Escape from Simeulue

And yes, I'm bloody happy about it!

And I wasn’t the only one. It was a bit of a mass exodus from Simeulue; many staff on the Susi flight were ARC. Sendhi, Yudi and I all had a night’s stop in Medan, so we cruised around Sun Plaza, went shopping, hung out in our lurvely hotel, jumped in the pool, had cocktails, did normal things. Ahhhhh....

I didn't realise how tired and stressed I was until I left Simeulue. It took me two days to recover all my sleep.

So, it was then off to Yogyakarta (affectionately known as Jogja), Java, for an enjoyable weekend cruising around Jogja with Embun, a previous ARC Simeulue employee, who now works in the Banda Aceh office. We did all the touristy stuff; visited the Taman Sari (the water garden where the Sultan used to entertain all his wives) and Royal Palace (the previous haunt of the Dutch government), visited Desa Perak (literally Silver Village – where you can buy beautiful jewellery), and cruised Malioboro St, the main shopping/touristy drag, with all its crappy tourist outlets. There was a motorbike festival there on Saturday night, and there was a live concert and other entertainment all along the street, so it was a cool place to be. All the bikies were out in force showing off their bikes, plus you could buy a whole bunch of leather, helmets, stickers and other accessories. It certainly was a bike fest! We eventually retired to a nice little bar with live music and amused ourselves with the drunk old Indonesians and their drunk old dancing.

But the real reason I was in Jogja was for a week's language course at Alam Bahasa Language School. I'd been trying to get my hands on this course since I first arrived; first I was told that the concept had been cancelled, and then a few months later I discovered other staff were still going, so (quite annoyed) I was finally allowed to go. I've only got 3 months left of my contract (but I might extend) but goddammit I want to be able to communicate more effectively in Simeulue! Then, for example, I can have a proper conversation with my field staff and communicate with the community in Salang.

I had booked myself into the school’s homestay accommodation, in order to ‘make myself’ practice what I learned in the course – and I was glad I did. The Suharno family were very welcoming and friendly, and had a beautiful house that was only about 15 mins walk to Alam Bahasa every morning. There were always people coming and going in Suharnoville – all 4 of their sons and their families, which made for a nice atmosphere, and allowed me to talk to different people as well as have enough time to myself. They were also really helpful with information about how to get around, where different services were located etc. Lovely people.

The language course was great, it was all one-on-one tuition and I learned so much. It really brought together all the words that were jumbled around in my head, and put them into the right context, not to mention proper sentences! The staff there were cool, and organised karaoke one night at the very Japanese-sounding “The Happy Puppy” karaoke bar… hilarious! Let’s just say on one side of the room were all the bule’s, who couldn’t sing for shit, and the Indonesians, all who did karaoke regularly and were pros. So it was a real contrast in terms of songs chosen (Indonesian: all sloppy love songs; Bule’s: old school tunes like the Beatles) and the quality of singers… again, hilarious!

My week also included a day trip to visit Borobodur, the huge Buddhist complex outside of Jogja. It was really beautiful there, like a small-scale Angkor Wat. I must admit I thought it would be bigger, but it was one big temple set against some moderate hills and a vast plain, the views of which you could gaze out across from the top. The temple was composed of a number of tiers that reduced in size from bottom to top. On the very top was a large dome that represented an upturned lotus flower, and a whole bunch of candis that also represented the lotus, each containing a buddha inside. It is good luck to reach inside them and touch the feet of the buddha – if you can reach! Tip-toes required!

The other highlight of my trip was the group of bikie mates I made while I was there. I met them one night returning from a swim at the nearby hotel pool. They were sitting outside of their mobile phone shop, one of the many I passed on my way to school every morning, drinking cheap wine and smoking ciggies. They invited me to join, and I did, and once I knew these guys, each day after my lessons I would stop in at their shop and say hello, hang out inside and drink tea with them. They were all nice guys, fun to hang out with and belonged to the local chapter of a classic motorbike club. They were into wearing black, each had a cool old bike from around the 1950’s or so, and were very dedicated to their cause!

They invited me to their friend’s wedding, as well as the pre-wedding party the night before. I was the only bulé there, not to mention the only young female – none of the guys’ girlfriends came because they don’t drink – not that it stopped me… But it was good fun. The wedding was also nice, held in a big community hall with all the grandeur of the traditional Javanese wedding ceremony and the wedding garb that the lucky couple wear. What was most fun about hanging out with these guys was ‘rolling’ – or cruising around town on their motorbikes, which seemed to be a favourite pastime :)

So after the wedding I bid my new friends goodbye and boarded the 1:50am train from Jogja to Malang… more adventures to come in the next thrilling instalment…