Owning a computer, roh and I presumed, would make it so much easier to keep in touch with everyone and keep our blog updated. Which it would be if we were anywhere near internet access!! After 10 days in the perhentians without not only internet access but regular electricity, beer, or running water, we are now writing this from Pulau Weh, an island north of Banda Aceh in Sumatra, that, again lacks running water and net access! It does have electricity and beer tho.
Considering this, Singapore to us was overwhelmingly luxurious!Very, very, very expensive luxury at that. Well rested after the train ride, we found a backpackers in Little India to call home for a couple of nights, that not only had electricity, but AIRCON, wifi, massive (non-water restriction) shower heads with HOT water!! and even a (very expensive) washing machine!! Being poor, we opted for our first dorm beds this trip, at a whopping S$18 each!! (AUS$12) Might sound cheap to some, but keep in mind that our daily budget is $10-15 a day each, and you can imagine we were a little shell shocked. Singapore is a tiny place and really easy to get around on the MRT. We didn't really have that much time to explore but both found it strange to be in such a modern place again with societal rules: no sitting on the floor, no litter; and anti-terrorism posters everywhere, but the “no durian” stickers reminded us that we were still in Asia.
We went out to dinner with some Japanese friends of mine living in Singapore and had a wonderful meal of REAL Japanese food, with REAL vegetables and not just the odd piece of carrot you get in Indonesia and Malaysia! Sensing our cheapness, maybe from the way we both scoffed our food down like it was the first time we'd eaten in days (it had been about a day due to the train) or maybe due to the odour of our cleanest, not washed in 2 weeks clothes, they kindly paid for dinner, drove us home and offered us use of their washing machine!! yay! After spending the next morning looking for a dentist for roh's sore tooth we headed to the airport to meet kezkez!! For those who don't know kez, she is the third leg of our Tangalooma Tripod, and the entire reason for our Singapore diversion.
It was a tad surreal seeing kez at the beginning but lots of hugs, laughs and a couple more than a couple of beers later and it was tickle fights all round. How's your foot kez?
With kez hobbling along, we had dinner at a funky hawker market that had an amazing array of vegetarian food with fake chicken and pork?, and the cheapest beers in Singapore- only S$5.50 (AUS$4.40) for a tallie. Still expensive but hey. Had quite a few beers with dinner, then more with naan bread for dessert and then it was time to put kez to bed with only 5 hours til check-in for her connecting flight. And so our 8 hour reunion ended.
We on the other hand slept in a little before I went on a selling adventure. I bought a brand new $300 backpack before we left oz, but on the road discovered I absolutely HATED everything about the pack and have pretty much been looking for a new one from day 1. I finally found my perfect pack in Singapore, so now found myself owning 2 packs!! We heard of a street around the corner from our backpackers where people gathered to buy things so I decided to sell my pack. After a lot of interest but no offers I finally found a taker and my $300 bag was gone for $8!! oh well! So with my new fantastic pack and a lot less complaining on my behalf we headed to the bus station and back to KL.
Back in familiar KL, and with a new backpack ready to fill with goodies, we headed out to the night markets only to run into 2 very familiar faces!! Leigh and Pete from GETWET on Tangalooma!! Kez had also randomly met them on the plane but it was still pretty crazy to see them after more than a year!
After devouring our last Indian meal for a while, and laughing at the randomness of AIRASIA security, we were on our way back to Indonesia, still questioning why we were going back at all.
Flying into Banda Aceh was interesting. You can still clearly see the change in shape of the coastline from the Tsunami. I guess because we both still vividly had the images of tsunami-struck Banda in our minds, we were kind of expecting to still see destruction everywhere. But, whilst there are still a lot of reminders, such as boats on top of houses in the middle of the city, and big chunks of land where house stilt after house stilt remain, to the naked eye, it all seems quite “fixed”. In the many years since the Tsunami, the countless NGO's have re-built identical kitchenless house after identical kitchenless house, erected schools, sponsored children, donated computers to powerless schools, and donated hundreds of bicycles. Without a doubt the presence of the NGO's has been imperative to helping restore some degree of normality to the Acehnese people, but it has also sent prices through the roof!
With maids, cooks, drivers, interpreters and even gardeners to the NGO staff suddenly being paid sometimes 10 times their original wage, many people left their jobs to work for the NGO's. Thus, higher wages, plus lots of aid money floating around, as well as a little of good old Indonesian corruption, has led to prices being around double that of the rest of the country.
Accommodation in a dodgy little room cost us 100,000IDR (prob 40,000 elsewhere), and dinner at the hawker markets cost us 14,000 for fried rice (2,000 normally!). Not to mention the cost of taxis and becak!
The sad thing is that with most of the bigger-funded NGO's now gone or leaving, the economy is really suffering. We've spoken to and become friends with a lot of NGO connected people and there is still so much more on the grassroots level that needs to be done. But unless you speak Indonesian there isn't much you can do to help. (I'm working on it!)
We are now in Iboih beach, on the island of Pulau Weh, 45mins by speedboat from the, newly completed by Australian aid money, ferry terminal in Banda Aceh (we were randomly there for the grand opening!). We have been here for 2weeks now and are already pretty much locals. The 10 min walk from our, overhanging the water, bungalow into town, now takes sometimes an hour as we catch up on the goss and stop for idle chit chat with every local we pass! The snorkelling here is amazing and the diving even more mind-blowing! On a bad day it is about 20m vis and its near impossible to go into the water WITHOUT seeing atleast 1 moray eel, 5 clownfish colonies, swarms of trigger fish and puffer fish and probably a turtle! Its just amazing! With so much underwater beauty to explore, Roh has started helping out at the dive shop and I have already finished my advanced! So far roh has been lucky enough to kiss a very inquisitive turtle, and I had a close-up encounter with a beautiful 60cm Trumpetfish who took a liking to me!
The only downside to all of this perfect-ness? Yet again, a lack of internet access, although we do have power now! So it might be a while before you actually get this! Haha.
That and the fact that we are not only in a Muslim area, but an area ruled by Sharia law. So any out of wedlock relations are punishable with public caning (we are on our honeymoon), nudity (showing arms or above the knees) is a big no-no (except at the beach), and beer is contraban.
You can still buy beer, although it takes a couple of minutes for the shop-owners to dig it up from their secret burial patch in case of police raids! The ground keeps the beers nice and cold though, and you get used to the rust and dirt on the cans! It's no surprise that these are the most expensive beers in Indonesia! A can costs 20,000 IDR (AUS$2.50). Definitely a luxury good.
Nonetheless, roh and I have agreed on staying here for a “while.” The exact definition of “while” is yet to be determined. I have a couple of people wanting massages and am planning to start yoga classes soon. And roh is loving helping out at the dive shop. We have a good group of friends and are keen to thoroughly explore the underwater paradise of Pulau Weh. If you don't hear from us for a while, you can assume we are still here.
Considering this, Singapore to us was overwhelmingly luxurious!Very, very, very expensive luxury at that. Well rested after the train ride, we found a backpackers in Little India to call home for a couple of nights, that not only had electricity, but AIRCON, wifi, massive (non-water restriction) shower heads with HOT water!! and even a (very expensive) washing machine!! Being poor, we opted for our first dorm beds this trip, at a whopping S$18 each!! (AUS$12) Might sound cheap to some, but keep in mind that our daily budget is $10-15 a day each, and you can imagine we were a little shell shocked. Singapore is a tiny place and really easy to get around on the MRT. We didn't really have that much time to explore but both found it strange to be in such a modern place again with societal rules: no sitting on the floor, no litter; and anti-terrorism posters everywhere, but the “no durian” stickers reminded us that we were still in Asia.
We went out to dinner with some Japanese friends of mine living in Singapore and had a wonderful meal of REAL Japanese food, with REAL vegetables and not just the odd piece of carrot you get in Indonesia and Malaysia! Sensing our cheapness, maybe from the way we both scoffed our food down like it was the first time we'd eaten in days (it had been about a day due to the train) or maybe due to the odour of our cleanest, not washed in 2 weeks clothes, they kindly paid for dinner, drove us home and offered us use of their washing machine!! yay! After spending the next morning looking for a dentist for roh's sore tooth we headed to the airport to meet kezkez!! For those who don't know kez, she is the third leg of our Tangalooma Tripod, and the entire reason for our Singapore diversion.
It was a tad surreal seeing kez at the beginning but lots of hugs, laughs and a couple more than a couple of beers later and it was tickle fights all round. How's your foot kez?
With kez hobbling along, we had dinner at a funky hawker market that had an amazing array of vegetarian food with fake chicken and pork?, and the cheapest beers in Singapore- only S$5.50 (AUS$4.40) for a tallie. Still expensive but hey. Had quite a few beers with dinner, then more with naan bread for dessert and then it was time to put kez to bed with only 5 hours til check-in for her connecting flight. And so our 8 hour reunion ended.
We on the other hand slept in a little before I went on a selling adventure. I bought a brand new $300 backpack before we left oz, but on the road discovered I absolutely HATED everything about the pack and have pretty much been looking for a new one from day 1. I finally found my perfect pack in Singapore, so now found myself owning 2 packs!! We heard of a street around the corner from our backpackers where people gathered to buy things so I decided to sell my pack. After a lot of interest but no offers I finally found a taker and my $300 bag was gone for $8!! oh well! So with my new fantastic pack and a lot less complaining on my behalf we headed to the bus station and back to KL.
Back in familiar KL, and with a new backpack ready to fill with goodies, we headed out to the night markets only to run into 2 very familiar faces!! Leigh and Pete from GETWET on Tangalooma!! Kez had also randomly met them on the plane but it was still pretty crazy to see them after more than a year!
After devouring our last Indian meal for a while, and laughing at the randomness of AIRASIA security, we were on our way back to Indonesia, still questioning why we were going back at all.
Flying into Banda Aceh was interesting. You can still clearly see the change in shape of the coastline from the Tsunami. I guess because we both still vividly had the images of tsunami-struck Banda in our minds, we were kind of expecting to still see destruction everywhere. But, whilst there are still a lot of reminders, such as boats on top of houses in the middle of the city, and big chunks of land where house stilt after house stilt remain, to the naked eye, it all seems quite “fixed”. In the many years since the Tsunami, the countless NGO's have re-built identical kitchenless house after identical kitchenless house, erected schools, sponsored children, donated computers to powerless schools, and donated hundreds of bicycles. Without a doubt the presence of the NGO's has been imperative to helping restore some degree of normality to the Acehnese people, but it has also sent prices through the roof!
With maids, cooks, drivers, interpreters and even gardeners to the NGO staff suddenly being paid sometimes 10 times their original wage, many people left their jobs to work for the NGO's. Thus, higher wages, plus lots of aid money floating around, as well as a little of good old Indonesian corruption, has led to prices being around double that of the rest of the country.
Accommodation in a dodgy little room cost us 100,000IDR (prob 40,000 elsewhere), and dinner at the hawker markets cost us 14,000 for fried rice (2,000 normally!). Not to mention the cost of taxis and becak!
The sad thing is that with most of the bigger-funded NGO's now gone or leaving, the economy is really suffering. We've spoken to and become friends with a lot of NGO connected people and there is still so much more on the grassroots level that needs to be done. But unless you speak Indonesian there isn't much you can do to help. (I'm working on it!)
We are now in Iboih beach, on the island of Pulau Weh, 45mins by speedboat from the, newly completed by Australian aid money, ferry terminal in Banda Aceh (we were randomly there for the grand opening!). We have been here for 2weeks now and are already pretty much locals. The 10 min walk from our, overhanging the water, bungalow into town, now takes sometimes an hour as we catch up on the goss and stop for idle chit chat with every local we pass! The snorkelling here is amazing and the diving even more mind-blowing! On a bad day it is about 20m vis and its near impossible to go into the water WITHOUT seeing atleast 1 moray eel, 5 clownfish colonies, swarms of trigger fish and puffer fish and probably a turtle! Its just amazing! With so much underwater beauty to explore, Roh has started helping out at the dive shop and I have already finished my advanced! So far roh has been lucky enough to kiss a very inquisitive turtle, and I had a close-up encounter with a beautiful 60cm Trumpetfish who took a liking to me!
The only downside to all of this perfect-ness? Yet again, a lack of internet access, although we do have power now! So it might be a while before you actually get this! Haha.
That and the fact that we are not only in a Muslim area, but an area ruled by Sharia law. So any out of wedlock relations are punishable with public caning (we are on our honeymoon), nudity (showing arms or above the knees) is a big no-no (except at the beach), and beer is contraban.
You can still buy beer, although it takes a couple of minutes for the shop-owners to dig it up from their secret burial patch in case of police raids! The ground keeps the beers nice and cold though, and you get used to the rust and dirt on the cans! It's no surprise that these are the most expensive beers in Indonesia! A can costs 20,000 IDR (AUS$2.50). Definitely a luxury good.
Nonetheless, roh and I have agreed on staying here for a “while.” The exact definition of “while” is yet to be determined. I have a couple of people wanting massages and am planning to start yoga classes soon. And roh is loving helping out at the dive shop. We have a good group of friends and are keen to thoroughly explore the underwater paradise of Pulau Weh. If you don't hear from us for a while, you can assume we are still here.
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