Airplannne!

I always wondered why the US Embassy in Indonesia strongly recommends for us to fly Garuda Indonesia - the national carrier when flying in Indonesia. In the past few years, a few private airlines have opened up and offer very competitive prices. I've always thought about trying one of the other ones just to see what they're like. BUT not after today!

I got a forward from one of the listserves I subscribe to, and it talked about the age of aircraft fleet for Indonesian airlines. Scary!

Garuda Indonesia's average fleet age is 10.2. Other airlines I see around Banda Aceh and Medan are Adam Air, Lion Air, Mandala Air, and Jatayu Air. They're at 18.1, 17.3, 23.9, and 27.1 years respectively. 27.1! Mandala Air was the one that crashed in September 2005 right outside of Medan, killing 120+ passengers onboard.

To give you some other airlines to compare to: Singapore Airline's fleet averages 6.1 years, JetBlue is at 2.1, Southwest is at 9.4 and United is at a whooping 11.7 years. If you want to check other airlines you frequent, go to www.airfleets.net

But, statistically, it's still safer to fly than to drive! ...Well, maybe that statistic only applies to the US.

Shake Shake Shake!

Earthquake #15

Magnitude? 5.3
Date? Wednesday, 26 April, 11:38:53 local time
Epicenter? 80 miles SSE of Banda Aceh or 4.499°N, 95.944°E
What was I doing? Sitting in bed writing an email

Rain rain go away

There's a saying in Aceh that if it rains on Friday, then it'll rain all next week. It's been true so far! Everyday since Friday, there has been rain. And right now, it's pouring like crazy outside.

Lots of rain = lots of standing water = lots of nyamuk - our best pal - mosquitos. I've gotta put this swatter back to work!

On Travel

This blog is suppose be about my life in Aceh, but as I browse through the posts in the past few months, seems like more entries have been about life on the road versus happenings in Banda Aceh.

I've done quite a bit of traveling the last 11 months, probably the most concentrated period of traveling ever in my life (I do work hard for my job!) This morning, while I was reading on the beach of Sabang, I came across this passage in Paulo Coelho's The Pilgrimage that really hit home:

When you travel, you experience, in a very practical way, the act of rebirth. You confront completely new situations, the day passes more slowly, and on most journeys you don't even understand the language the people speak. So you are like a child just out of the womb. You begin to attach much more importance to the things around you because your survival depends upon them. You begin to be more accessible to others because they may be able to help you in difficult situations. And you accept any small favor from the gods with great delights, as if it were an episode you would remember for the rest of your life.

At the same time, since all things are new, you see only the beauty in them, and you feel happy to be alive.

Here's my list of places to see before I'm done here:

• Eastern Malaysia - Sarawak and climb Mt. Kinabalu
• Laos - Valley of Jars and Luang Prabang
• Myanmar - Yangon and Bagan
• Cambodia - Angkor Wat
• New Zealand - Hobbit Land :)
• Australia - Uluru, Australian Open
• Train from Singapore to Changmai (via KL, Penang, Langkawi, Koh Samui, Phuket, and Bangkok)
  

As you can see, I've defintely got the travel bug and always looking for travel buddies.

Ok. I promise, will write more about Aceh from now on. Gotta pack my bag, going to Lhokseumawe tomorrow morning.

Guest House Livin'

There are 6-7 hotels in town and I can think of 1 maybe 2, that have been given the sort-of-thumbs-up by the international NGOs and donors. With the massive rebuilding of the entire province, hundreds of consultants come in and out of Aceh each week. Some stay for a few days, while others stay for months at a time. So, you're probably wondering where all these people stay? Some organizations have their own guesthouses (like mine) and provide consultants with housing. Other organizations, especially the smaller ones or the newly set up ones rely instead on Acehnese operated guesthouses.

The Acehnese are very resourceful and entrepreneurial. A lot of homeowners who have a decent size house have fixed up 1 or 2 rooms in their home and brought it up to "western standards," which means installing an AC and a hot water heater. A friend of mine was living in one of these establishments. He thought he was only going to stay for a week a two, but ended up staying way longer than that. In his case, the man of the house is a pretty high up guy in the local government. He and his family moved into the garage in order to rent out as many rooms as possible.

My friend made a short video of his guest house. Click on "Guest House".

Shake Shake Shake!

Earthquake #14

This was a big one, but it was kind of far away. Def shook for a long time.

Magnitude? 6.0
Date? Thursday, 20 April, 02:36:46 local time
Epicenter? 245 miles SW of Banda Aceh or 2.722°N, 93.133°E
What was I doing? Sleeping

Pictures from Vietnam

Here are some of the photos from my week in Northern Vietnam.

Please check out my friend Christen's blog if you want to find out more about what life is like in Hanoi and all the other places she's been to her on 2-year trip.

Back to Banda

While I was gone, 1 staff got married, another staff's wife had a baby boy, and a new Italian restaurant opened up in town - I hear it's pretty good. But all in all, everything else remained constant in Aceh: Oxfam and Save the Children are still battling leakage/corruption allegations and the rebuilding continues.

I've had a great 2 weeks on the road and for once, I don't fell like I need a vacation from my vacation. I was able to spend a nice relaxing day in Singapore on Saturday. Didn't do much other than hanging out at the mall watching a massive Scrabble competition for kids, a movie in the theater (Inside Man) and browsing for books and magazines at Border's.

Thinking back to my vacation, there were a lot of highlights. Here are 4 in no particular order:

• Watching my dad try Durian for the first time and actually liking it, despite it's odor.
• Zipping through the "Tonkinese Alps" of Northern Vietnam on the back of a 21-yr old Soviet Minsk motorcycle.
• Bargaining with vendors and designing my own jewelry at the Jade Market in Hong Kong.
• Enjoying complete tranquility in Halong Bay.
  

Vietnam pictures will be up soon! I'm in the process of switching computers, so it'll take me a little longer to migrate and load.

Pics from Hong Kong

I've created a seperate phlog (photo log) of my pictures from Hong Kong. They can be seen here.

Enjoy!

Greetings from Vietnam

After crusing through the former British colony of Hong Kong and spending a lovely day at the former Portugese colony of Macau, I've made my way to Vietnam, also known as Indochine to the French.



I spent a day in Hanoi with my friend Christen, her boyfriend Josh and their friend Vinny, and Vinny and I boarded an 8-hour train Sunday evening and headed for Sapa in northwestern Vietnam.



In Sapa we trekked through a couple of minority tribal villages and also took a couple of amazing motorcycle rides through mountain passes. I headed back for Hanoi and Tuesday evening and arrived at around 5am. At 7:30am, I was picked up and after a 3 hour bus ride, boarded a boat in Halong Bay, where I spent 2 days crusing around the bay filled with 3000+ limestone islands. I'll explore more of Hanoi tomorrow and will leave for Singapore tomorrow night.

Hmm

Yesterday, after a long afternoon of shopping, my mom and I decided to go to one of these foot reflexology places that are all over Hong Kong. We bargained our way down to 45 minutes of foot rub plus a bonus 10 minute shoulder and back massage for HK$90 each, which is about $12.

Half way into my foot rub, the masseuse's cell phone rings, and she gives me the one-handed treatment while her other hand is busy texting back the caller. I give her a weird look but accept it as the norm.

Later on, during my 10 minute bonus back rub - it was actually not a rub, but instead she was walking all over my back while holding on to a bar that's been mounted into the ceiling. So she's literally walking all over me while digging her heals into my back (ouch!) and then her phone rings again! This time, she ends up chatting with her friend for a good 3 minutes, while still digging her feet into me. At the end, she proceeds to crack everything single bone in my back and neck.

I'm still alive and walking.

Hello from Hong Kong!

I'm spending Day 3 in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong reminds me a little of the Bay Area. Beautiful skyline surrounded by mountains and water. It's a truly cosmopolitan city, especially this past weekend, when the annual Hong Kong Seven (Rugby tournmament) took place. On my flight into Hong Kong, there were crazy Aussies to zen Thai monks.

The weekend has been filled by visiting touristy sights, punctuated by shopping and eating out with relatives. I'm getting quite a family history lesson here: meeting distant relatives I've heard about but have never met and piecing together how everyone fits together in the big family.

Now the bad news, I think I've lost my cellphone. There still a slllllimm chance it'll turn up. Keep your fingers crossed!

UPDATE: Found my phone! I'm back in business.