30/06: Indo Baby
Arrived Indonesia with a few strokes of luck after arriving the Perth international airport to discover that Malaysia Airlines wouldn't issue me a boarding pass into Indonesia without proof of a departure flight within the allowed 30 day entry visa period...woo hoo, that put me into a rush trying to just book a cheap ticket to Singapore within 30 days of entry, even if i didn't use it, get in and get on my boat...hectic. Couldn't book a flight from the Perth airport and the plane was boarding, so they checked me into Kuala Lumpur and sent me off to deal with it there.
Arrived KL at 10 pm and straight to the Malaysian airways ticket desk, fortunately open until 11 and booked a return ticket to Perth, paying a little extra to get a ticket with enough flexibility that i can jsut change the date and utilize the fare.
So, with that fixed up i entered Indonesia in Medan, met my crew of guys sharing the boat, caught up with Dan-o, my Aussie buddy from a trip last year, his friend Harry, and the other boatmates: Josh and Allister, pro snowboarders from Oregon, Mark, a nurse on the Gold Coast, and Jimmy a cabinet maker from Melbourne. A solid crew of personable fellas all so stoked to get out and score some waves.
We boarded a small single prop plane, with the row of seats on the right side of the plane removed to fit all of our surfboard bags in, and took off for the Simeulue Islands, a 1 hour flight over the jungles of northern Sumatra and across 80 miles of gorgeous blue ocean. Arriving the islands via plane was fantastic, so beautiful to get a birds eye view of the reefs and various greens and blues that meet the islands covered in jungles of palms and hardwoods.
Loaded up the board bags on a truck and before we loaded the van to go to the harbor, Dano noticed that the boards weren't strapped down on the truck, just piled precariously high. So as they began to drive away, he hollered and stopped them, insisting that the boards get tied down. In classic Indo fashion they said they were going to go just down the road to where there was some rope...right. So we rigged some straps on the truck and set off, and with the bumpy road that lay ahead, it's certain that the boards would have gone topling off the truck in a matter of moments had we not tied them down...classic.
We arrived the harbor town and met our skipper, Marcus, at a restaurant where we sat at 2 tables and were served a rediculous amount of food set out in front of us in bowls, various dishes, with the bowls stacked on top of one another due to lack of space on the tables. Fish, chicken, tofu, goat, rice, veggies, eggs, spicy ones among not so spicy ones and then the oh so very spicy ones, so we picked at the dishes declaring the good ones and the ones to try sparingly.
Arrived KL at 10 pm and straight to the Malaysian airways ticket desk, fortunately open until 11 and booked a return ticket to Perth, paying a little extra to get a ticket with enough flexibility that i can jsut change the date and utilize the fare.
So, with that fixed up i entered Indonesia in Medan, met my crew of guys sharing the boat, caught up with Dan-o, my Aussie buddy from a trip last year, his friend Harry, and the other boatmates: Josh and Allister, pro snowboarders from Oregon, Mark, a nurse on the Gold Coast, and Jimmy a cabinet maker from Melbourne. A solid crew of personable fellas all so stoked to get out and score some waves.
We boarded a small single prop plane, with the row of seats on the right side of the plane removed to fit all of our surfboard bags in, and took off for the Simeulue Islands, a 1 hour flight over the jungles of northern Sumatra and across 80 miles of gorgeous blue ocean. Arriving the islands via plane was fantastic, so beautiful to get a birds eye view of the reefs and various greens and blues that meet the islands covered in jungles of palms and hardwoods.
Loaded up the board bags on a truck and before we loaded the van to go to the harbor, Dano noticed that the boards weren't strapped down on the truck, just piled precariously high. So as they began to drive away, he hollered and stopped them, insisting that the boards get tied down. In classic Indo fashion they said they were going to go just down the road to where there was some rope...right. So we rigged some straps on the truck and set off, and with the bumpy road that lay ahead, it's certain that the boards would have gone topling off the truck in a matter of moments had we not tied them down...classic.
We arrived the harbor town and met our skipper, Marcus, at a restaurant where we sat at 2 tables and were served a rediculous amount of food set out in front of us in bowls, various dishes, with the bowls stacked on top of one another due to lack of space on the tables. Fish, chicken, tofu, goat, rice, veggies, eggs, spicy ones among not so spicy ones and then the oh so very spicy ones, so we picked at the dishes declaring the good ones and the ones to try sparingly.
