Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (and Ferries too!)
Trip Start
Jun 07, 2008
1
5
7
Trip End
Aug 12, 2008
Banda Aceh,
Sumatra,
Indonesia
Sunday, July 27, 2008
That next morning, I caught the ferry to Medan, Sumatra. Let me elaborate- the ferry from HELL. It started off just fine, but the sea was unusually bumpy (similar to my flight the previous day- go figure), and EVERYONE was getting sick- all over the place. I would say about 90% of people in my cabin were sea sick. I have never expended so much energy on just maintaining my equilibrium and sanity
Our View, Ko Samet, Thailand
. I iced my nose and upper lip with tiger balm, and focused all my energy on breathing exercises. But all my hard work paid off because 5 1/2 hrs later we were (finally) disembarking and I still hadn't gotten sick. My new Austrian friend Chris and I caught the bus to Medan, and then hopped on the 12 hr night bus to Banda Aceh. We were still a bit travel dented and green from the ferry, and we probably both got less than 2 hrs sleep on that bus. First of all it was FREEZING, the A/C must have been broken because even with our bus-issued wool blankets, we couldn't stop shivering. Secondly, they were playing (as they often do on buses in SE Asia) the loudest and worst movie. It wasn't that the plot was so bad, for the life of me I can't even remember what it was, but every five or ten minutes the little girl in the movie was screaming a piercing scream- and holding it for at least a minute or two at a time. After the movie ended (although it seemed to go on forever), I actually felt battered and abused from the incessant screams. Now you would think that by the end of this bus ride we would be clamoring at the doors to get out, but as it turned out I had a bit of Stockholm Syndrome, and didn't want to leave the safe confines of my bus just to enter the swarm of aggressive taxi drivers. Finally we stumbled out, rather zombie like, had some coffee and sweets and got a bemo to the next ferry.
We got the 9:30am fast ferry (after having to wait about 2.5 hrs), and were at Pulau Weh before 11. I remember looking outside for the first time as we were docking (because as soon as we got on the ferry, we both crashed on the sofas and didn't open our eyes once) and actually not believing my eyes. Paradise doesn't quite express what I saw at that moment; the sea looked like it had millions of diamonds sparkling in every direction, the sand was gold dust and the palm trees were leafy emeralds
Our Private Cove, Ko Samet, Thailand
. It was as if someone had created a scene completely out of precious jewels. We got an hr taxi to Iboih beach, found a rustic little bungalow right on the beach (and also encased in jungle), and immediately jumped in the aquamarine waters.The next 8 days went something like this: breakfast at Mama's followed by scuba diving, then tea, biscuits and a swing in the hammock at the dive shop, lunch at Mama's, and then we would either read, swim, play on the beach, snorkel or nap the afternoons away. Then supper at Mama's, and usually asleep before 10. The diving and snorkeling was amazing! We saw all sorts of things, the coral walls were breathtaking the most memorable sightings include moray eels (albiet common, its my favorite sea creature of them all!), and a school of about 15 shiny barracudas that we got to swim with for a bit. On our second to last day, we went snorkeling and saw two white tipped reef sharks- very very cool!!!
One day, we switched it up and rented a motorbike to explore the island. We bought fruit, ate noodles (probably our first meal not at Mama's), drove around a lot and eventually found ourselves on an even more beautiful beach for the remainder of the afternoon. During our whole time at Iboih, there were probably between 8-12 other travelers in the whole town. There was a real sense of community; everyone knew each other's name and we all shared a communal mandi, equipped with a squat toilet and a basin for bucket showers. Needless to say I only washed my hair twice!
We didn't know how long we were planning on staying, but eventually we decided to uproot our lazy moss covered bodies and move on to Danau Toba...
