self-inflicted the injury in order to over-shadow his scropion bite last night.

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Our swim ended soon, but not before Pelé was done posing with his bow and arrows along the beach - how narcissistic! HAHA!

Given the rate at which the sun was setting, we decided to decline the folks' invitation of staying for some food cooked over the fire and head back to the village with a few others as fast as possible. This time, it turned out to be easier; although we were still left panting, although we rested at the same places as the first time, and although we took a longer route this time for the last leg of the climb, we rested for much shorter perioids of time, and we managed to reach our place just before last light.

It was quite amazing that my wound wasn't much affected during the climb; in fact the climb might have helped keep the wound closed. I managed to wash up the wound with the help of Md and Naga, and after a while's rest, we proceeded to wash up. Today's bath had been exceptional because our hosts specially prepared hot water for us and our sore muscles. There was an additional candle in the shower room as well, for it had already turned dark. The atmosphere was simply heavenly - with warm water plus candlelight, and a shower under the stars (the shower room was outside the house and had no roof), I took my time savouring every minute - no one knows when I will be coming back again...

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Shower was followed by dinner, then followed by satellite TV - finally, everyone would be able to catch a wider variety of programmes on TV instead of just karaoke and movie VCDs. After spending the evening watching various local channels, what left a huge impression of us was the ability of the producers of different shows to get the same faces to act in the same type of roles, especially for the baddies. In one evening, I spotted at least one actor appearing in three different shows, but portraying the same type of villian role. At first, it was quite hillarious, but then after awhile, it got monotonous, with the similar types of storylines no matter which channel you switched to. Howver, it seemed that the locals enjoyed the shows pretty well, judging by their gasps and exclamations whenever a twist occured in the shows.

MD rounded off the evening by showing everyone the video that he had taken during the volcano climb, and we agreed with him that it did look like some National Geographic showcase. After the photos and videos, we went back to do some packing for tomorrow - the boat would be leaving at around 8am.

And so, our last night in Palu'e ended on quite a high...

To be continued...

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

2006-05-31T23:46:00.000+08:00

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!

2006-05-30T22:40:00.000+08:00

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.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

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...

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

2006-05-29T22:03:00.000+08:00

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...

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

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?....)

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

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.*

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

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!

2006-05-28T23:59:00.000+08:00

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...)

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

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

2006-05-27T23:59:00.000+08:00

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....

[East/Central Indonesia] Prologue

2006-05-26T23:59:00.000+08:00

"What do you want the computer to do?"

Reluctantly, I shut down the Tecra, by now, "battle-worn" and limping, but still able to withstand term papers and FIFA 2005.

The last emails had been sent prior to shut-down; the last blog posting had been published - it feels like some last rites being performed, not necessary prior to a death, but perhaps stemming from my own excitement/anticipation/apprehension about the trip.

After all, an impromptu decision was so close to the stage of materialisation - it was hard to imagine coming up with the idea of joining our dear MD a little over five weeks ago that we (Naga + Ugly) would want to tag along with him to Palu'e (Pa Lu'e with a glottal stop just before the last vowel), after the chat with him on Good Friday along the corridor outside the Hons Room.

As I kept the Tecra back into its bag, I checked clock - 5am. Have to meet Naga at Harbourfront at 930am. Shall wake up at 7am then.

Planted myself on the sofa set - decided to forgo sleeping on the bed in case I got too comfortable and missed the wake-up time.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Spent half of Friday itself, I spent some time in school shopping for medical stuff in the co-op and returning my books at the library.

Gotten home to pack the remaining stuff - thanks to Sis, who had a large Nike bag that I can make use of for the trip.

Right then, I had been troubled with finances for the trip. Naga's estimation of the total costs and mine deviated greatly, and though he offered to bail me out in any event of shortfall, I had my reservations - Naga needed the money for his bungee-jump, plus I just feel not right to borrow large sums of money from others. "All talk about money hurt relationships", so goes one saying. Nonetheless, I had hoped for any miracle to happen beforehand, like finding a thousand bucks in the lift or something like that. When it had became clear that it ain't gonna happen, I prepared for the worst - like envisioning myself tearing 5 little pieces of the French loaf on the streets of Bali , putting each piece into my mouth and chewing it till the pieces broke into fragments so fine that I couldn't choke on them even if I had been paid to do so.

Or offering my "services" in Bali to earn any amount that could take me back home.

Hmmmm then again, maybe not. Shall attempt to swim back to Batam if all else fails.

Hah. This coming from someone who doesn't like swimming in waters with high sodium content.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

My eyes opened slightly - brightness filled up the last image of the living room in my mind.

And then I jolted out of bed.

To be continued....