A year ago today, I woke up in the big comfy bed of the lux Four Seasons Jakarta, took a nice hot shower (not knowing it was going to be my last one in 2 months), had a sumptuous breakfast buffet (knowing it was going to be my last good meal for awhile), and then was promptly shipped out to Aceh. We touched down in Aceh at around 5:50pm (these were the days when the 12:50 Garuda flight was still the 1:50 flight). My boss decided that we were going to go straight down to Ulee Lheue - the hardest hit part of Banda Aceh to show me some tsunami damage. After a somber car ride, we ended up in Ulee Kareng where I was greeted by all of the project staff - most of them spoke very little English or too scared of me to speak to me. After experiencing my first Kopi Aceh and feeling out of place, we then went to Banda Seafood for dinner (these were the days when it was the only good restaurant in town). By the time we finished dinner, it was past 9pm, and poor jet-lagged me, was about to do a face plant in my udang lada hitam. We finally arrive at the office and guesthouse. First thing the boss wants to do is to give me a grand tour of the compound. By the time I stepped into my room, it was way past 10. I was greeted by a toilet that didn't flush (7 months, 16 days & 23 hours later I found out that it DID flush), cold brown water coming out the shower, and a couple of dead cockroaches around the room. After a year, I can admit that I was on the verge of breaking into tears (ok I did break into tears, but I blame my Malaria meds) and asked myself repeatedly just what the f--- I had gotten myself into. I was not a happy camper that first night. Then of course, the Kopi Aceh did its trick and it was 10am in DC and I couldn't sleep for hours.
Fast-forward to 1 year later.I'm still here. Things have changed quite a bit here. You can pretty much get your dirty hands on anything you want (if you know the right person - usually a Chinese) - booze, pork, 1 gig memory cards, mini-tripods, tampons, Haagen-Dazs (at $11 a pint), decent Italian food, and apparently there's an abundant source of fresh basil off of some backroad in the mountains...
Last night, as an excuse to go out and have a drink or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5...we went to Pace Bene to celebrate my 1-yr here in Aceh.
Su Lin, Bryan, Justin, me and Rohan enjoying our Lychee Vodka cocktails and Bintangs.
I hope I'm not getting Pace Bene in trouble if the Sharia Police Googles "Booze in Aceh"
I'm leaving for Cambodia tonight and hope to blog a little from there.
5 comments:
sZZZZZZ,
So I'm a week late in checking in on you after the quake - which is embarrassing in itself, but, given that you're fine and safe, what's even more embarrassing is that you've been in Aceh for a whole year - a YEAR?! - and this is the first time I've posted to your blog.
eh.
You look to be doing well and you're definitely snapping some fine photos. I'll drop you an email sometime soon, fill you in my details - living in nyc, moved in with krista last week, loving the city, lukewarm-to-cold about the job, but that's the last piece of the puzzle. more to come.
much love; glad you're safe,
mike coons
you are such a ganstah
Hey from D.C. Shar --- It's really cool you've been so good about keeping us all posted even under difficult conditions. Sorry I fell off the face of the earth during my 1st year of law school, but I'm finally done so hopefully that won't ever happen again!
Talk to you soon,
Adam Hunt
I seem to remember a certain journal we kept back in high school-kind of like a primitive blog! I think I still have it somewhere.....
Hii...there, do you ever go to SOLONG Coffee Shop, whenever to Banda Aceh???, here a glass of
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