Blogs from Sumatra, Indonesia, Asia - page 22

What is more exciting than addition to re-visit the coastal cities in Indonesia, right? I will never get bored to visit the beach which is always flirting with the quiet sound of waves, wind that makes sleepy all day long and the sunshine. Yes! As a boy who was born in Jayapura, Papua. I was infatuated with a beach. I was lucky, when I was coming home from Sumbawa Besar, I was assigning by the office to go again to Sibolga, Central Tapanuli district in North Sumatra. This time I went with Sukma Kartini and Doni mincuk Fabrianus. Obviously an offer of a lifetime is 100% I received. We flew with the early morning flight, March, 9 2009 to the Polonia airport in Medan, North Sumatra. Why we should use early morning flight? Because we must ... read more

When i was 8 there was the school trip to ontario place at the end of the semester... pretty lame in retrospect. What i will never forget is viewing my first IMAX movie in the Cinesphere, The Pacific Ring of Fire. Mountainous volcanoes spewing lava all around tropical islands and filmed from a helicopter; it blew my young sense away and made me want to see these vast wild landscapes. Now we're here and its not quite as titillating as i thought it would be when i was a child but we did climb our first active volcano yesterday and it was beautiful and surreal. A relatively smaller mountain at 2095m above sea level, gunung (mountain) Sibayak was once taller but long ago blew its peak off and is now a wide Caldera with several peaks ... read more

A quick trip to South Sumatra for the weekend before we departed to Ambon and the Maluku Islands.... read more

Leaving Burma proved to be more of a headache than I had hoped for. It was as if the government themselves were clawing at the straps of my backpack at every step of the way. I had checked-in online to save time at the airport. On arrival, I sailed, rather smugly it must be said, past the long line of people waiting to check-in. The long queue appeared to be going nowhere as every person seemed to want to negotiate the size, shape and weight of each bag they owned with meticulous detail. With my little rucksack, a little heavier from the odd souvenir, I glided past and upstairs to immigration. I handed over my passport, departure form and printed boarding pass for inspection. After a brief flick through my passport the immigration official barked for ... read more

Ahhh, Krakatau . How I love thee. Famous for its blast some hundred years ago, its charm surely has tantalized many to come and visit thee. It was said that Krakatau ashes reached Europe and changed the course of history. I am not sure if it’s a little bit exaggerating, but when I was being told that a friend of a friend is planning to go there, I immediately said “can I join?” Days before the trip, the child of Krakatau started to show signs of eruption. With Merapi’s explosion just days before - it doesn’t sound like a good idea to visit at such time. Too many bad news of Krakatau ’s present condition: poisonous gas, ashes that reach as far as Cilegon, earthquakes and many more. But the event organizer decided to give it ... read more

Arriving in Sumatra After the home comforts of big town, developing Malaysia (Starbucks, flushing toilets and efficient public transport) we arrived in Sumatra and quickly realized we were back in country where just day to day survival is the main concern for most people. The roads are full of mopeds and potholes, cattle happily wonder alongside the traffic and buildings are mostly constructed in an abstract fusion of concrete and tin. Sumatra is one of the poorest countries in the region and this hasn’t been helped by the natural disasters they’ve had to cope with in the last few years. The 2004 Boxing Day earthquake (magnitude 9.3) and tsunami that followed left approx 167,000 dead and over 500,000 displaced. Following this they’ve also had devastating earthquakes in both 2005 (magnitude 8.6) and 2007 (magnitude 8.5). This ... read more