Indonesia: Life In The Islands

The Aftermath of a Very Kunkel Christmas

1. The Internet works again. The day my parents arrived, there was an earthquake in Taiwan that knocked out the Internet for most of Southeast Asia. Countries that care about the Internet and use it to conduct things like, oh I don't know, business, restored connections in 20 hours. Indonesia took about a week.

2. Ten years have been shaved off our lives. We took a horrible little plane (Batavia Airlines) from Denpasar to Surabaya on December 26th. We took off, flew directly into a monsoon, and spent the next hour plunging up and down, shaking back and forth, and (poorly) negotiating massive storm clouds. I cried and gasped so everyone else on the plane could share in my alarm. When we stood up, I shakily told my mother that it was one of the worst flights I'd ever taken. Her response? "Oh, I just thought all Indonesian flights were like that!" Ah, ignorance is indeed bliss.
This would later be amusing to look back on if not for the fact that a plane from another domestic airline, Adams Air, went missing on Monday while completing the trip from Jakarta to Surabaya to Makassar (Sulawesi). After FALSE REPORTS of survivors were given by the airline spokesman (that's Indonesia for you) he admitted that in fact not only had no survivors been found, but the wreckage hadn't either. Boats are combing the Java Sea and the coast of Sulawesi.

3. Exactly one hour after arriving in Malang, Layne found us at Hotel Tugu and passed along the crytic message from the US Embassy that Malang was on terrorist alert and we should absolutely stay away from Western hotels. Like the one my parents were in. Well, the bill was already paid so they stayed there anyway. Take that terrorists! Despite repeated text messages, I never did find out what all the fuss was about.

4. I doubt the students and teachers at my school are ever going to recover from the site of five pale, tall, light-eyed people walking the halls. Or the massive bags of candy canes and chocolate coins. Or just my father, in general. He inspired awe whereever he went (not that he doesn't in America!).

5. My family got to partake in some very excellent and Indonesian modes of transportation--mikrolets, the strange ferry with no passenger seating that runs between Java and Bali, the thirteen hour ride through rice paddies, villages, and mountains to get to Denpasar from Malang. Ask my father to tell you about the petrified forest near Banyuwangi--he's probably having nightmares about it.

Phew. I'll have to recap the rest in detail later. I need to put into words my horror regarding Indonesian domestic flights. I'm still in Bali now--all my plans to get to Lombok have been foiled by my plane phobias and actual/imagined dangers. My first flight attempt on New Year's day went like this:

--Arrive at the airport--no problem
--Take a bus to the airplane, which I assume is Lion Air, since that was the airline I purchased a ticket on and the name on my boarding pass.
--Arrive at the plane--surprise! It's Wings Air! For those of you who have never had the pleasure of seeing a Wings Air plane, on the side is painted the catchy and memorable slogan, "fly is cheap." This particular Wings Air plane also had propellors instead of engines, no place for the checked bags, and an alarming dent in the side.
--Laugh and say out loud, "that's the most dangerous looking plane I've ever seen." No reaction from other passengers. I repeat the statement in Indonesian. Nothing. I begin to worry this is a suicide flight everyone knows about except me. Everyone else boards. I ask that my bags be taken off the plane. The men laugh and say no. I revert to age 3 and stamp my foot and cry. The bags are removed from the plane and dropped onto my feet. I'm bused back to the terminal where I flee back to a villa in Ubud and sleep the rest of the day.

I had another flight booked this morning on Merpati Air, which is owned by the governent and "very very safe," according to my hotel. I fully planned to board the plane this morning, I did. But then it monsooned all night to the extent that branches kept flying into the windows of my room and I couldn't sleep. Around 2:30 I tried to turn on the lamp and got a scorch mark on my hand when all the electricity went out. At 5 am, 1 hour before I was supposed to leave, I received this phone call from the hotel manager, Ketut:

Ketut: Ahhh, Miss Caitlin, maybe because of raining not so safe to fly today. Maybe later yeah? My friend from government call and say maybe no fly until the 6th, weather very dangerous till then, maybe the planes will not work.

Don't have to tell me twice, Ketut. I don't know if it was a ploy to get me to stay longer at the hotel or an actual attempt to save my life, but stay I did. You can get to Lombok by ferry, but in the past five days two Indonesian ferries have sank so that isn't really a viable option either.

So I'm in Bali for the rest of the month. Not as exciting as getting to see some of the other islands, but holing up in a villa in Ubud rather than hurtling through a stormy sky on a plane emblazoned with a gramatically incorrect slogan certainly sits well with me anyday.

*Mental Health Note--Plane Phobias, successfully conquered in late July with the flights to Indonesia, have returned in full force. Ability to take domestic Indonesian flights in the near future--doubtful.

posted by Caitlin @ 5:59 PM