the water in the toilets goes counter clockwise as it’s going down…

on a side note, everyone here says yes first thing, in response to any question. that wouldn’t be so bad, if they MEANT yes, but they don’t. they just smile really hard and say yes.

do you speak english?

YES

what time is the flight?

YES

are there seats available on the flight?

YES

can a buy a seat on the flight?

YES

i’m waiting…

YES

do you speak english?

YES

how do i get my ticket?

YES

you don’t really speak english do you?

YES

can i speak with some one else please?

YES

i’m waiting…

YES

you get the idea…

sumatra is much more laid back than either java or bali. more real feeling, foreign, not as western. i like it. the people are still very friendly and as helpful as they can be.

the land makes two words come to mind, green, and huge. the place is just plain old BIG. it is by far the greenest, lushest place i’ve been so far. enormous expanses of dense forests. very intense. much slower than the other islands.

i arrived last night at the hotel i booked after a crazy conversation with the front desk of the hotel*. i finally got there and it was fine. not great, but better than most hotels in china i’ve stayed in. totally acceptable, a/c and hot water for 25 USD. Not bad. it is the last mosquito free, cool, comfortable night for a while. now, i head for the tsunami zone, where comfort is non existant, and even food is hard to come by.

i check in, make sure breakfast is included and head out to see an aid worker that had to be medivacked out of melabeu due to an acute abdomen. she needed emergency surgery. luckily for her there was a german surgeon (doing some aid work) in melabeu that fixed her up and sent her to medan to recuperate. anyway, no one had heard anything from the sick woman for days, and they asked me to check up on her. it turned out that the surgeon did a great job (a german woman) and i was the first visitor she had in a while. once that was straightened out i went out to see a little of medan. (i was really tired, due to a run in with the chatty rooster the night before) i found, of all things, a huge MALL! i would say a western style mall but it was much, much nicer. very modern and clean.

i had a great dish of pasta and went to a supermarket to get some supplies for the week in the tsunami zone. i got a bunch of groceries (all dry goods) for a total of 7.50 USD. then i had a great dish of pasta, and headed back to the hotel.

i packed everything that evening cause i needed to get to the airport early for the UN flight. i went to bed early, got up early, and went to breakfast early. as i was checking out, the hotel was trying to add something to my bill (the breakfast i had paid for). lots of confusion and twenty minutes later i was checked out (i think it was an honest mistake on their part). i got to the airport 15 minutes late and the liason person for the flight left without me! i went inside and found the UN person in charge and he said it was no big problem but i couldn’t get on that flight anyway because my liason had never put me on the manifest!

anyway, the next flight was supposed to leave at one. it was late due to rerouting because a gas explosion had severely burned three kids. the red cross and UN changed all the flights to get the kids to a hospital and everything had to be redirected. i made it onto the flight at 2:30. we landed in melabeu at 3:30.

*please refer to the next entry (Yes)

i was told that jakarta was a pit, a dangerous black hole of nefarious characters, that even savvy indonesians are nervous in. i decided to skip it. that said, it’s not so easy to escape the tendrils of what karma has in store for you. more on that in a minute…

after visiting two more temples (candi mendut and some other tiny one), my friendly driver guided me back to jogja, and my guest house with the crowing cock. my wonderfully revisionist memory forgot exactly how loud the bird was. REALLY LOUD! i made it til 3am before it finally woke me. that was the beginning of my day…

then after calling and confirming my flight, i got to the airport early enough to discover that my flight had been cancelled. the next flight was 6 hours. i complained. they said tough luck. i made a stink and they put me on another flight – standby – 3 hours later. i was fourth or fifth on the waiting list. i went to grab something to eat. an hour later i came back and checked and they had put a group of 13 people in front of me on the standby list! after another 30 minutes of arguing i asked for a refund and went and bought another ticket, from a different airline and finally got out of jakarta.

it is unreal the amount of pollution there is in the air here in indonesia. it is almost impossible to have a moment where fresh, clean air reaches your lungs, even when you’re in the countryside…