Beneath the pavement lies sunshine!
Trip Start
Jun 05, 2006
1
23
94
Trip End
Jul 15, 2007
Bukittinggi,
Indonesia
Saturday, July 1, 2006
It is crazy how things turn out? I am writing this from a small dusty Islamic city sitting in the shadows of 2 huge active volcanos. Unfortunitly due to the West's uncertainty with the Islamic world, the devastating destruction of the Sunami, and the unfortuntly recent Bali bombings tourism here has been crippled. There might be 5 other tourist in this whole city.
After my last minute decision to head South and my lack of planning I ended up in the sleazy boarder town/island of Singapore and Indonesia clueless. All boarder towns for the most part all over the world are the same. They are infested with low lives that crab off of the tourist that pass through. They where especially aggressive here! They were trying to pull me every which way into there taxis and sell me God knows what else? When people are being aggressive and yelling at me in a foreign language I get nervous. I missed the boat that I wanted to catch by hours. The only thing I knew was that I did not want to stay any longer then I had to in this town! So I bought a ticket on the next boat out. I still do not actually know where I bought a ticket to? All I know was that 4 hours latter I was let off on a dock in some small Indonesian village. This place is obviously not a "hot spot" on the tourist trail. The locals were all around me within the first minute I stepped on the dock. They were not trying to sell me really anything they were just curious about me. I had know idea what I was walking into? Obvioulsy not many travelers stumble into this small village. I like when I end up places where the locals are interested in me. I travel because I am curious about there world so it is a nice transaction when they are interested in mine as well. Everyone wanted to still a glance at me. A little awkward at first! I could easily break the tension by making eye contact and giving a quick smile. They would usually look away in laughter. The Kids were not as bashful they circled around me and stared. After a quick minute they made there first attempts at communicating with me. They were quick to point out the obvious things such as that I do not speak Indonesian,I have blue eyes, and I have white skin? Luckly for me in 1 hour they had a boat heading in the direction I wanted to go. I hung out with the kids for the rest of my time there. It was all in good fun till I saw the boat that was coming to pick me up and bring me to my next destination. The best way to describe my first reaction for a lack of better words when I saw the boat that was to be my home for the next 12 hours was "Oh No!" My second reaction was not that much better. It was an slow moving cargo ship that was bringing goods and live stock up the river to market. There was an undescribable smell and the living conditions were meager at very best in an "optimistic world?" The human cargo was stacked 2 high on the 3 decks on subdivided platforms. Each person had about 3 feet across and 4 feet high of personal space. In the most unlikely place I found the most magical moments of my journey to date! Words cannot describe how special my time on this boat was. If nothing else I provided that boat with more hours of entertainment then a "David Hasselhoff's greatest hit record" in a German disco-tech! All in all the journey to where I am today took me about 28 hours in transit!
Facts:
*Indonesia is the 4th most populated country in the world.
*It is composed of more then 15,000 islands.
*Indonesia is has the largest Muslium population in the world(over 20 million.)
In the most unlikely places the truly memrobale moments take place.
Finding beauty in simplicity -Johnny Nomad
